Sugar High to Swiftboating
My dear friend Dahlia Lithwick, who writes so precisely about the Supreme Court, justice, democracy, and other issues that matter, said to me this morning that we’re all running on a sugar high right now. I thought that perfectly captured the moment. (You can and should read Dahlia here.) The energy right now is endless and pretty incredible. The launch of Kamala Harris’ campaign has been immaculate.
A friend at the campaign texted me the newest voter registration numbers from vote.org this afternoon. More than 100,000 people have registered since Kamala Harris announced. Eighty-four percent are younger voters, and 18% are 18-year-olds. Some of the states the election is likely to turn are on the top of the list of new registrants: Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. While they may not all be Democrats, it's safe to say that the type of enthusiasm that leads 18-year-olds to register to vote isn’t being generated by cat and woman-hating vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance.
Next week, the real work begins. We’re already seeing the start of the swiftboating of Kamala Harris. Her background as a prosecutor is predictably being used against her. The argument changes depending on who the audience is. They’re attacking her for prosecuting people and being too tough on crime. They’re attacking her for being soft on crime and failing to support law enforcement.
The reality is that like many prosecutors, Harris’ views are nuanced. She supports “Smart on Crime” approaches that focus on using data-driven best practices to make communities safer while acknowledging the history of mass and over-incarceration and excessive force used by police that must be addressed if we are going to claim to be a just and equitable society. In fact, she wrote a book called “Smart On Crime” where she lays out her views in detail.
So when someone whispers to you that they aren’t voting for Kamala Harris because she wants to “defund” the police, tell them that’s not true. And remind them that the alternative is a convicted felon.
That’s it for me tonight. I need to recharge my batteries (is it the sugar high wearing off?) and spend some time with my family. But I’ve got some Brat knitting planned for the weekend.
I’m also going to hang out with my girls, who’ve been cooped up all week because of the rain, and watch a little bit of the Olympics.
Have a good weekend!
We’re in this together,
Joyce
For all those "swiftboaters" out there,
Tweet from "BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️
@mmpadellan
Donald trump says a lot of things that he later backs away from, and nobody holds him accountable for.
For instance, he said he would build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. Never happened.
He said he'd have a replacement for Obamacare “in two weeks.” Never happened.
He said if he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, he'd leave America. Never happened.
And when challenged to debates earlier this year, he said “Any time, any place.” But now he's scrambling for reasons to AVOID debating Kamala Harris.
Time after time, trump just says whatever is on his diseased, demented mind, and the press fails to question it, or hold him to account.
Then his followers all clamor to explain “what he really meant to say is…” while deflecting by spinning a bunch of whataboutisms.
For a person whose followers like him because he “says what he means,” it's clear that what he says is meaningless.
For now, until the press steps up, we're going to keep calling out his cowardly bullshit to make sure everyone knows #ChickenTrump is a COWARD."
Remember pussy hats? Maybe we need to bring them back for Vanceʻs mysogynistic views.