56 Comments

This really describes what is happening even in Texas. My water aerobics group consists of boomer MAGA Republican women and Democrat me. We sit around and have coffee after our workout and I usually just listen rather than fight. It’s dead silence these days. They don’t know what to think about this switch. I just smile as I say, won’t it be great to have a female President?

Expand full comment

Smiling as she slips in the verbal stiletto. Love it.

Expand full comment

It's not just us. I sold my undeviating-straight-GOP-ticket "apolitical" friend short in a comment the other day. Since we're always on opposite sides we never discuss politics. I should've known something was up during the R convention when he mentioned that he was watching closely . I didn't bite, but later shared your you'll-never-need-to-vote-again video link without comment. Turns out the big liar utterly repulses him and Kamala impresses him. In the next exchange he declared that she has his vote!

If he's willing, I can see a tsunami of nevertrumpers riding the wave.

Expand full comment

I hope you are right. I shared the same column with a few distant relatives. The responses I received were strongly defending Trump's every word and deed and accusing the VP of supporting terrorism, among other unfounded claims from right wing media. Congrats to you for finding one willing to listen! Great job!

Expand full comment

Well, they sound like members of his base. With the constant reinforcement their fever dream gets from the Murdoch et al. media, sadly I wouldn't hope for change. My friend was never a true believer, just a kneejerk Republican voter—one who surprised me.

Expand full comment

Many folk overlook elections are about additions, one at a time. The bonus is a subtraction from one column added to another. Has a net 2 effect.

Reminding folk due to the latest Census the Rs have net {at least] 2 ECVs before the first vote is cast in...September. Is a tougher map than 2020. While it does open up a second bite at AZ and GA holding one will be hard. Holding both means the current movement laid down deep roots.

Expand full comment

Yes!

Expand full comment

Kamala demonstrates why we need more women in leadership positions. As Tina Fey coined the term, "bitches get things done." While men posture and vie for domination, women often quietly do the work and accomplish things. We have to show the difference, while MAGA wants to taunt, insult, and bully it's way to complete control, Dems want to accomplish things and improve people's lives.

Expand full comment

True but to be fair Biden has gotten an amazing amount done and Harris was his partner in those accomplishments. Biden and LBJ have been the most consequential presidents in my lifetime. I have no doubt that Harris will be able to build on his accomplishments, especially if we elect enough Democrats to the House and Senate.

I was furious about the condescending treatment of Biden by the media who constantly give the aging Trump a pass but Biden taking the lead by nominating Harris made me and many others extremely joyful. I never had a big problem with Biden’s age because I knew Harris was more than qualified to step in and now she has. It is also great to finally see serious pushback against blatantly sexist treatment of her. Too bad that didn’t happen in 2016 when guys like Chris Matthews criticized Hillary’s “cackle” and worse.

Expand full comment

Thank you for saying that. We women have known that for decades!

Expand full comment

Ditto!

Expand full comment

men posturing and vieing for domination brings to mind a backpacking trip I took years ago in the High Sierra in late September. We were hiking along a pretty lake one morning and heard a sound like a gunshot. There was a group of male big horn sheep on the crags on the other side of the lake testing each other. Every once in a while, a pair would square up, rear and crash their horns together. All very casual. An impressive spectacle we were lucky to see. I guess humans haven't gotten much beyond that.

Expand full comment

Probably not, and it's all through the animal kingdom. In the college dorm when we were bored we'd gather in the hallway. clasp our hands behind our backs, and then crash our chests into one another. It was a good impetus, among many others, for coed dorms.

Expand full comment

I am going to be 77 in November. I am hanging on to the hope that the USA will finally have a female President, as if that were almost too much to expect, too much to hope for, as if it were something so strange in what has been called the "greatest nation on earth." Funny thing is, I don't feel a need to explain this to my granddaughters because to them, this sounds "normal". May it be so, may it be so.

Expand full comment

~Brava~

Respect

Expand full comment

A most excellent column today, Lucian! Thank you! I am relieved and delighted to know that the enthusiasm is widespread throughout the country. We are going to need the support and votes of the masses in November. Trump/Vance may be a bit awkward now, but as the election gets closer, they will become consistently meaner, uglier, lie more viciously, and call Kamala Harris vulgar and disgusting names that may shock the conscience. We must be ready to respond to the attacks. As Rev. Al Sharpton reminded us on Deadline Whitehouse, Trump isn't just running for president, he's running for his freedom. He wants to stay out of prison. He is a desperate man and he has no boundaries.

Expand full comment

I hate to be optimistic...but I think we may be seeing how MAGA dies.

I remember watching Trump's 2016 acceptance speech at the Republican convention and laughing. I thought, Americans just don't buy this dark, carnage stuff. America is about hope, dreams, the future. Even when Americans shift to the right it's still upbeat, morning in America. This negative message is un-American; it won't play here. How wrong I was; how disappointed I still am.

But I think, on some level, it is true and that's what we're seeing now. Every hateful thing they throw at Harris will backfire because she represents a brighter future. While MAGA represents an ugly vision of a stagnant America and offers nothing except who to disparage, who to hate. It will end with a gross, deranged old man babbling about carnage while the majority turns away and moves on.

Expand full comment

I borrowed your last two sentences and copied them on my FB page. I attributed it to a friend. Hope you don't mind!

Expand full comment

Flattered, thanks! I just hope I'm right.

Expand full comment

We ALL hope you’re right.

Expand full comment

How Maga Dies. A great documentary title. Thank you.

Expand full comment

Better yet, "How MAGA Died"

Expand full comment

Yes…it is better yet.

Expand full comment

Listening to Howard Dean? What a pleasure it would be to know his "50 states" strategy is at work, as it was when the U.S. elected our first black president.

Expand full comment

Right on! 50 State Strategy! And as part of that, Leave no presumptive Republican Senate seat behind! Will always appreciate Howard and his awesome brother Jim Dean!

Expand full comment

The historical schisms of the US are facing off. An old, decrepit, deceitful white male trading in hate for personal gain versus a young, energetic, patriotic female enjoying the benefits of faithful service as VP to a wonderful president. Perhaps the last hurrah for white Christian male supremacy. And hopefully the notion of race as a thing.

Expand full comment

LT, I think your assessment of VP Harris is spot on. Democrats in Array should be the headline everywhere!

Expand full comment

And such a great change of pace

Expand full comment

What you said. Exactly. She has done what a VP was supposed to do. Not flashy, not trying to jump in front of the president. It's what I tell people who say "....but but but...she hasn't DONE anything as vice president." And then I tell them what she did before.

Expand full comment

ROEvember is coming and Kamala is bringing it. Felonious Trump knows it, Cult 45 knows it, the GQP knows it and even Xlon Xusk knows it -- why else renew on his $45 million/month contribution to Felonious' campaign?

Expand full comment

Reneg!

Expand full comment

Under a posted comment, same line as "like," etc options, at right margin is a three-dot icon. Tap it to edit or delete.

"Cult-45"—yes!

Expand full comment

renew? reneg?

Expand full comment

Lucian - I would say, “how ready she is”. And she most definitely is!!!

Expand full comment

The scariest thought of the 2008 election was, "What if McCain gets elected and dies. We would have a total dingbat for president." I took Biden's age in stride with the reassuring thought that Harris seemed like a competent person, knowledgeable of how politics/government worked. And she had years as an understudy to a masterful politician. I am not impressed by the often mentioned 150 history presidents who ranked the presidents. These are the same 150 that ranked Kennedy, Reagan and Clinton over Biden. Seriously? No one achieved what he did in 3 1/2 years since LBJ. And without a blue dress scandal. I'm sure none of that was lost on Harris. She might not be able to call in favors from long ago, but I expect she will want to take the accomplishments of the last 3 1/2 years and keep moving.

Expand full comment

It is about time the Dems passed the torch. While I didn't like the way Biden was forced out, he has a worthy successor . He was a statesman of the Old School, a true gentleman. He was reluctant to run in 2020 because he was grieving for his son Beau, but he rose to the challenge and got the nation back on track after the mess that Trump left it

Expand full comment

Oh! And to difny..."If he's willing, I can see a tsunami of nevertrumpers riding the wave." I always have my surfboard at the ready, and I'm dern' tootin' ridin'!" LOL....We are going to take this election and save OUR country!

Expand full comment

Yes, not one word I couldn’t follow here without saying ‘yes’ to. It IS going to be a reckoning

Expand full comment