Don't Submit to the Margin of Terror

Yesterday, President Joseph Robinette Biden voted for his hand-picked successor Kamala Harris to be our next commander-in-chief after patiently waiting in line for 37 minutes among his neighbors and fellow Americans. He did so from his local polling place in New Castle, Delaware, modeling humility, his commitment to democracy, and his continuing fealty to his father’s oft-repeated words of moral grounding: “Joey, no one is better than you, and you’re no better than anyone else.”

After casting his ballot (and, naturally, putting in the time to yuck it up with the poll workers there), the greatest President of my lifetime—so far—went outside and took questions from the press gaggle waiting for him. 

“Is this bittersweet for you?” He was asked.

“No,” he replied calmly, “this is just sweet.”

So I beseech you, if you live in a state that allows for early voting, please follow his example and get your vote into the ballot box as soon as possible.  

Because, as you well know, we now officially have one week until election day. 

I understand the heart palpitations that come with that stark and startling reality. I feel them, too, simply writing out that sentence. But as MVP Harris has said, this election is too important to let our overwhelm rob us of our strength. We must do our best to stifle our default panic mode. Trump and his small-minded regime want nothing more than for us to hurl ourselves into chaos and anxiety. We’re better than that. Now is the time for action and clarity; not for setting our hair on fire, not for hand-wringing with premature anguish—Democrats’ modus operandi—and, most importantly, not for a hint of complacency.  

Yes, polls over the past few weeks have shown Vice President Harris’s advantage diminishing, carving out a path for fear to overwhelm our higher faculties at this critical juncture. If such numbers are sending you into a frenzy, know that the one thing you can count on about polls with total certainty is that they are totally uncertain. The hopeful, terrifying reality is that nobody knows which way this is going to go. Not forecasters with unique and uncannily accurate metrics for elections; not pundits or political analysts; not your all-knowing uncle who assures he has examined all possible pathways to 270; and certainly not even the most diligent, prestigious poll. 

We can’t just stay perched on the margin of terror, imagining What If??? The greatest antidote to futile anxiety is action. I’m not calling on you to fly to the nearest swing state and handcuff yourself to a lamppost to ensure that ballot boxes aren’t being tampered with. I’m asking you to commit yourself to finding people, even if it’s just one or two, who are disconnected from or disillusioned with politics, or maybe have just turned 18, 19, or 90, and perhaps weren’t going to vote.

A great resource for talking points that can help with those conversations, and just an all-around invaluable site for help with all things voterly is Vote Save America.  

If these people who you have made your responsibility are not interested in politics, but happen to be history-buffs, you could discuss the many times Trump and his campaign surrogates (I’m looking at you, Stephen Miller, with your ‘America is for Americans and Americans only’ garbage knock-off) have paraphrased and outright quoted Adolph Hitler.

If they’re not into history, you could talk about how many incredible musicians have endorsed Kamala, while offering impassioned and thoughtful reasons for doing so. How do they feel about Taylor Swift? Beyonce? Bruce Springsteen? Willie Nelson? The list of admirable artists throwing their literal voices and support behind the Harris-Walz ticket is endless. If they’re more of the persuasion of Kid Rock and um, who else…maybe Eric has a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover band?…then maybe move on to the dozens of major athletes who have also opted to endorse the only candidate who cares about this country. 

Every vote counts. There’s just no getting around the fact that all seven swing states—Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona—are, as Dan Rather says, “tight as a Texas tick.” We have as close to a statistically tied contest as we’ve ever had, which is horrifying, particularly after Trump’s appalling, six-hour-long Third Reich Revival at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night. 

I trust you have already heard the vile, racist, unspeakable “comedy” that kicked it off. No need to reprint it. But it was so damaging that even the Trump campaign released a statement stating, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.” Wow. Keep in mind that Trump’s reason for existing is never admitting fault. Standard Trump behavior would be to post some late-night illusory statement about how his Madison Square Garden event was the most enthusiastic, well-attended event since Moscow’s 1991 Monsters of Rock concert. 

His campaign releasing the closest thing you’ll ever hear to an apology probably has something to do with the fact that the implications of that despicable shitshow could prove cataclysmic for him. The fallout was swift and severe among the Latino population (whose support Donald Trump needs to win).

Musical artist phenom Bad Bunny took to Instagram and shared Harris’s campaign clip to his 45 million followers: 

“I will never forget what Donald Trump did and what he did not do when Puerto Rico needed a caring and a competent leader…He abandoned the island, tried to block aid after back-to-back devastating hurricanes and offered nothing more than paper towels and insults.”

Ricky Martin posted to his 19 million followers. 

Jennifer Lopez posted to her 250 million followers. 

Luis Fonsi posted to his 16 million followers, closing out his message with a powerful reminder: “We are not OK with this constant hate. It’s been abundantly clear that these people have no respect for us and yet they want our vote… I purposely wrote this in English cause yes we’re American too.”

But perhaps the strongest statement and demand came from the Archbishop of San Juan de Puerto Rico, Roberto O. González Nieves, who wrote in an open letter that he was “dismayed and appalled by the comments made” at the rally, reminded the disgraced former president that “More Puerto Rican soldiers died in the Vietnam War as part of the United States military than soldiers from any state,” and called upon him to PERSONALLY disavow the comments and apologize. I encourage you to read his entire letter:

What a sweet, sweet victory it would be if Puerto Ricans turned the page on Donald Trump. Perhaps they could toss him a roll of paper towels to take to prison.

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Even before the horrifying rally and everything that’s come in its immediate aftermath, Harris voters were still reeling from last week’s cowardly decisions of dual billionaire newspaper owners Jeff Bezos of The Washington Post and Patrick Soon-Shiong of the LA Times. They scuttled their own editorial board’s endorsements of Harris and Walz, showing that they have not read their Timothy Snyder: “Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.”

Their greed and bottom line trumped the journalistic reputations of the storied institutions they purchased. Apparently, the obscene amount of money Bezos has hoarded still isn’t enough to buy the integrity required to helm the once-distinguished paper. 

Where exactly does Democracy die again, Jeff?  

In all seriousness, it’s a dismal turn when the newspaper that brought down Nixon refuses to endorse in a race where one candidate is a convicted felon, openly parroting fascistic language, vowed to terminate our Constitution, and—oh yes—incited an insurrection against the US Government less than a mile from their offices. When our institutions morally collapse for such transparent greed and self-interest, it has the effect of diminishing just how important this election is (to say nothing of journalistic responsibility or integrity).

Those decisions served as yet another reminder that corporate media is not going to save us. Nor is the Trump-stacked Supreme Court, which has been actively helping him avoid accountability for his attempted coup, and granted effective immunity to the next president for crimes committed in the commision of official duties. Sadly, the Attorney General isn’t swooping in either—Merrick Garland appears more focused on the optics of politicization than actually combating the rampant crime on display within our government.

So this one’s up to us. For the people; by the people. The pro-democracy coalition that has been created carries a hell of a lot more power of persuasion than the Washington Post does. So, I implore you, use that power. At the risk of being redundant, use this week to find 1, 2, or 33 people who haven't yet voted. Remind them that this election will not be decided by millions or even hundreds of thousands of votes. It may come down to a few thousand votes. Same goes for our House races. And our Senate. 

Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz and their nearly flawless banger of a campaign have worked magic over the past three months. If they haven’t collapsed underneath the weight of the pressure and the non-stop campaigning—at times traveling to three or four states per day—then we can handle one more week. Take something for the nausea and get on with it. We have a future to win.

I can state without hyperbole that we have a rare opportunity to change the course of history for this country, for the world, and for the planet. It comes down to the effort we put in now. This election is ours to lose, or it’s ours to win.

The time is now.