Dear Progressive Reader,
I watched the live stream this morning as Donald Trump (who normally votes by mail despite his public condemnations of the practice) entered the county public library in West Palm Beach, Florida, to cast his ballot for President, making him the first incumbent President to vote in-person in the state. I could not help but remember the 1972 episode of All in the Family, where Edith and Archie Bunker watch on national television as Richard Nixon enters the voting booth in his home state. Edith turns to Archie and says “I wonder who he voted for?” The Nixon tapes, revealed during the Watergate investigation, indicate that Nixon was not a fan of the program.
According to The Guardian, voter turnout in this year’s election may be the largest since 1908 (the year before The Progressive was founded), which reached 65.4%. The next highest percentage of voter turnout (62.8%) was in the 1960 election when John F. Kennedy beat Richard Nixon in his first bid for President. The popular vote that year was almost tied, with Kennedy beating Nixon by less than 95,000 votes. Nonetheless, two years later, Nixon (inaccurately) promised voters and the press, “You [w]on’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.” In some ways, perhaps, this is a historical echo of Trump’s recent statement in Macon, Georgia, that should he lose re-election he might have to leave the country.
The second and final debate this week between Trump and Joe Biden was very different from the previous one—in large part thanks to a good moderator and an occasionally used mute button. As Ruth Conniff points out, “The great value of both presidential debates and the single vice presidential debate was not so much the candidates’ back-and-forth, but the moderators’ reality check on Trump and Pence.” For me, the clincher was Biden’s bold closing statement, “I am going to represent you whether you voted for or against me, and I am going to give you hope. We’re going to choose science over fiction . . . .” In many ways, it was reminiscent, in it’s vision, of Barack Obama’s speech as a young Senator to the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, when he told the audience, “[T]here are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. . . . In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope?”
Reese Erlich offers some hope this week in a report on how the people of Bolivia stood up last Sunday and voted out a corrupt administration. Election observer Leonardo Flores tells him that he “hopes people in the United States learn the lessons of Bolivia. If Trump tries to stay in power despite losing the election, Flores says, ‘Lawsuits and speeches by Democratic Party leaders’ won't be enough. ‘You have to organize and take to the streets.’ ”
I participated in a webinar yesterday that remembered the protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago and the political trial that followed of a number of activists including Tom Hayden, who passed away exactly four years ago. The Trial of the Chicago 7 has now been recreated in the new film by Aaron Sorkin. Filmmaker Glenn Silber was at the webinar as well. Silber recently wrote a story his memories of the trial for The Progressive. Silber’s classic film The War At Home tells the story of how a popular movement to end the war in Vietnam was created and sustained. It is now available on multiple streaming platforms to serve as what Silber hopes will be a textbook for movements organizing to get out the vote, and to prepare in advance for any potential theft of the 2020 election.
Finally, on Friday, I was honored to attend the awards event (delayed six months due to the pandemic) for writer James Goodman. Goodman received the David Nyhan Prize for Political Journalism for his work, including, most recently, a large number of articles for The Progressive. After the presentation, one attendee sent us a contribution and wrote, “Thanks for recognizing James. His consistent and persistent coverage of immigration issues is outstanding.”
Keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
P.S – our new 2021 Hidden History of the United States calendar is now available for purchase through our website. They make great gifts and hang well on walls and refrigerators.
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