Our August All-Members Meeting was held yesterday at King Park in Berkeley. It was a rousing success — with over 30 people in attendance.
For 2024, each of our monthly meetings has an included an item called “Dispatches from the Road to Victory.” It’s a summary of the major political news of the last month — with a focus on national news (something that we often otherwise overlook, given our more typical focus on local and state-wide events). Because we didn’t have time to include a Dispatches at last month’s meeting, this month’s meeting covered two months of news. Here is a “transcript” of the dispatch (as was delivered by Ted Landau).
What a two months it has been! It’s safe to say that there has NEVER been a two month period where there have been more upheavals, reversals, drama, suspense, depression, anxiety and joy. And that doesn’t even count Steph Curry’s three-point shooting in the Olympics.
So let’s get down to it.
The debate
Let’s go back to June 26 — the day before the Trump-Biden debate. The Democrats were a bit on edge…due to recent polling showing Trump slightly ahead and gaining ground. Yes, that’s right. Despite being a convicted felon, a financial fraud, a rapist and the force behind an illegal conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election — and with him openly promising for more of the same if re-elected — he was actually in the lead. I still can’t wrap my head around that. Even after all these years. But let’s move on.
Back to the debate. You all know what happened. It was a debacle. What made Biden’s showing all the more frustrating is that Trump gave his own dismal performance…he spewed lies and grievances and came off poorly. Ordinarily, that would have been the story of the night. But not this night.
The aftermath
Over the next few weeks, a battle ensued among Democrats — between those who believed that Biden still deserved to remain in the race and was our best chance to beat Trump vs. those who believed his cognitive and physical decline was too great to surmount. It was not about the next four years — but the next four months! We had no chance to win the election unless he stepped down.
Biden insisted he had no plans to budge. So the party was at a stalemate. Which was not a good place to be.
The Supreme Court + gunshots
While this played out, it seemed things could not get any worse. But they could — and did — although it involved matters not directly relevant to the election.
On July 8, the Supreme Court handed Trump an early Christmas gift: They ruled that a President’s immunity to prosecution was so great that it threatened the viability of all the court cases Trump currently faced. Indeed, the ruling was quickly followed by Trump sycophant Aileen Cannon entirely dismissing the Mar-a-lago documents case.
Did I mention there was an almost successful attempt to assassinate Trump? The photo of him being carried off by Secret Service…with blood running down his face…while pumping his fist in the air…with a flag in the background. Holy crap. It seemed as if God himself was conspiring to make sure everything worked to Trump’s advantage.
The RNC
And then came the Republican National Convention. Despite some significant stumbles (J.D. Vance’s nomination and a rambling grievance-filled Trump acceptance speech), delegates left the convention gleeful, feeling that the election was effectively over. Sadly, given all that had transpired, it was hard to argue with them.
But the expression “It’s always darkest just before the dawn” was created for just such moments.
Biden steps down
On Sunday July 22, a news alert popped up on my screen: “Biden drops out of Presidential race.” About 30 minutes later, Biden released a statement endorsing Kamala Harris to replace him.
And that was it. The clouds parted. There was a double-rainbow out my window and I could actually see the pot of gold at its end. At least that’s the way it seemed. And I was experiencing some strange new emotions: optimism and happiness. The most surprising thing about it was that, even though I had hoped this would happen — had come to anticipate that would happen — the intensity of my reaction was completely unexpected.
It had nothing to do with my opinion of Biden…whom I greatly admire and respect. It was all about winning in November. Suddenly, after all the despair, I could see a path to victory.
Harris rising
My next hope was that Kamala would quickly emerge as the unified choice to replace Biden. The last thing I felt the party needed was an open convention where we wouldn’t even know who the nominee was until the delegates voted. And again, that’s exactly what happened.
Even so, I wasn’t sure what would happen next. Would the “switch” work out as well as I had hoped? Or was my assessment way off?
Not to worry. Harris raised a record breaking $81 million in the first day of her campaign. Enthusiasm levels shot the roof. Crowds were enormous. Harris picked Tim Walz to be her VP and it turned out to be another masterstroke. Their chemistry, his midwestern charm and broad appeal…it was all perfect.
And the good times kept rolling. Suddenly, after months of every conceivable thing going wrong, it seemed as if nothing could wrong.
Even prior events, that had looked bad at the time, now seemed fortuitous. Biden’s debate debacle? It was a “blessing in disguise.” If the first debate had been scheduled for September, as had been typical, there would have been no time for the Democrats to shift to a different nominee. If Biden had stepped down even a week earlier, the GOP might have selected someone other than Vance as the VP. If Biden had picked someone else to be his VP 4 years ago, everything might be different today.
The DNC
This past week, of course, was the Democratic National Convention. You surely don’t need me to remind you what happened. It was fabulous! From the enthusiastic crowds to the rousing and inspiring speeches — capped off my Kamala’s pitch-perfect acceptance speech. Unbelievable. Flawless!
And then there was the superb skewering of Trump — something that seemed to (and continues to) drive the Orange Man crazy. The shift in tone from Trump as a dangerous autocrat-wannabe and criminal to a small man, a weirdo, an object of ridicule — it was precisely on target (even though I would have never guessed so or recommended it). [My favorite quotes were Michelle Obama’s “Most of us will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth” and “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?” and Kamala Harris’s “In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.”
Beyond the direct attacks on Trump, the DNC shifted its focus from grave warnings of the future to Democracy to a positive vision of our future. And rather than treat Trump supporters as the enemy, it described them as your potential neighbors. It was refreshing and well-received change. After an exhausting and divisive eight years of Trump vs. Clinton and Biden, it was all exactly what we didn’t know we were waiting for until it arrived. A chance to turn the page on MAGA.
Meeting the moment
As of this moment, Harris is leading Trump in the national polls — and in enough swing states to win in November, if she actually wins everywhere she is now in the lead. An incredible turn-around.
Going forward, I remain optimistic but realistic. There is still much work to be done. And after seeing how much has changed in a few weeks, I remain mindful that it could happen again — to our detriment. So I’m still going to do everything I can — every day — to make sure Kamala wins in November. But at the risk of counting chickens…I will just say it: Trump is done! We are going to win this! Let’s do it!
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For the sake of brevity, the following section was omitted from the spoken version of Dispatches. I include it here (brevity being a bit less critical in written format):
Trump in decline
Speaking of Trump — and the GOP in general — they still seem incapable of effectively counter-attacking. Without Biden as a foil, Trump’s failings — and his own advancing age — are more exposed than ever. His insults and name-calling are falling flat…feeling like a retread of what he has been doing for years. No wonder Trump laments that Biden is no longer the nominee. Trump seems to be cracking under the pressure. He is more obsessed with “winning” the crowd size battle than the winning the election. He can’t stay on message for more than 5 minutes — before resorting to his tired litany of complaints and falsehoods.
And the media are now…finally…willing to cover all of this more openly — no longer reliably enabling Trump by normalizing him. When Trump posted that the Harris’s rally crowds at a Detroit airport were fake and AI-generated, he was lambasted for the obvious lie. His racist claim that Harris had recently “turned black” received huge negative publicity — with no upside for its outrageousness.
The split screen of Harris at a rally vs. Trump at a news conference is all you need to appreciate the stark contrast. Trump is glowering and complaining about how terrible and unfair everything is. Harris smiling and talking about a bright future for all Americans.
Hopefully, these are all signs that we are finally…at last…moving past Trump.
