everwas

a blog by Ian Kennedy

Tag: election2024

  • Don’t Do It

    Don’t Do It

    We’re now down to the final days and it’s still really close. For those that think another President Trump can’t be that bad or just want to send a message to the political establishment, here’s a rundown of what happened the last time Trump was in office and what awaits if he’s re-elected.

    Remember all the crazy turnover at the White House? For awhile, I was keeping track.

    January 2017 – Remember the Muslim Ban and how BART had to tweet that “those of foreign national origin are welcome on BART.”

    March 2017 – “We have to understand that the alternative to facts is not alternative facts. It’s fiction.” Marty Baron, then editor of the Washington Post

    September 2017 – Hillary Clinton on Trump, “So when I say that he doesn’t just like Putin, that he wants to be Putin. I’m not saying he’s going to start killing journalists but I am saying he likes the idea of unaccountable, unchecked power.”

    August 2018 – Remember when Trump was just a “unindicted co-conspirator”

    June 2019 – an all-star cast of actors gathered together in New York to perform a dramatic reading of the 448-page Mueller Report

    November 2019 – Remember Marie Yovanovitch, the former US Ambassador to Ukraine and how Trump threatened her, as she was testifying to congress? What about when her replacement,

    October 2020 – The venerable and respected New England Journal of Medicine broke with tradition and published a political editorial lambasting the current administration’s response to Covid-19.

    November 2020 – Was there a Quid Pro Quo? “As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes.”

    And that’s just stuff that I wrote about.

    “Mr. Trump’s first term was a warning,” says The New York Times did put together a timeline setting the record straight. (gift link

    Not that this should be any indication of a candidate’s qualifications for the job, it does give you insight to their web dev team and it’s something I did before. Interesting to see that Trump’s team is still running a 404 jabbing at the last guy.

    As Michelle Obama said at a recent rally in Michigan, “This is not just the obligation of what we should say no to, it’s about the opportunity for what we can say yes to.”

    And just to put a point on it . . .

  • Nation before Self

    Nation before Self

    In September 1796, two months before the presidential election, George Washington announced that he would not seek re-election.

    Not unconscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself, and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.

    Washington’s Farewell Address to the People of the United States

    The farewell address is one of the great testaments to the founding principles of America’s democratic tradition. Founded in opposition to the monarchy founded on divine right, Washington’s voluntary retirement demonstrated through action that “Nothing could be a stronger endorsement of democracy than turning over power to someone else.”

    So powerful this tradition of promoting the nation over self that, starting in the days prior the Civil War, Congress would regularly read aloud the Washington’s Farewell Address and document it into the official record during each session of Congress until the 1980s.

    Then, over the weekend,

    It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.

    Joseph Biden, July 21, 2024

    For Biden to acknowledge his frailty and sacrifice self in favor of his nation starkly outlines the difference between the Democratic and Republican parties today.

    But Biden’s exit also scripts a compelling message for his Democratic successor and everyone else in the party. They can — they must — talk about the differences between what Biden is doing now, no matter how reluctant he was to do it, and Trump’s titanically selfish and epically destructive behavior in 2020, when he sought to stay in power by undermining the entire electoral process. They must emphasize the contrast between a president and party that finally dealt with uncomfortable truths and a president and party that have never stopped spinning unconscionable lies. While Trump and many of his fellow Republicans remain at war with reality, Biden and Democrats surrendered to it.

    What Joe Biden Just Did is Utterly Extraordinary