Love trumps hate: to slay the regressive, 40-million-headed Medusa of racist/misogynistic/anti-government hatred, just VOTE!

When you take some deep breaths and reflect -- say, for example, on the dire straits we're in at this forward edge of American history -- understanding starts to crystallize around a few long-running strands.  The strands are long, inter-winding roots running back through time to the same original fundament. 

 

That fundament is the one to which our so-called American patriots nominally pay homage when justifying their cornered-rat opposition to every step of progress over the last 227 or so years: the Founding Fathers' design for democracy, with liberty and equal justice under the law for all.  The false patriots fondly remember the glory of revolutionary days, but they want to erase all the evolutionary dawnings of new days that have brought new definitions of many terms in that original design, now to include even "fathers".  They want to forget that inherent in that prescient original design was the expectation of and structure for evolutionary change. 

We are about to find out whether this nation, or any nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to equality, will survive half the nation acting in staunch opposition to progress.  Every serious commentator agrees that we are now engaged in a political civil war that threatens to undo everything that took 250+ years to grow. 

Trumpites (and those who say they'll hold their noses and vote for him) are holding on hysterically to a time and place wherein white men's lives were the ones that mattered more than others'.  Their own party lied to them for decades about how they'd get their country back again, and now they're raring to "turn [the government] upside-down" -- presumably to restore to the top of the heap the rightful owners and restore the darker people and the "fairer sex" to their rightful place, underneath.    

The willingness of half the electorate to place their perceived interests as well as their grievances and prejudices above the very survival of our Constitutional democratic national union has been breathtaking and continuously mind-boggling.  This massively exploding enmity certainly approaches the state of the disunion that finally breached the line between politics and treasonous violence at Ft. Sumter in 1860.  

These observations aren't any big insight, I know.  I'm just putting into my own words what's in plain sight.  Since that is the common sense of the moment we're in, I believe a campaign message speaking directly to that shared sense of imminent risk could move people in these last few days.  I wish I had a line into the Clinton campaign to suggest that they create a TV spot showing Lincoln's memorial, then zooming in to his chiseled face, then panning up to the words carved into the wall above him, resting on the last paragraph: 

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

This election hinges entirely on turnout, especially Latino and African-American turnout.  That's why the scum of the earth are talking about intimidation tactics to deter them from showing up.   In fact, though, most cities are run by Dems, so there is no excuse for any of the demi-nazis to get away with pulling any intimidation they may try.  In Philly I trust Jim Kenney to have extra cops on call.  With clubs and cuffs.  

And speaking of Philly, that's where the nexus of the political universe will be on Monday night, Election Day eve.  Hillary and Bill, Barack and Michelle will be here together for the climactic GOTV extravaganza. 

Yes, getting out the vote in Southeastern Pennsylvania may be the most consequential determinant of the fate of the election and the world (not in the least an exaggeration, btw**).   According to the strategists, pundits and pols, African-American turnout is the key to this thing.  As Obama told Al Sharpton yesterday, now is the time to demand full participation -- as much as was demanded in '08 and '12.  

So the choice of Philadelphia is strategic, but it's also evocative and symbolic.  It's meant to evoke the exhilaration and inspiration of what happened here in July, 2016.  The DNC lit up the sky and sent Hillary's numbers in the same direction.  

As for symbolism, the city is the birthplace of what is now in jeopardy.  I expect that meaning to be written large in Monday night's speeches; this turning point will have a place among all the peak moments.     

** Whether one is a minority member, a millenial, or a Bernie voter, to abstain now or to vote as if Hillary is as dangerous a choice as the p***y-grabber is to blind oneself to the consequences.  So here are two great links that speak to this monumentally important distinction.  The first features Daveed Diggs speaking primarily to millenials about the concrete, immediate impact of a Trump presidency compared to a Clinton presidency.  He starts with climate change and Trump's promise to annul the U.S.'s commitment to the Paris Accords on Day One.  In an MTV-ish high-energy format,  Diggs explains for fellow millenials why voting in this election is the most important thing they may ever do.  

This next one is a "We Are The World" retake called Holy Shit!   TV stars and celebs sing to exhort us to get the hell out and vote.  They swear so much and so bad that they have to make up new epithets because even the most not-allowed-on-TV curse words fall short of the revulsion to be expressed ("sentient septic tank" is the least filthy).  They sing in solidarity with the profound frustration we all feel that words just don't exist to express the disdain and disgust that this utter schmuck (see?) and his devotees fire up in us. 

Also it's convulsively funny and downright historically insightful, so just flow with the joyous vulgarity.  In 2012 it was "One More Day", in 2016 it's Holy Shit! 

And so it goes.


 P.s.  The Cubs in Game 7 built huge, insurmountable leads, and then the Indians surmounted the lead and drew dead even in the 9th inning.  Cleveland had all the momentum.  After a rain delay, during which the Cubs decided out loud not to let a little bump in the road keep them from reaching their goal, they came back and scored twice to retake the lead in the 10th.  They were the best team, and they won.

That's what I'm talkin' about!

.

                                                                              Keystone Progress Daily FunniesP.p.s. 

Speaking of Abe... 

Courtesy of Reader Supported News, which merits financial support from progressives for its much-needed journalistic resources, its integrity and its independence.

Fox: New Evidence Hillary Killed Lincoln

By Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker

30 October 16

The article below is satire. Andy Borowitz is an American comedian and New York Times-bestselling author who satirizes the news for his column, "The Borowitz Report."

In what may be the most serious allegation ever made against the former Secretary of State, Fox News Channel reported today that Hillary Clinton was involved in the conspiracy to murder President Abraham Lincoln.

The latest charge against Mrs. Clinton was reported by Fox host Sean Hannity, who said that the evidence of her role in the Lincoln assassination came mainly in the form of e-mails.

According to Mr. Hannity, “If it’s true that Hillary Clinton killed Lincoln, this could have a major impact on her chances in 2016.”

The accusation against Mrs. Clinton drew a strong response from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.—S. Carolina): “There’s been a concerted effort by Hillary Clinton to cover up her role in President Lincoln’s murder. She has said nothing about it. This is bigger than Watergate, the Cuban missile crisis, and the Second World War put together.”

Responding to the allegation, Mrs. Clinton issued a terse statement indicating that she could not have participated in Lincoln’s assassination because she was born in 1947.

“That’s what she wants us to believe,” Sen. Graham said.