Closing Contrasts (And A Massive Crowd)

 

The Associated Press (!) gives us the contrast between the closing arguments of the Harris-Walz campaign and that of the Malignant Loser and the Junior Demagogue at their "Nazi Coachella"* rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday:

In the shadow of the White House, seven days before the final votes of the 2024 election are cast, Kamala Harris vowed to put country over party and warned that Donald Trump is obsessed with revenge and his own personal interests.

Less than 48 hours earlier inside Madison Square Garden, Trump called his Democratic opponent “a trainwreck who has destroyed everything in her path.” His allies on stage labeled Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and made a baseless claim that Harris, a former prosecutor and senator who is trying to become the first woman to be elected president, had begun her career as a prostitute. 

Two nights and 200 miles apart, the dueling closing arguments outlined in stark terms the choice U.S. voters face on Nov. 5 when they will weigh two very different visions of leadership and America’s future.

Trump’s raucous rally, marked by crude and racist insults, highlighted the uglier elements of his coalition. But other parts of it underscored the former businessman’s appeal as someone who vows to fix the economy and the border, and as a political outsider eager to defy any and all conventions despite the risks.

Harris, the vice president for the last four years, chose a more formal setting — the grassy Ellipse near the White House — to underscore the seriousness of this moment in American history and the threat Trump poses to democracy. She faced a massive audience in the same place where Trump addressed thousands of his loyalists on Jan. 6, 2021, before they stormed the U.S. Capitol in one of the darkest days of modern history.  

But more than simply reminding voters of the danger that Trump poses to U.S. democracy, Harris’ remarks were designed to highlight her opponent’s record of prioritizing his personal interests instead of the nation’s.

“Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That’s who he is. But America, I am here tonight to say: That’s not who we are,” Harris said. “I pledge to be a president for all Americans — to always put country above party and above self.”...

That's all one really needs to absorb, especially those "feels" vs. real voters who make their decisions based on their perception of the zeitgeist.  It's been made simple.  It's "freedom" vs. "tyranny."  It's "prosecutor" vs. "felon." It's "joy" vs. "hate."  It's "the future" vs. "the past."  It's "us" vs. "us vs. them."  But if those contrasts don't matter to an exhausted electorate, well ...

BONUS:  Here's the Vice President's speech ICYMI (start at the 1:35:04 mark).

BONUS II:  Here's the scene at last night's Harris closing argument rally on the Ellipse in Washington, DC, where an estimated 75,000 people showed up there and in the overflow area around the Washington Monument.  Now that's turnout!  --

More than 75,000 people. This is what turning the page looks like. pic.twitter.com/g3LeHcRNCY

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 29, 2024

This is what democracy looks like.pic.twitter.com/bOw6aHG6tU

— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) October 30, 2024

* h/t LGM.

(Photos:  top,  Kent Nishimura/ Getty Images; bottom, Evan Vucci/ AP) 

"Our Lives Are At Stake, Our Democracy's At Stake"

 

Pennsylvania's House of Representatives Rep. Jordan Harris' powerful, powerful call to vote that should be heard by everyone, not just our friends in Pennsylvania.

Listen to this from @JordanHarrisPA. pic.twitter.com/zlrnPb12mH

— Kamala for PA (@KamalaforPA) October 19, 2024

Post- Election Preparations

 

What Campos says:

... [T]he Biden administration needs to be gearing up to unleash the full power of the federal government against Trump and his legal and political allies on the morning of November 6, assuming that Harris wins the election. (If Trump wins the Electoral College then it turns out the Constitution really is a suicide pact, and there’s no legal recourse for that outcome).

By that I mean that any and all federal and state laws that prohibit post-election fraud and sedition need to be enforced with absolutely no consideration for prudential arguments about not engaging in “lawfare” against one’s political opponents. If Trump and or his allies arguably violate criminal laws while trying to overturn the election they have lost — which they are practically certain to do — they need to be arrested on the spot. They can be given plenty of due process in due time, but this will not be the time for any kind of hesitation in terms of unleashing the the full legal power of the state against them. Nor will it be time to hesitate in terms of unleashing the full violence of the state against violent attempts to overturn the election, including violent protests. It’s a grim fact that a certain amount of state violence — another word for this is “law” — may have to be brought to bear against post-election seditionists, to encourage the others.

Part of this planning should include Merrick Garland’s resignation letter, dated November 6th, 2024. It would be a severe understatement to note that Garland is not a wartime consigliere, and anybody who thinks we’re not going to the mattresses on that morning — assuming again that Harris actually wins the election; after all, we are not communists — is living in the kind of reactionary centrist dreamworld we can’t afford to inhabit in America 2024.  (our emphasis)

We've been thinking a lot about this, too, as likely many of you have.  The Malignant Loser is stating his intentions rather loudly and clearly:  he won't accept losing the election, and he intends to challenge a loss all the way to Inauguration Day and to the Republican Supreme Court.  Violence is certainly on the table for him and his fascist supporters, as it was on January 6, 2021, except more so and everywhere.  All the more reason, of course, to thump him soundly on November 5, a task which may prove more difficult than it should be.

Regardless, we heartily agree that the steps that need to be taken (and are already gamed out) must include nipping any seditious actions or criminal acts in the bud with the full force of law, no matter who commits them.  The Malignant Loser has broadcast his plans;  if countermeasures haven't been planned, it would be a fatal betrayal of the Constitution and of our (flawed) democracy.

Vid Of The Day -- One Stands For Democracy, One Doesn't

 

MSNBC's Ali Velshi lays out the state of play and the only thing that matters in this election: the preservation of democracy.