Land of Confusion.

 

     It started with the Supreme Court ruling on July 1st, the last day of their session, that Trump essentially had blanket immunity and could essentially act like the dictator he promised he'd be. Then the day before the convention, Aileen Cannon, predictably, shitcanned Trump's documents case. Then, he got shot (which in itself gave us more questions than answers). Then today, Biden dropped out of the presidential race. The psychological sideshow of the RNC convention was actually the most normal thing we've seen politically this month and we're still just three weeks into July. As Politico reporter Kyle Cheney put it, "We’re living through one of the most unfathomably insane months in political history." Olivia Nuzzi put it even more succinctly: "The big lesson here? Bullying works."

     The last time I saw anything even remotely like this was in 1968. And, as in '68, the Democratic National Convention in exactly a month will be in Chicago, the same convention that saw protesters getting brutally beaten by the Chicago PD. Even Dan Rather got cold-cocked on the convention floor.

     Lyndon Johnson threw the Democratic Party and the entire presidential race into chaos when he announced early that year that he would not seek or accept renomination as president (The rumor was that Walter Cronkite's famous broadcast in February that year hastened Johnson's departure from the world stage, with Johnson allegedly saying, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America.").

     1968 was marred by two actual assassinations, that of Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy. Vice President Hubert Humphrey was thrust into the limelight, without Johnson's endorsement, and a sinister Republican got elected.

     Is past really prologue? For all our sakes, I hope not.

     And this is where it pays to listen to the voice of experience, to those of us who'd lived through that turbulent and defining history. And in my 65 years on this planet, I've never seen such confusion and uncertainty. It's one thing to read about it in history books or in old articles archived on the internet. It's another to have actually lived it, to have been there to feel the emotional impact that these events had on one. My most indelible memory of 1968 was the morning after Bobby Kennedy was shot in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and my mother telling me he was shot and that "God had to claim his life."

     And now, Biden has thrown the Democratic Party into a state akin to anarchy and, with it, another presidential election. Naturally, the biggest mouths in the emerging Fourth Reich wasted no time in dancing on Biden's political grave. Orange Julius Caesar announced it opened the door for MAGA's return to the White House. His ignored spawn, Don Jr, called for Biden to resign as president without apparently considering in his coke-addled brain that doing so would make a President Harris more difficult to beat as she would have the prestige of running as an incumbent president (Not to mention a merch headache as Trump is already selling shit calling himself the 47th president).

     And those of us on the blue side of the radio dial, I would imagine, are divided into two camps: Those of us who are relieved that Biden is finally out of the way and those of us who feel betrayed after Biden's furious protestations denying that he would do exactly what he did this morning. On Capitol Hill, promises, denials and denunciations are more worthless than fallen cherry blossoms in May. But, considering our hopes and dreams that Biden would stave off fascism, considering our unconditional support of Biden's campaign in many ways, it still feels like a betrayal.

     To people like me, it came as a shock but not a surprise.

     So, now what?

     Well, let's look at the pros and cons of a Harris presidential campaign:

     One, as we all know, Vice President Harris is literally the only person on the planet who can make use of Biden's campaign funds. She inherits a war chest that at the very least rivals Trump's and maybe even surpasses it. As a woman, she's perfectly positioned to scream about the axing of Roe v Wade that Trump's still stupidly bragging about to this day. And, as a former prosecutor, she's also qualified to tell us exactly how much of a crook Trump is and that the only reason he's allowed to lurch around his countless golf courses is because of equally corrupt Republicans in the Senate and the federal judiciary.

     She'd galvanize the female and African American vote in a way that even Biden couldn't. As a Gen X candidate, she'd get a significant share of the vote from that demographic. And, on a smaller scale, Harris could help lock in the swing Wisconsin vote on the strength of her being a former resident of Madison. Plus, with age and competence no longer a factor, she'd have the backing of the Biden administration and, hopefully, a newly-united Democratic Party.

     Now, the cons:

     Being vice president these last three and a half years means she's been relegated to the Naval Observatory and no one really knows what her policy positions are. Being vice president means your policy positions are the president's. And people will remember her lackluster campaign from 2020 when she regularly polled in single digits. Harris has three and a half months to tell us what she stands for. I don't envy her.

     And, of course, the right wing will scream about her gender and race. Look for the Fourth Reich to call her "a DEI hire" and that women are too emotional to be president. In a way, it'll be like Hillary redux and it would be a delicious irony if Trump, a convicted rapist, gets beaten by a woman.

     So, who should Harris pick as a running mate?

     Well, virtually any prediction is destined to go down in flames but it would be smart for her to pick another woman, for instance, dare I say it? Hillary Clinton. Clinton has international visibility, government experience as a two term senator and Secretary of State and would help shore up the invaluable female vote. Most importantly, perhaps, Clinton would bring to the table a vast fundraising apparatus that could be reactivated on a dime. It's difficult to see Trump and Vance overcoming all that.

     But, whomever she picks, Harris has four weeks at most to pick a running mate. Yeah, Harris is no blushing liberal. She did some pretty shitty things when she was DA in San Francisco and Attorney General of California. But, considering the stakes, I'm not going to die on my usual hill of political purity. If Vice President Harris is going to be our standard bearer, the only tactic that makes sense is to support her.

     Because the alternative is absolutely unthinkable.