THINGS I AM THANKFUL FOR

I can remember, before 2016, how much I used to disagree with Jennifer Rubin. It’s gratifying how - once her eyes were opened - she has followed truth as she knows it as relentlessly as she has, becoming one of the most effective advocates for the question “Are you a believer in democracy and our democratic constitutional republic, and willing to fight to defend it?”

I like her list of things to be thankful for that she published in her WaPo column, so I’m going to post them here:

I’m grateful not to wake up every morning with a sense of impending doom that a cast of election deniers will control key roles in administrating elections in 2024.

I’m grateful many in the media helped identify election deniers for Americans and educated them about the danger of granting them power to discard the will of voters.

I’m grateful to voters, who for the third consecutive election, showed there is a majority — even if a frightfully narrow one — that rejects authoritarianism, crude appeals to racism and xenophobia, and downright nutty and mean candidates.

I’m grateful younger voters are developing a habit of voting in midterms.

I’m grateful to the thousands of election officials, workers and volunteers who pulled off another exceptionally efficient and peaceful exercise in democracy.

I’m grateful to the lawyers who litigated in defense of voting access and impartial election administration.

I’m grateful voters did not ignore their concerns for democracy and women’s rights just because inflation is high.

I’m grateful that nearly all broadcast networks refused to break from regular programming to cover Donald Trump’s presidential campaign announcement.

I’m grateful voters are becoming accustomed to early voting and voting by mail.

I’m grateful President Biden disregarded cynical pundits and reporters to focus on the threat from MAGA extremism.

I’m grateful millions of Americans, especially women, have reacted with one voice in opposition to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision and cruel abortion bans.

I’m grateful former British prime minister Liz Truss’s disastrous supply-side agenda flopped, serving as a reminder that massive tax cuts for the rich are not the key to widespread prosperity and economic stability.

I’m grateful Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) campaigned against some of the worst election deniers (e.g., Republican candidate for Arizona governor Kari Lake) and in support of some moderate Democratic stars (e.g., Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger).

I’m grateful covid-19 is far less of a threat to people’s lives and that it is no longer a barrier to gathering with friends and family for Thanksgiving.

I’m grateful our sober commander in chief has not escalated tensions with Russia, vastly reducing the chances of a hot war between Russia and NATO.

I’m grateful for heroic Ukrainians who remind us of the price of freedom and the need to resist authoritarianism.

I’m grateful juries continue to convict and judges continue to sentence participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

I’m grateful the Justice Department is seriously pursuing investigations into Trump’s retention of highly classified documents and his participation in the coup attempt.

I’m grateful federal, district and circuit courts have generally upheld the rule of law, preventing election subversion and rejecting the former president’s ludicrous claims of executive privilege and immunity from Jan. 6-related lawsuits.

I’m grateful a phalanx of lawyers, former prosecutors and legal scholars have helped provide the public with lively and profoundly helpful education in constitutional law.

I’m grateful to all the candidates who challenged election deniers and MAGA extremists in primaries and general election races, whether they won or lost.

I’m grateful for the House Jan. 6 select committee and the witnesses who stepped forward to expose the coup plotters, educating voters about the threat from Trump and his followers.

I’m grateful the former Republicans behind the Lincoln Project and the Republican Accountability Project continue to show Democrats how to fight effectively against the MAGA right wing.

I’m grateful a crop of rising Democratic stars won their races, ranging from Reps.-elect Emilia Sykes (D-Ohio) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wa.) to Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania.

I’m grateful Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is on the Supreme Court and that she has held tutorials on honest originalism and run circles around the arrogant right-wing justices who don’t bother to conceal their partisan hackery.

I’m grateful to the men and women in the armed services and national security agencies, without whom our democracy would not survive.

And now I’d like to talk about some things I am personally grateful for.

I know this may sound strange as hell, but I am thankful for Trump and the hell he has put us through for the past seven and a half years.

That’s because all of the above wouldn’t have happened, but for him. He came along and kicked “the sleeping giant” harder than anyone since Admiral Yamamoto at Pearl Harbor - who didn’t actually say “I fear we have only awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve,” though that’s what he did, and what Trump has done. Trump came along and changed the question from the wrong one - “Are you a Democrat or a Republican?” - and focused us on the right one: “Are you a believer in democracy and this democratic constitutional republic, and are you willing to fight to preserve it?” The result is that people who eight years ago weren’t talking to each other because the “other” was seen as the “enemy” have realized the eagle can’t fly on just one wing.

That’s not only a good thing, but The Only Thing That Will Save Us.

On a personal level, I am thankful That’s Another Fine Mess is working as it is. I wasn’t at all sure seventeen months ago when I sat down and wrote the first post if anything would come of it. In fact, I had held back for about six months after friends who liked my posts at other sites suggested me I start this, because I wasn’t sure anyone would be interested. These posts aren’t that different from the kind of things I used to write for the student newspaper back in college, and I was always surprised back then that people were interested. I wasn’t even sure the friends I invited to join would stick around.

I should have remembered that the last time I did this, the late Mary Travers was a regular reader. If I could attract her, I must be doing something right.

Which shows how much I know about anything. If you have wondered what that little orange checkmark inside a circle is on my name when I post, it’s Substack’s recognition of me as a “best seller” with “hundreds of subscribers.” More accurately “a couple hundred,” but that’s about 1,000% more than I expected. Not HCR or Lucian territory, but growing every week and that’s just fine.

I really enjoy writing these posts, because of who’s going to read them. You are all a very interesting bunch. “New old friends.” Over the 26 years I have been doing things on the internet, I have discovered that - over time - you learn who someone really is, corresponding with them this way. Every person I’ve met on the net who I have then met in “real life” has turned out to be exactly who I thought they were - perhaps not the way they looked, but every other way, the important ways. I’m sure that would be the case with any of you.

So, thank you for being you, for coming here, for keeping me on my toes.

I now have final Thanksgiving shopping to do, and tomorrow I’ll be the one making Thanksgiving dinner for She Who Can’t Participate Anymore.

The kitties will return on Friday, along with an analysis of Quiverin’ Qevin’s Qaos, and I will have some interesting airplane stuff for the weekend.

And due to Popular Demand (actually, the Very Good Idea of one reader), Saturdays from the coming one on will see an open thread for One Liners. Bring your best. Open for all. (Aggie Jokes allowed)

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and thanks again.

Comments on this are for everyone.