"WE SHALL NOBLY SAVE, OR MEANLY LOSE, THE LAST BEST HOPE OF EARTH"

In what is now a little less than three weeks, the world’s oldest democracy will conclude a referendum on whether democracy will be maintained or be replaced by fascism.

I wish to hell I could write something more subtle. But there’s nothing subtle to write.

160 years ago, President Lincoln posed the choice the country face in the election of 1864 - held in the midst of the Civil War - thus: “We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.”

That choice is before us again.

And this time it is even more stark.

The media continues to struggle - at the infrequent times they deign to even try - to use language that clarifies all this; with rare exception, the best they can do is to call the situation “extraordinary,” “unusual,” and “unprecedented.” Or at least they consider the possibility of using those words on the few occasions where they aren’t putting all their effort into telling us “Nothing to see here, folks, move along,” that it’s just another of those every-four-year competitions between two candidates who each love America and only want the best for us.

On Monday, both Trump and Kamala Harris held campaign events.

Trump’s town hall devolved into one of the most bizarre political events of the campaign, as he stopped taking questions (that he didn’t answer when they were asked), and stood dazed and confused on the stage for 39 long minutes, listening to music as he “danced” by himself while his staff played music from his personal Spotify list and the governor of South Dakota acted like a children’s show host, clapping along to the music as if everything was completely normal.

At about the same time, Kamala Harris held an energetic and positive rally; it was well- organized, inspirational, with accompanying music from artists who personally approved use of their songs by the candidate.

Coverage of the two events was mind-boggling, as the corporate media either completely ignored Trump’s behavior, or sanewashed it by calling it “a concert,” or otherwise acted like the two events were the same. There was no mention at all that the oldest candidate to campaign for president had “sundowned” in front of his supporters for close to three-quarters of an hour. The Guardian - which should definitely know better! - and the WaPo, which one would hope might know better, both called it a “dance party.” CBS and ABC described it as an “impromptu concert.” Surprisingly, the New York Times actually called it “odd,” while NBC used the word “surreal,” to describe the event. Trump was so far gone that when he “came around” at the end, he told his supporters to be sure to “vote on January 5.”

Clearly, there is nothing Trump can do that will get the media to tell their audiences the truth about what is happening to him.

But yesterday, the receipts were there for anyone who cared to look. Trump did a live interview at an event put on by Bloomberg News and the Economic Club of Chicago. It was another train wreck.

The entire sorry show began with Trump showing up an hour late. Moderator John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, proceeded to ask real questions regarding Trump’s economic plans, which the former “dumbest fucking student who ever walked in my classroom” (in the words of a Wharton professor whose class young Donald was allowed to AUDIT because he failed to qualify for acceptance into Wharton) answered with rants and slogans. Micklethwait - a Brit who obviously does not suffer fools easily or at all - repeatedly corrected Trump and redirected him to the actual questions. Trump doesn’t like being publicly schooled or questioned, and the interview quickly grew angry and combative. On being corrected by Micklethwait for misunderstanding how tariffs work, Trump replied (in front of an audience of people who do understand how tariffs work): “It must be hard for you to, you know, spend 25 years talking about tariffs as being negative and then have somebody explain to you that you're totally wrong.” When Mickelthwait pointed out that an analysis by the Wall Street Journal stated his plans would explode the national debt, Trump wrapped his arms around himself like a petulant 10 year old being corrected and replied: “What does the Wall Street Journal know? They’ve been wrong about everything. So have you, by the way….. You’ve been wrong about everything…. You’ve been wrong all your life on this stuff.”

As Micklethwait continued to conduct journalism with Trump, the response was more and more outlandish statements: that children could do the work of U.S. autoworkers in South Carolina, and that he would be a better chair of the Federal Reserve than Jerome Powell.

Despite the claims by Trump press spokesman Fu Manchu, er, I mean Steven Cheung, that his candidate had “won” - as if the interview was a debate - $22 Million Man Chris LaCivita decided Trump would not do another economic policy event with CNBC.

David Rothkopf of Deep State Radio hit the nail on the head: “The past 24 hours seem to have been a dividing line in the Trump campaign...and in Trump. He went from being periodically adrift and sporadically demented to being 24/7 unfit and in need of permanent medical attention. He's one cloudless night away from baying at the moon.”

That’s why it was so bracing this week to find that General Mark Milley, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, clarified remarks he had made previously to Bob Woodward for his book “War,” (which is an excellent account of how Joe Biden is the best president of the past 60 years) stating clearly:

"He is the most dangerous person ever. I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he's a total fascist. He is now the most dangerous person to this country, he’s a fascist to the core.”

The media was stuck. They had to talk about that. High ranking American military officers do not go around saying things like that. Ever.

In 1956, then-president Dwight D. Eisenhower - the last Republican president who didn’t either commit or knowingly benefit from treason to win his elections - spoke to a group of Republican women about the state of politics in America. He said:

“If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.”

Here we are, 68 years later, confronted by the fact we are not opposed by a political party, but by “a conspiracy to seize power.”

And it is up to each of us to “nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.”

Looking at the first day of early voting yesterday in Georgia - which exceeded the previous record in 2020 by 184% - and listening to interviews with voters who had stood in line resolutely through all the early morning glitches to be sure they voted tell reporters that they were there “to save democracy” in the words of several, “to be true to my mother and grandmother and her grandmother” in the words of one woman, I think we have a shot at doing it.

In the words of Willie Brown, the smartest politician I ever knew, “Ignore the polls and run like you’re ten points down till the real polls close, then celebrate.”

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