This is my reaction to Heather Cox Richardson's "Letters From An American" 11/6/24 blog audio:
Speaking on Wednesday, Heather mentioned that Trump had won by that time about 295 electoral votes to Harris' 226 and that the Republicans had taken control of the Senate. She went on to say "These results were a surprise to everyone. Trump is a 78-year-old convicted felon." She continued with a description of how Trump had launched "an unprecedented attack on the US Capitol". She also said Trump had committed to return America to the Neoliberal policies that Biden had "rejected in favor of investing in the middle class." Next, she said that "Russia set out to undermine the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, that enforced the rules-based international order that stood against Russian expansion."
Interesting points. Trump is 78 years old. Is age a problem, now that Biden is out of the picture? Personally, I DO think age is a problem and hope the gerontocracy comes to an end soon; but I find it funny that people who a few months ago complained about "ageism" are now beginning to hint that Trump is too old. Next, while there WAS an unprecedented attack on the Capitol, it is still unclear that Trump "launched" or led it. There's enough confusion and disagreement on evidence of agents provocateurs in the crowd and Twitter suppression of Trump tweets to his supporters to remain calm and peaceful, that I'd be very careful about claims of this nature. Next, the economic claims Heather makes require a lot of unpacking, both with respect to what she claims about Biden's achievements and Trump's threat. And finally, is advancing NATO to the Russian border, which the US was about to do in Ukraine when Russia invaded, really about enforcing a rules-based order to stand against Russian expansion?
Heather then takes on Viktor Orbán's "illiberal" or "Christian Democracy", which she says "holds nominal elections, although their outcome is preordained" because Orbán "controls all the media and has silenced opposition." What exactly did the Democrats do, eschewing a primary, forcing Biden out of the race, and then presenting Harris as the acclaimed candidate? She criticizes Orbán's policy of "minority rule", but is that just because it's the wrong minority? From here she touts the great economic success of the Biden economic plan but complains this was "not enough to protect democracy." Which means what, exactly? Trump not only won the electoral college, he crushed Harris in the popular vote. The people Heather wants to rule America are supported by the minority. And how did Biden's purported economic success fail to "protect democracy"? Didn't people go to the polls and vote? Or does Heather have some inside information that leads her to believe democracy has now ended because the people voted for the "wrong" candidate?
Heather correctly points out that Trump is wrong about tariffs. She's right, the cost of tariffs would be borne by US consumers. It is not a "tax" on China, although it would probably decrease Chinese imports. She then calls attention to Project 2025, which she ties to Orbán in Hungary. I'm not that familiar with this; I haven't read the document yet although I suppose now I'll have to. I'm not sure how much credence I want to give to a rando on social media who says "Yeah, it was real!", though; regardless of how many likes his tweet got.
Finally, Heather concludes that the real cause of the Democrats' repudiation was "the flood of disinformation that has plagued the US for years now." She talks about "Russian Political Theorists", implying perhaps that this election or at least American popular discourse is being manipulated by the Kremlin? Really, again? Heather says the Russians have developed a number of techniques that they use against us, "but the key was creating a false narrative in order to control public debate." She calls this a "perversion of democracy", turning voters into people "rubber-stamping leaders they had been manipulated into backing". This seems a bit ironic to me, looking back on the last several years of the Biden administration's campaign of misinformation, disinformation, and projection (accusing the people questioning the official narrative of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation and censoring them on social media). And rubber-stamping? What was the Harris campaign, again?
At the very end, Heather mentions that Kamala Harris urged Americans to stay involved and engaged in the "fight" for the "future that we all know we can build together". This is the one part of the post with which I 100% agree; both with Kamala and with Heather. People need to stay engaged and keep pushing for the things they value. This is not a time when we can go to the polls every few years and then go back to sleep. It never was, really. But right now it's more important than ever.
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