{"id":7448,"date":"2024-10-30T09:16:17","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T13:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=7448"},"modified":"2024-10-30T09:16:20","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T13:16:20","slug":"beginning-of-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2024\/10\/30\/beginning-of-the-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Beginning of the End"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Closing Argument<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, \u201cThis is not the end, but it is the beginning of the end.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Last night Vice President Kamala Harris gave her \u201cclosing argument\u201d, her final attempt to persuade Americans to support her candidacy.\u00a0\u00a0On Sunday, former President Trump did the same, at Madison Square Gardens.\u00a0\u00a0From here on in, it\u2019s the last sprint to the finish; desperately trying to get every single supporter to the polls.\u00a0\u00a0Persuasion falls to the wayside, now it\u2019s all about encouraging, cajoling, and enticing all \u201ctheir folks\u201d to vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both candidates carefully chose their venues.  Trump picked Madison Square Gardens in New York City.  It\u2019s an \u201call-Trump\u201d venue, one of the most venerable and well-known in the world.  For a man who \u201cmade his bones\u201d in Manhattan, filling the Garden is a goal in and of itself. While many \u201cknowing commentators\u201d questioned why Trump would come to the center of Democratic New York to make his plea, Trump knew well that \u201cMSG\u201d is a national setting.  And besides, filling it to capacity with \u201cMAGA\u201d loyalists (a little less than 20,000) in the heart of New York City sent his message:  \u201cno blue territory is safe\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, Harris chose the Ellipse, in sight of the White House Oval Office, and where Trump gave his fateful speech sending the mob to\u00a0\u00a0march on the Capitol on January 6th<\/sup>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It too is a \u201cnational\u201d venue, even though the District is fully Democratic.\u00a0\u00a0Her site choice underlined the decision Harris is asking America to make:\u00a0\u00a0Trump represents the upheavals of the past, Harris the promise of the future.\u00a0\u00a0And it also allowed the Harris campaign another subliminal \u201csize\u201d dig.\u00a0\u00a0Trump had 50,000 on January 6th<\/sup>\u00a0for \u201cit’s going to be wild\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Harris\u2019s crowd numbered near 75,000 last night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Into the Darkness<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So what did the former President offer Americans in closing?  Like his first inaugural address, Trump presents a dark view of a failing America, full of illegal immigrants taking \u201cAmerican\u201d jobs and committing crimes.  And he told Americans to be afraid:  of the \u201cbrown person\u201d down the block, for their child going to school (they might come back a different gender), of the coming multi-cultural America.  Instead, Trump offered the \u201csafety\u201d of America that looks like the 1950\u2019s.  It was his original message back in 2016, and little has changed (one of my first essays from 2017, Trump World and the Beaver<\/a>).  It\u2019s just darker, more desperate, and more violent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does Trump see the Democrats?  They are \u201cthe enemy within\u201d; subject to every crude and profane insult imaginable.  Their leaders should be in jail:  \u201cLock them up!!!\u201d.  There is no unity in the Trump message.  It\u2019s we win; you lose, and we take what we want. It’s difficult to see the entire extravaganza at Madison Square Garden as \u201cpersuasive\u201d.  The message is the same as the one he gave on the Ellipse that fateful morning of the Insurrection:  “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”  It was a call to arms for his supporters, not an outreach to those unsure Republicans how might still be persuaded (Oh Lindsey, We Thought We Knew Ye<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Big Tent<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On the Ellipse last night, Harris started by holding a mirror up to the Trump Campaign.\u00a0\u00a0She presented Americans with a vision:\u00a0\u00a0one of the two candidates would, in ninety days, be sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office over her shoulder.\u00a0\u00a0She highlighted the chaos of the past, and the dark future, what a Trump authoritarian consolidation of power for four more years might mean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then she went on to explain her vision for America. She finally made a clear difference between the Biden Presidency and a Harris Administration.\u00a0\u00a0Harris explained that it was a matter of \u201cmissions\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0The Biden\/Harris mission was to recover from the pandemic, revive the economy, and then \u201cland\u201d it from a looming recession (mission accomplished).\u00a0\u00a0The Harris\/Walz mission is different:\u00a0\u00a0it\u2019s to enhance the life of working and middle class Americans.\u00a0\u00a0Harris offers an array of changes from tax cuts to child benefits to housing incentives.\u00a0\u00a0And she has plans to deal with the many problems America set aside as we\u2019ve centered on our internal conflicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She offers an America of diversity, where folks can make their own decisions, about their bodies, their sexuality, and  their political views.  Harris promises to be a President that can listen to all sides; not just \u201cher supporters\u201d.   Her candidacy is a \u201cbig tent\u201d, from Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez to Liz Cheney, Bernie Sanders to Dick Cheney.  Her final message was: join us for a future together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are six days until election day.\u00a0\u00a0Fifty million Americans, including Jenn and I, have already cast our votes.\u00a0\u00a0There are nearly 170 million registered (out of 244 million who could vote).\u00a0\u00a0In 2020, over 158 million voted, the most ever.\u00a0\u00a0We are racing to the \u201cfinish line\u201d that vague deadline when, finally, all the ballots are counted. That will be sometime in the next few weeks.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And then\u2026we will see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Closing Argument To paraphrase Winston Churchill, \u201cThis is not the end, but it is the beginning of the end.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Last night Vice President Kamala Harris gave her \u201cclosing argument\u201d, her final attempt to persuade Americans to support her candidacy.\u00a0\u00a0On Sunday, former President Trump did the same, at Madison Square Gardens.\u00a0\u00a0From here on in, it\u2019s the last … Continue reading “Beginning of the End”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBeginning of the End : Our America - 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