The DNC Convention: Joe saved the ship and Kamala charts the course for all Americans, not just Democrats.

Tat readers,

We’re nearly to the end of the week and we’re also closing out a DNC convention for the ages. More importantly, we’re closing out the Trump/ MAGA version of the Republican Party which has zero to do with principled conservatism. Decency and true American values will triumph in November, so long as we follow through with the extraordinary energy stemming from an inspirational week. As you all know by now, although I have no interest in political parties, what I have heard this week, embraces most of what I write about regarding America, our true principles and our founders’ intentions. Yes, I am excited to glimpse hope for our future as a constitutional republic. Joe saw us through the MAGA storm like no one us could, and now… an energized party is poised to defeat the fascist cancer of the Trump era.

This week, the DNC tamed the progressive fringe and kept the party on the course of solid constitutional principles, found in my stable of what I call, “pragmatic progressives.” Among these prestigious presidents I include Washington, Lincoln, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Joe Biden. Regardless of their party affiliations (Washington had none) they all knew that America was born and raised to be progressive in regard to, “inalienable human rights.” They also well understood that America cannot risk pursuit of the progressive principles, born of the Scottish Enlightenment and ensconced in our founding documents too quickly. Drastic change to societies, embraced without prudence and caution, historically begets chaos and disaster.

Slow, incremental dismantling of un-American obstacles like racial disparity, income disparity, the unconstitutional religious domination by White Christian Nationalists and access to the fruits of one’s labors without being subservient to the now dominant oligarchy is one of this week’s winning focuses. Those entrenched oligarchies headquartered in corporate boardrooms of a handful of monopolies such as, oil, big pharma, insurance, healthcare, groceries etc. etc. etc., go against everything our founders foresaw for our nascent republic. This week, the DNC hit all the right notes in their ballad of Americana, for all Americans.

I imagine that many Americans today, do not realize that the inimitable Woodie Guthrie, who wrote and recorded the iconic American song, This land is your land, wrote it as a protest song at a time, not terribly dissimilar to what we have experienced in the Trump era. Born of the Great Depression and hardened by a global war against fascism, it was Woodie’s passion to fight for working class Americans to be heard and have access to all the promise of America. His method was his music and storytelling. He was the voice of Americana. He inspired modern artists with similar focus like, Bob Dylan, Pete Seger and Bruce Springsteen. He fought in World War II and would appear often with a small sign on his guitar that said, “this machine kills fascists.” This is mostly the same voice from all of the speakers at the 2024 DNC National Convention.

Folk singer Woody Guthrie was sick of THAT song. The year was 1939, and everywhere he wandered, “God Bless America” was playing on the radio. It was driving Guthrie nutty. Guthrie felt that Irving Berlin’s song was too sappy, too blindly patriotic, and too cut off from the hard-knock life many Americans were facing as the Great Depression dragged into its 10th year. Guthrie knew firsthand how tough life could be for poor folks. Since his teens, he had hopped trains and hitchhiked back and forth across the country. He shared the road with former farmers, laid-off factory workers, and migrants chasing hopes of work. Along the way, he chronicled their adventures, dreams, and sorrows in song.

In February 1940, Guthrie decided to fight music with music. In reaction to “God Bless America,” he worked up a simple song that tried to capture his love of the American landscape. At the same time, he wanted to point out that a lot of Americans weren’t feeling blessed at all.

This is the story behind “This Land is Your Land.” 

- This Land is Your Land, The story behind the song
- The Kennedy Center

Woody Guthrie- This Land Is Your Land (youtube.com)

In many ways, this week’s convention has been very much, a Woodie Guthrie song.

The speakers universally talked about justice, equal rights, equitable access to markets, fair taxes, security, honoring our foreign commitments and standing up to thuggery, whether it is Xi, Putin, the theocratic terrorist regime in Tehran, the gangs infesting our neighborhoods or the corporate thugs that are price-gouging and telling us the lie that it is “inflation.” There is nothing specifically left wing about any of this. These values are part and parcel of everything our nation was founded on and as approached by all of my favorite presidents, regardless of party. This week’s DNC convention, is all about building on Joe’s legacy of, the Shoring up Democracy, against the MAGA onslaught."

The brilliance of having high-profile Republicans speak cannot be overstated. This has been a trend for both the original campaign intended to support President Biden and being continued by Candidate, VP Kamala Harris. One of the best comments of the week, among an endless list of brilliant comments, came from the former Republican Lt. Gov. of Georgia, Geoff Duncan, who said to the millions of Republicans and independents listening to his speech; “if you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you’re not a democrat, you’re a patriot.” His speech was only a couple of minutes but one of the most hopeful moments of the evening. It represented America uniting, regardless of party to put an end to the catastrophic Trump/ MAGA era.

Fmr. Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan Speaks at DNC, Former Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who served under current Gov. Brian Kemp, tells voters to "dump Trump," and that voting for presidential nominee Kamala Harris does not make one a Democrat but a "patriot."

All week long, there has been no shortage of emotional high points. In my youth, you may have heard such comments from both parties but in the MAGA era, actually, since Newt Gingrich’s scorched earth conversion of US politics into a zero-sum competition, these pure bits of our true American identity, have been missing from the GOP. Today, under the MAGA spell of conspiracy theory alternative reality, there is no hint that they ever existed in the first place. It has been a steady downhill slide into a near fascist party created to serve oligarchy and underpinned, by White Christian Nationalism.

Here are a handful of summaries by night:

• Highlights from the Democratic National Convention's first night (thehill.com)

• Michelle Obama steals the show at DNC: 5 memorable moments from Day 2 (thehill.com)

• DNC convention's emotional moments and political highlights (thehill.com)

Tonight, VP Harris will take the stage and become the latest standard bearer of the Democratic Party. In truth, she is leading all truly patriotic Americans. The cracks long visible in the hull of today’s GOP are beginning to open. The sinking of the SS Trump, is now underway and like the Titanic, will take so many innocents but “conned” Republicans with him to the bottom. For the past year or so, the cracks have appeared prominently. One example is how few MAGA lemmings, will now speak publicly. In modern American vernacular, they are trying to, “hide their crazy.” Still, they will quietly cast their ballots for MAGA but won’t likely ever admit to it publicly.

As I have occasionally discussed, relevant to my CT/ Counterterrorism background and deep knowledge of radicalization and extremism processes, those who still act demonstrably in public, be it in person or social media, may be too far gone to easily recover from this humiliating episode in their lives. Old internal, personal narratives don’t die out, they evolve, very, very slowly. We must remember though that once a person has crossed a certain threshold, the evolutionary road back into normalized society that is based in reality, may very well take more life than they have ahead of them. I have seen this up close and personal in combat zones from Baghdad to almost every corner of Afghanistan. I have also had and still have professional relationships with many of the highest profile terrorism/ violent extremism experts. This makes me intensely saddened for the families of these lost souls.

Tonight though, I suspect we’ll see and hear the grand finale of this exceptional convention. Like the proverbial Forth of July fireworks show on the Capital Mall, the grand finale should be spectacular. There is also no reason to believe that it will be any less inspiring, not in a Democratic Party way, but in an American principle’s kind of way.

Like the buildup this week to VP Harris’ acceptance of the nomination, the narratives have all been spot on and inspiring, while also devoid of what MAGA calls “radical left policy.” The more fringe and minor groups of Democrats were given a flat no to speaking at the convention. The left marginalizes their fringe, a starkly different approach to the GOP who wears their crazy proudly, and it accounts for the overwhelming majority.

There is a break from reality to those who have been in lay terms, slowly brainwashed by decades of right-wing media that introduced the fake patriotism of God, Guns and Trump to the party. They are now little different from the zombies popular in media. Friends and family that are so connected to being a Republican that they can only recite talking points and never seem to have a source, do not hear or read anything critically. In fact, Halloween is only a week before election day, and I recommend that all committed MAGA Republicans, go as lemmings this year.

As the former Georgia Lt. Gov., Geoff Duncan said last night'; “voting for Kamala doesn’t necessarily a Democrat. It makes then a patriot.”

My very best for your weekend. I may pop up with a short post over the weekend, but I cannot promise. Off days writing this week have been taken over by a chain saw cutting up and stacking massive, drought tortured, limbs falling out of backyard Pecan tree. To be honest… I like and need the exercise, no matter how much my old body complains.

Cheers,

Paul