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As a fourth-generation Washingtonian, I’m especially thankful that Trump isn’t in the White House. A vengeful Trump has called for a federal takeover of the District, which he regards as a “dirty, crime-ridden death trap.”
Why else am I thankful Trump’s not in the White House? He has publicly disclosed that if elected, he would consider weaponizing the federal government against those who would oppose his reign. He’s also made it known that he wants to strip career federal employees of civil-service protections, to abolish the Education Department and to see more teachers trained to carry concealed weapons.
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Trump’s thoughts on the NATO alliance and aid to Ukraine are life preservers to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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There are good and sufficient reasons to be thankful that Trump is only running his mouth, and not the government.
But where will we be in our Thanksgiving Day thoughts next year?
Will we be lifting prayers of thanks because Trump’s current presidential election bid ultimately failed? Or will we be glumly staring at our plates, bemoaning the fate that awaits us after he takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2025?
In whose hands rests the answer? The best place to start is with those most responsible for deciding next year’s presidential election.
President Biden is a seasoned politician, but he might be sizing up the Trump situation all wrong.
Criticizing Trump for bragging on the stump about killing Roe v. Wade, Biden said: “Let’s be clear: The only reason a fundamental right has been stripped away from the American people for the first time in American history is because of Trump.”
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Not accurate.
Trump was able to nominate the conservative Supreme Court justices who took a knife to Roe, and also struck down affirmative action programs a year later, because turnout among key Democratic voting blocs fell in the 2016 election, dooming Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the electoral college. Voters who skipped the balloting helped Trump make good on his word.
Trump did as president what he signaled as candidate. I wrote in a September 2016 column, three months before Election Day, “Examine [Trump’s] frightening list of right-wing court nominees. Install a Trump White House and say farewell to civil liberties, voting rights, consumer rights and reproductive rights.”
Numbers tell the story.
In 2016, the Black voter turnout rate in a presidential election declined for the first time in 20 years. At 59.6 percent, it was seven percentage points below the 2012 level, the largest decline on record for Black voters. But note well, Barack Obama was on the ballot in 2012 and 2008.
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Obama got the turnout. In 2016, Clinton got the shoulder.
She did roll up, as expected, majorities in Black strongholds across the country. But Black voter turnout wasn’t there for her in states where it mattered most.
Trump won Michigan by 11,000 votes. But 277,000 eligible Black people didn’t vote. He won Wisconsin by 23,000 votes, but 93,000 eligible Black voters did not cast ballots. Trump’s 200,000-vote win in Georgia was helped when 530,000 eligible Black voters did not vote. Trump slipped by in North Carolina by a margin of 173,000 votes, while 233,000 Black voters stayed home. Much the same in Pennsylvania, which Trump won by 44,000 votes.
Who knew that better than Trump? Being Trump, he couldn’t just accept the unwarranted help and keep his mouth shut. He attended a mostly White victory rally in Hershey, Pa., in December 2016 and taunted: “They didn’t come out to vote for Hillary. They didn’t come out. And that was a big — so thank you to the African American community.”
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Now, Trump’s 2016 campaign was helped by the heaps of negative ads about Clinton targeted to Black Americans by both his campaign and Russian interference in the election — well documented by the Mueller report.
That bit of history gets us back to the question: In whose hands rests answers to the outcome of next year’s presidential election?
The voters, of course. But as with previous elections, Black voters in important battleground states are a key voting bloc, and essential to the Democratic ticket.
And we are hearing echoes of the 2016 Clinton disaster. Flagging enthusiasm amid complaints that Democratic standard-bearer Biden, who can’t help it that he’s not Obama, is a bland motivator who has yet to meet all the Black community’s basic needs.
There’s little talk about a president hamstrung by a closely divided Senate, an extremist Republican House and a 24/7 opposition messaging campaign aimed at discouraging voting for someone of Biden’s age and political moderation. And not much serious thought is being given to the reactionary Republican candidates — as was true in 2016.
Will it work again?
We’ll know by next Thanksgiving.
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When we sat down for dinner Thursday, I silently gave thanks that Donald Trump is not president of the United States.
My Thanksgiving Day invocation was inspired by remembrance of Trump’s dreadful presidency. But also by all the mean and ugly things he has said and done — along with his democracy-threatening actions — since his rejection by voters in the 2020 presidential election. (I think attempting to overturn a presidential election qualifies as antidemocratic.)
As a fourth-generation Washingtonian, I’m especially thankful that Trump isn’t in the White House. A vengeful Trump has called for a federal takeover of the District, which he regards as a “dirty, crime-ridden death trap.”
Why else am I thankful Trump’s not in the White House? He has publicly disclosed that if elected, he would consider weaponizing the federal government against those who would oppose his reign. He’s also made it known that he wants to strip career federal employees of civil-service protections, to abolish the Education Department and to see more teachers trained to carry concealed weapons.
Trump’s thoughts on the NATO alliance and aid to Ukraine are life preservers to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
There are good and sufficient reasons to be thankful that Trump is only running his mouth, and not the government.
But where will we be in our Thanksgiving Day thoughts next year?
Will we be lifting prayers of thanks because Trump’s current presidential election bid ultimately failed? Or will we be glumly staring at our plates, bemoaning the fate that awaits us after he takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2025?
In whose hands rests the answer? The best place to start is with those most responsible for deciding next year’s presidential election.
President Biden is a seasoned politician, but he might be sizing up the Trump situation all wrong.
Criticizing Trump for bragging on the stump about killing Roe v. Wade, Biden said: “Let’s be clear: The only reason a fundamental right has been stripped away from the American people for the first time in American history is because of Trump.”
Not accurate.
Trump was able to nominate the conservative Supreme Court justices who took a knife to Roe, and also struck down affirmative action programs a year later, because turnout among key Democratic voting blocs fell in the 2016 election, dooming Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the electoral college. Voters who skipped the balloting helped Trump make good on his word.
Trump did as president what he signaled as candidate. I wrote in a September 2016 column, three months before Election Day, “Examine [Trump’s] frightening list of right-wing court nominees. Install a Trump White House and say farewell to civil liberties, voting rights, consumer rights and reproductive rights.”
Numbers tell the story.
In 2016, the Black voter turnout rate in a presidential election declined for the first time in 20 years. At 59.6 percent, it was seven percentage points below the 2012 level, the largest decline on record for Black voters. But note well, Barack Obama was on the ballot in 2012 and 2008.
Obama got the turnout. In 2016, Clinton got the shoulder.
She did roll up, as expected, majorities in Black strongholds across the country. But Black voter turnout wasn’t there for her in states where it mattered most.
Trump won Michigan by 11,000 votes. But 277,000 eligible Black people didn’t vote. He won Wisconsin by 23,000 votes, but 93,000 eligible Black voters did not cast ballots. Trump’s 200,000-vote win in Georgia was helped when 530,000 eligible Black voters did not vote. Trump slipped by in North Carolina by a margin of 173,000 votes, while 233,000 Black voters stayed home. Much the same in Pennsylvania, which Trump won by 44,000 votes.
Who knew that better than Trump? Being Trump, he couldn’t just accept the unwarranted help and keep his mouth shut. He attended a mostly White victory rally in Hershey, Pa., in December 2016 and taunted: “They didn’t come out to vote for Hillary. They didn’t come out. And that was a big — so thank you to the African American community.”
Now, Trump’s 2016 campaign was helped by the heaps of negative ads about Clinton targeted to Black Americans by both his campaign and Russian interference in the election — well documented by the Mueller report.
That bit of history gets us back to the question: In whose hands rests answers to the outcome of next year’s presidential election?
The voters, of course. But as with previous elections, Black voters in important battleground states are a key voting bloc, and essential to the Democratic ticket.
And we are hearing echoes of the 2016 Clinton disaster. Flagging enthusiasm amid complaints that Democratic standard-bearer Biden, who can’t help it that he’s not Obama, is a bland motivator who has yet to meet all the Black community’s basic needs.
There’s little talk about a president hamstrung by a closely divided Senate, an extremist Republican House and a 24/7 opposition messaging campaign aimed at discouraging voting for someone of Biden’s age and political moderation. And not much serious thought is being given to the reactionary Republican candidates — as was true in 2016.
Will it work again?
We’ll know by next Thanksgiving.
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