Tag Archives: kamala-harris

Running Through the Tape

Future Hope, , , ,

Last week, from Saturday October 26th through Saturday November 2, I took part in the Harris/Walz ground game in the Allentown, Pa. area. Each of those eight days I left the place where I was staying first thing in the morning to go knock on doors, about 7-800 of them altogether over that time. I talked to those who opened the door or who I passed in the street, about 300-350 people I’d estimate, and leave campaign literature when no one answered. It was definitely hard work, but it was good work, and I am thankful that at the age of 75 my knees and the rest of my body held up so that I was able to make it through.

The doors that I was knocking on were a mix. Many of those I spoke to were Harris supporters, but there was a substantial minority that were either undecided or Trump supporters, which I was glad was the case. I wanted to do outreach “beyond the choir,” and I was fortunate to be connected in August to a local Democratic Party campaign for the Pennsylvania State House in a very definite “purple” area. This was reflected by the fact that there seemed to be as many yard signs for Trump as there were for Harris as I went around. As a result I ended up talking to scores of Trump supporters.

Did I change any of their minds? Not as far as who they’ll be voting for, almost certainly, but I do feel confident that I raised some doubts in the minds of some of them, particularly when I reminded them that both General Mark Milley and General John Kelly said publicly that after working closely with Trump when he was President that they believe he is a “fascist,” their word. Milley said he is “fascist to the core.”

I was encouraged that, even if just for a few minutes, I was able to have a civil conversation with these Trump supporters where we both listened to each other. It strengthened some hope that I already had that, going forward after tomorrow’s election, especially if Harris wins, it is possible to make inroads with some of them.

Hopefully we progressives, especially we white progressives, will get a chance to work at that in a more conscious and focused way after tomorrow, after a Harris/Walz/Democratic Party set of victories.

But there’s still one day to go!

Although I’m home, glad to be here regaining my strength, my anxiety about the election had me on the phone for four hours yesterday making calls into the area where I did my door to door work. And I will spend at least that many hours today doing the same.

VP candidate Walz, former coach, has used the analogy of “running through the tape,” meaning that if you are in a foot race you don’t let up until you’ve actually crossed the finish line. In the past, before the electronics revolution, there often was an actual tape, a ribbon, stretched across the finish line for the winner of the race to break through.

A breakthrough: that’s what a Harris/Walz victory can be, and I believe it is a definite possibility if, even today, we all make those calls, knock on doors, text people we know to be sure they’re voting and win the biggest set of victories we can tomorrow. History is calling upon us to defeat the fascist threat!

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Why Hitler Fan Trump Will Lose, If. . .

Future Hope, ,

Today’s the day for fascist Trump’s big rally in Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately for him and the MAGA’s, former Trump allies John Kelly and Mark Milley inconveniently expressed this month that from working with him while he was President they consider him to be a fascist, Milley saying “fascist to the core.” Media comparisons are already being made of today’s rally to the pro-Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939.

This is one of the reasons Trump will lose, if. . .

Another reason is the recent, rampant, obnoxious and overt sexism expressed over and over again by Trump at his rallies—remember Arnold Palmer’s private parts public musing?—and by acolytes like Tucker Carlson, likening Trump to the Big Daddy who comes home to beat the teenage daughter, with no remorse, for her transgressions. This will motivate some men, mainly white and of all ages, to vote for the misogynist fascist, but without question it will motivate at least as many, certainly more, women and anti-sexist men to be sure to vote the right way.

But perhaps the biggest reason why Trump will lose, “if. . .,” is the apparently much stronger get-out-the-vote and convince-persuadables effort being mounted in all of the battleground states by the Harris/Walz campaign and more independent allies, like Seed the Vote. There have been a number of reports over the last week or so about how the Trump/MAGA ground game, outsourced to Elon Musk, is faltering. One report estimated that 25% of the reports by Trump canvassers to their MAGA bosses were untruthful, that instead of knocking on doors and making efforts to actually talk to people, these paid canvassers were just leaving literature at the doors without that effort.

The ground game is important because, according to recent polling reported by CNN, there are still about 10% of “likely voters” who have either not decided who they’re voting for or have said they could potentially change their Presidential vote.

There is also the fact of Palestinian, Muslim and Arab-American community leaders in battleground state Arizona coming out publicly in support of people voting for Harris—“holding their nose” in doing so because of the Biden Administration’s unwillingness to cut off military aid to the Netanyahu government. Here’s how they put it: “Some of us have lost many family members in Gaza and Lebanon. We respect those who feel they simply can’t vote for a member of the administration that sent the bombs that may have killed their loved ones. As we consider the full situation carefully, however, we conclude that voting for Kamala Harris is the best option for the Palestinian cause and all of our communities.”

Combined, these are all solid reasons why Harris/Walz have a good chance of winning. So what’s up with the “if. . .”?

There are probably hundreds of thousands of us, maybe millions, around the country who, for the last many weeks or months, have been sending post cards, making calls and knocking on doors. There are more people joining in on the phone calling and door knocking now, in the home stretch. That work must continue and be strengthened. Those of us already doing so must step up how much we do in the next 10 days. For myself, I’m writing from Allentown, Pa., where this 75 year old white guy will be door knocking for at least eight straight days

Others who haven’t been involved in this work can still do so. Everyone can get on the phone and call everyone you know to be sure they’ve voted, or plan to do so, or to do our best to convince friends and relatives who are thinking of or planning to vote for Trump not to do so. Frankly, the situation we are in is worth strained relationships or even a loss of friendships.

If all of this happens, I think we can win. We can defeat the MAGA’s. We can get Trump’s various legal prosecutions back on track. We can move on to the next stage over the coming four years of a strengthened and better connected progressive movement advancing and winning on a range of issues.

These are realistic goals if, if, if we don’t let up. Si, se puede!!

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

It’s Not Just the Fascism

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This column is particularly for those people who live in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada who are thinking of or planning to vote for a third party candidate like Jill Stein or Cornell West.

In general, I get it on why some people, even in battleground states, are thinking that come election day, or before it, they intend to vote for someone other than Harris or Trump. These are people who believe that both parties are the problem.

For almost 20 years of my life, from the mid-90s to the mid-2010s, I always voted for the Green Party candidate for President. It was the party whose positions on issues were closest to my views, and I felt that I should vote that way accordingly.

Today, in 2024, there’s another reason why some people with progressive ideas are planning to vote for Jill Stein or Cornell West: the Biden Administration’s continuing military support for Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. However, in my view, a good argument against this is the fact that Donald Trump will be even worse for the Palestinian people than Kamala Harris. Trump and the MAGA’s are united in their support for war criminal Netanyahu.

This is not true for Kamala Harris, and it’s not even true for Biden. Both have been increasingly open in their calls for an end to the war and, particularly for Harris, an addressing of the underlying issue of Israel’s illegal, brutal and long-standing occupation of land that is legally Palestine’s. Under a Harris Presidency there are reasons to believe that the mass movement in the United States in support of Palestinian freedom, aligned with the vast majority of the world, can force changes to US policy.

Another argument against voting in the battleground states for anyone other than Harris is the threat of fascism in the US. When Trump’s former US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley says of him that he is “fascist to the core,” those are words to take seriously.

But as I drove back yesterday from door to door canvassing for Harris/Walz in the Allentown, Pa. area I thought of another very good reason why a vote for them in battleground states is so strategic.

If Trump wins, the extremely broad—strange, actually—united front against him, from Bernie and AOC on one side to Liz and Dick Cheney on the other, will have no choice but to stay together to fight his administration on one issue after the other as the MAGA’s try to carry out their Project 2025 backwards-looking agenda.

If Trump loses, on the other hand, and a Harris/Walz administration moves forward as best they can with their agenda, the progressive Left can come together in support of the much stronger policies needed to address the structural injustice and the existential threat all life forms face worldwide because of our fossil fuel industry/corporate-dominated political and economic system. We can get better organized to advance strong action on the climate crisis via a Green New Deal, for improved Medicare for All, for a world-changing shift in US foreign policy so that money now used for military dominance around the world can be used for something like a full-fledged campaign to end poverty, and so much more.

It will be almost impossible to advance these and other righteous causes if we’re constantly on the defensive dealing with mass deportation round-ups, the use of the courts to indict and prosecute who knows how many of us, the rise of poverty, racism and rampant hetero- and transphobia, and more.

To put it another way, if Trump is defeated and Harris/Walz take office January 20, the conditions are much, much better for the advancement of an independent, progressive, program-based mass movement of many millions.

Battleground state leftists: all the polls are showing, at best, an extremely close race in the state where you live. It is possible that just a few thousand votes one way or the other could be decisive in who wins the Presidency. Please consider seriously.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Why is Trump So Desperate!

Future Hope, , , ,

A few days ago a Marist Poll came out which reported an important finding as far as the Presidential race. It said:

“80% of registered voters nationally, including 86% of likely voters, say they know the candidate they plan to support and will not change their mind. 15% of registered voters have a good idea of the candidate for whom they plan to vote but could change their mind. Five percent have not made up their mind. Harris’ supporters (85%) are slightly more likely than Trump’s supporters (79%) to say they have made up their mind and will not change it prior to voting.”

So one month before the election, between 14-20% of registered voters have not made a final decision about who they will vote for.

This is a critical statistic for those of us who have already been involved, or who will be doing so in this critical last month of the campaign, in outreach efforts to communicate with voters. To me it says: Keep it up, step it up, or get more involved. This election is in no way baked in, and it is possible that Harris could win pretty decisively.

One reason why this statistic jumped out at me is because it fits with what I’ve been experiencing as I’ve been doing phone calling and door knocking over the last month and a half. Every Saturday that I could since mid-August I’ve gone to the Allentown area in Pennsylvania and done door knocking for Harris and down ballot Democrats. I’ve consciously done so in an explicitly up-for-grabs, purple-ish area, which has meant that though many of those I’ve talked with are Harris/Walz supporters, a sizeable percentage have been either Republicans or independents.

What are the main things I’ve experienced and learned from this work?

-One would be what the Marist survey says about the number of voters still “gettable” by those of us who understand the existential threat a Trump Presidency represents. As an example, on one of the Saturdays that I knocked on doors I spoke to four people who told me they were Republicans. When I asked them who they were supporting for President, one said Trump, and three said they didn’t know, they were conflicted. This example, similar to what I’ve experienced other days, is why the 14-20% number reported by Marist as not firm in their Presidential choice seems just about right.

-I’ve also been encouraged by the way my interactions have gone with the 125 or so people who I’ve spoken to in person doing this work, those at home and willing to open their door to a stranger. I’ve certainly had people make it clear that they’ve made up their mind and don’t want to talk to me, and there was one person who spoke to me pretty aggressively about his pro-Trump feelings, but that’s about it so far. As I expected going into this work, based on past experience, the fact that I was a live human being there in person, volunteering for something I believed in, being polite and willing to listen, face to face, counted for something.

Trump, Vance and the MAGA Republican campaign leadership are getting desperate as the fateful election day nears, so desperate that on Saturday, in Butler, Pa., Trump, Vance, Eric Trump and Lara Trump all repeated the lie that the attempted killing of Trump three months ago was a Democratic plot. They hope that these desperate tactics will motivate their base and ramp them up for the next month. Maybe that will happen, but it will also have an impact upon that 14-20% who haven’t yet firmly made up their mind.

To the extent that they experience their contact with Harris/Walz supporters as a very different, much more positive and hopeful experience, to that extent will the odds increase that Harris’s narrow lead in national polls will go up and election day turn out to be a very good day for the majority of this country which supports democracy and human decency. Si, se puede!

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Presidential Polling Anyone?

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I was surprised recently when a good friend and sister progressive activist commented in the course of a discussion about the US Presidential campaign that polls were essentially useless. I was surprised by her statement and explained to her why I disagreed.

I have found that, historically, polling done by reputable, non-partisan companies is a good way to get the general lay of the land at particular moments in time for a competitive election race. However, I never go by any one poll, even one with a good reputation. It is important to look at a mix of them to get a pretty reliable understanding of the state of play.

Here’s a current example. Five days ago a NY Times/Sienna poll reported that the race between Harris and Trump was tied at 47-47. Two days ago a CBS poll had Harris ahead, 52-48, and an NBC poll had her ahead 49-44.

This reminded me of another NY Times poll which came out the day after Biden dropped out of the race July 21. That one had Trump ahead 49-43. Other polls had Biden down but more like by 3 or so points.

So it may be that the NY Times polls are somewhat of an outlier, too negative, for whatever reason.

And that is why it is necessary to look at more than one poll to get the most accurate view of the state of play.

Here’s where things are right now, using that methodology: averaging five reputable polls over the last week, done by CBS, NBC, NY Times, Economist and Forbes, Harris is ahead by about 3 ½ percentage points, 50-46 ½.

Of course, the winner of the national popular vote isn’t who becomes President. If we had that system Trump would never have been President. But he won in 2016 because of the anachronistic Electoral College. It is whoever wins the most of those votes who becomes the winner. That is why, this year, it’s the results in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada that will determine who wins. How do the national polls relate to that?

My understanding is that Harris would need to win the national popular vote by at least 2% to have a chance at winning enough of the battleground states to then win the election. So a 3 ½% margin with six weeks out is good, but not good enough. There’s clearly a need for all of us who get it on the great danger Trump represents to pitch in and do all we can until November 5.

What about the third party candidates?

There have been five polls over the last week and a half that have included Kennedy (still on some ballots despite his [outrageous] support of Trump), Stein, Oliver (Libertarian) and West. Averaging those polls, Kennedy is close to zero, Stein is at 1.2%, Oliver is at ½% and West is at 1.4%.

How is all of this helpful to progressive voters and activists?

One way it’s helpful is that, instead of being demobilized by understandable worry, it can give us hope of defeating Trump, which should then translate into postcard writing, phone calling and door knocking to encourage undecided voters to vote the right way and to increase those numbers. This is important because the race is still much closer than it should be. It is also important because the larger the vote for Harris, the more votes there will be down ballot for US Senate, the House and state and local elections. And progressive candidates almost always benefit from a large voter turnout.

In addition, the bigger the percentage for Harris, the more that will deflate Trump supporters and undercut MAGA’s efforts to disrupt the process leading toward a Harris inauguration on January 20.

Finally, for those whose anger at what US-supported Israel is doing in Gaza, the West Bank and now Lebanon make it hard to vote for Harris, a recent analysis by long-time labor and Black activist Bill Fletcher, Jr. really should be read and considered.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com

Trump Must Go, Progressives Must Unite

Future Hope, , , ,

Overall, it was both a relief and an energizer to see Kamala Harris put Donald Trump in his place last night in the big debate. We can only hope this was a turning point in the much-needed popular shift away from the MAGA fanatics, a takedown that is not just an energizer for those who believe in democracy but a downer for those who are either hard-core racists/sexists/fascists or who have been taken in up to now by all the lies, the hype, and the appeals to the worst in the human condition.

I will personally be doing a lot over the next 55 days to help get Trump defeated and help Democrats hold onto the Senate and take back the House. After this decisive Trump debate defeat, all of those things seem possible, though by no means a certainty. I will continue to go to Pennsylvania almost every Saturday between now and election day to do door knocking and talking to voters, as well as evening phone banking 2-3 times a week. I have adjusted my life so that I can do these things, which I can do because I am retired.

But as last night’s debate unfolded I found myself feeling not just elation over Harris’ clear-cut debate victory but also the necessity of progressives across a broad range of issues, constituencies and organizations taking steps to be better connected, to unite in some kind of a way, after November 5. That is needed because the debate made clear that Harris is not running as a progressive, even though some of her positions are definitely progressive. She is running as a representative of a broad, pro-democracy united force that includes lots of people and groups on the Left but also people like Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney!!!

Trump is so bad, so retrograde, so dangerous that this truly remarkable temporary alliance has come into being.

There were a number of things Harris said and didn’t say last night that were problematic if you are a progressive:

-While opposing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and supporting a “two-state solution” and “Palestinian self-determination,” her words, she said nothing about ending, or even pausing, US weapons shipments to Israel.

-On climate she was decidedly weak. She was uncritical of fracking; she could have referenced that there are lots of landowners and community people who have been poisoned by the expansion of the fracked gas industry, but she didn’t. She never took the initiative to talk about the need for a rapid shift off of fossil fuels to renewables, battery storage, electric cars, buses and trains and electric heat pumps for heating and cooling. At one point she did say, “I am proud that as vice president over the last four years, we have invested a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy.” That was good, no question. But she added to that sentence this problematic phrase, this very problematic reality: “while we have also increased domestic gas production to historic levels.”

-Despite Trump’s repeated racist and wildly inaccurate statements about immigrants, she never called him out on that.

-There was no mention of the importance of unions for working-class people, very little about labor.

-She continued to say, as she has done repeatedly in her speeches, that is a good thing that, to paraphrase, we are spending close to $1 trillion a year dominating the world militarily. She put it this way: “I believe in what we can do together that is about sustaining America’s standing in the world and ensuring we have the respect that we so rightly deserve including respecting our military and ensuring we have the most lethal fighting force in the world.”

Is it necessary politically that Harris take these kinds of less-than-progressive positions in order to amass the votes needed to defeat Trump? Maybe. I’m sure there are those in her campaign leadership who believe this, and she clearly has bought into it.

That is why it is so necessary that after Trump and MAGA are hopefully defeated, hopefully decisively, on November 5th, progressives must find the ways to strengthen our connections and expand our support so that going into 2025 we are in a position to fight for truly progressive actions across the board. But for the next 55 days we must each do all we can for a defeat of the fascist threat. First things first.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com

Post Harris/Walz Trump, Same as the Old Trump

Future Hope, , ,

Late last night Donald Trump spoke publicly for the first time since Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz as her Vice Presidential partner. Trump for some reason spoke in non-battleground state Montana. This morning I listened to the full hour and half speech. I wanted to see what Trump was like after his many days off the campaign trail while Harris and Walz spoke to massive and joyous rally after rally, continuing the momentum since Biden stepped down that now has them slightly ahead in many national polls.

Here are my main take-aways from watching Trump’s speech:

-Trump has decided to go back to being the same kind of public speaker that he was in 2016 and 2020. He barely used the teleprompter. It was demagogue, dishonest, blowhard Trump, and it was high energy. If you are an uncritical MAGA/Trump supporter, his repeated vicious attacks with literally no regard for the truth had to be energizing and impactful.

-The Republican Party’s huge problem, however, is that it is very difficult to see how this maniacal, ultra-right-wing messaging is going to appeal to the non-MAGA Republicans and centrist Independents who they need if Trump is going to win and they are to retain the House and take back the Senate.

-The big issue that Trump repeatedly spoke about was immigration. I would estimate that about 1/6th of his speaking time was on this issue, and it was the issue with the biggest of his scores of lies: that if Harris/Walz win, “50 million illegal aliens will enter the US over the next four years.” Racist, lying Trump lumped them all into the category of “criminals and rapists.” He got big applause when he talked about his plan for mass deportation of many millions of currently undocumented immigrants.

-On the other hand, as far as big issues, there was literally no mention of abortion/women’s reproductive rights. Nothing, nada, zilch. I wonder how the “right to life” conservatives are feeling about that.

Other points made by Trump included these:

-Harris is a “bumbling communist lunatic.”

-MAGA is “the greatest movement in the history of the country,” with the support of 90-95% of the country (maybe he confusedly and astoundingly meant this as a future thing).

-He spoke about “endless wars” and how he was “anti-war,” with the implication being that it was his closeness to people like Putin and Netanyahu that would lead to that result, one not to the benefit of either Palestinians or Ukrainians.

-“Four years ago [when Covid was ravaging the US and much of the world] the United States was blazing bright.” Then Biden/Harris took over and “destroyed everything.”

-“Biden/the Democrats put good people in jail” [the only allusion to January 6th].

-In reference to what he described as all the wonderful people who have made Montana such a model state, every single category of people that he listed—like frontiersmen, settlers, homesteaders—was white people. There was not even a nod to the substantial Indigenous population in the state.

-He was explicitly anti-transgender people.

-And finally, of course, he was explicitly anti-windmills and electric cars, a big supporter of “liquid gold [oil], pro-“US energy dominance,” anti-Green New Deal, a his major slogan was “drill, baby, drill.”

Trump and his committed followers are every bit a neo-fascist threat. There is no more important work over the next 87 days for those who believe in democracy and progressive change than to work to defeat them as decisively and strongly as possible.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.