Tag Archives: news

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. 

Door-Knocking Trump Households

Future Hope, ,

It’s great what happened yesterday, in so many ways, after Biden’s stepping down announcement and then endorsement of Harris. And it’s even better that as of now it looks very unlikely that anyone of substance is going to challenge her being the Presidential nominee.

The energy and funds generated less than 24 hours after these announcements by Biden are another very good sign. This morning, watching the news, it was a small thing but of note to see the new, virtually certain, Democratic Presidential candidate walking crisply and confidently down the steps of a plane. It may be a small thing, but for many voters they want leaders who radiate strength, energy and confidence, so this has importance. Trump does this but with no regard for the truth or falsehood of what he says. Kamala Harris does this but in an opposite way as far as truth-telling.

Any day now we’ll start hearing all of the lies and half-truths and distortions of Harris’ positions on issues and personal history from the Trumpists. There will also be criticisms from both the Left and the Democratic Party Right about weaknesses and problematic, past Harris positions or actions. It’d be nice if those criticisms were more constructive than destructive given the fascist, racist, misogynistic, climate-denying alternative.

For myself, as someone who has been about independent progressive politics since 1975, I have no problem being upfront about the clearly correct tactical necessity of doing a lot of work and donating money to defeat the MAGA Republicans.

One tactical campaign idea I’ve had since the big Biden announcements yesterday afternoon is this: if it’s the case, as looks very possible, that there are going to be huge numbers of people stepping forward to volunteer for this historic campaign, some of them should, in an organized way, go door to door in neighborhoods in key battleground states that are pro-Trump areas. Probably not so much in the hardest core areas but I could see doing so in areas that went to Trump by upwards of 25% in 2020.

What would be the objective of this canvassing? While id’ing and encouraging Harris supporters would, of course, be one objective, another potentially critical one will be to raise enough questions in the minds of right-now-Trump voters that some of them will end up not voting for him when they vote this fall.

It’s important to appreciate the reality that some, at least 20% I’d say, of those who tell pollsters that they will be voting for Trump this fall are not diehard MAGA supporters. They are people who, if reached out to and spoken with over the phone or in person by well-trained canvassers, could end up deciding that they are too conflicted about Trump, and probably Harris too, such that they end up not voting for him when they vote this fall.

There’s another reason why this should be one component of a multi-faceted Harris campaign, both the official Democratic Party operation and those of more independent groups.

Whoever wins the White House, the House, the Senate and state legislatures this fall, progressives, particularly anti-racist white progressives, need to much more broadly interact with those working-class white people who support MAGA. There are a lot of bad reasons why they’re doing so but one understandable reason is past Democratic support for NAFTA and other policies that led to massive job losses over the last 50 years. Given the positive job creation numbers under the Biden/Harris administration, we have something to say about a different reality today on this, and on other, issues.

It is wrong to write off all MAGA supporters!

I live in New Jersey, an hour drive away from key battleground state Pennsylvania. I am so looking forward to going there many times over the next 3 ½ decisive months to do this kind of work. History is calling.

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. 

The Aging Process Always Wins

Future Hope, , , ,

Joe Biden’s debate performance and the information that has come out since of other hidden-from-the-public signs of his declining cognitive condition have reminded me of a similar situation I experienced decades ago with one of the 20th century’s leading peace and justice activists, Dave Dellinger.

I had the privilege of working closely with Dave from the 70’s until the early 2000’s in the movement to end the war in Vietnam, for a mass progressive alternative to the Democrats and Republicans, for freedom for Leonard Peltier, and as part of the movement in 1992 to reject government plans to celebrate the 500th year of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Westen Hemisphere in 1492. In that year he and I and another dozen or so people took part in an organized People’s Fast For Justice and Peace in the Americas, a 42-day water-only fast on the steps of the US Capitol. 

The last meeting where we were together was a national “progressive dialogue” meeting I helped to organize in December of 2000, after the George Bush vs. Al Gore 2000 Presidential election. For several years in the early 2000’s there were meetings of a multi-racial, youth-and-elders cross section of leading progressive activists, convened for the explicit purpose of strengthening our connections so that we could play a more effective role in opposing two-party, corporate rule.

Dave was not himself at that meeting. He was still articulate, but he was also over the top in the way he expressed himself. I remember him demanding that people agree with his ideas as far as what we should be doing. He was not a positive force in the meeting. I had never seen him the way that he was then.

Dave was 85 at the time of this meeting, one year younger than Joe Biden will be if he is chosen next month at the Democratic Convention as their Presidential candidate, if he defeats fascist Trump and then makes it to the end of a second four year term as President.

Immediately after the June 27 debate debacle I could see no way that Biden could continue to be the Democratic Presidential candidate. But that now seems more likely after Biden’s very different performance in the George Stephanopoulus ABC TV interview last Friday, his North Carolina and Wisconsin rallies, as well as the just-expressed support for Biden by the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Bernie Sanders, AOC and others.

There’s no doubt that Vice President Kamala Harris has become a very consequential person going forward, and not just because she’s who would step in if (imho, probably when) Biden and those around him agree that he can’t make it until the end of 2028 and needs to step down.

I haven’t been much of a fan of Harris, based mainly on her performance during the 2019-2020 Democratic Presidential primary campaign. But I have been noticing that she seems more confident, more forceful and clear over the last month or so. And according to Michael Moore, “for over 8 months, it has been reported that Kamala Harris has pushed for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.” This squares up with comments she made about Gaza and the war this March in Selma, Alabama.

For me and clearly others, a Biden/Harris slate in which Harris plays a visible and public role, showing us and the country, I hope, that she is prepared to step in if Biden falters and he realizes it’s time to step aside—that seems to me like a potential winning ticket.

For me, for Biden, for all of us, it’s 100% certain that if we make it into our retirement years, we can expect to experience the slings and arrows of the aging process, no doubt about it. When we start to experience bad days, poor performances, memory lapses, at an increasing rate, adjustments will be necessary to match what we want to do with what we can do. Those close to Biden have a responsibility not to deny reality but to help him adjust accordingly when it’s clear it’s his time to retire.

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. 

Is Gaza Disqualifying for Biden?

Future Hope, , , ,

Several days ago I received an email from a good friend who had just come back from the West Bank in Palestine. My friend has been connected with Palestinians and active in the movement against Israel’s brutal occupation for a very long time.

One line of her email gave me pause: “When you think of voting for Biden, remember that this horror is of his making.”

I have been active since last October in the US movement demanding an end to US support of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, an end to Israel’s decades-long occupation, and for self-determination and justice for the Palestinian people. I’ve participated in weekly Friday street vigils in a nearby town every week that I am home. I’ve written about this issue. I’ve made phone calls to elected officials demanding they call for an immediate ceasefire and massive humanitarian aid for Gaza. But I think to encourage people not to vote for Biden/the Democratic candidate on the basis of this issue is very problematic for two reasons.

1–The next US President is going to be either Trump or whoever the Democrats eventually nominate. As problematic as the Biden Administration’s positions and actions have been for most of the last nine months since October 7, it is a fact that, because of the widespread popular revulsion against Israel’s actions in Gaza, the massive activist movement demonstrating in the streets and the constant pressure brought from within the Democratic Party by its progressive wing, the Biden team a couple of months ago finally began to use its leverage over the Netanyahu regime to demand that they change their tactics, with some success.

Does anyone think that Trump and the Republicans would be a better alternative when it comes to Palestine? Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, with Trump’s support, is bringing Netanyahu to the US to speak publicly from the floor of the House in late July!

2–In general, I don’t think a candidate’s position on any one issue alone should be how progressives decide who to vote for, especially in this Presidential election. I think it is important to look at both the overall program and the past actions on all the major issues by candidates, as well as whether or not a candidate has any chance of winning, or perhaps not winning but generating such a big vote that the progressive mass movement will be advanced despite a loss.

On issue after issue Biden and the Democrats, despite their ties to big money and corporate power, are better than Trump and the Republicans: the climate emergency, women’s rights, abortion rights, voting rights, racial justice, lgbtq+ rights, labor rights, democratic rights and the right to organize and demonstrate, to name just some of the huge differences.

Of course, there are two Presidential candidates whose positions have been strong on the Gaza war and on these other issues, Cornel West and Jill Stein. But neither of them will win the Presidential election or draw very many votes, as reflected in Stein’s past voting results and current, month-after-month polling results. The primary, immediate practical result of their campaigns will be to draw votes away from the Democratic candidate and increase the odds that Trump wins.

There is one thing they could do which would change this inevitable result. They could publicly call for their supporters to vote their conscience, at least, if not for them to vote for the Democratic nominee, in the battleground states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. They could acknowledge the existential threat posed by the MAGA movement. So far this hasn’t happened.

For the planet, for the people, for our rights, for democracy, Trump and MAGA must be defeated at the ballot box on November 5th.

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. 

Living to Fight Another Day

Future Hope, , , ,

“UE rarely makes endorsements within the two-party system, and we are not endorsing Biden. Instead, our hope for the future lies in a politically independent labor movement, and in those politicians in Congress and at the state and local level who are willing to put the working class first, not the Democratic Party. We encourage working people not to be completely distracted by the Presidential horse-race, and to pay close attention to their Congressional and state races.

“Nonetheless, we have to be honest about the dilemma that faces labor and working people in the short term. The issue that makes Biden the lesser evil for us is the fact that the labor movement, and especially UE, has been making some real gains in organizing new workers under Biden’s economic policies and NLRB. A second Trump presidency would make it far more difficult to organize — and to build the labor party we need and deserve.

“Given who will be on the ballot in November, we urge all working people to hold their nose and vote for Biden, in order to live to fight another day — the cost of re-electing Trump would be too high.”

-from “The Stakes of the 2024 Election,” issued by the United Electrical Workers Union: https://www.ueunion.org/political-action/2024/the-stakes-of-the-2024-election


Way back in the 70’s when I first became involved in organized efforts to form an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans, I had many meetings in the headquarters of the national UE. At the time, before their move to Pittsburgh, those headquarters were in midtown Manhattan, right across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in a building that, I believe, used to be owned by the Vanderbilt family.

The UE describes itself as “the USA’s only national, independent, membership-run union (since 1936), representing thousands of workers in the private and public sectors.” As is true today, back in the 70’s they believed that working people in the USA need an alternative to the Dems and Reps, which then and now they describe as a “labor party.”

I had this privilege of meeting in their building because their General Counsel was Bob Lewis, and Bob was a leader of a group initiated by civil rights lawyer Arthur Kinoy in 1974, the Mass Party Organizing Committee. When I became involved with MPOC in 1975 and moved to NYC to work in its national office, we would often have evening meetings in Bob’s office.

So when I saw the UE’s statement on the Presidential elections a few days ago, I read it closely, respecting them as I do.

I pretty much agree with their conclusion, quoted above, that all working people should vote for Biden and also pay close attention to Congressional and state races. At the same time, given that it is the electoral college which determines who wins the Presidency, I think it is strategically key to emphasize the absolute importance of this happening in the battleground states: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. In the vast majority of the other states, the likely winner is pretty much known based on past voting history.

The UE statement criticizes Biden for his unwillingness to take on corporations, for not doing enough “to rein in the power of the oil and gas industry,” for not taking action “to address the broken criminal justice system,” for not dealing with the underlying causes of immigration, the “failed economic and military policies toward Latin America,” and his failure to halt “Israel’s attack on the Palestinian people”  and the “stoking of a ‘new cold war” with Russia and China.

They go on to critique Trump, not a hard thing to do, referring to “his rhetoric taking on an increasingly fascist tone” and using the language of “vermin,” “human scum” and “poisoning the blood of our country” as far as immigrants.

I liked the phrase they used to conclude their statement: “vote for Biden in order to live to fight another day.”

Political dynamics in a country, definitely in the USA, are not stagnant. There is a rise and fall as far as movements around issues and movements for major political change. One current example is the difference between this Presidential election and the ones in 2016 and 2020. In both those years there were strong and visible progressive challenges via the Bernie Sanders, and then Sanders and Warren, campaigns. Sanders got 15 million votes in the 2016 Democratic primary, helping to generate a progressive political upsurge that has not gone away, even if there is no mass-based challenger to corporatist Biden this year either from within the Democratic Party or from a “third party.”

On the issues I agree much more with Presidential candidates like Jill Stein and Cornell West, but they are stuck in the very low single digits in all polls. The biggest impact they could have on the Presidential race is to help elect Trump. True!

What will happen after November 5 if Biden/Harris win? Almost certainly, the independent progressive forces will feel strengthened and revitalized, in a position to build upon that victory going forward.

But first things first: the defeat of Trump by voting for Biden. He’s a lesser evil, but he’s not a racist, misogynist, narcissistic fascist. Trump and MAGA Must Be Defeated.

 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. 

The End of the World?

Future Hope, , , ,

A sobering article published in The Guardian yesterday has gotten me thinking, not for the first time, about why, despite difficult odds and repeated disappointments, I and many others keep plugging away, doing all we can to drastically reduce the power of the fossil fuel industry and rapidly shift the world’s energy sources from fossil fuels to truly clean renewable energy like solar and wind.

The article “surveyed hundreds of the world’s leading climate experts and reported that

  • 77% of respondents believe global temperatures will reach at least 2.5C above preindustrial levels, a devastating degree of heating;
  • almost half – 42% – think it will be more than 3C;
  • only 6% think the 1.5C limit will be achieved.

“The task climate researchers have dedicated themselves to is to paint a picture of the possible worlds ahead. From experts in the atmosphere and oceans, energy and agriculture, economics and politics, the mood of almost all those the Guardian heard from was grim. And the future many painted was harrowing: famines, mass migration, conflict. ‘I find it infuriating, distressing, overwhelming,’ said one expert, who chose not to be named. ‘I’m relieved that I do not have children, knowing what the future holds,’ said another.”

I first began having these kinds of thoughts and feelings about 20 years ago when I learned after study that the climate crisis was worse than I had known, which led to consciously taking steps to begin working on this issue. Ever since, it has been the primary issue that I have focused on, including for the last nine years since I retired from paid employment.

Often over those years I’ve been asked if I believe it is really possible that we can bring about the changes needed in enough time to prevent worldwide ecosystem and societal unraveling. Here’s what has become my answer to that question:

          I don’t know if we are going to be able to avert climate catastrophe. The odds aren’t good. It is possible, maybe probable, that at least hundreds of millions, possibly billions of people will die prematurely in the 21st century as the atmosphere and oceans overheat. Maybe by halfway through this century world population will be on a decided and unplanned major downturn. But even if that’s what the future holds, even if the fossil fuel industry and mega-corporate capitalism maintain their murderous grip over most of the world’s governments, it is necessary that we build the strongest possible resistance movement to fight them, for two main reasons:

–The faster the shift off of fossil fuels the less damage will be done to ecosystems and human societies and the more likely it is that, after a long and difficult transitional period, the societies which emerge on the other side of that wrenching transition will be larger in number and qualitatively better than would be the case if the climate emergency goes on for a longer period of time.

–If it turns out that the human race is just not up to the task right now, if the power of the fossil fuelers, mega-corporatists and the neo-fascists cannot be reduced or, much better, broken, it is important that those who come after us know about and draw strength from our example. Just as we draw strength from the heroes and heroines of the fight to abolish chattel slavery in the 1800’s and all of the many other movements down through history for justice and human decency, those coming after us can draw strength from our refusal to give up, from our building of a culture grounded in love, service to others and determined, fearless resistance to evil.

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.