We see Sun, rain, hail, fog, snow, mist, clouds and we think we see the atmosphere.
But that’s only part of it. We did not see the atmosphere that followed changes in the ozone layer causing the rays of the Sun to burn more powerfully even as we felt the increased heat. We did not see the changes in the atmosphere when just a few years ago rain began to suddenly stop over an area and was so continuous that flooding inundated that single community before the rain moved on. We did not see the atmosphere that carried Covid across the World and into hospitals, sick beds, morgues.
And perhaps in the last second shift of presidential candidates and energies and tactics for an election just a few months away, we do not recognize the atmospheric chaos which has altered Americas’ political face in broad and substantive ways.
Yes, there still seems to be two essential national political parties; there is the symbolic donkey and elephant that reflect them; there are still red, blue and purple states — but the key words here are “seems to be” when in fact there have been massive changes.
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
The Republican Party nationally is now led by a small but powerful block called MAGA; just red and white in their flag, no longer blue. During its Presidential nominating convention, we all watched the RNC …the word Republican was hardly mentioned–everybody attending was living through initials: RNC and MAGA.
In New York, the Republican Party is all but gone. Its candidates are either MAGA followers and lose or so weak and unprepared as they are in NYC, that they lose.
There was the Christian Right, a stronger racial focus driven by increasing welfare costs, an open door to business and corporate America and a ‘safety net’ for the rest of America. The Foundation guidelines drove a deliberate emphasis on attacking and diminishing the impact of the liberal-developed Middle class which came to exist in the years following WWII.
Those efforts worked through the Reagan and George HW Bush years as Heritage remained influential at key moments in the Bush years.
A re-structuring came into focus as the Foundation dealt with the Donald Trump-MAGA phenomenon. Under Trump, the Republican Party became more populist as it recognized that in many sections of the country Trump’s popularity (“he hates government the way we do”) meant something to Americans who were more working class than Republicans had seen and whose economic status was far closer to the ‘common man’ than it had ever been. And that these Americans bought Trump the entertainer whose line that government help and opportunity was going to others not to them, they bought hook, line and sinker.
Trump got to be President and while he talked to the common man in very common language, he gave tax breaks to people like him – corporate men with wealth – and had little for anyone else but talk, talk, talk through social media.
This unseen atmosphere of change was impacting the Democratic Party at the same time.
As we crossed into the early years of the millennium, the strength of unions faltered. Unions and their Democratic supporters had made the working man, the blue collar worker, the center of the development of a middle class where so much was possible for people who had never had those opportunities.
Now the changing aspects of work – the impact of mechanization and advancing technology began to seriously impact the nature of jobs for the blue collar worker.
Suddenly, the use of robots and high tech on the assembly line, began to reduce the number of workers and union members. By the early years of the new millennium, the Teacher’s Union had become the largest union in the country- not the Autoworkers, the Mine workers, the Construction workers, the Steel workers…the Teacher’s union.
And the Democratic Party shifted ever-so quietly along with these changes. Soon they were charged with representing the elite, the highly educated, the white collar worker, the professional class.
The election of Barack Obama and the candidacy of Hillary Clinton did little to change this new perception.
Quite the contrary – the election of Donald Trump – and his appeals to what amounted to his national listening audience after 15 years of keeping “The Apprentice” going – placed a heavy burden on the Democrats.
Trump used strong language regularly to make his points about elitist Democrats.
He used nasty junior high school nicknames to deal with the 16 Republicans running for President in 2015. At first it seemed like a form of idiotic lunacy but soon it seemed exactly what his voters wanted to hear.
This was not a man who respected government or even the Presidency itself. This was a contest…a popularity contest. This was a game where there would be 16 losers and one winner. And Trump’s Dad had been sure to instill the singular understanding that this was what life was about – losers and winners.
In the process of serving as President, Trump kept his promise – he cut corporate taxes to 21 percent, the biggest tax cut for them in years. While the government lost billions of dollars in income, the loss did not threaten to severely unbalance the budget or even threaten the health of social security or Medicare.
Because Trump has never been your standard politician, he was unable to handle the Covid pandemic with an understanding of what people feared…sickness and death. Instead his fear was that if the Stock Market learned of the seriousness of the disease, it would fall apart and that fear kept him from providing the human leadership America needed even as he got Congress to spend $4 billion to get available drugs to America as soon as possible.
Because of his handling of the Covid pandemic, he lost enough votes in enough States to lose his chance at a second term…even as he lost the popular vote by millions.
His failure to accept and believe that loss – even though his polls showed it several months before the election – began a crusade of lies that has never ended.
What he did do was establish MAGA as the new identity of the Republican Party.
And he did that so thoroughly that the Heritage Foundation developed a 900 page Project 2025 – the downsizing of government – based entirely on the fact that Trump would again become President of the United States.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Atmospheric change struck the Democratic Party as it did the Republican Party.
The National Democratic Party is divided. The younger members, identified as Progressives, increasingly succeed in city and county government. The older more moderate leaders seem still in control of their positions in national government. The differences can be striking.
The millennials, the most uneducated cadre in government in years, despite their college and postgraduate degrees, seem able to talk but not do. They lead marches for actions that stun the communities that they live in. They want to close streets to cars with only bikes available. They want to make a major urban commercial boulevard which connects three of the city’s five boroughs into a one lane road which will stop traffic and commerce dead. They want to build buildings in such a way that the shade they throw will totally destroy the amazing, World-renown Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. They march, masked, in support of the Palestinians, who have been denied a decent heritage and life in the Arab World for centuries, and by their actions reveal an antisemitism within some of America’s leading colleges so virulent that jobs are being lost.
These younger politicians are running for local office and winning especially in New York. Just ask Kathy Hochul and Eric Adams how it is dealing with the New York State Legislature and the New York City Council.
The moderate leadership of the Party seems aware but unmotivated and inactive and now face a sudden change in leadership due to Joe Biden’s decision to step away from the Presidential race.
It must be noted that while there seems to be a strong group of Democratic office holders very eligible to be a Vice President, not one of them stepped up to try to prevent a Harris walkover and compete for the Presidential nomination. Yes, there are a number of reasons for that – money, respecting Joe Biden’s selection etc. but there is no contest more powerful than the one for the Presidency and lots of people were absent.
Kamala Harris must sell her talents and preparedness to many more people than her vote will reflect. We know now that she will win millions of popular votes more than Trump – because that has happened twice already.
But those seven States up for grabs remain the key to her success or to another Trump term.
She needs the votes of young people who Do Not Vote as they should. There is no group effort in voting; no great historical moment for them in the offing unless they think a woman President counts – and those ‘ historic ‘ moments attract group offerings which young people love. Voting is a singular effort and there should be an attempt to make it something young people can do together.
RESULTS
The choices are clear in this upcoming Presidential election.
MAGA, with Trump as its figurehead and little more, will have a major program with which to work. Prepared by the Heritage Foundation for installation, the policies will be all about reducing the size of government by reducing the national budget through significant tax cuts, cutting several major government programs by eliminating the very Departments that lead them – Departments of Commerce and Education, eliminating the 660,000 Civil Service jobs that are the essential non-political structure of the government bureaucracy and making those jobs political – returning America to the days of the “spoils system in the 19th Century; getting rid of the Federal Reserve System which regulates our money and so our economy and ridding the Judicial System of its investigative arm like the FBI.
MAGA pushing the Republican Party forward will have little or nothing to say about these activities, simply saying through its mouthpiece, President Trump, that none of this will happen and no one cares about the Heritage Foundation or its Project 2025.
He will do best what he has proven he can do best – lie to the people who want to believe him.
And he will do the only thing that matters to him in government, continue to cut corporate taxes and perhaps will eliminate the tax senior citizens pay on Social Security.
Knowing now that cutting the size of government is a specific goal not just a political idea, he fears no problem with trillions of dollars less in government.
With power in the Presidency increasing and power in the Legislature under attack, MAGA and Heritage will supply a President Trump with lots to say in between those weeks and months that Trump is trying to ”get” those people who helped drive him out of office.
While Joe Biden still speaks of losing democracy to a second term for Trump, candidate Harris has got to move away from that to one which shows she has her own thoughts and ideas and programs to do what she wants to do.
Projecting the take-over and reduction of American government from a conservative foundation which promises to return America to the 19th century of financial power and Robber Barons, is a mouthful but is far better than “weird”.
It is up to Kamala Harris to be smart enough to present one or two programs that matter more than a tax cut for the rich and those on social security. She can build on the programs of the Biden Administration of course…but talking about losing America’s democracy is too soft, has little grip and must be explained in great detail to have any real meaning for too many Americans.
Might we gently suggest this: The Liberal Party represents the liberal idea that the only power big, strong and wealthy enough to protect the American public from the greed and power of big money — is government.
Take away that protection and Americans have lost their freedom, opportunity and the right to a decent life.
Got that Kamala?
More than one definition of atmosphere is in use here. Perhaps milieu would do for most of the above essay.
What thoroughfare connects three boroughs?
Does Ms. Harris have her own ideas and agenda or would she be a tool of the Democratic National Committee? Ironically the reverse is the case on the Republican side.