Moving the Needle
by Christine Merser
Yesterday, I turned on Nicolle Wallace, as I sometimes do. John Heilemann, Puck’s Chief Political Columnist and one of my favorite pundits, was on her show. I like him a lot. He is animated, positive, thoughtful, factual, and succinct. But yesterday, he was quiet. She seemed to notice it too and finally asked him what he was thinking about the past week of atrocities (my word) created by the MAGA campaign.
He said he just didn’t know what to think anymore. That with everything that has happened in the past month, with all the outrageous things said by their campaign and by those speaking on their behalf, he just couldn’t believe that the numbers were still close. How could people be willing to vote for this man and his VP candidate? (I should say this is my interpretation of what he said. I tried to find the clip but couldn’t.)
I turned off the television, bought an ice cream cone with my dog, and then went back to work.
Look, we must stop trying to constantly talk about the latest outrageous thing he has done or said, or what one of his people has said. Stop. It’s been almost nine years. It isn’t working.
What we can focus on are the issues that matter to us.
We need to focus on other elections that will determine one of two things. When Kamala wins, she will need the backing of both houses to get things going the way she is promising. And if DT should take office, we must ensure the House and Senate can stop him whenever possible.
It’s not just one thing that will determine our future. Not just one vote. Not just one man losing.
And the state elections? Even more critical. The damage state legislatures have done in the past four years is electrifying. Frightening. No one pays attention to those. Well, those days are over.
So today, my friend and colleagues, take a look locally and make sure you are on top of it all. We will be covering more of it over the coming weeks.