Today is Wednesday, January 24, 2024.    An opinion written for MSNBC by Laurence H. Tribe, University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard University, and Dennis Aftergut, former federal prosecutor, serves as a balm for those of us who are shaking in our boots over Donald J. Frump’s two early wins in two states as the election cycle heats up for the 2024 presidential race.   Both writers have good news for the electorate who are worried about Donald Chump’s improbable ascension to the White House in 2025. 

In their piece, they say that a healthy majority of sensible American voters will preserve our democracy and freedoms in the only way they can, by rejecting Trumpism and keeping Joe Biden in office.   They write, “The surest basis for optimism is evidence that the reality of a robust economy is sinking in with voters.”  Last week, The Wall Street Journal, citing a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey, reported, “Consumer confidence last month saw its biggest one-month gain since March 2021.”

Tribe and Aftergut believe that reality-based Americans will got to the polls like they did in 2018, 2020, and 2022.  Even though some of us worry about a lack of enthusiasm for Biden among Democrats, especially among young people, the two writers cite the wise observation of The New Republic‘s senior editor Brian Beutler: ”Anti-Trumpism is the most powerful force in American politics.”

Biden opened the year powerfully, Tribe and Aftergut contend, framing the election as one whose stakes “are the preservation of democracy and freedom,” including reproductive freedom and freedom of the press. 

On the other hand, Trump has done nothing but reinforce that framing with his constant anticonstitutional threats.   For instance, on January 17, Dump said that CNN and MSNBC should have their licenses taken away.  With the right messaging, the Biden campaign can help the public see Chump’s rhetoric as a threat to every one of us.

The current president is also sharpening his focus on abortion rights and the ways that Republicans have eroded them.  Biden has a gripping new ad which is sure to appeal to those who cherish reproductive freedom.

The elections Democrats won from 2018 to 2023 tell us something very important: Campaigning on the threats to reproductive freedom drives Americans who don’t want the government interfering with their bodies or stalking their bedrooms to wake up and vote. 

The writers of this opinion piece say it’s not just the issue of reproductive freedom that could be spurring Americans to vote for Biden again.  It’s his 2022 legislative accomplishments, including getting Congress to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs Act, the Chips and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act which are big economic wins for ordinary Americans that could be felt by so many.

To buttress their argument that Biden has a good chance of winning reelection, they cite Bloomberg which reported last week that “U.S. consumer sentiment has risen to its highest level since July 2021 . . . according to the University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumers’ Preliminary Results for January 2024.”

At the end of 2023, there were fears of a recession in 2024, but now those fears are fading, as Tribe and Aftergut report.

Another way that Democrats have succeeded at winning elections is by making the electorate aware that democracy is at risk, which sends more sensible American voters to reject the party of fascism over and over again.

One other point to make here for Dump’s eventual loss in November is the sorry state of his mental faculties, which even Nikki Haley referred to as she stumped in New Hampshire.  It’s pretty obvious that he’s not as sharp as he was (if he ever was!), he’s rambling more than usual, while mixing up the names of Republican politicians and Democrats as his remarks suggest that he previously ran against Barack Obama, not Joe Biden.    The media have finally pounced on him for this diminution of obvious mental acuity.

I can’t wait to see then the two debate if that ever happens.  Maybe Dump will refuse to debate Biden as he did in the repugnican debates which he ditched.

So Tribe and Aftergut urge voters to reject the fantasy that the 2020 election was stolen, to reject the fantasy that Chump kept the country safer or oversaw a strong economy, and to reject the fantasy that No Labels is anything other than a “Trumpian stalking horse.” 

They conclude, “The American majority need only do what we’ve done the last three election cycles:  use our common sense, self-interest, and voting power as if our freedom depends on it.”   They add, “Because it does.”

In a more lighter vein but certainly not an insignificant one, witness the apoplectic response from right-wing nuts to the social media prowess held by this country’s one reigning pop star, Taylor Swift, in registering young people to vote.   In a Daily Kos online article written by Walter Einenkel entitled “Taylor Swift is driving voter registration, and conservatives are terrified,” the impact of Swift on her millions of fans is examined. 

Thus in September, Swift used her vast social media reach to post information on how people should register to vote.  She even chose the appropriate National Voter Registration Day to create the post for her legion of fans called “Swifties.”   For her efforts, USA Today reports that Swift is likely to have gotten more than 300,000 people to sign up, many of whom will be eligible to vote for the very first time in November.

It’s this very reason why the Republican Party, so decadent these days, and the right-wing media landscape seem to have lost their collective minds about Swift.   They are terrified.   The writer of this piece says the hysteria unleashed toward the pop star for doing, really, a service to her country, is the kind they usually reserve for women in political positions, like Reps. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Ihlan Omar.

This hysteria has penetrated the corridors of “Faux” News when “Fucker” Carson clone Jesse Watters implied that Swift’s decision to once again promote voting this past September was some kind of psy-op campaign.    The extreme far-right host actually speculated, “I wonder who got to her from the White House or from wherever.”

Watters’ deranged broadcast led Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh to go off on the Fox News host, saying the conspiracy theory was so far afield they would not even respond to it as much as “shake it off.”

Since 2018, the popstar singer-songwriter has chosen to promote voting, staying mostly agnostic about her political opinions on candidates.   Almost 65,000 Americans between the ages of 18-29 registered to vote within 24 hours of Swift’s 2018 post, according to Vote.org and over 100,000 total in the days that followed. 

Swift has told her many fans she wants them to vote in support of their voices and ideas without telling them who to vote for.  The only exception she made was in 2018 when she said she would not be voting for Second Amendment fetishist Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.

Because of Swift’s efforts on promoting democracy, these decadent and unprincipled conservatives have been so outraged over her work in getting young people registered that they floated ridiculous conspiracy theories connecting Swift to Republican boogeyman George Soros.   What fucking nonsense!

Conservatives should be terrified because they know that these young voters will reject their party and their un-American policies.   Instead of criticizing Swift for doing this, she should be getting a Presidential Medal of Freedom instead.   Fuck those on the right for their absurd fits of outrage over Taylor Swift. 

This article just makes one chuckle over how those people subscribing to a MAGA mind-set continually float conspiracy theories over nothing.   These people must be totally spurned and that’s why the jerk known as Donald Duck will lose in November. 

Stay safe and be well.

Here is Atticus completely comfortable on the couch while Elliot and I watched Netflix’s new series, Fool Me Once, this evening.  We watched just the first episode and we seem to like it.