Donald J Trump dodged a bullet, literally. And thankfully.
But, yesterday he did not. He now must defeat Vice-President Kamala Harris. He went from a virtual certainty to defeat President Joe Biden to, in my mind, a 50/50 race.
Trump is no longer running against an obviously declining old man but rather engaging a relatively young woman. Yes, there will be all sorts of criticism of her California past. In politics, at least, California is not a predictor of national attitudes and trends. More often, its one-party progressive policies, for example, are said to be why so many businesses are leaving the State.
Vice President Harris, of course, will snip off traces of prosecutorial aggression to make the case she will be tough on crime but then quickly pivot to claims of success working as President Biden’s sidekick. Ultimately, to satisfy the policy wonks, she will have to voice a coherent Harris presidential set of ideas.
On the Trump side his attitude and conduct toward women will be highlighted again. He will not be able to dodge his instincts. At some point he will make none too subtle and, to many, egregious comments which will reflect back on his unforgiving alpha male interior.
Now, maybe I am too sensitive as a father of three daughters—I will admit that—but I am not a pronoun guy looking to take offense.
But, most can recall earlier comments of a sexualized nature and, of course, recently, his felony convictions tied to “hush money” payments. Now it is all out there; what is called “oppo” research will be easy; it can be completed with an Internet search.
And there will be plenty of women who will be quick to recall his tawdry behavior. Start with Republican Liz Cheney. Or Alaska’s Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski. Well, you get the picture. If you want a refresher on Trump’s comments and the reactions, here is a Wikipedia link.
It is always hoped that campaigns will come down to ideas and debates. And in the impending race there will be traces of what many will prefer. But there will also be an underlay, a sexualized one, that will not be kind to the Former President.
Help!
History records that many new products were at least intuitively understandable. Tractor implements that dug looked like an enlarged shovel powered by fuel and visible mechanisms. Farmers could see and make judgments about the invention. But what about the recent CrowdStrike affair?
CrowdStrike calls itself “the world’s most advanced cloud-native platform that protects and enables the people, processes and technologies that drive modern enterprise—secures the most critical areas of risk”. In its recent past it used a software patch that brought down a significant part of the data-driven network we all use.
Begin with “patch”—how to envision? Well certainly not as you would patch a shirt. Or, download—moving vertically? And in a wide spectrum of troubled network perversions, how can we protect against downloads when the source is from a well-disguised enemy? That is the business of CrowdStrike.
The world and in particular the more open United States need guard rails and ones that can be explained to safeguard the way we protect ourselves from things we don’t know; no, we can’t understand.
In the impending race for a four-year Presidency, journalists should ask the candidates for an idea or two that will secure our almost complete reliance on the worldwide exchange of transactional data across digital networks.
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
Bill Anderson says
Kamala is, at the very best, an inept, incapable, incompetent follower of Joe Biden who became VP of the U. S. solely because of gender and skin tone considerations. Thank you, Joe Biden for elevating such complete incompetence to a position of seeming importance which thankfully never had to be utilized. She has never accomplished anything at all as our VP.
Kamala, if inaugurated, will keep the unfortunate Biden policies in place and no doubt add other striking detrimental decisions. A really good candidate could be elected instead, and promptly unwind virtually all of President Biden’s executive orders to return this nation to a competitive status, energy independent, and on track to return to our former position of world prominence. I anxiously await the vote tally on the night of November 5, 2024 and the resulting change to America on January 20, 2025.
Chris Gordon says
Your comment leaves me confused. You can’t possiby think that Kamala’s opponent, the lying, ignorant nacesisstic crybaby,is is competent or capable. So I can only assume that you will be voting for JFK Jr, which is the same as not voting at all. The economy has done wonders under the Biden/Harris administration but you won’t admit that because there is an R after your name. Is politics, to you, more important than reality?
Deirdre LaMotte says
During Trump’s administration, the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans got a whopping 83% of Trump’s big tax cuts.
At the same time he raised taxes for middle class families.
If he gets back in office, he promised to cut taxes again for big corporations.
Donald Trump is pledging to supercharge tariffs
– if he’s re-elected this November, by imposing 10% across-the-board levies on all products imported into the U.S. from overseas.
That proposal would effectively act as a tax on
U.S. consumers, economists spanning the political spectrum say. If the tariffs are enacted
– with Trump also proposing a levy of 60% or more on Chinese imports – a typical middle-class household in the U.S. would face an estimated $2,500 a year in additional taxes.
And thats not even discussing Project 2025.
Oh yes, Project 2025, 990 page manifesto which has already been “staffed” for government wide implementation. Should Trump win.
It calls for dramatically cutting Medicare and Medicaid,
revives an 1800’s law , the Comstock Act,
halting the sale of abortion pills in all 50 states. It calls for the sacking of thousands of civil servants, expanding the power of the president, and sweeping tax cuts
for corporations and top earners.
The document labels the FBI a “bloated, arrogant, increasingly lawless organization”. It calls for drastic overhauls of this and several other federal agencies, as well as the complete elimination of the Department of Education.
This Party is deranged. Vote Blue for sanity.