Trending
Donald Trump, when asked about healthcare, had "a concept." Although vagueness is not a stranger to the campaign trail, this response is confusing. He wants it both ways on issues. On abortion he blithely tells women "don't worry about it" -- states will take care of the problem. But what about pregnancy complications like the result of rape or incest, and ectopic pregnancies, what then? Leave decisions like this to a state like Texas, which restricts abortion to such an extent that the pregnancy endangers the health or life of the mother? Does Trump have a "concept" about that?
Republicans do not heed Democratic women who vow "never to go back" to a time when they had little say in the matter of their reproductive lives. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders recently criticized Kamala Harris for not having a "biological family," only one acquired by marriage. And she did not stop there, further chastising the Vice-President for not being "humble" enough. Throw in J.D. Vance's "childless cat ladies" remarks and you have a virtual feast of bigotry and harsh personal judgements.
Remarks by Trump surrogates hint that a second term would mean Project 2025 in all it's "glory." Gone is the safety net, Medicare and Social Security, not to mention voting rights and a slew of personal protections. As for the environment, all agencies enforcing these disappear. Republicans are not shocked with Mark Robinson, the GOP nominee for governor of North Carolina, when he states "some people need killing" and are only slightly bothered with his predilection for ultra-right messaging and porn sites, but they are eager to decimate the government.
For those running Trump's campaign, they see this election as not being very different from contests like Gerald Ford vs Jimmy Carter. Then only a wafer separated the two. This campaign has the potential of being a rerun of 1860. Some, like South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, regard it as just fun and games -- Jan. 6, 2021 never happened. When elected, Abraham Lincoln, tiring of mush-mouthed advisors urging accommodations with the South, testily replied "the tug has to come and better now than later." He realized that the country had come to a fork in the road. He was, as his slogan suggested, "wide awake." And he was not prepared, as we say now, "to go back." For many going back to a country of less rights, arbitrarily pushed by an ideological Supreme Court, is no more preferable now than in Lincoln's time. This kind of "to be or not to be" is not Trump's idea of an election. What he and his cohorts fail to realize, is that to many Democrats it is a matter of great concern. They stand not to lose a political race, but to be striped of fundamental freedoms. They do not see GOP political stances as "concepts" but a set of moral and ideological absolutes.
Ever since Vance was placed on the ticket, the Trump effort has resembled a cultural and religious crusade. Trump has been led down another rat hole. He needs to put his own house in order to reassure an anxious public that it is an election, not Armageddon.