written 11 August, 2024
published 18 August, 2024
The first debate of the 2024 election season was June 28th. Biden's performance was dismal. Republicans believed they were a shoo-in for election. Democrats were discouraged and started to clamor for Biden to drop out. The media focused on the presidential "cult of personality", not the party platforms.
However, information about the massive GOP Project 2025 was beginning to be noticed. This radical theocratic authoritarian plan had been under development for two years, but only 1 in 7 had even heard about it, according to Representative Huffman, who is part of a group working to educate the voting population.
Wanting to help, on July 14th I wrote the first of four articles on Project 2025, choosing my primary topic of interest: the climate crisis. The GOP plan believes the climate crisis is a hoax, and intends to destroy any efforts to deal with the climate, choosing instead to invest heavily in their billionaire friends in the fossil fuel industry. That same week, the RNC Convention officially nominated Trump for president, and he picked Vance as his pliable "mini-me", for vice-president. The Democrats were feeling more desperate, and calls for Biden to drop out got louder.
On July 21st, I wrote my second Project 2025 article on women, describing how the plan intends to curtail women's rights, pushing them back a century, returning to being chattel for men. The male dominated GOP assumes women will just "get over it".
That day Biden announced he would drop out of the race, threw his support to Harris, and the Democratic political world exploded with enthusiasm. Donations flowed in at unheard of rates, volunteers for the campaign jumped by a factor of one hundred, and registration of new voters surged. Within a few days, Harris had lined up enough convention delegates to assure a unified convention, and there was a noticeable change in the energy of the entire campaign. Everything had flipped.
Trump is now the tired old man in the race, facing a fresh young opponent, his worst fear, a mixed race woman prosecutor! It was weeks before Trump could even acknowledge Biden was no longer his opponent, and Vance suddenly became a liability, not an asset.
On July 28th, my Project 2025 article outlined the plan to cram fundamentalist "Christianity" down everyone's throat, because they believed "God was on their side", despite being a decreasing minority of the population. The next one described the assault on immigration.
Trump and Vance have yet to recalibrate their campaign to the new reality. At every public appearance they further offend, with abusive and angry outbursts. Vance is now associated with couches and angry cat ladies, and Trump was so repulsive at the Black Journalist Conference, his staff pulled him off the stage long before the scheduled end time.
A few days ago, Harris picked Minnesota Governor Walz as her running mate. He is down to earth and straight talking, a sharp contrast to Vance. Walz began the meme that that the GOP candidates are "weird", which seems to have stuck. The contrast between the two campaigns is striking: joy, excitement, and enthusiasm versus anger, revenge, and insults.
When Harris/Walz have an event, the venue is packed. When Vance has an event, the cameras have to avoid showing how few people showed up. Trump seems to have abandoned the campaign entirely, only phoning in at his few scheduled events.
While polls have been shown to be inaccurate predictions of political reality, the trend has Harris/Walz pulling ahead. The Democratic convention, which traditionally gives a further boost, starts next week, on August 19th.
I find it amazing that this race is still being considered tight. But many voters don't begin to pay attention until a few weeks before the election. However, the sudden burst of excitement around Harris, is anything but traditional. Furthermore, details of Project 2025 are now widely known, with almost two thirds the population aware. Most of those who have studied the plan are appalled, and Trump is unsuccessfully trying to distance himself from it.
In addition, Trump is not a healthy man, nether physically nor mentally, so there is no telling what might happen in the next three months. We are in times of rapid change, and yesterday is no longer an accurate predictor of tomorrow. Stay tuned, it's going to be an interesting election. Make sure you are registered, and plan to vote.
