“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?” Trump said at a rally in Glendale, Arizona yesterday. “And let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.” His election campaign has come down to this: Execution of a political opponent, a woman.
Five days before the US election and what has happened in the last few weeks is that the battle between Harris and trump, between the Democrats and the Republicans, has devolved and been distilled down to its very essence: A battle of the sexes.
There was always going to be an element of that. It was determined with the Dobbs Supreme Court decision that stripped American women of their universal right to an abortion. But until Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party nominee in unprecedented fashion, no one could know how central to the election campaign that issue was going to be, and how motivating to American women. But a few things have happened in the last few weeks and months that crystalized this war of the sexes.
I'd argue the very first thing that happened, post-Dobbs, was the chutzpah of a woman, Nikki Haley, to challenge trump for the Republican nomination. Although she was a very far longshot from the start, Haley's campaign against trump gave him all kinds of headaches, and created an anti-trump permission structure within the Republican Party that may ultimately play a major role in his downfall. Haley eventually endorsed trump unenthusiastically, but did not campaign for him at all (because he didn't want her to, like a scorned ex-lover, which I'm sure came as a relief to her). She effectively released the almost 4.5 million supporters she amassed in the primaries to vote against him in the general, and it appears that a significant number are doing just that.
The second key event was the reintroduction of Michelle Obama to the national political scene. The former first lady has been the most popular Democrat for many years, and her stirring speech at the DNC reminded us why. Many felt it was the best speech of the entire five-day gathering, and maybe even one of the best speeches ever. She has been an extremely effective surrogate for Harris, as evidenced by trump whining about her - 'She made a big mistake by being so nasty'.
Third, was Liz Cheney's endorsement of Kamala Harris and the two campaigning together. The effectiveness of Cheney as a Harris surrogate is what brought out trump's ire against her. Cheney's sober response was pitch perfect, “This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.” It must have been so hard to hide her glee.
And finally, in the last week we have had even more (26 at last count) accusations of sexual assault against trump, these by SI swimsuit model Stacey Williams, and former Miss Switzerland competitor Beatrice Keul. And to jog everyone's memory of the October surprise from 2016 (the infamous Access Hollywood tape) trump obliged by telling a Wisconsin gathering yesterday that he will protect women "whether they like it or not."
But most important of all, trump has been doing his part by increasingly leaning into his sexist boys-club base. It's part of the strongman routine he is so desperate to project. And his desperation has been getting worse with each humiliation he suffers on the campaign trail at the hands of women. It started when Harris wiped the debate stage with him and forced him to back out of a second debate. The coward that he is, trump has had to resort to denigrating and insulted her personally, her intelligence and her ethnicity, which is a sure sign of the degree to which he's being embarrassed by her. Harris's massive crowd sizes are emasculating him, so he has turned to his cigar-smoking podcaster buddy Joe Rogan and washed up wrestler Hulk Hogan to restore his sense of manhood and Bro-cred. It won't work electorally.
The best chance trump ever had of winning the election was to keep the focus on the failures of the Harris/Biden administration, such as they are perceived, and to talk about immigration and the economy. The Harris campaign was hoping that trump would do what trump always does - make everything about him. True to type, it's exactly what happened. His misogyny could not be kept in check. The lady's played him like the very tiny fiddle he is.
As 2020 has become known as the election in which Blacks saved democracy, this one will be remembered as the election that women finally won, and I expect that it will represent a tectonic shift in the political landscape. If the Republicans learn anything from it, and it's questionable, expect Nikki Haley to be their nominee in 2028. Wouldn't that be something, a choice between two women for President. And a much needed and missed return to political civility.
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Post Script - November 6th 2024
Turns out my post was just a dream.
2 comments:
You hit the nails on the head! Multiple nails, as trump is shown to be the misogynist, vindictive, narcissistic, unstable but dangerous man he has been for many years. You presented the stark reality of what this vital U.S. election has boiled down to: a dangerous battle between the sexes, more overtly frightening and threatening than it has ever been, given that it is played out in the most important democracy in the world. The dividing line between men who dream of treating women in the vile, criminal way trump has, of treating minorities and those different from them like second-hand citizens or worse, has been delineated by trump and will prove to be his downfall. And if Justice is to prevail, he will end up shortly after the election in jail for the rest of his unnatural criminal life.
Amen!
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