TomFlannery.com

So it’s Kamala.

Within minutes of the announcement my social media feed was filled with some of the most vile, disgraceful racist and sexist comments I’ve ever seen. Crude, Vicious. It made me despair for what we’ve become…..a nation of ignorant, hate filled, gleefully cruel cowards. This stain has been spreading for years now, and even frog-marching Trump out of the White House in leg-irons is not gonna wash it away. All he’s done is brought all of this out into the open air. He’s emboldened those who hated in private to go public. And they have. In droves. And most don’t care who knows it. Prominent local business owners…..cops…..local musicians, and on and on. Even I was shocked by the level of vitriol. They don’t fear retribution. Or being called racist. Or sexist. That’s the way things used to be. But this is 2020. They welcome it. They revel in it. They shout from the rooftops. They troll relentlessly, seeking to inject their own brand of disinfectant into the veins of anybody guilty of perceived empathy. Facts are irrelevant. Science is an eye-rolling irritation. Conspiracies and cardboard cut-outs of Dear Leader share their beds. Fox News plays on an endless loop, giving them the Orwell Two Minutes Hate without the pesky timer.

It’s extremely unpleasant out there, Bubba.

It’s a good ticket I think. Harris’s youth and energy will give the campaign a jolt. And while Trump stews on Twitter trying to find the proper demeaning nickname for her, poor Mike Pence is suddenly at a fork in the road, with each leading to a cliff. If he debates her, a former prosecutor…..he’ll get slaughtered. That is, assuming Mother lets him stand on stage with another woman, unsupervised. But still.

More likely Pence will be dumped from the ticket sooner rather than later. In 2016 you could argue that he was needed to court the evangelical vote, but now? That segment of the population have become the most adoring of Trump’s slavish sycophants. He could name the ghost of Bull Connor as his VP and they’d still vote for him. Pence’s only value to Trump is being so bland and dull and subservient that he never deflects attention away from where Trump wants it. On Trump.

Harris and Biden have differences. They clashed heatedly in the debates. If she thought his past actions were racist, she called him out on it. Trumpers could not believe that Biden would actually choose somebody who might disagree with him. But Uncle Joe just selected the anti-Pence. She ain’t gonna be a yes-woman. And that’s what a healthy democracy needs. Right now we have a boy-king, surrounded by shameless toadies. And it’s not going well. So Biden threw down a marker. Good for him. Someday republicans will get it. It just ain’t gonna be this day.

And good for us. Finally. A woman will be VP. One step closer to the oval office. It’s long overdue.

The Trump News Channel went crazy last night. Hannity and Tucker practically tossing spittle at the camera lens. Tucker Carlson kept intentionally mispronouncing Kamala Harris’s name, even after being corrected by his guests. That’s pretty much what they’ve got left. Hannity kept calling her a “socialist”, which is what they call everybody when they’ve run out of the other words. Pretty pathetic stuff, really. These guys are the confederate dance band on the Titanic.

Trump, as he does with any woman who displeases him, has repeatedly called her “nasty”. He’s especially upset with how she made one of his locker room boyos, Justice Kavanaugh, melt down and cry on national TV. She may cause Pence to have an aneurysm. I for one eagerly await the debate question asking Trump about donating $6000 to Harris’s California Attorney General campaign. Was she less “nasty” then?

It’s history. Right here, right now. Being made. We’re all flawed. We’ve all got baggage. Many progressives are not happy with Harris’s sometimes overzealous prosecutions of petty drug crimes. But that was then. This is now. Hopefully we learn and adapt and eventually find ourselves parallel to the arc of justice. There is no perfect ticket. Hell, I voted for Bernie. But this is what we got, and it’s good. If he’d chosen Elizabeth Warren as his running mate, I’d say it was good too. And so it goes. Biden had a talented bench to choose from.

We’re out of options. Allowing these thugs to run amok for another 4 years is unthinkable. It’s time to rally behind the home team.

It’s time to send the traitors off.

So, November. Bring it on. I like the chances of our better angels.

In a bit..

–tf