The media spectacle surrounding the ignominious Republican nominee's serial sexual assaults carries echoes of the old, Times Square peep-show barkers: "All lewd. All live. All the time." I need a shower. Two showers.
Now you wouldn't know it from the headlines, but there is actually another major candidate in the 2016 race for president. The Washington Post just endorsed her:
IN THE gloom and ugliness of this political season, one encouraging truth is often overlooked: There is a well-qualified, well-prepared candidate on the ballot. Hillary Clinton has the potential to be an excellent president of the United States, and we endorse her without hesitation.
Furthermore, "No, we are not making this endorsement simply because Ms. Clinton’s chief opponent is dreadful."
The endorsement itself is the predictable mix of "on the one hand" and "on the other hand," but concludes Hillary Clinton possesses "seriousness of purpose and relentless commitment, even in the face of great obstacles, to achievements in the public interest." Her opponent — for those late to the Republican Party — "has shown himself to be bigoted, ignorant, deceitful, narcissistic, vengeful, petty, misogynistic, fiscally reckless, intellectually lazy, contemptuous of democracy and enamored of America’s enemies."
The Post says that like it's a bad thing. In fact, that's just what his most loyal supporters like about him. Especially the misogynistic part: #repealthe19th.
Throughout this election cycle, I have been more focused on the down-ticket races here than on the race for the White House. We have to. President Bernie wasn't going to solve our Pat McCrory problem. President Hillary wasn't going to either. North Carolina has to solve its Pat McCrory problem. We have seen since 2010 some of the most cynical and naked attempts to disenfranchise American voters and to bend state government to the will of a party with declining support and a retrograde agenda. Only the intervention of the courts has held back some of the damage. In November, not just 2016 is on the ballot, 2020 is. Control of your state legislature is, and redistricting that will define the character of Congress for the ten years beyond that. Plus, the fate of a young generation whose future is already compromised. Given the threat from climate change, the fate of the planet is on the ballot.
Locally, we sent home an ALEC board member from our state legislature in 2014 and took another local state House seat as well. That, in a year Democrats elsewhere across the country lost and lost big because, as in 2010, Democrats stayed home because the presidency was not on the ballot. The full extent of the damage done here in a few, short years of GOP control is still in question, as is the fate of our businesses, our schools, and the rights of our neighbors. But the damage done is not confined to North Carolina. Ask around. Your state and your representation in Congress is on the block in November, not just because of the federal races on your ballot, but because of the local ones. Control of your state legislature means control of your representation in Washington going forward. Make no mistake. Elections — all of them — are about power and about how it gets shared. Or doesn't.
What can you do for your country? Defend its future.
