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ACCORDING TO LIZ - The base of American democracy is crumbling. People are in despair. Instead of civil discourse between our politicians and between friends and family members, we have vituperative polarization and unwinnable arguments.
What can be done to do to flip the storyline and energize defecting and emerging voters to work together for the good of the country?
Violence is never an answer. On either side. If there is anything this country has learned during the dramatic spate of gun violence in recent decades, it is that killing only hurts people far beyond the individuals involved.
While we need to express sympathy for even the most divisive of demagogues as a human being, some things can’t be prayed away.
So, give the electorate something to cheer for: don’t let a bullet-scarred ear hide the horror of a violence-fomenting demagogue and January 6th.
If Biden truly believes he is the best candidate for President, that his inspiring performance on Friday night is the Joe for four-more-years, he should open up the Democratic National Convention to all comers and prove it.
If nothing else, it would shift the focus of the election news cycle away from name-calling and GOP ravings including blaming Biden for Saturday’s shooting due to Democrats’ doubling down on the Ex being the real threat to democracy.
What Americans really want to hear about are concrete solutions to the real challenges they face today. Let the discussion begin.
It would make a refreshing change to the predicted polarity of this week’s GOP convention where blind denial of the Cheat-o’s beyond-the-pale rhetoric will certainly promote end-to-end attacks on those opposing him, escalating existing incivility and further rending the fabric of our society.
At a truly free-wheeling Democratic debate in Chicago, people and politicians could learn a lot about what is really important to Americans. It could be a real gamechanger, putting issues front and center, instead of the peccadillos of candidates providing infotainment fodder for the pundits.
A real contest with nail-biting twists and turns.
To credibly challenge the incumbent, replacement candidates must be strong with proven abilities and an inclusive viewpoint with the fortitude to face down the monied powerbrokers of the DNC machine. They must have the guts to take on generations of corporate abuses and beat the Supreme Court back to where it is again one of the triumvirates of government, presidency and judiciary, and ensure that it again represents all Americans not just a few.
Does President Biden have the guts and conviction in his own abilities to free all the delegates to select the best candidate to win against the one with the battle-scarred ear?
To encourage these delegates to go back and listen to those who elected them, inspiring further debate of the issues at the local level when so much on the national and international stage has changed since?
Can Biden change a ho-hum convention into a tool to flip the focus from a bad episode of The Apprentice to what really matters to Americans, all Americans today?
Can we as citizens push to have our voices not just listened to but really heard?
Individuals can make a difference when their futures are on the line. Look to the Colonies in 1776.
Look to France where in a stunning act of collective responsibility reacting to the clear and present danger of Marine Le Pen, that country’s Trump, grassroots people power put the brakes on what appeared to be an unstoppable roll to the right.
Can we in America advance recognition of rising Democratic stars – leaders like Representative Ro Khanna of California, Georgia activist Stacey Abrams, Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, and Vice President Kamala Harris, who at 47, 50, 52, and 59 respectively are the young bloods our country needs now to reinvigorate its place in the world?
Let Biden (81), Bernie (82), and Pelosi (84) be the politicians emeriti to stand on the sidelines and cheer on the new generation.
There are no easy answers so don’t pablum-feed people.
Invoke the bracing refreshment of a populism that created this country and moved it forward from Lincoln to FDR to LBJ to Obama.
Stop with catering to big money. No more half measures.
Americans need, Americans deserve, the big and the bold, a fresh future for the United States.
(Liz Amsden is a contributor to CityWatch and an activist from Northeast Los Angeles with opinions on much of what goes on in our lives. She has written extensively on the City's budget and services as well as her many other interests and passions. In her real life she works on budgets for film and television where fiction can rarely be as strange as the truth of living in today's world.)
