If We Get To Vote - Or, Being Intelligent Beings, See Any Point In Doing So

 My son and I both read The Economist.

A recent Lexington in that publication had a vaguely positive blurb about Gavin Newsom.

Not long after I got a text from the kid saying that he guessed that that was the shape of things to come.

Since I have been around longer than he has, I was, and am, less certain of the shape of things to come, including the likelihood, or meaning of any potential Constitutionally scheduled election in 2028.

Here is what I said.

****************************************************

Concerning Gavin.

I think he may be the one.

He looks good (I saw some clips on The Newshour tonight of him at COP in Brazil and I am beguiled into wishing he were the one.)

And I have seen enough of what he has done and thought to be able to say "he's no donald trump".

And that's all good.

I have also seen some interviews of Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

He does well under scrutiny.

And I think there may be an intellectual depth in him that has been missing in our presidents since JFK.

And he may even go deeper - beyond intellect - to genuine empathy.

Like LBJ.

And, if we are going to come out of this trumpian winter, we are going to need some intellectual horsepower.

And some empathy.

Because a reign of terror by a sociopath and his band of thugs, whores, sadists and criminals is going to take some time from which to recover.

And because the problems of the people and its Republic - res publica, thing of the people in Latin - are manifold and manifest.

And nothing is being done.

Except laws that keep making donnie richer.

So, my only criterion for who I am going to support if we get to have a free and fair election in 2028, is "who is going to address those problems immediately and with vigor, and with truth, and with intellect and with empathy, not with bullshit?"

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (significantly, my spell checker says these are mis-spellings) comes to mind.

Tim Miller has been on board with her for months.

She has been going out for most of this year as Bernie's warm up speaker.

Between them they have been drawing 50,000 people at those rallies.

At their Fighting Oligarchy Tour, sometimes subtitled Where We Go From Here.

And she is electrifying.

As is he.

If I spent a second, I'm sure I could come up with more potentials.

But I'm stopping at this triune offering, AOC, not Bernie - we should have elected him in 2016, but that was Hilary's turn - Newsom and Murphy.

I have no idea if these are the ones from which the one, if we even get to choose the one, will ultimately be chosen.

But it's not a bad start.

And I find it difficult to understand how "the people" could vote for J.D. Vance, a man with Little Orphan Annie Eyes and a vapid, not assertive, sociopathy.

But then, they donnied us twice.