I should be able to write today and not be introspective. I was going to say, “annoyingly introspective,” but I’m not confident enough to make that joke. I am confident enough to reference making that joke. I need that one step of removal. That works for me. I’m not thinking of deleting all this and starting over.
Let’s start with John Platt’s On Your Radar. We had a few tech issues but once those were worked out things went well. I have a weird job during the shows. I round up people to watch as the show is on. It means I can’t listen as closely as I’d like. I need to find better ways of doing it. Kudos to Rob who was so prepared that the show went on even after his computer crashed. He had a backup computer with all the files he needed. That’s the kind of thing that always impresses me, if you are prepared for things to go wrong. It works that way for online producers and heads of state. Cuomo made some stumbles coming out of the gate and then made adjustments. That’s why New York has such a low COVID-19 infection rate. A certain president who shall not be named make a few stumbles out of the game and responded by saying that it was no longer his problem.
To little surprise Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris as his running mate. The first reactions I saw on social media were uniformly positive. Then I saw posts complaining about negative posts, but I only saw one. Then I started to see the negative posts, and even more common negative comments. That first negative post was totally expected. It was made by a caricature Bernie Bro from whom you can always expect a “I’d support a woman, just not that woman.” I’ve seen some people say that the progressive left is against Harris. That’s is not at all fair to the progressive left. Hell, I’m part of the progressive left. The ones attacking Harris are the ideological purity left. Making progress is not their priority.
Are Biden and Harris perfect? No, though Harris was near the top of my preferred candidates early in the race. Biden was near the bottom. You know why? I thought other candidate even better. Is Pete Alonso the best first baseman in baseball? No, but almost every team would find a place for him to play. I’m not going to list Biden and Harris’s faults because that would be counterproductive. I don’t want to convince people on the fence to not vote for them or even to not vote at all. I do care about progress. If you don’t think that going from Trump-Pence to Biden-Harris is progress, then you are either a Trump supporter or irrational. You should be doing everything in your power to make sure they get elected. Pointing out their flaws might make you feel good but is that more important than getting them elected? No. It’s selfish.
My favorite paradoxical position is white people calling Biden a racist. He has the overwhelming support of blacks, but those privileged white people think they are better judges of his racial attitude than blacks.
You don’t have to do it today but work on getting yourself enthused. The candidate I worked hardest for in my life is Bill Clinton in 1992. He was my least favorite Democrat vying for the nomination. After 12 years of Reagan and Bush I could see the vast gulf between him and Bush. The difference was huge. It’s even huger now.
Wise Madness 