Preparing for a consequential week

June 24, 2024

It was a relatively quiet weekend on the political front as President Biden and his advisers huddled at Camp David to prepare for the presidential debate on Thursday. None of his senior advisers appeared on the Sunday talk shows, suggesting that they are helping in the preparation process or laying low to avoid creating unnecessary controversy before the debate. Biden is appropriately allocating his most limited resource—his time. He is, after all, also running a country as he runs for reelection.

Biden’s campaign is launching a pre-debate offensive in the battleground state of Georgia to coincide with the debate. See Atlanta Journal Constitution, Biden campaign launches pre-debate offensive across Georgia. Per the AJC

President Joe Biden’s campaign will hold more than 200 events across Georgia the week of his debate against former President Donald Trump, part of a mobilization effort aimed at rebuilding the coalition that powered his 2020 win.

The Democrat’s campaign said Sunday the spate of events ranges from watch parties for Thursday’s CNN debate, grassroots mobilizing events, community barbecues, news conferences with national figures and visits from Padma Lakshmi and other celebrities.

Organizing 200 events suggests that the Biden ground game in Georgia is strong!

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post wrote over the weekend about the emerging role and strength of Vice President Harris. See Jennifer Rubin, WaPo, Opinion  A closer look at Harris shows how effective she’s become. (Accessible to all.) Per Rubin,

Harris told me her campus visits have been standing room only, with overflow rooms. “Students stood in line for hours,” she said, “not for a rock concert, but to have a conversations with the vice president.” Contrary to the impression that Gen Z voters are disengaged, she came away “inspired” and more certain that they will mark a “sea change” in politics.

Guns, abortion rights and climate are not academic issues to this generation. “It is a lived experience. In the height of their reproductive years, the Supreme Court took away the right to make decisions about their own body. . . . They understand we need practical solutions.”

The campaign season is in full swing. From every objective indication, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are running a professional, disciplined, and effective campaign.  Trump is not. Although I don’t traffic in polls, the trend from spring to summer has been one of growing strength for Biden nationally, in key swing states and key demographics—especially the youth vote. But the only poll that matters is the one that takes place on election day. So, let’s not take our eye off the ball: Historic turnout that will give Biden an incontestable victory.

But . . . if you watched any broadcast or cable news over the weekend, the coverage was all-Trump-all-the-time. Why? Remember, Joe Biden is preparing for the debate. Trump was on the campaign trail, repeating his stories about Shark-apocalypse and Hannibal Lecter. But he added new gibberish, talking about creating an Ultimate Fighting Championship league with “migrants” because “they are so tough,” complaining about dishwashers, which he called washing machines, bragging about his thick luxurious hair, and saying, “If I took this shirt off, you would see a beautiful, beautiful person.”

But the clearest sign of cognitive decline came in this clip, where he wondered aloud whether the correct pronunciation was “refuttal” (with an “oo” sound) or “refuttal” (with an “uh” sound). Of course, “refuttal” is not a word in the English language. Trump could not recall the word “rebuttal.” Just imagine the 72-point font on the front page of every newspaper in America if Joe Biden mused aloud about whether the correct pronunciation for a non-existent word was “refootal” or “refuhtal.”

Although the media ignored those mistakes over the weekend, they will not likely do so during the debate. This is why Trump's team is already spreading lies about the reasons for Joe Biden’s victory in the first debate. While that feels unfair, you would much rather be the guy they are making excuses about than the one they are making excuses for.

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Upcoming week in the Supreme Court

Something weird may be happening at the Supreme Court, which is in the last week of its October 2023 term. Justices should be hard at work putting finishing touches on their opinions. But Justice Alito was not at the Court on Thursday and Friday of last week. Hmm . . . . No explanation has been forthcoming from the Court despite media inquiries. See Samuel Alito’s Mysterious Absence From Supreme Court Raises Questions | The New Republic.

In any event, the Court should issue five major opinions this week. See The Hill, Supreme Court opinion season nears climax: 5 major decisions to come. The decisions expected this week include:

·  Trump's presidential immunity defense

·  Challenges by January 6 insurrectionists to obstruction of official proceeding charges

·  Whether courts should defer to federal agencies in interpreting federal laws

·  Challenges to the Biden administration’s contacts with social media companies about misinformation during the Coronavirus pandemic

·  Challenges to efforts by Texas and Florida to moderate social media content

Despite the blockbuster cases on the Court’s docket, the 2023-2024 term marked a historic low in productivity. During the October 2023 term (ending June 30, 2024), the Court heard only 62 cases—a low-water mark not previously seen since 1863. See Vox, (5/3/2024), Supreme Court justices are the most powerful, least busy people in Washington.

The obvious solution to the slowdown in the work at the Supreme Court is to increase its size. When the Supreme Court was established in 1789, Congress set the Court’s size at 6 justices for a nation of 4 million people in 13 states. Today, the US has a population 82 times larger than in 1789, or an 8,225% increase—333 million people. And yet, the size of the Court has increased by 3 justices between 1789 and the present. A much larger Court is a logical necessity. See WaPo (5/10/2021), We compared the Supreme Court with other democracies’ high courts. More justices would improve its work.

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Recommended newsletter

I receive the Downtown Nasty Women Social Group Weekly Update newsletter. It is a great newsletter for grassroots activists. (You can Register here.) I especially like the weekly “DemFacts,” described as follows: “Each week we highlight one FACT that you can share with non-believers. It's up to us to change the GOP misinformation narrative!”

Here is the Downtown Nasty Women Social Group “DemFact” for this week:

Fact: Since the Dobbs decision, Republican states are dismantling our freedoms and making it a hardship for women to get reproductive healthcare, while Democratic states are adding protections. 

The state of abortion rights on the 2-year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade and remove the constitutional right to an abortion in the US:

• 14 Republican-controlled states have full abortion bans (with limited exceptions)

• 3 Republican-controlled states have 6 week abortion bans (before many women even know they are pregnant)

• Most Democratic-controlled states have taken actions to protect abortion rights, including protecting doctors who mail mifepristone to women in red states, and have become sanctuaries for out-of-state patients seeking reproductive healthcare

• The number of monthly procedures has not fallen, meaning women in red states must travel out-of-state and incur additional costs for travel, childcare, and days off work

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Opportunities for Reader Engagement

Focus for Democracy

On Tuesday, June 25th at Noon ET, BigTentUSA is thrilled to host Aaron Frank, co-founder and  president, Focus for Democracy (F4D) and Anton Moore, founder of DJ’s at the Polls. F4D researches programs and reviews evidence to identify where election donations can achieve the highest impact. It is a nonprofit dedicated to empowering political donors to make the most impactful contributions possible to strengthen democracy.

Focus for Democracy rigorously evaluates programs, recommending both non-partisan and partisan strategies to win key elections to protect democratic values and fundamental rights. DJs at the Polls is a GOTV initiative that brings music and a celebratory atmosphere to the polls. The 2024 program aims to bring DJs to thousands of polls in urban centers of the battleground states, AZ, GA, MI, NC, NE, NV, PA, and WI. Experiments in 2022 and 2023 in Philadelphia and Virginia showed a significant voter turnout effect (e.g., a boost of 3+% in polling locations with a high proportion of African American voters).

Please use this link to register!  

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BigTentUSA with Jamie Raskin

Join BigTentUSA on Thursday, June 27 at 8:00 pm ET when we welcome Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Caroline Fredrickson, Senior Fellow at The Brennan Center for Justice. They will examine the recent Supreme Court decisions and the profound impact of their rulings have on American life. Additionally, they will focus on Representative Raskin’s work to raise the alarm about the very real threats of Project 2025. 

Their discussion will highlight the critical role of the judiciary in shaping the nation’s legal and political landscape, and the importance of vigilance, advocacy, and informed citizenship in safeguarding democratic values and institutions.

Please use this link to register!  

BigTentUSA is a moderate, inclusive, and collaborative community empowering citizens to take action to protect democracy, defend women’s rights, and protect our children. Join our free educational series of events and our calls to action detailed and updated regularly on our website.

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Concluding Thoughts

I wanted to check on the national heat wave that is punishing large swaths of the US. I read this article in the NYTimes (accessible to all): Tracking Dangerous Heat in the U.S.

As I read the chart showing the forecast for the coming week, it took me a few minutes to comprehend what I was reading. At first, I thought I was misreading the chart. But it slowly dawned on me that temperatures this week would reach these absurd levels: Mesa, AZ (115), Tulsa (107), Richmond, VA (107), Baltimore, MD (106), Wilmington, Del (106), Philadelphia, Pa. (105), and Hartford, Conn. (105). There are dozens of additional cities identified in the chart that will have multi-day 100+ degree heat.

Sixty-three million people in the US will experience “dangerous” heat this week—i.e., life-threatening heat. Heat records that are more than a century old are being broken daily.

The weather is not the climate, but this is not normal—even though it is part of a trend. The Defense Department now identifies climate change as a national defense priority and models the effects of climate change into defense strategy. And climate change is driving up prices of consumer goods. See WaPo, Climate change is already making your bills more expensive. (Accessible to all.)

Climate change is an issue that concerns younger voters in a big way. And Joe Biden has done more to address climate change than any other president in our nation’s history. See The Center for American Progress, The Biden Administration Has Taken More Climate Action Than Any Other in History.

As the nation struggles through another round of record-breaking heat, we need to start listening to the urgency in the voices of younger voters when they speak about climate change. Although the weather might not be the climate, the weather this week is a teachable moment.

Talk to you tomorrow!