Reclaiming sacred ground.
October 30, 2024
In a pitch-perfect ending to a nearly flawless campaign, Kamala Harris delivered an address on the Ellipse at the National Mall on Tuesday—the site of Trump's speech inciting the January 6 insurrection. By choosing the Ellipse as the location for her “closing argument,” Kamala Harris reclaimed sacred ground. No longer will the Ellipse be a scar on our nation’s history. Rather, it will be viewed as the fertile ground that gave birth to a new era in American history: Our first woman president; the beginning of the end of MAGA extremism; reclaiming reproductive liberty; and overturning tainted decisions by a compromised Supreme Court affecting the right to vote, the right of citizens to choose their legislators, and the right of ordinary citizens—not corporations or billionaires—to fund political campaigns.
But it is not only the Ellipse that will be reclaimed as sacred ground. Electing Kamala Harris will reclaim the White House as the “people’s house.” We will reclaim the Oval Office and the Resolute Desk as the seat of the leader of the free world. We will reclaim the presidency as an office of trust charged to “take care that the laws are faithfully executed.” And we will restore the rule of law to apply to all citizens—including the president.
With one week remaining until Election Day, we should enjoy the calm that flows from knowing that we have done everything asked of us—and more. In an improbable campaign that could have resulted in chaos and disunity among Democrats, Kamala Harris rose to the occasion and proved worthy of the trust and hope that millions of volunteers invested in her candidacy.
It is not over. Far from it. The next week calls for more intense effort than we have devoted in the last two years. But we are incredibly well positioned because of the work we have done, the organization we have created, and the people we have recruited. All we need to do is execute on the plans that have been laid carefully and lovingly over the last two years.
While we cannot count on Republicans to defeat themselves, they are doing their best to do so. There are credible reports that the decision by the Republican National Committee—controlled by the Trump family— to “outsource” most of the work traditionally done by volunteers and paid campaign staffers has resulted in chaos. For-profit third parties tried to replicate the organization and passion that Democratic grassroots volunteers built over years. Republicans learned the hard way that a campaign based on contract labor is no substitute for party faithful.
No matter. Our job does not change because of inept decisions made by Trump family members who viewed control of the RNC as another grift. But we can take confidence from the fact that our hard work has brought us to this moment fully prepared for the final push. In a turnout election, we have the tools and people in place to drive turnout. And we have the candidate who will drive turnout by offering a vision of hope, reconciliation, and reclamation of sacred ground that was lost under Trump.
Kamala Harris’ speech on the Ellipse
Kamala Harris’s address reprised the major themes of her campaign but with a sharper edge on the attacks against Trump and more conciliatory language offered to Trump's supporters. To all Americans, she promised to put the interests of the nation above her own—a refreshing departure from Trump's incessant narcissism.
The video of VP Harris’s speech is here: Closing Argument Speech from Vice President Kamala Harris. It well worth watching in its entirety, but the last few minutes—HERE—are stirring.
A sampling of her speech is set forth below:
[F]or too long we have been consumed with too much division, chaos, and mutual distrust. And it can be easy then to forget a simple truth: It doesn't have to be this way.
We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms. It is time to turn the page on the drama and the conflict, the fear and division. It is time for a new generation of leadership in America
Look, we know who Donald Trump is: He is the person who stood at this very spot, nearly four years ago, and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election. An election that he knew he lost. And while Donald Trump sat in the White House watching as the violence unfolded on television, he was told by his staff that the mob wanted to kill his own vice president, and Donald Trump responded with two words: So what?
Unlike Donald Trump, I don't believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail. I'll give them a seat at the table.
I’ll be honest with you, I’m not perfect. I make mistakes. But here’s what I promise you: I will always listen to you, even if you don’t vote for me. I will always tell you the truth, even if it is difficult to hear. I will work every day to build consensus and reach compromise to get things done.
I will fight to restore what Donald Trump and his hand-selected Supreme Court justices took away from the women of America.
Harris closed her speech with a reminder of the greatness and promise of America:
They did not struggle, sacrifice, and lay down their lives, only to see us cede our fundamental freedoms only to see us submit to the will of another petty tyrant. The United States of America is not a vessel for the schemes of wannabe dictators. The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised. A nation big enough to encompass all our dreams. Strong enough to withstand any fracture or fissure between us. And fearless enough to imagine a future of possibilities.
So, America, let us reach for that future. Let us fight for this beautiful country we love. And in 7 days, we have the power to turn the page, and start writing the next chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.
It was a stirring and unifying speech.
As Kamala Harris was rising to the occasion of her closing argument, Donald Trump was reprising the greatest hits from his Madison Square Garden hate-fest. Many in the Puerto Rican community have been waiting to see if Trump would apologize for the “floating island of garbage” remarks, as well as racist and antisemitic remarks directed to Black and Jewish Americans. The wait was a waste of time.
During a Monday speech at Mar-a-Lago, Trump referred to the Madison Square Garden event, saying.
The love in that room, it was breathtaking. There’s never been an event that beautiful. It was a love fest. It was love for our country.
Trump's absolute refusal to apologize increases the degree to which members of the Puerto Rican community will blame Trump personally for the comments of the comedian who made the offensive “joke.”. There is a strong backlash in Pennsylvania, a swing state with a significant population of Americans of Puerto Rican descent.
Dan Osborn is running for Senate in Nebraska
Yesterday, I was multi-tasking as I was preparing the newsletter for publication. I was watching the World Series with my noise-canceling headphones as I was going through the routine of formatting the newsletter for Substack. I received a last-minute request to promote Independent Dan Osborn’s bid for US Senate for Nebraska. I quickly drafted an insert and hit send. In my haste, I mistakenly said Osborn was running for Senate from Kansas—which, of course, is wrong. But, thankfully, the links to the video of the Zoom fundraiser for Dan Osborn and for making donations were correct.
Several hundred readers emailed to highlight my mistake, which I appreciate. But I thought I would share a few facts to help address future mistakes.
Scientists have determined that the smallest measurable unit of time equals the interval between when I hit “send” on a newsletter and when I receive the first email noting an error. The official scientific name for that unit of time is the “nano-Scaramucci.” Frequently, emails about errors reach my inbox before Substack is able to confirm that the newsletter has been sent. Scientists are trying to determine if that phenomenon violates the laws of causality and space-time constraints on time travel.
So, if you want to notify me of an error and more than 60 seconds have elapsed since I sent the newsletter, you are late to the party—I have already received a dozen or so corrections.
Again, I appreciate readers who take the time to note errors. But I make a sincere effort to read and respond to all emails. If the daily email responses include several hundred emails letting me know that Omaha is in Nebraska, not Kansas, that slows down my ability to respond to readers.
Unless you are responding in the first minute after the newsletter has been sent, your email is the “Nth” duplicate notice of the error, where
N = (PublicationTime(GMT/hrs) x 150,000)/(CurrentTime(GMT/hrs) (minus) PublicationTime(GMT/hrs)) + 100.
In the meantime, I have learned my lesson. I cannot watch the World Series between the San Francisco Dodgers and New Jersey Yankees—even while wearing noise-cancelling headphones. And if you feel compelled to send a correction regarding the previous sentence, please consult a family member or friend for advice.
And as long as we are talking about Dan Osborn, see this article: Deb Fischer vs. Dan Osborn: The unexpectedly close Nebraska Senate race, explained | Vox.
Founding Members Zoom conference
The monthly Zoom conference for Founding Members will be held on Wednesday, October 30 at 5:00 Pacific / 8:00 Eastern. Founding Members will receive a separate email reminder with the Zoom link.
Concluding Thoughts
There is obviously a lot more going on in the campaigns, but it is increasingly difficult to tell what will affect the outcome of the election. 50 million people have voted already. See Early Voting and Mail-In Ballots by State 2024 Results. That is a staggering number in an election where 155 million (or so) will vote.
It is difficult to make comparisons to 2020 because of the Covid pandemic. Although some commentators are saying that Republicans are “cutting into” Democratic leads in early voting, the more accurate description is that Republican early voting is regressing to the mean after Trump artificially depressed GOP early voting in 2020. Republicans are “cutting into” Trump's conspiracy theory levels of depressed early voting in 2020.
The good news is that the more people who vote early, the more secure the election will be—and the earlier the results will be available. More good news is that Trump's missteps and Kamala Harris’s strong closing argument can affect the outcome in the remaining 100 million votes yet to be cast. So we have the best of both worlds!
We still have ability to affect the outcome of the election by working through the last hour of the last day. Keep up the good work! We have momentum, enthusiasm, decency, discipline, and truth on our side.
Talk to you tomorrow!
Daily Dose of Perspective
I finally captured an image of the comet known as C/2023 A3 (Tsuchnishan-ATLAS). I had to wait until it was high enough in the sky and dark enough for my astrophotography camera to lock onto the stars (to locate the comet). The image below is a “deep space” image. Many photographers use a regular camera to capture the terrestrial horizon and the comet. In those photos, the comet appears to be much smaller.
The comet is currently 137 million miles from Earth. The best estimate is that it will return to the general vicinity of our solar system in 80,000 years. See Everything You Need To Know About Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS AKA Comet C/2023 A3 - Adler Planetarium.
Enjoy!
Robert, Thank you for your sanity and positivity during these trying years.
I have been working the Democratic greeting tables for early voting in Sarasota, Fl. We have had a number of Republican voters come up to us to say they voted for Kamala. My point is even though X number of Republicans voted it doesn't mean they all voted for tRump. I have hope.
Truly loved the nano-Scaramucci bit! Robert, you do such a wonderful job, I'm sure all your readers forgive these small errors, even those of us from flyover country who may feel a little raw that people can't tell the difference between our various mostly rectangular states.