Recent comments on women’s rights and abortion rights in the US lead me to think we can all see the pointlessness of discussing US politics with people who do not know anything about the US.
Last night’s news about the decisive anti-rioter actions taken by police and counter protesters gives me hope. This is what I hope to see in the US in this election. 30,000 at this rally, 40,000 at that? We are seeing Obama levels of public engagement with the electoral process. Multiple affinity groups means that people are able to ally with other groups on the basis of multiple identities and interests.
Miss Molly upthread said, sniffilly, “I would hope “ that people are not basically single intetest voters. Well, the silliness of judging other people’s choices that way aside both the Republicans and the Democrats run in party platforms that offer a pretty good set of choices on a wide variety of issues.
The democrats have made it clear that the overarching principle they are defending is freedom: freedom to love, to live, to be safe from attack, to learn, etc…these are not windy abstractions but actual responses to republican legislative plans at the city, state, and federal level. The reason why people are so excited is that in many states people have seen their lives shrink and their freedoms stolen day by day under relentless rightist/theocratic attack. We actually know very well what the fight is. We have been fighting it for decades.
Voters and punters may be temporarily excited by the Dems and people with the attention span of mayflies may not stick to it—but we only have to hold the coalition against Trump together for 90+ days. After that we can continue to be governed capably by a democratic president and trump can spend more time with his family, or his lawyers.