Operation Normal
In 2024, We're Fighting for Democracy, Decency, and Normalcy
This weekend, my wife and I worked in our yard. Mulched, mostly. We made half a dozen trips to the local home improvement depot. Other folks were in line, spring time, even here in the mountains, has sprung. Trees, seeds, and other outdoor accouterements filled their carts. Sunny weather and green shoots had lured many of us out of our suburban (or exurban) cocoons.
It was all normal. Refreshingly, startingly normal.
I’ve taken these things for granted. Opening any news or social media app is putting your mental health at risk. So many of us are so angry, so much of the time. Call it polarization, if you like. Everything, from gardening to Taylor Swift is immediately, completely, and exhaustingly politicized.
Author’s note: I apologize to Stephen King for that last sentence, I beat his “no adverb” rule to death on that one.
If it’s tiring for someone like me, enurred to most political outrage, for everyday Americans it must be as if someone turned the amp all the way to 11 and is running screaming babies on repeat. For many, the answer is to turn it all off and tune it all out. That’s a normal human response and makes sense. We’ve been feverish for nigh on a decade at this point.
We’re wrung out.
Ensuring Joe Biden’s reelection and Donald Trump’s permanent vacation is more than a political victory. It’s more than a moral victory. It’s more than a victory for decency and truth. Winning in November allows us to begin the process of returning to creating a new normal.
We’ve been in a state of upheaval for most of the last quarter century. There are countless articles, books, and documentaries outlining the flock of black swans that moved into our house and have (so far) refused to leave. A Biden win allows us to start dialing back the insanity.
A Trump loss breaks the back of MAGA and its adherents, but by no means ends the (political) war against them and their backward, un-American beliefs. Without Sleepy Don at the wheel, his movement loses much of its steam.
As I’ve written previously, Joe Biden’s second term will be the beginning of a new American epoch. What it looks like we don’t yet know. Here’s what I do know:
We need a president who gets up every morning and goes to work for the American people, not to a court room.
We need a president who works to expand the depth, breadth and definition of “The American Dream,” not one focused only on himself, his legal status, and his personal wealth.
We need a president who stands up for our allies and America’s leadership in the world, not one in hock to autocratic butchers.
We need a president who we can tell our kids about, not one whose behavior we can only discuss when they’re old enough to see a Rated R movie.
We need a president who understands that values matter; that how you act toward those that can do least for you is the true test of character, not one sees life as a zero-sum game.
We need a president who is normal, who acts like a normal human being. We do not need a president incapable of the most minute act of decency.
It appears the American people are beginning to agree. Recent surveys show Biden either closing a gap with Trump or taking a lead; especially with those voters who identify as most likely to show up this fall.
As Trump snoozes through days in court, he’s not able to campaign or raise money in person. We MUST take advantage of each of those days. We need to talk to voters NOW while the Trump campaign is without their candidate and must save their money for later in the year. If we can push Trump far enough down among independent voters, we’ll be a long way down the road to ensuring he spends the rest of his days cheating at golf.
We’re all due a lot more normal Sunday mornings. Now we just have to earn them.
News and Notes
I hope you’ll check out the incredible film, Against All Enemies, executive produced by two true American heroes, retired Navy pilot Ken Harbaugh and former NAVY Seal Dan Barkuff. You can find a link about the film and listen to my conversations with them below.
You can find the film here.
You can listen to my talk with Ken here.
You can listen to my talk with Dan here.
Next, please check out my recent conversation with University of Michigan Law professor Barb McQuade about her new book, Attack From Within about the dangers of disinformation.
You can find her book here.
Lastly, my friend Bill Carter has created a beautiful film documenting his time in Sarajevo during the Yugoslav War in the early 1990s. It’s a story full of tragedy, hope, and (my favorite) U2. Will be out on Paramount Plus on May 7. Please check it out!
You can learn more and watch the trailer here.
Why I love local bookstores…
Got this George Kennan classic (1961!) for $2. A screaming deal.
I’m hoping to find my new normal. This has been exhausting. Soul crushing. And that picture of him sitting like a petulant child in time out is the reason for most of it. I so very much want to not hear of him, see him, have news of him anymore. Go back to not knowing every utterance of my president because I trust that he’s taking care of things, like we voted for him to do. Soon maybe.
Thank you for summing it up so eloquently. We are all mentally exhausted. I suspect this is his game plan; hoping the sane ones among us will shrivel up and retreat to a perpetual state of oblivion. We cannot do that, but we must find ways to inspire and energize each other. There is tentative hope.