Notes From an Environmentalist. Kamala Harris, the Debate and the McCarthy Hearings.
Notes from an Environmentalist
“Have You No Sense of Decency?”
The Presidential Debate
President Biden just took a page out of Donald Trump’s book and it is driving Republicans nuts. Many people have always thought that Biden would drop out of the race but at the most opportune time and at a moment of his own choosing.
He did that to perfection announcing that he was dropping out of the race immediately after the Republican Convention ended.
Now the media will be laser focused on Kamela Harris and her accomplishments. She raised a record breaking $81 million dollars the day after Biden’s announcement and tied up enough delegates to win her nomination the day after that.
The drumbeat of public and media attention will continue right through the Democratic Convention in August and on into the general election in November.
This will leave Trump running uncomfortably against a smart, young, black woman in favor of women’s rights, the environment and critical of Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
Trump usual bombast will appear especially bullying, crude, out of date, xenophobic, sexist, racist and boring coming from the oldest candidate to ever run for the presidency.
Then there will be the debate, Donald Trump’s to lose. Will it be reminiscent of the Army McCarthy Hearings led by the bully of the Fifties Joseph McCarthy?
During the televised hearings Senator Joe McCarthy charged that one of the Army’s lawyers had ties to a communist organization. The Army’s Boston based lawyer Joseph Welch responded, “Up until this time, Senator I think I really never gauged your cruelty, your recklessness.”
When McCarthy tried to continue his attack, Welch cut him off angrily saying “Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?”
Overnight McCarthy’s Teflon armor crumbled. His popularity plummeted and he was censured by his Senate colleagues, ostracized by his party and most hurtful of all, he was ignored by the press. He died a lonely, broken old bully of a man three years later.