It’s Up To Us

The Supreme Court has given us a very bad decision on Trump immunity. It doesn’t change something I’ve been thinking for some time, back before Thursday’s debate. What I’ve been thinking might even be more important now.

We are in this together. It’s not up to Joe Biden alone (even including his campaign staff and family) to defeat Donald Trump. The responsibility is on all of us. That includes getting the message out and now, restraining a lawless Supreme Court.

You are more credible than Biden or his campaign to Uncle Jack who thinks that Trump is THE MAN to push Putin out of Ukraine.

You are more credible than Biden or his campaign to Aunt Kathy who can’t vote for Biden because he lost Roe.

I don’t have numbers (that doesn’t seem to matter in this discussion), but I am sure that more votes are swayed by persistent talking to relatives and friends than by a single debate in June. Now we have to talk as well about the importance of electing a Democratic Congress to rein in the Court and restore our rights.

We’re spending far too much energy on arguing whether Biden should resign and who his successor might be, energy that might go into

• Talking to relatives, as above
• Strategizing ways to bring Trump’s danger down to the local level. You know that Oaxacan restaurant you like so much down the street? Its owner and the staff will be deported.
• Reassuring each other that we can do this thing if we work together.
• There’s probably more you can add in the comments.

Here’s an example of people working together to reverse malign governmental decisions: the New York public libraries were scheduled to severely reduce their hours by Mayor Eric Adams, so that their funding could be transferred to the police. But people organized, and got the city council to pass a budget fully funding the libraries.

We’re facing a much bigger job, but it starts with Uncle Jack and Aunt Kathy. And funding the libraries. It’s not all up to Joe. It can’t be. We’ve got to get to work.