Opinion

In the current social media swamp climate that’s laden with AI deep fakes and X bots pushing propaganda, there’s been a fascinating reaction to the Eric Swalwell scandal, which ended one of the worst weeks in this country’s history when we desperately could’ve used a win.

We’ve come to expect a giant news story dump on Fridays here in the Trumpian garbage fire, but it usually comes from the Republicans doing yet another terrible thing. After a week like the one we just survived, we needed the pendulum to swing back our way with the kind of uplifting news that rekindles our belief that we can still have nice things during the worst of times.

Trump’s thought police may already have your name in their database, which is growing — according to Kash Patel — at the rate of around 300% right now. They’re not looking for people who’ve committed crimes but, rather, people who they think may commit crimes in the future. Thought and opinion crimes.

Yeah, like in the movie Minority Report, only with an Orwell 1984 twist. You could call it the FBI’s New Political Pre-Crime Center.

There is an old American idiom for a group so collectively inept they couldn’t organize a one-car parade, as another axiom goes. We call them the Three Stooges. They were a legendary comedy trio famous for their chaotic, physical slapstick and for being a cultural shorthand for lovable but total incompetence.

After watching JD Vance (Mo), Steve Witkoff (Curly), and Jared Kushner (Larry) stumble out of Islamabad empty-handed, having failed to end a six-week war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, or extract a single meaningful concession from Iranian hardliners, the comparison feels apropos.

This election season's message is painfully simple — Democrats must show up as the adults and run as the parent and grandparent ready to deal with what remains of this adolescent mess.

Perhaps it will feel familiar to many, a rush to arrive and survey the damage, knowing someone has to take over, organize, and clean. It will not be the fundamentally unequipped, the delinquents, the kids. Once again it will be us, the Dems.

Major unions like the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers, and citizen groups like Indivisible and Public Citizen are calling for a national May Day strike. It’s a powerful idea, building off of a Minnesota day this past January where people didn’t go to work or school, didn’t shop, and didn’t otherwise participate in ordinary activities.

The Minnesota day was spearheaded by major unions, 700 local businesses closed in solidarity, and 75,000-100,000 people marched in the streets. For the national day, I’d suggest adding one more element, incorporating arm bands, like black arm bands, so people who are participating can make clear their sympathies. And those who can’t take off from work or school, or who are retired, so have no jobs to leave, can show support as well.

The President of the United States is supposed to set the standard for global leadership, from their track record of public service to their public behavior. There’s supposed to be a level of respect for the office that’s been earned, because a proper POTUS shows the people of the country how respected they are as well. Our president represents us on the global stage, and should have friendly relationships with our allies so that we, and the financial markets, aren’t kept in a state of constant chaos.

Think of Joe Biden’s affable, warm Irish humor and his ability to poke fun at himself. Recall his eight years of bromance with Barack Obama and how they made the country feel like Daddy and Uncle Joe were taking care of everyone. We took that for granted, even as there was darkness always under this country’s surface.