The Tribune

With CHARLIE HARPER

The field of Democratic contenders for Trump’s throne continues to number more than two dozen. But as the conditions for televised debate participation tighten in September, most observers feel that number will shrink. What cannot be avoided is the fact that for 2020, the Democratic Party desperately needs strong candidates if they have any hope of overturning the current US Senate leadership of Mitch McConnell and Company. It turns out at least three of the present presidential contenders would make good Senate candidates next year, and may actually heed the call to run against entrenched Republican incumbents.

Foremost among these presidential aspirants who might be persuaded to challenge for 2020 Senate seats are former Congressman Beto O’Rourke and former Housing Secretary Julian Castro in Texas, and former Governor John Hickenlooper in Colorado. While Senate majority leader and incumbent GOP Senator John Cornyn doesn’t seem especially vulnerable - and four much less well-known Democrats have already declared for Cornyn’s seat - there are many observers who think Texas may become purple - as in mixed red Republican and blue Democratic.

O’Rourke’s only real claim to fame is having scared Ted Cruz for the other Texas Senate seat last year, so perhaps he would try again. And Castro, who did well in the first televised debate last month, would likely get strong support among Texas’ massive Latino population. Hickenlooper, still popular in Colorado, might well win against incumbent Republican senator Cory Gardner.

There are others whom national Democrats hope to recruit. Leading among them is Stacey Abrams. This 45-year-old ran last year for Governor of Georgia. Running against the Republican Secretary of State – who was charged with oversight of the election! – Abrams threw a real scare into machine politician Brian Kemp and almost defeated him. In the process, Abrams became the first black female candidate of a major political party to ever run for governor in the history of the United States. A lacklustre Republican, David Perdue, is the GOP incumbent of one of Georgia’s U.S. senate seats, and he is up for re-election next year. But Abrams has already ruled out opposing Perdue in 2020.

Abrams came to town the other day and explained why she won’t run for the Senate next year. But she also demonstrated why she’s such a magnetic political star. After being introduced, Abrams took in the rapturous applause. Then she surprised everyone with a sensible suggestion. “Let’s get the cell phone photos out of the way right at the beginning,” she said. Fixing a charming smile on her face, Abrams faced left, centre-left, centre, centre-right and right, allowing the large crowd to snap all the cell phone photos they could manage. The process lasted for more than a minute. And no one dared to disrupt her remarks with any more photography.

Abrams received more votes for governor last year in Georgia than any Democrat in the history of the state. This is especially significant in view of the fact Democrats were the party of Jim Crow segregation until around 50 years ago. Lyndon Johnson’s civil rights legislation changed all that. She reminded her audience that 2019 is the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first slaves in North America.

Abrams is the daughter of two Mississippi Methodist ministers, and it shows in her passion and commitment to social justice. Now, after her defeat last year and selection to offer the Democratic rebuttal to Trump’s State of the Union address in January, Abrams said she is now devoted full-time to the fight against voter suppression. “My own grandmother was too scared to vote,” she said. “She had heard that local voting supervisors had dogs that would bite if you tried to vote.”

“I want to make voting real for everyone,” Abrams said. “Everyone needs to get on election rolls. But then they need to stay there.” She said there were many 2018 examples of officials closing voting stations in minority precincts. “How can you vote if you don’t have a car and the nearest station is all the way across town?” she asked.

After her defeat last year, Abrams “wept, mourned and then I got back to work. I ran not because the office is there; I ran because the work is there,” she said. She said her study of voting patterns, particularly among black voters, showed “men don’t vote due to fear of making the wrong decision. Women don’t vote because they don’t want to experience yet another disappointment.”

Abrams said she has resisted repeated entreaties to run for the Senate next year because, after 11 years in the Georgia legislature, “I don’t want to do that again. That doesn’t match with my skill set and aspirations. Everything in the legislature is all about committees and compromise. I’m more for direct action, for management, for accomplishing good things. I’m about executive positions, like governor.”

Or, perhaps, president.

A little humour can go a long way

Most of us can agree technology is great. It is amazing to think of all the information and connections that are accessible now. But there are downsides to all this progress. For instance, almost any American with a cell phone now finds that his or her number has been bundled by some villain and sold to telemarketers. At first that meant unfamiliar numbers on your phone could often simply be rejected as “spam calls”. Now, though, the phone villains have figured out if they hijack a number in your local area code, you think it might be important and you’re more likely to answer the call and inflate their connection statistics so they can charge the next advertiser more. And so on.

Technology also means ordinary citizens - and manipulative bad actors - can retweet or forward emails that may be innocent and may not be so innocent. Licking their wounds after their calamitous 2016 election losses, Democrats in the US sought to blame this email forwarding phenomenon in part for their defeat. The whole Obama birther nonsense, they believed, emboldened hired Republican consultants and, perhaps, evil Russian agents, to ramp up their efforts against Hillary Clinton and Democratic candidates three years ago.

But sometimes all this email forwarding has a bright side. For instance, the other day, a conservative friend forwarded the following set of humorous quotations from famous figures. At the heart of it all is a fundamentally libertarian, anti-government bias ascribed to those whose words are quoted. But as US.President Trump rattles his sabre at Iran, picks fights with the Squad and continues to dodge the regiment of relentless investigators determined to uncover evidence that will finally convince American voters he is unfit to hold his present office, a little humour can go a long way. See if this list of quotes can put a smile on your face...

American author and humorist Mark Twain

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress… But then, I repeat myself.

Sir Winston Churchill

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

Playwright George Bernard Shaw

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

Humorist and author P. J. O’Rourke

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

American humorist Will Rogers

I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

Mark Twain

No man’s life, liberty or prosperity is safe while the legislature is in session.

40th US President Ronald Reagan

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases:

If it moves, tax it.

If it keeps moving, regulate it.

And if it stops moving, subsidise it.

3rd US President Thomas Jefferson

A government that is big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have.

2nd US President John Adams

In my many years, I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two useless men is a law firm, and three or more useless men is a Congress.