Election 2020

A president like my husband

/ njmyers / 2 Comments

I am struggling with moral superiority. It literally kept me awake last night. I am going to try to renounce moral superiority.

The revelation was a short podcast called The Key to Trump’s Appeal, which I picked up from a friend’s Facebook post. The gist was, why are so many people loyal to Trump, why do they believe his lies, why do they overlook his gross faults and misdeeds? The podcaster’s answer: they love him because of his faults, which are right out in the open for everybody to see. They love him because he does not make them feel inferior. Continue reading →

Countdown

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I’m trying not to think about the election being less than two weeks away. I’m unsubscribing to all the political emails that have been cluttering my inbox, writing “STOP” to all the political texts. I’m barely skimming the headlines, “watching” TV news with the sound muted while I work a mindless coloring app on my phone. I’ve hand-delivered my own ballot to the county clerk’s office. I’m trying to stay focused on the present, the day to day, the hourly.

It isn’t working. I’m still obsessing about November 3. Continue reading →

Hunger and thirst for righteousness

/ njmyers / 10 Comments

I don’t want to go overboard on this Mayor Pete thing but when I examine myself and also look at the extraordinary response he is stirring in others I have to wonder what is going on, exactly. So do many analysts, like Amber Phillips in today’s Washington Post (Why is Pete Buttigieg so popular?). She puts forth the theories she’s gleaned: his novelty, the parts of his resume that appeal to liberals (he’s young, he’s gay), the perennial search for leadership from outside the Beltway, his potential to beat Trump (highly speculative at best but at least he seems unflappable), and finally, simply that he’s got “the intangibles.” Which means that the analysts haven’t come up with a name for whatever it is. Continue reading →

A view from the base

/ njmyers / 2 Comments

IMG_2883Watching Pete Buttigieg’s big announcement with friends yesterday I was struck  with how much he appeals to people just like me. I even saw myself in his description of himself as a nerdy teenage misfit and in his English teacher’s glowing praise. I had teachers who still talk like that about me, though I haven’t done anything spectacular with my life. Like me, Pete is a visionary; he likes the big picture view. His faith, his modesty (if a presidential candidate can be called modest), his calm demeanor are all traits that resonate with me. Where he is different from me, it is in ways I admire: he is smarter, more articulate, more energetic (younger!), potentially more inspiring. Continue reading →

My neighbor is running for president

/ njmyers / 4 Comments

There are a lot of Democratic candidates for president in 2020 so it should not be surprising that one of them is my neighbor. He used to live about a 5-minute walk from my house but recently moved just across the river.

What is surprising is that this neighbor may actually be the best of the lot. I don’t know if my husband would agree yet; he is slower than me to make up his mind about just about everything. And just because I’m for this person doesn’t mean he’s going anywhere. My favorites tend not to get too far, let alone win. The exception was Barack Obama, who also happened to come from the neighborhood where we lived for a while, in a different city. Continue reading →