(Former Member of Congress Gabby Giffords, and her husband and life-partner, Astronaut, Navy Captain and Senator from Arizona, Mark Kelly)

I thought I knew pretty much everything about the 2011 attempted assassination of former Arizona Member of Congress, Gabby Giffords, and her remarkable and arduous recovery from being shot in the head. 

Then I watched an eye-opening CNN documentary about her entitled Won’t Back Down, and was inspired anew.  As the son of a strong woman who fought polio for 92 years, few things move me like the daily, determined struggle to overcome disability.

Giffords’ story is astonishing, as is the unshakeable love story between her and Mark Kelly, an astronaut and genuine American hero—whose bald head and broad smile remind me of a modern day Dwight D. Eisenhower. 

I love watching how Kelly still takes her hand and gently guides her through crowds each time she speaks.  I love Gabby’s inspiring story for all of us, to never give up; I love how much Mark Kelly loves her.  This is the essence of life, and love, and hope, and the right stuff we like to see in our leaders, and ourselves.

Every member of the Democratic National Committee, as well as Joe and Jill Biden, should watch “Won’t Back Down,” this weekend, while they are contemplating how to supercharge the Democratic Presidential ticket for 2024.

After a tumultuous week in American politics, with included an alleged attempted assassination of Donald Trump which left him with a tiny bruise and tea-bag like bandage on his right ear, it’s time for the Democrats to shake things up, and field a national ticket of true courage, grace, genuine patriotism, reverence for Democracy, and a determination to end gun violence in this country.

I hope that when leading Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jeffries & Chuck Schumer, and others, have met with Biden and informed him of the increasingly dire prospects in the 2024 election, they were thinking of how best to add great value to a national ticket which should be headed by former sex-crimes prosecutor Kamala Harris, history’s candidate against the most anti-women, anti-human rights, anti-democracy GOP ticket of all times. All they need to do is watch “Won’t Back Down,” to get their answer. The inherent heroism and courage of Arizona’s Senator Mark Kelly, and Gabby Giffords leaps off the screen.

I’ve floated Kelly’s name before as a possible running mate for Harris, and put him at the very top of powerful political partners along with Governors Josh Shapiro (Pa.), and Andy Beshear (KY). But a series of unforeseen events over the past week have altered the Democrats political landscape entirely.

With the shot heard around Trump’s ear being fired in Pennsylvania last weekend, and his cult members convinced that, somehow, a Deity would choose to push an AK-15 killer bullet away from Trump’s head and into the body of a retired firefighter, it’s urgent to remind the country what true courage looks like, in addition to that exhibited by the firefighter who covered his family with his own body to protect them from harm.

Gabby Giffords actually did take a bullet to the head. In fact, the bullet didn’t buzz past her ear, but, instead, tore through the entire length of the left hemisphere of her brain. Six other human beings were killed and 18 injured at close range by the gunman that day in January, 2011, in that Tucson shopping center parking lot. Gabby needed multiple operations, and within 15 days of the shooting, was moved into a rehabilitation facility, because of her remarkable progress.

Incredibly, one-month later she was already walking with the assistance of a shopping cart. Over the coming months, she underwent still more surgery to repair her cranium, and yet, by June 15—just 5 months after she was shot in the head—Gabby Giffords returned home to her husband Mark Kelly and their family. At no time during her long recovery did she go out to play a round of golf.

Instead, Gabby, and Mark Kelly, devoted their lives to helping others, crusading to end gun violence, in every form—including pushing for new bans on Assault Weapons, and strict controls on who could purchase guns and where. The following year, in July 2012, following another mass shooting in Colorado, the GOP(Guns Over People) Senators, again killed an attempt to reinstate the Assault Weapon Ban, originally passed in 1994. Less than 6 months later, in December, 2012, 20 children—mostly 7 and 8 years old—and 6 adults—had their bodies torn to shreds and some decapitated by another gunman using an Assault Weapon, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

That’s the kind of powerful message Gabby Giffords can articulate for the Democrats, campaigning across the country, along side her life partner, Senator Mark Kelly, who has been by Gabby’s side every step of the way during her continuing rehabilitation and her devotion to ending gun violence in this country. That’s how the Democrats counter the make-believe martydom of Donald Trump, and reveal that behind his made-for-television white gauze pad on Trump’s right ear, the Emperor has barely a scratch.

Still, another new development this past week—the selection of billionaire Peter Theil’s newest playtoy, JD Vance, as the GOP’s candidate for Vice-President—has also pushed Mark Kelly to the front of the Democrats who would be strong additions to their national ticket. Kelly has already beaten Thiel badly once.

Thiel—who doesn’t believe in democracy and has advanced the wacky notion that the United States began to fall apart when women got the right to vote—poured $15 million dollars into Vance’s 2022 Ohio Senate campaign, to get his paid-for protege elected. That very same election cycle, a Thiel funded PAC spent $13 million pushing the candidacy of Blake Masters, another one of his underling lackeys, in a GOP Primary, for the Arizona Senate seat held by Mark Kelly.

In the general election, Thiel’s PAC pumped another $8.3 million in the campaign attacking Kelly. Not only did Mark Kelly hold onto his Arizona Senate seat by beating Masters by 5% points, he raised $62 million for his re-election campaign, beating Thiel and his spoiled billionaire friends at their own game.

Kelly, an astronaut who has not only flown actual space missions— something which Silicon Valley’s boy billionaires only fantasize of doing— he also raised more campaign capital than the Venture Capitol Valley boys did. What better national public figure, and authentic American hero, to go up against the unpatriotic billionaires, and Thiel’s paid-puppet JD Vance, for Vice-President?

The benefit of adding Mark Kelly—who won in a swing state with broad bipartisan appeal— to the national Democratic ticket, is that the Dems than get two national celebrities added to their team, instead of one: Kelly AND Gabby Giffords, who can campaign in tandem around the nation, and redirect the campaign narrative.

Even the new ticket name flows nicely: “Kamala & Kelly.”

Such a bold, visionary move by the Democratic Party—as evidenced by Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly in the movie “Won’t Back Down,” and in real life—would clearly show American voters that they are unafraid of passing the torch of public service to a new generation of authentic leaders, and eager to vigorously continue the struggle for decency, democracy, human & civil rights, economic and environmental justice, and a more humane society.

They were always there, right in front of me: Harry Chapin, and John F. Kennedy, Jr., linked in death on the same exact date — July 16.

They died 18 years apart, their age difference, when they were both killed in terrible accidents at 38 years old.

Chapin’s brief, shooting-star-of-a-life ended in the fiery crash of a small car on the Long Island Expressway; JFK, Jr.’s, in the crash of a small aircraft, somewhere off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

They were brothers in death, but their families — guided by strong women — and their mutual lust for life were intertwined in ways that one of Harry Chapin’s five children, Jason, would come to experience first-hand, in his work directly with JFK, Jr. and his “Reaching Up” non-profit organization.

The son of President John F. Kennedy founded “Reaching Up” in 1989 — eight years after Harry Chapin died — to give greater access to higher education and training to healthcare givers working with individuals with disabilities.

The organization’s work not only enlarged the scope of the Special Olympics founded by JFK, Jr’s Aunt Eunice Shriver, but it also shared the compassion and common sense of the life-enhancing work done by a national non-profit co-founded by singer/songwriter Harry Chapin at the peak of his fame — WhyHunger (WhyHunger.org) — still tackling food insecurity in local communities 49 years after it was formed, as well as providing job skills to lift people out of poverty. Chapin and Kennedy were answering similar calls to serve others, lessons left to them by their famous fathers.

Jason Chapin, who worked with Governor Mario M. Cuomo and was elected to two, four-year terms on the New Castle Town Council in Westchester, County, NY, has, along with his four siblings — Jono, Jaime, Jen and Josh, and their mother Sandy — carried on Harry Chapin’s work for WhyHunger and local food banks since 1975. He is the only Chapin to know JFK, Jr., and work with the “Reaching Up” organization and its City University of New York partner (CUNY) from 1995 to 2001.

“John was extremely passionate and dedicated to the organization, “ Jason Chapin said. “ I will always remember our Board Meetings which John chaired. He politely greeted everyone in the room when he arrived. He attended all of the annual Reaching Up Kennedy Fellows Convocations and was very friendly with the Fellows.”

It was precisely the same way JFK, Jr., greeted me at an 1996 non-profit breakfast at New York’s Plaza Hotel which I attended, representing Brooklyn’s Downstate Medical Center. I proudly wore a “We Believe in Brooklyn” button to boost working-class Brooklyn’s visibility among the Manhattan political and media elite.

JFK, Jr., sitting only a few seats away from me at the circular table along with George Stephanopoulos, spotted my button as soon as we got seated. He leaned over to me and whispered.

“My family believes in Brooklyn, too,” JFK, Jr. said.

“We believe deeply in the Bed Stuy Redevelopment Project,” an important initiative started during the too short Senate term of his uncle, Robert F. Kennedy, when he was NY’s U.S. Senator, from 1965–68. Bed Stuy was right in the heart of our patient service area for Downstate, the only public Academic Medical Center serving 2.5 million people in Brooklyn.

What JFK, Jr. may not have known then, was how important Jason Chapin’s grandfather, John Cashmore, was to his own father’s election as President of the United States in 1960. Cashmore, Brooklyn Borough President from 1940–1961, delivered 66% of Kings County’s vote to JFK, helping him beat Nixon in New York State by five percent, and win NY’s 45 electoral votes, giving Kennedy the 303 Electoral votes he needed to win the Presidency.

I told JFK, Jr. how important the Bed Stuy project was to the lifeblood of Central Brooklyn and how important his own father’s example of public service was to me in guiding my life’s work.

“You probably get tired of hearing that from so many people of my generation,” I said to JFK, Jr.

“I never get tired of hearing it,” he said. “It makes me proud to see how many people my father inspired.”

It’s the same line I’ve heard the Chapins say over many decades, with unending politeness and grace, when people tell them that Harry Chapin inspired them to commit their lives to fighting poverty, or improving public health, or helping refugees find access to food or shelter.

“I’m always amazed by how many people my father reached, how many lives he touched,” Jason says.

Harry Chapin, like JFK, Jr. was not content to sit still, and determined to use his celebrity to do good, performing 2000 concerts during his 10-year music career, with half of them as benefits, raising more than $6 million to fight hunger. Harry raised millions more on his radio “Hungerthons” with WhyHunger co-founder Bill Ayres, a former radio DJ and Catholic priest who Marched on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963 — to pressure JFK, Jr’s father to enact Civil Rights and Voting Rights legislation.

As with JFK, Jr., Chapin was encouraged to take his activism, courage and compassion full-time to Washington, and run for the U.S. Senate from New York, which neither man lived long enough to do.

Harry recognized, as JFK, Jr., did with the creation of “Reaching Up” in 1989, that his name attached to any project could attract politicians, the media, the public and funding to the cause.

Chapin’s crusade against hunger and poverty, and his successful campaign to create the country’s first and only Presidential Hunger Commission with the help of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT.) and President Jimmy Carter, exhibited the same instincts that propelled JFK, Jr., to launch “Reaching Up” and George Magazine: they both knew that politics and pop culture had merged, and that those in a position to use their fame to improve human existence, and to demonstrate their love for life, had a responsibility to do so. It’s a model of being a compassionate, activist, public citizen carried on today by Wilson Cruz, Bono, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, Ashley Judd, George Clooney, Dolly Parton, Sean Penn, and many, many more.

Now, 43 years after Harry Chapin’s death and 25 years after JFK, Jr’s — both on July 16 — their lessons of lending their celebrity, and giving their lives, to improving the lives of others, are more crucial than ever before, especially in 2024, with the basic tenets of democracy, human and civil rights, economic and environmental justice all at great risk.

Despite fighting often daunting odds, Harry and JFK, Jr. never surrendered to despair, defeat, or negativity. Relentlessly, and with great joy and a zest for life, they took their celebrity and fame, and transformed it into inspiration and action, in pursuit of repairing a broken world.

We need their lessons of organizing for good, and serving others, today, perhaps more than we’ve ever needed them before.

Several close friends of mine in their mid-to-late 80’s — of great vigor and intelligence — have squarely faced their own naturally diminishing skills and made some extraordinarily brave, and painful, decisions.

One, a financial genius who understands every nuance of economics and can discuss the intricacies of the Torah with any Rabbi, has decided to stop driving. This, as many of us know, who no longer live in cities, is no small thing.

All his life, he has been an active driver, who enjoyed the activity enormously. For more than 20 years, he, singlehandedly, tended a 100 acre piece of property — clearing brush, chopping wood, tending a lush garden. Although he is nearly 15 years older than I, to me, he has always been my contemporary and equal in physical abilities and mental prowess.

Yet, recently, he came to the difficult realization that he just didn’t feel comfortable or as confident as he used to behind the wheel of a car. He told me of his extraordinary decision matter-of-factly, as it was a rational recognition of a natural part of aging. An extraordinary sacrifice, and a courageous recognition of how we need to be alert — and honest — about the passage of time, and the decline — sometimes barely perceptible to us and others — of our own abilities.

I shared with him that even though I was only 75, I understood how tough it was to recognize it was time to give up something you love. Five years earlier, following my third serious bicycle accident in 40 years of bike-riding — a sport I loved — I voluntarily gave up bicycling, recognizing that my balance just wasn’t what it was anymore, and that anxiety had replaced pleasure as my overwhelming feeling each time I saddled up.

Another friend, whose partner is nearing 90 and been subject to some falling spells, straightforwardly came to a similar decision. They both adored their independence, traveled the world, and immersed themselves in music, literature and learning about the cultures of other countries.

Yet, without hesitation, when it became obvious to both and those who loved them that it might not be the wisest decision to pretend that life would go on as it always has, they were clear-eyed in what they had to do. They found a continuous care community in which they could be comfortable, and met their needs from independent to, potentially, assisted living. They immediately put their stylish suburban condo up for sale which they loved and nurtured for years.

Such decisions — to stop driving and to sacrifice complete independence — are extraordinarily difficult for people who have lived active, engaged lives, and are still at the top of their game cognitively and in social interactions.

They are acts of sheer courage, love, and selflessness, with a clear-eyed view of where they’ve been, where they currently are, and how best to deal with the challenges life has ahead.

Joe Biden, Jill, their family, friends and close staff members and supporters could learn a good deal from my friends, neither of whom holds the future of democracy in their hands.

I’ve written several articles about Kamala Harris over the past 5 years, and another few about Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.  But not until this week had I connected the two as, potentially, the most powerful Democratic ticket for 2024, which could win in a national landslide.

Long before Biden showed the world that he, in the words of his former COVID Advisory Board Member Dr. Zeke Emanuel writing this week in The Atlantic (“There Are Exceptionally Sharp Octogenarians.  Biden Isn’t One.), that President Biden has “clearly deteriorated” since as recently as his State of the Union address earlier this year, I was hoping he’d live up to his 2020 promise of being a “bridge to the next generation,” and gracefully pass the torch of leadership, as Nancy Pelosi did.  Before it was too late.

For months I’ve been telling friends that Kamala Harris at the head of the 2024 Democratic National Ticket would be a far better candidate than Biden, since few are as passionate and articulate as she is on the essential issue of reproductive rights, and the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade.  Harris’ sweet spots on the issue of reproductive rights, Voting Rights, and her tough questioning of Trump’s Extreme Right Wing Supreme Court nominees, from 2017 to 2020, have made her history’s hand-picked candidate this year, as all of those powerful waterfalls of justice and individual rights have collided this year.

Biden certainly was not as articulate as Harris would have been, when he staggered through an incomprehensible answer on abortion, during the Trump debate, demonstrating to many of his supporters, “a staggering failure of fluid intelligence,” as Dr. Emanuel phrased it in The Atlantic.  Few people are as loyal to Biden as Dr. Emanuel, whose brother, Rahm, was appointed by Biden as Ambassador to Japan. 

Bright red “danger” signs began flashing in the homes of Democrats, Independents and voters across the country, who care about personal freedoms and democracy’s future.  If Biden couldn’t hit it out of the park on such a softball question against the person most responsible for the Repeal of Roe, it was time for Joe to go.

 Not an early Kamala Harris fan when I moved to California 15 years ago, she won me over with her tenacious, fearless and seering cross-examination of  Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett—and of the bulbous, bloviating Bill Barr—during the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings.  Harris was a skilled prosecutor, at the top of her game and was excoriating Right Wing extremists on an enormously important national stage.  Of course, she could prosecute the case against Trump better than an incoherent Biden could.

I argued with friends that Kamala—as the first mixed-race female candidate, and daughter of immigrants, to head a national ticket—would electrify the electorate.  Despite poor press since she was elected Vice-President, a Democratic party that owes it’s success to woman, and in particular, women of color, could never, ever hopscotch over Harris, especially when reproductive rights, and an overreaching, extremist Supreme Court, are as central to this year’s campaign as the Convicted Felon and sex abuser heading the GOP ticket.  For added value, as a local prosecutor, Harris has put away her share of felons, and is not easily intimidated by criminals, whether they committed sex crimes or white collar fraud—both of which Trump has done.

When Biden withdraws as a candidate for re-election (by any number of methods), the only productive exercise for Democrats, or anyone serious about saving democracy from Christian Nationalist extremists peddling an updated 2025 version of Mein Kampf and the Felon Trump, would be to focus on a Vice-Presidential running-mate for Harris, who would bring the most to national ticket, and sweep in a Democratically controlled Senate and House. 

Much of my early attention went to Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona as the perfect running mate for Kamala Harris.  A Navy Captain and former astronaut and genuine American hero, married to Gabby Giffords, another American hero, from a key swing state, Kelly, beat multimillionaire and Trump stooge Blake Masters in 2022, carried moderate Arizona voters by 30%, and independent voters by a margin of 55-39%.   

My thought was that his moderate appeal would balance ideologically with Harris’ progressive record, and Kelly’s partner, Giffords, would help galvanize young voters passionate about gun violence.  However, one mitigating factor against Kelly might be that if the Ike-look alike were tapped to run with Kamala, the Democratic Governor of Arizona, Katie Hobbs, would have the opportunity to fill his Senate seat temporarily with another Democratic, until a special election could be held to fill out the balance of his term through 2028, and another Democrat might not be able to keep that seat.  Additionally, having the US Senator from Arizona—a border state– on the Dems National Ticket would elevate border control and immigration to the same level as Roe, Christian Nationalism, and the Fourth Reich Project 2025. Plus, that ticket would lack regional balance.

Which is why a Harris/Shapiro ticket has become far more appealing to me. 

The growing threat against women, the LGBTQ community, people of color, and non-Christians, from Christian Nationalists—on the Supreme Court, in Congress, and the Totalitarian blueprint for a Christian Nation—will require an all out campaign against those dire threats to democracy by every Democrat and independent voter in the nation.  Two skilled prosecutors—like Harris and former Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro—can effectively and relentlessly bring that case home.

 In fact, Shapiro already has, when he trounced the Ultra Right Wing Extremist Christian Nationalist and Trump apologist Doug Mastriano by 15% points in the 2022 Gubernatorial race in Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state in the national election.

I wrote about that election in my piece entitled “From Here to Harrisburg: Josh Shapiro is Frank Sinatra & Mastriano is the Bully Borgnine,” in May, 2022. My article on Josh Shapiro was one of my top half-dozen most widely read pieces on social media, putting it up in the thousands of readers category with stories about Billy Joel, Mario Cuomo, E. Jean Carroll, John Gotti, and Trump’s Relationship with Organized Crime. Maybe it was the comparison of Shapiro to Frank Sinatra that pushed it into such rarified readership company.

In it, I compared the madman Mastriano—a gnarly mix of Donald Trump and the Heritage Foundation’s (and Pat Buchanan’s acolyte) Kevin Roberts—to Ernest Borgnine’s bullying character “Fatso Judson,” in From Here to Eternity, who kills Sinatra’s truth-telling character “Maggio,” because Fatso doesn’t like “wops.”

I researched Mastriano’s Christian Nationaist fanatical diatribes—a precursor to the Fourth Reich Project 2025—and they reminded me of the other-world screeching of Savonarola, the puritanical Dominican friar of 15th Century Italy who headed “bonfires of the vanities,” to destroy of all things condemned by religious authorities.

Throughout the pages of his parade of prejudices—a 65-page Masters thesis at a Military college– Mastriano expressed his “disgust with anyone who doesn’t hold his view that homosexuality is a form of ‘aberrant sexual conduct,” said former George W. Bush Administration White House official Peter Feaver, who was horrified by what Mastriano wrote.

The Christian Nationalist’s fevered fetishes over “homosexuals in the military, “ and a “morally depraved and relativistic populace”, gushes from his pen, like a crayon-scrawled edict nailed to a church door, rather than a “research” paper.   His apocalyptic vision of a decaying world and military is obsessed with “moral anarchy,”  “worship of Hedonism,” and the consistent theme that the “assault started with the insertion of homosexuality in the military.

Foreshadowing the forthcoming fury of the Fourth Reich’s Project 2025, declaring war on “Awokeness” (sic), Mastriano railed against “homosexuality sensitivity training.”

“The political correctness of the 1990’s established moral relativism as the norm, “ Mastriano wrote.  Ironically, Mastriano, much like the Fourth Reich Project 2025,  blusters about the “duty to uphold the Constitution,” as opposed to “overzealous loyalty to one person,”—the exact opposite of what he, MAGAites, and his fellow  “Stop the Steal” sycophants did for Trump on January 6, ^, and in campaigning for high office, despite the evidence of 60+ court decisions debunking claims of election fraud.

That’s the kind of untethered-to-reality extremism and bigotry, Shapiro, a devout practicing Jew, was up against when he made mincemeat of Mastriano in Pennsylvania in 2022, carrying many key counties by 14 to 20% more than Biden/Harris did in 2020.

Shapiro’s impeccable record of integrity and accomplishments as Pennsylvania’s Attorney General for two terms—and his unyielding campaign in defense of the rule of law, constitutional rights, reproductive rights, voting rights, and racial and religious equality, has won praise from all parts of the political spectrum.

 Even progressive writer and founder of The Lever News David Sirota wrote a glowing piece about Shapiro entitled “The Democrat Who Picks Fights with Bad Guys,” ((https://www.levernews.com/the-democrat-standing-between-america-and-fascism/), calling Shapiro “the cheery mensch your Jewish grandmother wanted you to be.”

Many of my fellow Jews have expressed concern about having a prominent Jewish elected official on the national ticket, teamed up with a bi-racial woman, and running against Trump and his crazed Christian Nationalist supporters. They worry that it will increase anti-Semitic attacks against all Jews, by fanatical Trump supporters known for threatening peoples lives, and committing acts of violence.

That’s precisely why its so important that, Shapiro, who has never backed away from a fight, will be the perfect addition to a Kamala Harris ticket.  Just as he did in his campaign for Pennsylvania Governor, Shapiro, has stood forcefully for the protection of personal liberties, like religious freedom, LGBTQ rights, and a women’s right to make her own health care decisions.  He is, in every way, the Anti-Trump, with a reverence for the Rule of Law, and a track record for enforcing it, and protecting the public.

Not only is a Harris/Shapiro ticket geographically, racially, religiously and gender balanced, but there is an added advantage among Democrats this year: the split among American Jews concerning Israel and the War in Gaza, will be mitigated as a factor in this election with a prominent, and proud, Jew on the national ticket.  Jewish grandmothers from Boynton Beach, Borough Park or Beverly Hills, will find it hard to resist wanting to pinch the cheeks of Shapiro, the “cheery mensch,” and wish him well.

Coupled with fellow prosecutor and former California Attorney General Kamala Harris, the very existence of a Harris/Shapiro ticket makes several bold statements:

First, that no one is above the law, especially the President, regardless of what a jaundiced Supreme Court might think, and that two tough prosecutors are determined to make sure of that;

Secondly, that defending the rule of law, the Constitution and Democracy, fighting for human and civil rights, and individual personal freedoms has been their life work, and will be the priority of a Harris/Shapiro Administration;

And, third, that the United States is not a Christian nation, but a nation where Christians and all faiths, or people of no faith, are free to practice their beliefs.

The very presence of a non-Christian on the Democratic National ticket makes the declaration of Religious Freedom, loud and clear; the very presence of a woman of color at the top of the ticket, lifts every voice to acknowledge the equality and justice for all races, genders, faiths and people—in direct defiance of the Fourth Reich’s Project 2025 explicit efforts to erase them.

I’m reminded of the Academy Award winning short film from 1945, The House I Live In, made during this country’s last life-and-death struggle with Fascism.  In it, Frank Sinatra sings the song “What is America to me?”a powerful anthem against discrimination of all types. 

It ought to be the Harris/Shapiro campaign’s theme song.

Last night I had the strangest dream,

I never had before.

I dreamed I was a Democrat,

And, took up the tools of war.

I dreamed we had a President,

Unafraid to stretch the law,

Who, using his new Immunities,

Pushed his powers with Impunity.

I dreamed he finally understood,

The Blood Lust of this sport,

And used the Insurrection Act,

Against the US Supreme Court.

I dreamed he told the IRS

To investigate Thomas’ trips,

And directed the FBI & DOJ,

To lacerate Trump’s lyin’ lips.

I dreamed he was fearless,

In rounding up Democracy’s foes,

And put together Arya’s List,

To test how far he’d go.

I dreamed that boldness filled his eyes,

To where they’re clearly glistening;

Absorbing every lesson to learn,

From “Godfather 1’s” fair Christening.

I dreamed he took “Project 2025,”

A Hitleresque list of enemy actions;

And sent in Federal Marshalls,

To sweep up the Fascist factions.

Arrest DeJoy, Seize the PO,

And issue wanted posters;

Immune! Immune! Immune! Immune!

Now, round-up Democracy’s ghosters.

Trump, The Alitos, Clarence & Ginny,

Bannon, Miller and Leonard Leo;

Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, MTG,

And, Harlan “The Nazi Collector” Crow.

Everything’s an “Official” Act,

When it comes to protecting the nation;

Now, Use the Force, you’ve been given, Joe,

Before the Freedom Train’s left the station…

Look, Biden’s performance in the last week’s Presidential “debate” was terrible AND Trump’s very existence as a national political candidate is terrible. Those two things are true at the same time. That doesn’t mean we have to settle for the status quo.

I’ve taught debate; I’ve coached people for debates; I’ve written speeches; I’ve run for public office; I’ve engaged in public debates on policy issues. I worked with and closely observed Mario Cuomo, perhaps one of the finest public speakers and debaters of our time. Admittedly, I pictured him eviscerating Trump, lie by lie by lie, the other night, leaving The Convicted Felon gurgling for help from his mental cell-mate, Hannibal Lecter.

By every single measure, Biden’s appearance on the CNN “shooting gallery,” — where the President of the United States allowed himself to be exposed to a firehouse of flagrant lies from a convicted felon, while moribund “moderators” Jake Tapper and Dana Bash failed to do their jobs — was the worst “debate” performance I have ever witnessed in my lifetime.

Biden’s constant lost look, frozen in place on camera shot after camera shot, reminded me of the vacant look I’ve seen on elderly relatives wandering the halls of nursing homes, searching for the rest room, or for someone who is not there.

How Biden’s incredibly intelligent and qualified staff allowed this to happen — the “debate”, the format, the camera shots, the “no-fact checking” — astounds me. Even worse, when Editor & Publisher reported on the day of the CNN cage-match that no journalists from Black Owned media outlets were credentialed by CNN for admittance, that alone should have been cause for Biden and his team to blow apart the ticking time bomb of a sur-reality show. In fact, I worried that Trump would cleverly use that reason to bow out of the debate, boxing Biden in. Neither happened.

Despite all of that, the most egregious result from that horror show where CNN happily handed a convicted felon and pathological liar an unfiltered megaphone for 90 minutes, was that Biden himself has become the central issue of one of the most important Presidential campaigns in this country’s history, with our very Democracy and individual human rights at stake.

Biden himself, a good man with an excellent record as President, asked and answered the most telling question, as CBS’ John Dickerson said in a brilliant analysis on CBS Sunday Morning, June 30, 2024:

(https://youtu.be/avgypNGS6Aw?si=ClpAv9snGRhIhncM):

“When President Biden has been asked about voter concern about his age, he has said, ‘Watch Me.’ They did. Now he must look in the mirror…and see whether he wants to be an agent or an impediment to Donald Trump returning to office.”

The issue — commanded by the merciless camera angles and an abandonment of all journalistic standards by CNN — quickly became Biden’s frighteningly weak look and tepid performance and not the abject criminality, venality and volcanic flow of lies erupting from Trump’s bottomless, bile-filled mouth.

Yes, Trump is a convicted felon, a serial liar, a convicted sexual abuser, delusional and lives in a dangerous fantasy world totally untethered from reality. Yet, all of that, coupled with Trump’s horrendous record as President regarding jobs, the economy, COVID, family separations, reproductive rights, and his poisoning of the Supreme Court, has not been enough to stuff Trump into the garbage can of history where he belongs, poll after poll tells us.

Biden’s age, and continued ability to carry on, keeps cluttering up people’s minds, and turning what should be a slam dunk election on values, issues and character into one that’s too close to call. But, please, don’t take my word for it — the word of a 75 year old man who has watched in pain as friends have slipped into mental and physical decline. Judge for yourself. A quick comparison of tapes from Biden’s 2020 Presidential debates vs. Trump, and last’s weeks, holds the answer. One look and you can see the huge difference between Biden’s communication abilities — never great to begin with — between age 77 and age 81.. Just watch the tapes. Neither this nation, nor the world, can afford the luxury of Biden’s age nor his health becoming the central issue of the campaign.

Or, as John Dickerson puts it, “Ego can get in the way of the greater good.”

In fact, at the very same time the country was distracted by the fallout from CNN’s pseudo-debate, the Far Right controlled, and corporate-owned US Supreme Court dismantled the ability of key federal administrative agencies (EPA, FDA, SEC) to enforce reasonable regulations against corporate excess, putting that responsibility in the hands of extremist judges (like Judge Kacsmaryk of Texas, a Christian Nationalist who tried to ban the drug mifepristone), overturning 40 years of precedent as recklessly as they repealed Roe. Singlehandedly, and without answering to anyone, Justices Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett, implemented a key provision of the GOP’s Project 2025, a blueprint for the destruction of Democracy, which calls for erasing all Federal Agency enforcement power, as well as the Civil Service.

While the incumbent President was looking hapless and feeble on national television before 48 million viewers, the US Supreme Court, turned into a mirror of MAGA by the three grotesquely ideological appointments of Donald Trump, was disemboweling the Executive Branch of the federal government of a tremendous amount of power in public health, environmental protection and accountability in financial institutions.

As long as Biden remains the focus of this campaign, and not the Felon Trump and his Fascist followers pushing a Reich-like agenda, everything is at risk. Contrary to the arrogant arguments of Biden’s inner-circle that “he alone can fix it,” since he defeated Trump once, there are far more articulate and effective advocates for the values and policies at stake, who can bring the case to the American people far, far better than Biden does.

Of course, it won’t be easy, but it won’t be as chaotic for the Democrats as Biden’s apologists — some of them who don’t work for the campaign, like Nancy Pelosi and James Clyburn, are over 80 years old themselves, are trying to persuade us. Just because the Democratic Convention is in Chicago, doesn’t mean it’ll be 1968 all over again, and Biden’s team should stop advancing such a shallow, simplistic and inaccurate analogy, and instead, focus on how this can be achieved smoothly and positively. Everything is different now.

Despite the War in Gaza, the National Democratic Party, and its elected officials in Congress, the Senate, and State Houses, are remarkably unified against Trump and the Extreme Right Wing, Christian Nationalist Agenda. There is a deep bench of Democrats — moderate and progressives from every region of the country — who can articulate the issues — and the Biden Administration’s record — much more aggressively than Biden himself, removing the shadow of age and diminishing ability hanging over the President’s own candidacy. That would assure the focus on values and issues — and on the Felon Trump — without the matter of Biden’s age or cognitive ability muddying things up.

Those candidates include, but are not limited to: Kamala Harris, Senator Mark Kelly (Ariz), Corey Booker (NJ), Andy Beshear (Gov. Kentucky), Josh Shapiro (Gov, PA.), Gina Raimondo (Sec. of Commerce), Pete Buttigieg (Sec. of Transportation) Gavin Newsom ( Gov, CA.), Gretchen Whitmer (Gov, Michigan), Tammy Duckworth (Illinois), and Julian Castro (TX, former Secretary of HUD).

The key element in all of this, is whether, and how gracefully, Biden decides to withdraw from the race, and concentrate on his achievements in his one, extraordinary term. If he does, his long record of loyalty — and his desire for “continuing the job” — would point to his supporting Kamala Harris as his successor.

In my judgment, few Democrats — with the possible exception of Gretchen Whitmer — can articulate the issues of Reproductive Rights, Voting Rights, and the preservation of civil and human rights, better than Kamala Harris. As a skilled prosecutor who put felons behind bars, she can advance the criminal case against Trump as well as anyone. Unless Harris chooses to remain as the Vice-Presidential candidate, or announce she will not run for re-election if Biden is not on the ticket, her continued presence on the ticket must be guaranteed, or risk justifiable outrage from Black and female Democrats — especially with Roe v. Wade looming as an enormous issue this fall.

Pairing Harris with a strong, white male candidate — Kelly, Beshear, or Shapiro — would be the kind of ticket-balancing usually done behind closed-doors at National Conventions. It could be an uplifting, public process in Chicago, to showcase the depth and breadth of the Democratic party and its national leadership.

For months, I have been in favor of a national Democratic ticket of Harris and Senator Mark Kelly — with either one heading the ticket. A Kamala/Kelly, or Kelly/Kamala, ticket would communicate ideological balance, as well as the elevation of a charismatic and heroic Astronaut and US Navy Captain to the international stage, sending a powerful message of unity and strength domestically, and abroad, underscoring our commitment to our Allies.

The added bonus to this would be giving the remarkable Gabby Giffords, Kelly’s lifelong partner and a crusader against Gun Violence, a bigger national platform at the very moment the US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has declared Firearm Violence to be “a public health crisis in America.” With Gabby Giffords and Gun Violence coming to the forefront in the 2024 campaign, younger voters, led by Marjory Stoneman Douglas survivor David Hogg, born in 2000, and other young leaders of March for Our Lives, would have another compelling reason to organize and vote in record numbers, in the most important election of their lifetimes.

Biden, of course, holds the key to all of this, and to whether, as John Dickerson said, he wants to be “an agent or an impediment to keeping Donald Trump from office.”

We’ve watched you, Joe. We’ve voted for you. We applaud your achievements. Now it’s time to gracefully pass the torch of leadership to a new generation of good people who will protect democracy at home and around the world, and advance justice and human rights.