Checks and Balances: The 50-Year Plan

James Bennett, our Lexington columnist, sees a possible Democratic election defeat.

If you’re feeling a little nervous about politics these days, I recommend you watch this Barack Obama clip Singing some lyrics to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” during a rally in Detroit on Tuesday. It’s a reminder that even in this hottest part of the election cycle, people are enjoying their campaigns, connecting through music and laughter and not just the grim warnings that dominate news reports.

I think every presidential campaign I’ve covered has had a harrowing phase as Election Day approaches, with the candidates declaring it the most important contest of anyone’s life. Maybe that will be the case this time. The warnings are certainly the most serious. Vice President Kamala Harris calls Donald Trump a “fascist” — citing the conclusions of people who served him in office — and the stakes for some Trump supporters are even higher. As my colleague Kennet Werner reported this week, for them this struggle is not about democracy and the rule of law versus tyranny, but about good versus evil, a word Trump himself has used to describe his opponents. For some evangelicals, Trump, chosen by God, represents the last chance to rid America of Satanic influence.

Even for less eschatologically minded Republicans, Trump’s message of “only I can fix it” means the prospect of his losing is devastating. Ms. Harris makes no such claim for herself, as she is not only the best candidate for this campaign, but the nation’s last hope. In voter turnout, this extreme claim might help Trump, so from his perspective, it makes a lot of sense. As Eminem said in the song “Lose Yourself,” “You only get one chance. Don’t miss your chance to blow up.”

However, Republicans as a party will have future opportunities to pounce on, and whether Trump’s approach will serve them well in the long term is a different question. As I wrote this week in Lexington, I was struck by the joy of the thousands who gathered to see Ms. Harris when I was in Atlanta on Saturday. Among the people I bumped into in the crowd was Mario Van Peebles, a director and actor who I met through another Gen X cultural touchstone, his film. “New Jack City”. I asked him the question I had most in mind: What would happen to all this excitement if Ms. Harris lost?

as DJ On the stage of Earth, Wind and Fire’s slammed “September,” Mr. Van Peebles smiled and nodded as if anticipating the question. What matters, he said, is to do something you believe in and love, and that’s why he’s there. “Win is extra.” He continued: “Sometimes America moves two steps forward and one step back… In the ten-year plan, you can feel frustrated. But during the Fifty Year Plan, blacks gained the right to vote. Over the course of the Fifty Year Plan, women gained the right to vote. And over the course of the 50-year plan, you can love whoever you want to love. He pointed to some young girls dancing in the crowd and noted that they were being introduced to a big idea of ​​what was possible. “Optics wins out,” he said.