A compendium of the best reporting and commentary surrounding the pivotal 2024 elections in the United States. You will rarely find horse race coverage here, or the standard "both sides" BS that passes so often for political journalism. What you will find are links, with brief commentary, to work that I believe advances the conversation we should be having about America's – and the world's – future. Remember: Everything is at stake this year. (Unfortunately, some of the work I point to is behind paywalls.)
Please just watch, and listen
Harris' optimism is what we need right now – and, I fervently hope, the andidote to Trump's vengeful fascism. This "closing argument" speech needs to be seen by every American voter. Please share it widely.
There’s a consistent pattern that we have seen over time—not just in confronting Trump but, actually, interestingly, in confronting right-wing “authoritarianists” the world over, including in Latin America—which is that there is a certain amount of what a lot of analysts have called “baked-in” tacit acceptance of a certain level of hatefulness, ugliness, vitriol. You hear again and again from analysts, Well, that’s not a new thing; voters are learning and they’ve made their voting calculus on the basis of already knowing that Trump is racist, already knowing that Trump is sexist; that’s not new information. So the hallmark that we have seen is that when we shift away from “Trump is” statements, statements about his character, toward things that are about what Trump will do, his future agenda, it’s no longer baked in. Then it is a what we call voter-facing harm.
The quote above is from Anat Shenker-Osorio, a Democratic strategist who has deep insight into our new political reality. She believes that some voters are finally – finally! – tuning into what a new Trump presidency would actually mean, and they are becoming terrified. They should. His allies' "panic" over the fascist rally at Madison Square Garden – if it's real (and I think some of it is) – is a sign that maybe, just maybe, he's gone too far this time. Maybe, as the NY Times' Jamelle Bouie wrote yesterday, the rally showed that Trump less confident than he's been pretending.
The most important thing for news organizations of all sizes in this era is that they be independent, by which I mean not chained to other enterprises that are vulnerable either to governmental harassment or even totally legitimate mass actions, like boycotts. They should be responsible to their readers. That also means they should if at all possible make money. Maybe not be super profitable, necessarily, but operate in the black. If you can’t, you tend to need deep-pocketed owners and that often brings the lack of independence that you see with Jeff Bezos. I should also say that I’m not limiting this to for-profit enterprises. The key is solvency. And non-profits, especially if they’re funded by an audience, can do that as well as for-profit operations can.
Every journalist of every stripe should read Josh Marshall's important commentary today. In addition to looking deeper into the mess Jeff Bezos has made of the Washington Post's reputation, he reflects on the central question of journalism today: independence. Talking Points Memo is for-profit, but independent in every way that matters. The brilliant Mississippi Free Press, which I pointed to yesterday, is nonprofit but also independent. Billionaire-owned news organizations cannot by definition be fully independent even when their owners make well-meaning pledges. Amazon's conflicts are more difficult than most, because of its connections to government and flagrant (but mostly ignored) contempt for competition laws. We need to rebuild our journalism, but from the ground up. Top-down isn't working anymore.
All that said, I remain worried that the third-party protest vote for Jill Stein will cost Harris enough votes to lose a key state like Michigan. But there’s some good news on this front: a new initiative called SwapYourVote, which aims to make it easy for progressive voters to act strategically: if you live in a swing state you can find a person in a safe blue (or red) state who will promise to vote for the Green Party (or Cornel West) in exchange for you voting for Harris.
In his latest newsletter, Micah Sifry offers a bunch of reasons for hope. He also explains a wonderful new operation called SwapYourVote, which as he says above gives swing-state supporters of third parties a way to express themselves without also helping elect Trump. I'd hope such voters would realize how counterproductive they're being, but this is a way forward. The second half of the newsletter post is a harsh take on a major Jewish organization that has been conspicuously silent in the wake of the latest evidence that Trump is viciously antisemitic. "History will record who spoke up now when all the red lights were flashing, and who bent their knee in advance," he writes.
Voting is just part of democracy, but it's the essential place to start. Make sure you're registered. Doublecheck in the fall, well before Election Day, because in some states Republican officials are removing people, mostly those who tend to vote for Democrats, from voting rolls.
Take your personal contact list, compare it to the national voter file, and find out which of your actual friends, family, co-workers and past acquaintances live in swing states and districts where a call or text from you could be hugely influential.
Please read Micah Sifry's advice – and heed it! You still have time to make a huge difference.
Please send your suggestions
I spend a lot of time looking for essential coverage, and hope you'll help me by letting me know about the good stuff you find. Let me know.
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The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent
Micah L. Sifry
Micah L. Sifry
