🎵 Something's coming...?
There's a shoot-the-moon vibe around DNC '24
Greetings with August Sturgeon, the year’s final full supermoon.
Its arrival Monday afternoon is right in time to open the four-day Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
This pivotal week of a whirlwind political summer has called up a variety of vivid images and metaphor. These have come to mind and resurfaced in the some-50 intense news days since that momentous June 27th presidential-campaign debate, some pointing to newShrink perspectives of psychology and history. (Illustrated starting at top center.)
title themes for DNC week
Supermoons, as you may recall, are when the full moon is within 90% of perigee – its closest approach to Earth — and appears its largest. From Native American nature-based tradition, this month’s sturgeon nickname described what once was a seasonal food-fish mainstay in the Great Lakes and other areas.
Further along lunar lines, for me the phrase and idea of shooting the moon — going for substantial gain, or labor of love, at significant risk and higher stakes — showed up almost immediately as pundits, politicos and pollsters began ruminating and publicly speculating about a Biden withdrawal from the Presidential race. Selected news stories and commentary from this time are in newShrink 6.30.24: “1776🇺🇸2024: Our elderly nation turns 248 on Thursday.”
The shoot-the-moon concept is familiar if you’ve known the card game of Hearts. (The following concise summary is from a browse to “e-card game help center” — who knew there was such a thing! )
Shooting the Moon is an alternate way to win a round of Hearts.
It can be achieved by essentially doing everything you don't want to normally do.
That is: collect, not avoid and dispose of ♥️ and the Q♠. If one player happens to accumulate all of the ♥️ cards and the Q♠ they can Shoot The Moon — causing all of their opponents to take a costly 26 points instead. (As with golf, in Hearts you want the lowest possible score, not the highest.)
The go-for-it /shoot-the-moon vibe has applied even more aptly, both propelling and propelled by the explosion of pent-up enthusiasm, as the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz presidential ticket, platform, strategy and energetic campaign have taken shape. Particularly refreshing, and higher-stakes, is their emerging pattern not of soft-pedaling but rather leaning-into, claiming, even celebrating aspects of themselves, their plans for governing and the story they have to tell. All of this serves good governance and democracy, yet can make the candidate more vulnerable to having the message distorted and weaponized by their opponents.
From lifting up the brilliant gay member of the Biden-Harris Cabinet as gifted campaign surrogate to articulating platform details Harris and Walz embody and model a primary rule of communication strategy: to “get-out-in-front-of-the-narrative,” not be defined or put on the defensive. What a rare, delicious delight to catch the first policy speech on the “Opportunity Economy:” Some wonky real ideas, plans, examined issues and proposed solutions — which can and should be discussed, chewed-on, debated, debunked, opposed, amended, accepted, rejected, acted on.
Here’s a fairly thorough NYT account of what I watched and heard:
Harris Lays Out Her Economic Vision, Casting Trump’s as Backward-Looking
In her first major policy speech, the vice president argued that her Republican opponent was too focused on the past, painting herself as someone who would protect the middle class for generations.
(When has something resembling execution of an articulated policy plan occurred on the other side? Where was that Trump Administration affordable healthcare plan superior to the ACA? The highly hyped Infrastructure Bill that was never touched until Biden/Harris got elected and got it done? When MAGA voters extol the virtues of “great Trump policies,” why can they never seem to name any that actually happened?)
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That secret-sauce something is also that much-mentioned, if not gushed-about, energizer of the newly transformed Democratic presidential race. (This is in addition to the still-dynamic, vastly under-recognized day-to-day governing and significant accomplishments of President Joe Biden.)
Some further light on that something came from a different context and source: The renowned and pioneer glass-blowing artist Dale Chihuly.
Last week I mentioned the ensuing long-weekend Biltmore Estate-immersion visit with long-time PA friends and family. Photos of glass pictures shown above are from the current, self-contained indoor exhibit of Chihuly glass at the Amherst Museum on the estate. Among these and several other stunners, the bottom-center one was a stand-out favorite for me in the room: An entire back-lit, horizontal color-phantasmagoria that includes a few clear-glass baby and middle-sized cherubs. Whether or not it was named, for me it immediately and permanently became the ultimate glass-ceiling.
An exhibit video demonstrates the artists’ elaborate — and physically challenging — process. On it, Dale Chihuly is asked for his thoughts about creating art. I loved how his answer applies in glass-blowing, politics, relationships… and all such transformative things. What he said was:
“The art is not about forever striving to come up with something new; it’s about heeding something new that is wanting and needing to come up.”
Here Chihuly is expressing a core idea in Jung’s and others’ depth psychologies: The psyche, unconscious, soul, is real. It’s alive, autonomous and animates our human endeavors. Constructive and compelling when consciously attended, welcomed and held. Destructive, chaotic and deadening when ignored, denied and suppressed.
Today’s musical title — “Something’s Coming,” from Broadway and film musical Westside Story — came to mind as I pondered his comment while I was still at Biltmore, and has returned often since.
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Turning to news-coverage, there are vast and varied volumes, both collected with selections linked and posted in previous recent editions of newShrink and in what you routinely read, watch and follow. A few articles are posted for the first time here, and where relevant there are re-links to recent editions.
Today’s news focus comes from my own attempt to bring some order, side-by-side contexts and perhaps some interesting perspectives — all from the simple vantage point of chronology. There has long been appeal/allure for me in the Latin and French du jour — “of the day” — common root shared by journals, journalism, journeys (hence a ship’s daily log.)
Timelines, simple chronology, are a useful tool shared by journalists, keepers-of-journals, historians… also psychologists. Peerless political-historian Heather Cox Richardson applies them deftly to illuminate understanding of the present by drawing parallels across time along with different things happening concurrently. By the way, Richardson posted that she will be attending and writing her daily Letters from an American from the DNC. (She’s browsable at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com, and you can subscribe either free or as a paying member.)
Borrowing from the psychotherapy setting, a timeline is a useful starting point for charting our own and key others’ factual, chronological data points. It’s a way to begin discerning the difference between the “on-paper/resume version” or “table of contents” of our lives by differentiating it from the deeper and more fluid complexities of the fully lived (soulful) life.
Perhaps your elementary school had timelines around every classroom, as did mine in Charlotte (Lansdowne). On lined paper, mounted high above the chalk- and bulletin-bords, these were neatly hand-lettered in magic marker, presumably by teachers, citing key dates, wars, discoveries. The value of a chronological take on things has stuck with me in some form ever since.
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Here now, are some of the more remarkable moments that have brought us to this unusual Democratic National Convention, unfolding as it has in this way.
du jour: timelines, key dates & turning points
Thursday, June 27: the Biden-Trump debate televised on CNN.
Friday, June 28: the President makes a robust attempt at redeeming the disastrous performance via an energetic Raleigh campaign stop. Whispered thoughts about Biden possibly leaving the campaign begin to be stated aloud, including in Congress. (Notably, throughout this seven weeks Vice President Harris has campaigned vigorously both before and after Biden stepped down — and she demonstrated consistent loyalty to Biden.)
Friday, July 5: Biden one-on-one interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC. It’s an uneven showing. The White House media team clearly did not proactively provide to ABC and other press the President’s quite-detailed annual medical report, including an MD neurologist’s work-up, that had been posted publicly on the White House website since this past February 28 and for each of his prior administration years. This was a sloppy unforced error, one of what seemed to be many, by some combination of Biden, his “inside circle” and his media relations staff. Nearly 9 days after the debate, he says in the interview that he’s in constant communication with members of both houses of Congress; they meanwhile are saying publicly they have heard nothing from him since the debate. Perhaps some parts of him were not all-in for the re-election race.
Monday, July 8: Biden calls in to his favorite news show and reportedly the only one he regularly watches, Morning Joe on MSNBC. He is jovial and firmly states that he is staying in the race and “not going anywhere.” Soon after the call his letter stating the same message is delivered to members of Congress. (Coming on Tuesday-Thursday of that week is the high-profile NATO 75th anniversary Summit which Biden is hosting in New York City — and at which he has several significant diplomatic achievements to celebrate. (Pressure is building more vocally and publicly among Congressional Democrats and others for Biden to withdraw from the race for re-election, and polls aren’t positive.)
Wednesday, July 10: Still topping my list of most interesting subject, worthy of study and scrutiny throughout these weeks, was again on Morning Joe. It began with the in-person interview with House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi — with her highly uncharacteristic appearance and strangely cryptic message delivery about (or was it to?) Biden.
I plan and look forward to doing a deeper dive on Pelosi, including her new memoir on wielding political power, at some point not so defined by and influencing the horse-race of the campaign. My perspective and working-title might be something like “Pelosi the President-Whisperer.” In my view here, to be fleshed-out later, she’s also a consummate psychologist near hypnotically effective at skills ranging from mirroring to (role) modeling. For now, you might watch to see what you think. (The discussion of the NATO Summit, the President and the race begin after halfway through the video.
Nancy Pelosi: It's up to Biden to decide if he's going to run. Whatever he decides, we go with. (MSNBC Morning Joe show, July 10, 2024.)
This interview with NYT opinion columnist Ezra Klein talks with Pelosi about that July 10 showing, and more.
Nancy Pelosi: ‘It Didn’t Sound Like Joe Biden to Me’
Thursday, July 11: At NATO Summit closing Biden holds what becomes a 59-minute press conference, where he fields complicated questions from foreign-policy savvy journalists and provides detailed, nuanced answers that reflect his depth and breadth of expertise as well as his impressive strategic reasoning. Sometime before his presidency ends I will write in some detail with my take on what is and isn’t going on with Joe Biden medically, neurologically, and cognitively. These three descriptors aren’t synonyms.
(Pressure and calls for him to leave the race continue.)
Saturday, July 13: Trump wounded in the ear by gunfire in an assassination attempt that killed one and seriously wounded two others at a campaign rally in PA.
Sunday, July 14 newShrink: “When the going gets tough…”
Monday, July 15-Thursday July 18: RNC in Milwaukee. Biden campaigns in Nevada, one other western state and then succumbs to Dx of Covid. He looks awful (and old) and returns home to Delaware to isolate and get well. All week the escalating calls for him to “pass the torch” become louder and from higher levels, closer Biden friends.
Saturday night, July 20: Biden is still recuperating in Delaware, but a late-evening, small, well-behaved group of youthful-adult protestors appear in front of the White House. They carry signs that praise and express affection for Biden — but also call for him to “pass the torch.” The young man leading with a megaphone says “we love you, Joe, but you must go.” I note how very polite this all is for a protest, and it’s odd bc the President isn’t there. (So who is the audience for this protest? Apparently TV late news viewers?) In the pre-dawn hours sleeping after that, I dream of a scene similar to this White House protest, only in the dream Biden and some of his family are there. A narrating voice in the dream intones, just factually not in ridicule: “OK, that was staged.” I awaken with a “well, yeah.” I am convinced Biden will be stepping away from the campaign, and as has been my perception for awhile, that there’s been a strategic plan to some extent.. (I still believe this, though have insufficient information to know how far back, to what level of detail, and how conscious in the key figures. These may be questions posed and pondered by historians long after my time)
Sunday afternoon, July 21: Shortly before 2 p.m. that next day, Biden sends his letter to Congress that is withdrawing from the race, then goes on X to endorse Vice President Harris to run for the presidency. The enormous number of participants and millions of dollars raised in the Black women for Kamala Harris Zoom call that night set the stage and the tone for more than a week of similar widely and wildly successful fundraising/volunteer-recruiting Zoom calls.
Monday and Tuesday, July 22-23: Harris is talking with delegates to secure their votes, campaigning. She and spouse Doug, still-isolating Joe on the phone, meet in Delaware to begin consolidating campaigns.
Wednesday, July 24: Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office.
Sunday, July 28 newShrink:”A Master Class in Memorable”
Monday, August 5: Harris secures delegate count, is officially Democratic nominee for President. She names Gov. Tim Walz of MN as her running mate, and they begin a weeklong blitz of joint campaign rallies drawing enthusiastic crowds of 12,000-15,000 in battleground states. Fundraising surges to record-shattering levels,
Sunday, August 11 newShrink: “Meme🇺🇸Time…”
Week of August 12-present: Both candidates continue intense campaigning separately across battleground and swing states, polls begin to shift favorably toward Harris/Walz with competitive potential paths to victory leading into the week’s convention..
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coming soon
Through the election and beyond I’ll be collecting relevant memes, cartoons and at-a-glance quotes. Please do send me those that speak to you.
Beginning soon after the DNC, I’ll be exploring and actively engaging in my own election-related volunteer options and experiences of all kinds. I want to hear yours, too. Good sources if you want to be involved in Vote Blue volunteer efforts, if you haven’t already, are Act Blue (a seamless way to donate too), Indivisible, and your county and state’s party campaign offices among a host of others.
You can get set up to write and mail voter-reminder postcards, make calls using a script from a phone bank, help register voters at public gatherings, and/or be trained and armed with scripts and a team partner to safely canvass door-to-door. (Canvassing can be to ensure voters are registered and prepared to vote, to get input from voters about whats most important to them — which can now be sent immediately back to inform the candidates’ campaigns. Canvasses also help inform voters when they’re in newly redrawn and often gerrymandered districts, and when their usual voting precinct location has been changed without voter-notification.)
Along with pre-election partisan efforts to elect candidates, there are ongoing non-partisan things that are of passionate interest for me, and maybe you too? These may include voting-rights efforts and volunteering to register new voters. A favorite volunteer gig in my area is through the non-partisan League of Women Voters, registering not only new voters but sworn, newly minted naturalized US citizens at ceremonies held in federal courts. (Despite its name, the LWV is open to all, not gender-specific or exclusive.)
On this topic, this New York Times story may dispel any illusions you may have regarding MAGA support even for legal immigrants, and despite labor shortages and their proven benefit to our economy.
Immigrants Are Becoming U.S. Citizens at Fastest Clip in Years
The government has reduced a backlog of applications that built up during the Trump administration. New citizens say they are looking forward to voting in November.
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Circling back to the Chihuly comment and glasswork images of the the lede illustration, a synchronistic “this date 6 years ago” appeared in my Facebook feed: Photos taken at Biltmore in AVL, when the Chihuly exhibit comprehensively involved every imaginable space outdoors, indoors and transitional areas in between. Much of the display was well-lit and quite glorious at night. In fact, that Chihuly exhibit so overpowered the otherwise magnificent house, gardens and other areas of the estate itself. That made the historic- and family-story-intensive quality of the current main house and garden visit extremely engaging on this trip. While both museum and the sampling of Chihuly works on display this time are wonderful, compared with the estate-wide vistas of glass previously it inevitably seemed sparse. Rather a Goldilocks effect where Chihuly is concerned: “overwhelming abundance” to “good, but not quite enough!”
Here are the August 2018 ones. See what you think…
🎵 Time after time…🎵
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And, that is all I have! Talk to you soon.
🦋💙 tish
… it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.
— William Stafford, “A Ritual to Read to Each Other”
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