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IT’S A TRIP

Communication technology has radically changed in my lifetime – think cellphones, 84-inch TV screens, the whole freakin’ Internet.

But we’re pretty much using the same transportation technology that existed since before I was born.

I don’t imagine a President Kamala Harris is going to be as bold as to push for magnetic levitation, vacuum or anything else short of the impossible (see: “Star Trek,” transporter). So I’ll settle for improving and rebuilding our systems of getting places – and that’s a commitment that will be more of a continuation than a change.

President Biden should go down in history for what’s he captained in terms of infrastructure. It might be frustrating to get stuck in traffic caused by the umpteen highway improvement projects around the country. 

But making these roads safer and more efficient is a job that’s long overdue – and Biden did all this while boosting employment and, yes, keeping the inflation inherent in such an expansion in check. (Yes, we had inflation problems, but those were more about supply chain shortfalls caused by the pandemic.)

Improving highways isn’t the best way to meet our nation’s transportation needs. The idea is to get more people out of cars rather than into them in order to combat climate change and move people more efficiently. But that will take time.

Fortunately, the Biden-Harris administration has been clear-minded about pushing for alternative fuel – particularly, electric – vehicles. And it’s making a difference – there are lots more hybrid and electric vehicles on the road. People are starting to realize how much better life can be when you don’t need to unburden yourself of $40 or $50 to fill a gas tank each week.

Harris wants to expand the network of charging stations so that you’re never more than a few miles away from one. Her administration would also need to push automakers to improve battery life and length – long-distance trips are still a problem because of limited vehicle range.

Biden’s being a train freak has been a boon for public transportation. Improvements in intercity rail and commuter lines were prioritized – New York and New Jersey are finally building a new tunnel to replace century-old infrastructure under the Hudson River.

Now it’s time to expand. Europe and East Asia thrive on high-speed rail. There’s no reason the United States can’t. If it took less than five hours to from midtown New York to downtown Chicago by train, wouldn’t you rather take that than schlep to LaGuardia, wait for a 2-hour flight, then schlep from O’Hare to the Loop.

Secretary Pete Buttigieg – whose high profile has been a reassuring sign that Biden and Harris took transportation seriously – has pushed for an expansion of high-speed rail projects across the country. It’s going to take a while to build them – probably beyond the lifetime of many of us.

But let’s at least start.

One other transportation thought.

This summer, New York was on the verge of a bold experiment, the kind that doesn’t happen often in this country. Like several other cities around the world – London, in particular – New York was going to initiate congestion pricing – making drivers pay a toll to enter midtown and lower Manhattan.

The idea would be to unclog the narrow streets of the nation’s largest city, making it easier for vehicles that absolutely need to get around. Nothing terrifies me quite like seeing an ambulance stuck in gridlock on an impassable side street – imagine the poor person fighting for his or her life inside.

People who live in the suburbs squawked. How dare New York charge us extra to bring our pickups and SUVs into town? (Forgetting how they bar non-residents from using their parks and pools.) So the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul, caved and put off the plan’s implementation.

Should Harris win the White House, she should push to get the experiment started. And she should also, after making sure officials keep their promise to fund mass transit with the revenue from the program, pump federal money into the city to help improve the subways and buses.

Getting people from here to there – safely, quickly and cleanly – appears to be a goal of the Harris-Walz campaign. And let’s face it, it’s the only campaign thinking about something that serious.

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OLDEN DAYS

Whenever one of my contemporaries complains about the problems of getting older, my kneejerk response is “It’s better than the alternative.”

But sometimes I wonder.

Families go through hell when a parent or grandparent requires more than just routine care. In particular, dementia takes an incredible toll on a family’s psychology and finances.

There’s nothing federal or state governments can do to make the emotional pain of watching a loved one diminish. But anything that can be done to lessen the financial burden will help families deal with the heartbreak.

Earlier this month, Kamala Harris proposed allowing Medicare to help pay the costs of elderly home care. She says her administration would pay for this through some of the savings achieved through negotiating drug prices.

It’s an idea and seems worth trying. 

The details would be interesting. Would Medicare establish floors and ceilings for what care providers could receive as part of the reimbursement? Would there be minimum standards for quality?

Right now, finding people to attend to an elder in your care is crazy – at least here in New York. There are agencies and contractors, and they try to place people who might not be especially qualified for the task.

And there are all kinds of other issues. Are families in compliance with IRS regulations concerning taxes? Are the care providers in the country legally, or are they undocumented? How much of a family’s fortune needs to be spent before it qualifies for other forms of assistance, such as Medicaid?

As part of her plans for families caring for elderly members, Harris wants to end the practice of allowing the seizure of deceased recipients’ homes to help allay the costs of care. That is certainly a good thing.

Harris says she’s made these proposals after thinking about the difficulties she had when her mother was dying of breast cancer. That’s something Americans can relate to – when we talk about “economic anxiety,” that – and not some blatantly racist trope – is what we should mean.

The other key issue affecting those who are is the protection of Social Security and Medicare.

Republicans hate those two programs. They are what endear so many Americans to the Democratic Party – gifts from Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson to this generation and beyond.

Because the population is aging, the costs of these programs are taxing the systems that support them. This has given opponents an opening. For instance, they believe letting Social Security become a voucher program that allows funds to be invested as recipients see fit would help.

Which it wouldn’t. Especially now, at the point of our lives when Social Security is a crucial part of our income. It would be like gambling. And one mistake could be life-changing – and threatening.

Harris is looking at a longstanding Democratic idea – raising the ceiling at which income is taxed for Social Security and Medicare purposes. It’s ridiculous that Elon Musk pays a lower percentage of his income toward these programs – which he doesn’t need – than a teacher, a policeman or a miner.

But, as befits the point of these pieces, it’s not something you hear a lot about in the campaign coverage. Because the idea is to not let this message get heard – for fear it’s really popular among the demographic that could ensure her election.

It matters to my generation. It matters to my kids. I’ll bet it matters to you. 

In more ways than one, that beats the alternative.

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I’VE GOT ISSUES

This is, as you have heard more times that you ever wanted, the most consequential presidential election of our lifetime.

The consequences surpass those of the last presidential election in 2020. And, of course, that one had consequences exceeding the 2016 vote. Obviously, 2016 was more consequential than 2012 – which, now that I think about it, probably was the least consequential of the 21st century.

You get the idea.

The problem is that this, seriously, is a real test for our country. It’s about what kind of a nation we are – not what we imagine we are or wish we were. If we’re about governance and community, or grievance and dissolution.

Are we going able to look at ourselves on November 6 and shout hosannas about the beauty of democracy? Or are we going to decide that, yeah, this country is closed until further notice while we clean the place out?

Too much is written about this election already – and I’m somewhat sorry to add to the noise. The fact is I wanted to be more involved in this – I even signed up for a local congressional campaign.

But I admit I don’t have the patience to hear the other side on this. I’ve heard it already. 

I heard it in Citi Field one gray May afternoon when this couple – that was clearly, as my Dad used to say, in their cups – groused loudly about how all these people were getting free stuff thanks to “Clueless Joe” in the White House.

I see in signs on lawns around my neighborhood. “Democrats Support Iran,” “Democrats are Socialists,” “Trump Saved America.”

There are the shirts and signs that read something like “We like country music, the Lord’s Prayer, guns, the American flag and making liberals mad.” As if they like those things only because they hope it gets some people pissed.

I did text messages in 2020 and got the same sort of crap. 

Then there was whatever that was at Madison Square Garden yesterday. I don’t have to catalog the bigotry, the racism and the hatred spewed – you can read about if you haven’t already.

In fact, it took me to this point to tell you what I want to write about instead of that – and what I hope to write about in the run-up to Election Day.

Because, after thinking about it, I’ve got a theory about why this election is even close.

It has to do with a strategy that includes the venomfest that polluted midtown Manhattan. That display was not designed to convince anybody to vote for Donald Trump. 

It was designed to keep people talking about Donald Trump. Because when “Morning Joe” and “The View” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” are talking about Trump and the asininity around him, they are not talking about what Kamala Harris would do if she was elected.

That is the point.

Michelle Obama raised a great point in her speech in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Saturday: Harris is held to a much higher standard that Trump. It’s unfair. Or as Van Jones said, she needs to be flawless, while he can be lawless.

And the fact is that she meets that higher standard. Consistently. Constantly. With passion, with intelligence, with empathy and with joy.

You won’t know that. That won’t be the zeitgeist. Because the cacophony of Trumpania is designed to make sure you don’t.

It explains why people think she’s not specific about what she would do as President. Because no one can hear what she has to say when the national conversation is about who maligned Puerto Rico or Hannibal Lecter or eating dogs in Ohio.

Before Trump came along, seeking the presidency was about a vision. Even if you disagreed with it – I’m a lifelong Democrat and have never contemplated voting for a Republican, but I know John McCain and Mitt Romney had some sort of idea about moving America toward the future.

Trump doesn’t give a damn. As long as he panders to his base, he’ll say anything. Do you think he really cares one way or another about abortion? Or even how to build a national economy?

As long as people support him for giving them tax breaks and eroding women’s rights, he’s fine.

So what I want to talk about the next few days is the future. The place we’re all going for at least some of the way.

Because Kamala Harris has tried to campaign on what she’d do as the 47th President of the United States. And Donald Trump doesn’t want her to do that.

So we’ll talk about a few things that require our attention: housing, elder care, transportation, immigration, America’s role in the world, education and our politics.

Now that’s the kind of discussion I can look forward to.

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IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, BREAK GLASS

For the past three nights, I’ve watched my TV set with jitters.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I worried that my resurgent Mets would run afoul of the Yankees. I hate watching the Mets lose to the Yankees as much as I hate any scenario in sports – or anything else for that matter.

I needn’t have worried. The Mets bludgeoned the Yankees both nights. Mr. Met’s legions triumphed over the guys with the 27-rings shirts and the bandwagoners in pinstripe shirts with the name on the back.

So I hoped to go 3-for-3 last night watching the debate between President Biden and Donald Trump. Sure, I had the same sense of dread as the other two nights. But they turned out OK, so maybe the debate would too.

Uh, no. 

You could tell when he walked onto the stage that it was going to be bad. He looked like a befuddled old man trying to find a seat on a park bench. His gait was halting. His mouth formed a circle like the one in Munch’s “The Scream.”

He painfully reminded me of my father’s final years, when a vigorous, strong man was diminished.

I would trade both those Met wins for Biden holding his own. Alas, I can’t.

Since then, I’ve had three thoughts that, even though you didn’t ask, I’m going to share.

ONE: Within five minutes of the debate’s end, I sent a campaign contribution to the Biden-Harris campaign.

I wasn’t completely sure how I felt in the moment. But like many other Democrats, I think of Joe Biden as a hero. He took on Trump at a perilous moment in 2020 and, despite the mewling of Trump and his sycophants, beat him like a drum.

And Biden has delivered a remarkable presidency. Which leads to…

TWO: History has its eyes on you, as they sing in “Hamilton.” 

Much was made of the fact that Biden kept referring to the presidential historians who rate Trump the worst president ever. And, OK, maybe he shouldn’t have dwelled on that.

But in 2074, when late-century historians evaluate Biden’s presidency, they’ll see his legislative accomplishments, his focus on economic fairness, the quality of his staff, and the humanity and decency that comes naturally to him. And they’ll put him in the pantheon of greats – in the same line as Washington, Lincoln and FDR.

Unless…

THREE: History is written by the winners. If historians in 2074 have to be certified by the Stephen K. Bannon School of Historical Revision and Correction, Biden won’t come out so well. 

The 388 million Americans of that time will hear how Biden allowed 6 billion people to illegally cross the border. Because all 7 billion of them got put on Social Security and Medicare, those programs had to be canceled. And the 8 billion terrorists who came into the country were only foiled from their nefarious plans by the wisdom of Tsar Donald I.

Even among those remaining who remember democracy in the United States, they will blame Biden for allowing Trump to get back into the White House.

How Biden looked and sounded last night are one thing. It’s what he failed to do and mention that have me shaken. The effort to ban IVF and birth control. The threat to LGBTQ rights, including the same-sex marriages of people such as my daughter and her wife. The 2025 Project, a playbook for totalitarianism.

It might have been OK if Biden just had one bad night – as many Democratic leaders are calling it – against Nikki Haley or Marco Rubio or Mitt Romney. It’s another to have it against Donald Trump.

We’d be screwed if the soldiers invading Guadalcanal in 1942 and Normandy in 1944 had a bad day. That’s how you have to look at what happened with the president last night.

I don’t know how this is all going to play out. How would the Democrats nominate another candidate?Who would they nominate? Would they pick the next in line, an apparently very unpopular Kamala Harris, or come up with a fusion ticket of Democrats and Never Trump Republicans.

I’m as scared as you are. I think I’d feel better if Joe Biden came to the realization that people who are fond of him feel the same way.

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5 – T AND R ARE THE FIRST TWO LETTERS

My parents, especially my Mom, were big fans of the political dramas of the 1950s and ’60s.

“Advise & Consent,” “Seven Days in May,” “Fail Safe,” “The Manchurian Candidate” and “The Best Man” were all movies they either watched at the movies or when they came on TV.

But in this era of malevolent reality TV (unlike “Queen for a Day” and “This Is Your Life” in the ’50s), the show that unfolded on January 6, 2021 was a political drama that frightened the hell out of half the country.

A mob came to the United States Capitol to thwart the will of the American people, who had voted two months earlier to elect Joe Biden as President of the United States. It came perilously close to capturing some of its targets, including Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, both of whom would likely have been murdered had the thugs gotten their hands on them.

Five people died within two days of the attack, from causes ranging from a gunshot to a stress-induced heart attack. Four police officers, who were overwhelmed by the crowd, committed suicide shortly after.

The images of the attack were stunning: the mob smashing through the windows and doors, beating police officers with clubs, occupying the Senate chamber and destroying property.

But what would have bewildered anyone in 1954 – anyone at any time in American history, perhaps even the Civil War – was that the violence and chaos, the attempted coup, was triggered by the sitting president.

Maybe that’s a little overstated. The idea that a losing incumbent president would seek a violent return to power might have been buried in our minds’ recesses. It’s what happens in countries where the political institutions respect power more than government, might over civility.

It’s just that we never thought it could happen here. We believed Americans were better than that – that our tradition of peaceful transfer, George Washington’s great gift, was still strong in its third century.

Instead, it was as fragile as the ego of a conman.

Donald Trump probably didn’t expect to win the presidency. He’s always been looking for a buck, especially since he’s not particularly good at managing or keeping them. He probably figured there was a way to make big real estate licensing deals or sell crappy branded products by running.

But he won. He appealed to the anger of people who feel elites are ruining the country – forgetting the fact that he’s always claimed to be among the elitest (that’s not a typo) of them all. 

Trump claimed to be a great businessman, despite filing for bankruptcy multiple times. He claimed to be unbigoted, despite a family history of racism. He claimed to be the voice of those who’ve served in the military, despite calling them “suckers” and “losers” in private.

Winning the presidency probably multiplied the self-aggrandizing in his head. And it led to a disastrous term in office. Losing the respect of our allies. Dividing the nation over immigration and race. Kowtowing to dictators like Putin and Kim Jong-Un. And his crowning achievement, mismanaging the worst pandemic in our lifetime.

Trump and his henchman seeded the crowd on January 6, organizing the rally that started the chaos and making sure that opposition to them was weakened. He told his followers that “…if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

And then they marched to the Capitol with their obscene flagpoles, their knives, their bear spray, their Mace. They literally and figuratively defecated on American democracy.

Brave men and women stopped them. What we owe the defenders of the Capitol on Jan. 6 can never be paid in full. 

Brave men and women continue to try to stop them. They’re prosecuting the participants and their record is spectacular. They’re the people in news organizations countering the stupidity with the truth. They’re lawmakers and officials, some of them spurned by their fellow Republicans, seeking to show what really happened and do whatever they can to prevent it from happening again.

But treason isn’t so easily put out. It has been 159 years since the South lost the Civil War – and some people still believe the Confederate flag is still something to revere. Trump is running again – and there are polls showing the possibility that this disgrace of a human being could win.

My parents didn’t live to see January 6. But I’m maudlin enough to think they and our other ancestors watched over us that day. Hopefully, they’ll continue to keep us safe from treason – whose first two letters are not the only thing in common with Trump.

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