Who Can We Trust?

Some late-night thoughts on our institutions

I feel adrift lately, and I know a lot of people are feeling the same way. The institutions we have grown to trust seem slippery and distant these days, and we’re just out here in open water searching for an anchor of truth.

The media I once turned to is a shadow of its former self. In recent weeks, we have seen trusted sources misquote Senator Blumenthal. They have misrepresented what Nancy Pelosi has said. They took the White House visitor logs and spun a tale about the President having Parkinson’s disease based on the fact that a neurologist had visited the White House Medial Unit multiple times. Had they done an ounce of due diligence, they’d have found that the neurologist holds a clinic for over 1000 patients, and that many of his visits occurred while the President was out of town. They attributed a quote from Representative Mark Takano to Ted Lieu. They have utterly failed to hold Trump to any standard while demanding President Biden hammer out a schedule that would exhaust a 30 year old. They have ignored our demands for medical information surrounding the shooting at the trump rally in Pennsylvania. They fawn over a “serene” donald who they claim has pivoted to “unity” while RNC goers hold up “BEGIN MASS DEPORTATION” signs. And they yanked a show off the air and lied to us and the hosts about why.

Then there are the polls. If you spend a few minutes searching, you can find one that conveniently backs your position regardless of what it is. There are polls that show Biden is up since the debate. Some that say he’s surpassed donald. There are polls that say he’s down in swing states. And today we had ABC tell us that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi called for Biden to drop out of the race, and when reached for comment, both said they were conveying the thoughts of other caucus members but neither would outright deny the reporting.

And of course, we have social media. Owned by American Oligarchs eager to fund the election of donald trump in hopes of getting a position in his second administration so they can enjoy some of that sweet criminal immunity bestowed upon the Oval Office by a captured court. Though don’t get me started on the courts. They have also lost all trust of the American People: overturning Chevron, overturning Roe, killing affirmative action, dismissing trump’s espionage case, and crowning presidents above the law.

So who do we trust?

We can trust results. Democrats have won nearly every election by double digits since we blocked the red wave in 2022 despite the polling. We can see what they did in the UK and France. And we can trust the Biden/Harris record. We have the Inflation Reduction Act - the single biggest climate protection bill in history - which also funded the IRS to go after rich tax cheats that has yielded a $1B return on investment. We have a bipartisan $2T infrastructure bill that has brought over 800K manufacturing jobs back to our shores. Crime is down 26%. Record stock market. Border crossings down 54%. Over 16M jobs created with record-low unemployment. Fewer than 13% of us make less than $15 an hour - down from 32% just two years ago. We have the PACT Act. The CHIPS and Science Act. The largest job and small business creation renaissance for rural counties in two decades. Student Debt Relief. Abortion enshrined in state constitutions. The first common sense gun legislation in 30 years. And we did it all with razor-thin majorities.

That’s what we can trust. President Biden, Vice President Harris, their incredible record of achievements, and each other. Our votes. The single most powerful check on executive power - and with Chevron gone and Oval Office immunity - now likely the only check on executive power. The wealthy and powerful fear our votes so much that they will continue to spend millions of dollars to make us think our votes don’t matter. Add to that the ongoing media blitz to divide the democratic party. We are in a dangerous place. We can’t fight a war amongst ourselves.

No one is coming to save us. As Obama said on Super Tuesday in 2008 - we are the ones we’ve been waiting for. Our institutions - including democracy - are not here to save us. We are here to save and protect our institutions. And no matter who is on that ballot come November - I trust us to do the right thing.

So let’s get to work.

~AG