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May 15, 2025

Cambridge Spy

Nonpartisan and Education-based News for Cambridge

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Remembering Neil King at the Avalon

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As the Spy and thousands of fans of the writer Neil King, Jr. continue to mourn his early death last week, we reached out to our friends at the Avalon to obtain the video of Neil’s appearance with his friend and photographer Jeff McGuines in the Stoltz Listening room in November 2023.  They gathered in a filled room to talk about Neil’s book, American Ramble, for one of our Spy Nights, and it seemed like the perfect long-form interview of two close friends delightfully rambling themselves to share with our readers on a lazy Sunday morning on the Mid-Shore of Maryland.

This video is approximately 50 minutes in length.

 

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Delmarva Review: You Learn Transaction, Before Anything Else by Marlowe Jones

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Author’s note: This poem spurred several conversations among my classmates about the ethics of writing about one’s family. To me, it’s about nostalgia and childhood innocence, how innocence is another word for ‘ignorance’, and how childhood nostalgia doesn’t discriminate between negative and positive experiences. I attempt to communicate this disconnect between reality and memory with my lack of capitalization and my choppy line breaks and enjambments. As for the ethics, I landed on this: where else can I say what happened, if not a poem?

You Learn Transaction,
Before Anything Else

this is the game
this is how it works

dad dares you you
do the dare dad 

pays you money
the first dare is small 

eat the hot peppers
in the bottle in the diner 

booth you get five bucks
you swallow six peppers 

ask him if that means you
get 30 he laughs which means 

not this time but you keep
that in mind the next dares 

go quick you squeeze small body
into even smaller spaces you 

get ten bucks you lick
the frozen bus stop 

pole that’s fifteen would’ve
been twenty but your tongue 

didn’t stick the game has
one rule this is the rule 

you follow above all
don’t tell mom don’t 

tell mom any of this
and you don’t his money’s 

good the last dare the very
last but you don’t know 

that yet is out in the nowhere
by the railroad tracks dad 

says lay down you say how
long he says til i say get 

up you say how much
he says fifty you lay 

down close your eyes
spread hands on warm 

wood and wait for his
words or the rumble 

you lay still and dead
or close enough you think 

you hear a whistle three
stops off you wait for him he 

waits til the gates go ting
ting ting and pulls you off 

you say nothing you hold
out your hand he gives you 

the money you walk home
still saying nothing 

when mom asks if you had fun
you still follow the one rule 

and when he leaves three
weeks later for good this time 

you can only
think to yourself 

my god i should’ve
asked for more 

⧫

Marlowe Jones is a student in the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts Program (NEOMFA)  through Cleveland State University. His poems have been published in Green Blotter, Sink Hollow, and The Courtship of Winds under a previous name. His interests outside poetry include horror movies, folklore, and birdwatching. 

The Delmarva Review, published in St. Michaels, MD, gives writers a desirable home in a printed edition (with an electronic version) for their most compelling new prose and poetry. Available to all writers for their best work, the review has been produced  at a time when many commercial  publications (and literary magazines) are closing their doors or reducing literary content. For each annual edition, the editors have read thousands of submissions to select the best  new poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Almost half of the writers are from the Delmarva and Chesapeake region. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, support comes from tax-deductible contributions and a grant from Talbot Arts with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council. Website: www.DelmarvaReview.org

 

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

From and Fuller: Politics and Rhetoric After 2nd Attempt on Donald Trump and Andy Harris’s Freedom Caucus

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Every Thursday, the Spy hosts a conversation with Al From and Craig Fuller on the most topical political news of the moment.

This week, From and Fuller discuss the political consequences of the second attempt on Donald Trump’s life and the potential for his security to become a campaign issue. Al and Craig also chat about Rep. Andy Harris’s appointment as the new chair of the Freedom Caucus this week.

This video podcast is approximately sixteen minutes in length.

To listen to the audio podcast version, please use this link:

Background

While the Spy’s public affairs mission has always been hyper-local, it has never limited us from covering national, or even international issues, that impact the communities we serve. With that in mind, we were delighted that Al From and Craig Fuller, both highly respected Washington insiders, have agreed to a new Spy video project called “The Analysis of From and Fuller” over the next year.

The Spy and our region are very lucky to have such an accomplished duo volunteer for this experiment. While one is a devoted Democrat and the other a lifetime Republican, both had long careers that sought out the middle ground of the American political spectrum.

Al From, the genius behind the Democratic Leadership Council’s moderate agenda which would eventually lead to the election of Bill Clinton, has never compromised from this middle-of-the-road philosophy. This did not go unnoticed in a party that was moving quickly to the left in the 1980s. Including progressive Howard Dean saying that From’s DLC was the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

From’s boss, Bill Clinton, had a different perspective. He said it would be hard to think of a single American citizen who, as a private citizen, has had a more positive impact on the progress of American life in the last 25 years than Al From.”

Al now lives in Annapolis and spends his semi-retirement as a board member of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (his alma mater) and authoring New Democrats and the Return to Power. He also is an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School and recently agreed to serve on the Annapolis Spy’s Board of Visitors. He is the author of “New Democrats and the Return to Power.”

For Craig Fuller, his moderation in the Republican party was a rare phenomenon. With deep roots in California’s GOP culture of centralism, Fuller, starting with a long history with Ronald Reagan, leading to his appointment as Reagan’s cabinet secretary at the White House, and later as George Bush’s chief-of-staff and presidential campaign manager was known for his instincts to find the middle ground. Even more noted was his reputation of being a nice guy in Washington, a rare characteristic for a successful tenure in the White House.

Craig has called Easton his permanent home for the last eight years, where he now chairs the board of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and is a former board member of the Academy Art Museum and Benedictine.  He also serves on the Spy’s Board of Visitors and writes an e-newsletter available by clicking on DECADE SEVEN.

With their rich experience and long history of friendship, now joined by their love of the Chesapeake Bay, they have agreed through the magic of Zoom, to talk inside politics and policy with the Spy every Thursday.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

A Second Assassination Attempt on Trump by J.E. Dean

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The 2024 presidential election keeps getting uglier and uglier. Last week, we heard more about immigrants eating pets than about school children who don’t get lunch. We also read that Donald Trump took a conspiracy theorist who speculated that the September 11 terrorist attacks were an “inside job” to events memorializing those attacks. 

I was reading about Ms. Loomer when the news about the assassination attempt was posted. I was relieved that it was immediately clear that Trump was not hurt. 

Fortunately, police spotted the shooter in time and eventually apprehended him. We should be grateful for the excellent work of the Secret Service and other law enforcement officers involved.

The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, is now in custody. Unlike the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, authorities will be able to fully understand why Routh sought to kill Trump. That information will be useful but could also be dangerous if it motivates more political violence. 

Trump, like Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and dozens of other political figures, is hated by some. That hate, some of it reflecting policy disagreements on issues like immigration, reproductive rights, civil rights, education, and foreign policy, and some of it reflected in race-hate, misogyny, or even the way a candidate looks, is a fact of life for candidates. You cannot run for office in the United States without experiencing it.

Running for public office involves receiving threatening letters, including death threats, efforts to produce damaging information to use in campaigns, and the risk of assassination. As a result, many people who would be outstanding candidates for public office do not run. The risks outweigh the benefits, especially the possibility of assassination.

After the first assassination attempt on Trump on July 13, I was appalled when the ex-president’s campaign launched fundraising efforts intended to monetize the event. I was disgusted when Trump and other suggested that God had intervened to save Trump—if God wanted to save Trump, he would have prevented the shooter from taking a shot at him. Right?

I was equally appalled at sick humor suggesting it was unfortunate that the assassin’s bullet missed. I heard, “He had it coming” and “violence begets violence.”  I do not subscribe to the eye for an eye principle. 

Everyone should condemn both attempts on Trump’s life and pray that another would-be assassin does not make a third attempt on Trump, Harris, or anyone else. That risk is higher than ever now.

Political violence is an attack on democracy. Had either assassination attempt against Trump been successful, I would be denied my opportunity to vote against him. The entire 2024 election would also have been thrown into chaos. Given Trump’s dominance in the Republican party, there is nobody to replace him on the ticket. Certainly not J.D. Vance.

If Harris won the election (against who?), many people would not accept her presidency as legitimate, especially Republicans who, regardless of what police uncovered about the assassination, would blame the Democrats.

Hate can kill democracy, not only because democracy does not work without civil discourse between candidates, but because hate injects fear into voters and candidates. Hate distracts everyone from talking about America’s future and how government should serve the people. And hate makes us question whether we are human enough to be able to govern ourselves.

J.E. Dean is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant. He writes on politics, government, and, too infrequently, other subjects.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

My Five Favorite Books I Have Read this Year by Maria Grant

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As an active member of three book clubs, I read a lot of books. Since I assume you are all caught up on political news, I thought I would share my top five favorite books I’ve read so far this year. 

No. 5. Absolution. The setting for Alice McDermott’s book is Saigon, 1963. The focus is on the “wives” whose husbands have important jobs in Vietnam—foreign service, military, big corporations. The wives are portrayed as “helpmates.” The story is told in retrospect from decades later by letters from one “helpmate” to and from the daughter of another “helpmate” whose mother had died. McDermott was motivated to draft this novel after reading Graham Greene’s The Quiet American. It made her think about Greene’s so called “unimportant characters” perhaps not being so “unimportant.” When considering a title, McDermott met with a good friend of hers, a monsignor in New York. She told him she was thinking of calling her novel Absolution. The monsignor explained that most people do not understand the true meaning of that word. They think it means a get-out-of-jail-free card. But he explained that if you look at the Latin root of the word absolution, it means one who is set free and one who sets free. McDermott then said, “That’s perfect. That’s what I will name my book.”

As an aside, when I was researching information about this book for my Eastern Shore book club, I discovered that McDermott lives in Bethesda. I emailed her and asked if she would have any interest in coming to our book club meeting. She wrote me back that she would love to but was in New York that week. She asked that I let her know how the book club discussion went. I sent her a return email, summing up our discussion which was very favorable. She then replied with a substantive email reviewing some major themes and quoting Flannery O’Connor and more. I thought that was amazing! So is this book.

No. 4. The Situation Room. In this book, George Stephanopoulos details how 12 different presidents dealt with crises during their administrations in the situation room. He tracks events ranging from the defeat of Vietnam, to the defeat of the Soviet Union, to 9/11, to capturing Osama bin Laden, to January 6 and more. The book gives fascinating information about the origins of the room, the improvements that were made to the room over the years and details the numerous ways different presidents used the room. For Jimmy Carter, it was a place he went each day. For Donald Trump, not so much. The book is insightful, entertaining, well-researched and a must-read for those who want to learn more about exactly what transpires when momentous events occur. 

No. 3. Tom Lake. Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake takes place in a cherry orchard in Northern Michigan. The story revolves around a mother and father and their three adult daughters who are thrown together at the family’s cherry orchard during Covid. While they pick cherries, the mother tells them about her short-lived career as an actress while playing Emily in Thorton Wilder’s play Our Town. Her co-star in the play goes on to become a famous actor. Much of the story revolves around their relationship and the decisions that they make that form the trajectories of their lives. Patchett expertly weaves in themes from Chekov’s Cherry Orchard, and Wilder’s Our Town. You will learn a lot about cherries and the fact that, “Sweet cherries must be picked today and every day until they are gone.” In other words, it is important to take time to enjoy life’s simple pleasures. I loved this book. Meryl Streep reads the audio version, and she is, of course, spectacular. 

No. 2. Demon Copperhead. Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead reimagines Dicken’s David Copperfield. She places her story in poor and opioid-addicted rural Appalachia. This novel deals with the shortcomings of American education, the plight of true poverty, and the fact that big pharma contributed mightily to the opioid crisis through its aggressive marketing of Oxycontin.

The first line of David Copperfield is, “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages will show.” The first line of Copperhead is, “Save or be saved, these are questions.” 

A brilliant masterpiece, Demon Copperhead won the Pulitzer Prize in 2023. 

No. 1 James. James by Percival Everett is my favorite book this year. Everett is a Renaissance man in the true sense of the word. He teaches writing at USC, as well as a course in the American Western film genre. He is an abstract painter. He is an avid fly fisherman who makes his own lures. He is married to Danzy Senna who is also a professor and author who recently published the acclaimed novel Colored Television (It was reviewed in Sunday’s NY Times Book Review.) And he is a prolific writer who has written more than 30 books. (His novel Erasure was turned into the Oscar-nominated film American Fiction—one of my favorite movies last year.)  This year, James has been nominated for the Booker Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National book Award. Similar to Kingsolver basing her story on David Copperfield, Everett based his story on the slave Jim, in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. 

In Everett’s novel, James expertly gives white folks what they want. That means that White folks have no idea that James can read and write and often has conversations in his head and in his dreams with Locke, Rousseau, and Voltaire. What I loved most about James is Everett’s depiction of a deep-thinking James who grapples with complex concepts about race, the bible, philosophy, justice, hypocrisy and, of course, freedom. It is a stunning expose about how the White man has consistently underestimated the Black man throughout history. 

For those of you who attended last week’s book talk at the Avalon Theater hosted by Shore Lit founder Kerry Folan and featuring Christopher Tilghman and his new book On the Tobacco Coast, prolific writer and professor Carole Boston Weatherford and her son, as well as Jason Patterson, an African American history-based artist, you will recall that these same concepts were discussed. The four speakers talked about how much history just “got wrong” and how few historians and authors have delved deep into the cerebral depths of many slaves. 

In James, a pencil and a notebook are symbols for freedom—freedom of thought. They represent the concept that thoughts and ideas are something no White man can take from him. It made me think about the book banning going on in today’s world–an effort to squelch the freedom to think about things in a different light—to let the darkness prevail. 

By the way, we held our book club meeting at Book Hounds, a delightful and cozy new bookstore in St. Michaels. Be sure to check it out.

Here is a quote from the author Roald Dahl. “Oh please, oh please we beg, we pray. Go throw your TV set away, and in its place, you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall.”  Yes indeed. 

Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of the federal human capital practice of an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, piano, kayaking, and nature. 

 

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Looking At The Masters: Gustav Klimt

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Internationally known artist Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) grew up in Baumgarten, a town near Vienna. His father was an engraver of gold and silver items, a occupation that made a strong impression on Gustav. Klimt studied at the Vienna College of Applied Arts, where he excelled. He and other students were assigned mural projects in newly built private and public buildings on Vienna’s Ringstrasse. When Klimt was teenager he and fellow artists began painting wall and ceiling murals in the villa built for Empress Elisabeth and in the Art History Museum. He was awarded the Emperor’s Prize for his murals in the auditorium of the Burg Theater in Vienna (1887-88). Klimt’s early paintings were influenced by art of ancient Egypt up to the Renaissance. Many were paintings of young semi-nude females representing allegorical figures. They were considered by some to be too sensual, but Klimt’s reputation grew.

“Judith I” (1901)

The art of Vienna was moving into a new phase known as the Vienna Secession. The young artists of Vienna, like others in major art academies in Europe, were rejecting the old Academy style and embracing a new and different style. When the Vienna Secession was started in 1897, Klimt was elected its first chairman. “Judith I” (1901) (34”x17”) is an example of his more decorative style, known as his “Golden Style.” The decorative gold frame was designed and made by his brother who was a goldsmith.  The subject is Judith and Holofernes, the Old Testament story of the beautiful Jewish woman who cut off the head of Holofernes, the general who was about to destroy her town. It was a popular subject for artists from the 17th Century onward.

Klimt’s figures are more sensual as a result of the gold leaf used to create the background pattern. Judith wears a diamond choker and diaphanous gown with gold patterns. Judith’s eyes are almost closed, her mouth is open, and she shares an ecstatic moment with the viewer as she presents the head of Holofernes.  

The model for Judith was his life-long lover Emile Floge (1874-1952). She was the sister of Helene Floge, who married Klimt’s brother in 1897. Klimt had many affairs during his life, resulting in six children, none with Emile. They did not live together, but the affair continued until Klimt’s death in1918. Emile modeled for many of his paintings. On her own, Emile was a fashion designer and proprietor of a popular women’s clothing store in Vienna. She provided the Viennese avant-guard with elegant fashions in the new style.  

Klimt visited Ravenna, Italy, in 1903, and he fell in love with the golden Byzantine mosaics in the 6th Century Church of San Vitale. He described the mosaics as being “of unbelievable splendor” and a “revelation.” His golden mosaic frieze decorated a room in the Vienna Secession building for the 14th exhibition. Titled “Beethoven Frieze, the work” was 7 feet tall and 112 feet long. He used gold paint, stucco, mirrors, and mother of pearl. The gold mosaic style also was used in painting the dining room walls of the Vienna Werkstatte (workshop) (1905-09) and three walls of the dining room of the Villa Stoclet in Brussels (1905-11).  

“The Kiss” (1908)

Klimt was incredibly prolific. He managed to paint many individual works despite his heavy schedule of commissions. The subjects of “The Kiss” (1908) (71’’x71’’) are considered by many art historians to be Klimt and Emile, locked in a passionate embrace. His unruly black hair is crowned by green leaves, resembling ivy, and his hands embrace her face. Her hair is decorated with flowers. She turns her face to his, eyes closed, waiting for the kiss. One of her hands circles his neck and the other holds on to his hand. Her face, shoulder, elbow, and feet are painted in flesh tones. Both figures are encased in a gold, patterned robe. His side is decorated with a variety of black rectangles representing maleness. Her side is decorated with circular patterns representing the female. Klimt made her gown partially transparent by creating a different set of circular patterns with bouquets of flowers and using the patterns to elongate and outline her back and buttocks. The couple kneel on a bed of individually painted flowers on bright green grass.

“Adele Block Bauer” (1907)

“Adele Bloch-Bauer” (1907) (55.1”x55.1’’) was one of Klimt’s last works in his “Golden style.” The painting was called the Austrian “Mona Lisa.” Klimt was a popular portrait painter among the new Jewish bourgeoise. Adele Bloch-Bauer (1881-1925) was a salon hostess and patron of the arts. 

This portrait is considered a masterpiece of his style. Adele’s large, dark eyes, blushing cheeks, and red lipstick are sensuous. The unusual position of her hands was to hide a broken finger that she found awkward. The stunning diamond choker was a wedding present from her husband. Lavish gold bracelets encircle her arm. Her gown, meant partially to reveal her shape, is designed with patterns of the all-seeing eye and golden triangles. The diaphanous outer gown contains squares with her initials A and B.

When the Nazis stole the painting from the Block-Bauer residence, it was given the name “Woman in Gold” and put on display. Adele’s diamond necklace was taken by Hermann Goering. The 2015 movie “Woman in Gold,” starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds, told the story of Maria Altmann, niece of Adele Block Bauer, who fought to retrieve the painting. “Woman in Gold” was a landmark case of restitution of Nazi plunder. The painting was purchased for $135 million from Maria Altmann in 2006 by the Neue Galerie in New York City. It hangs in the New York gallery at the wish of the Altmann family. 

“Death and Life” (1910-1911)

After his “Golden style” period, Klimt painted several allegorical paintings such as “Death and Life” (1910-1915) (71’’x79’’). They tell provocative stories. When the painting was originally exhibited in 1911 at an International Exhibition in Rome, it was titled “Death” and it won first prize. When the painting was exhibited in 1912 at the International Exhibition in Dresden, it was titled “Death and Life.” Klimt retouched the work in 1915, two years after World War I began, painting large black crosses on Death’s robe. He added more figures and brighter primary colors to the group, and he painted over the gold background with a dark gray-green. In that year his mother, with whom he still lived, died. The 1915 version of the painting is the one shown here.

Death is represented by a dark figure with a grinning skull that stares at Life. His skeletal fingers grip a red club. Life is represented by several figures from all stages of life, infancy to aged. Prominently placed is a newborn male baby surrounded by several young women, the largest female nude, probably representing the mother. The older woman with gray hair wears a blue patterned head scarf. The lovers, one a single adult male with dark hair and tanned skin, the other a nude female with pale skin and red hair, embrace. The cycle of life is represented. The group is surrounded with a pattern of brightly colored flowers and geometric designs. 

With the exception of the female just to the left of the mother figure and whose eyes are open, all appear comfortably asleep, unaware of the presence of Death. Whether or not she is looking at Death is a mystery. The 1915 revisions are often interpreted as Klimt offering hope.

“Death and Life” in Leopold Museum, Vienna

On November 15, 2022, a climate activist group threw an oily black substance on “Death and Life,” on display at the Leopold Museum in Vienna.  One protestor glued himself to the glass that covered the painting. Having tried several different ways, and for several years, to get European governments to stop drilling for oil, and having had no success, the group announced it was disbanding. The group’s message was “New oil and gas drilling is a death sentence to humanity.” Fortunately, the group always chose paintings that were under glass, so no damage was done to the paintings. 

“Bauermgarten” (1907) (43”x43’’)

“Bauermgarten” (1907) (43”x43’’) represents another source of Klimt’s inspiration: his love of rustic gardens. Klimt also loved Vienna, and he left it reluctantly for very short periods. Friends who traveled with him observed he was never so happy as when he was coming home. He would sing, “The wind is blowing briskly toward my homeland.” He made several paintings of gardens filled with daisies, poppies, roses, sunflowers, and others, all popular garden flowers, composed in triangular patterns. These paintings also were incredibly popular in his time as well as today. This painting was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in March 2017 for $59.3 million, the highest price ever paid for a Klimt painting at auction.

“Avenue in the Park of Schloss Kamer” (1912)

In addition to painting flower gardens, Klimt painted scenes near his beloved summer home in the village of Unterach, located on the south shore of Lake Attersee. “Avenue in the Park of Schloss Kammer” (1912) (43.3”x43.3”) is one of his many depictions of scenes around the Schloss Kammer castle and the Lake. A cobble stone drive leads to the yellow walls of the castle, but what dominates the painting is the avenue of tall trees along the way. Later in Klimt’s life, he experimented with realism, but he always included his decorative patterns. This scene is a kind of paradise. It is peaceful and inviting. Klimt painted for his own pleasure, but these were among his most popular and purchased paintings.

 

“Art is a line around your thoughts.” (Klimt)

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come: Replace Presidential Election Debates With Candidate Forums by David Reel

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Recently the Harris campaign and the Trump campaigns finally agreed on the following protocol for their debate on Tuesday night September 10.

90 minutes of debate time with two commercial breaks.

Moderators are ABC News anchor and managing editor David Muir and ABC News Live “Prime” anchor Linsey Davis. 

No opening statements. 

Closing statements will be two minutes per candidate.

No live audience.

Each candidate’s microphone will be muted when it isn’t their turn to speak.

The candidates cannot ask each other questions. 

Each candidate has two minutes to answer each question with a two-minute rebuttal and an additional minute for a follow-up, clarification, or response.

Candidates will stand behind podiums and are prohibited from interacting with their staff.

No pre-written notes or props. 

It will air on ABC and stream on ABC News Live, Disney +, and Hulu. Viewers can also stream the debate on the ABC app on a smartphone or tablet, on ABC.com and connected devices.

Post debate, ABC News staff will provide their analysis, their fact checks and their opinions on the biggest takeaways from the night.

One has to wonder how much thoughtful analysis, reliable fact checks, and opinions on the biggest takeaways from the night can occur immediately after the debate rather than after more deliberative, rigorous, and objective thinking.

The bottom line is the current presidential debate process in broken. The reasons are simple and were addressed recently by the Washington Post’s Editorial Board and by Washington Post columnist Philip Bump. 

The Post’s editorial board cited a Post and Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University survey reporting only 3 in 10 residents of six of the most important states in this year’s presidential election trusted the media will fairly and accurately report political news. Bump has written “Americans simply don’t trust the media, particularly when it comes to politics.”

That media includes, but is not limited to the following major television broadcasting networks — ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX NEWS, MSNBC, CNN, PBS, and CW.

Recently, the words “an existential threat to democracy” have been used ad infinitum.

I suggest one unaddressed existential threat to democracy is when the media who is not trusted by Americans proposes debate ground rules, develops debate questions, moderates a debate, and offers rapid response post-debate analysis and rapid response post-debate fact checking for presidential debates.

To address that threat, I suggest there is a much better system based a model on policy discourses from a time when America was deeply divided, just as we are now. 

Iin 1858, (three years before the start of civil war), Abraham Lincoln engaged in widely followed political dialogue with Stephen A. Douglas. All that dialogue was characterized by open, candid, civil, and issue- driven conversations focused on helping voters learn more about the views of Lincoln and Douglas. 

These conversations with voters often included supporters applauding for their candidate. When that happened Douglas said, “My friends, silence will be more acceptable to me in the discussion of these questions than applause. I desire to address myself to your judgement, your understanding, and your consciences, and not to your passions or your enthusiasms.”

To do that today, we need to reduce the currently outsized role of television in presidential election debates. Instead of debates they could broadcast candidate forums.

These forums could feature one candidate at a time in a 90-minute prime time broadcast. In that broadcast they could talk about whatever they wanted to, including, but not limited to why they want to be president, what has prepared them to serve, and what exactly they will strive to accomplish if elected. Speaking for a 90-minute forum will be a way to demonstrate to voters their stamina, their understanding of issues, and their communication skills.

Candidate eligibility for a televised forum could be the same as those in place for the current debates — polling thresholds and appearing on enough state ballots to theoretically get a majority of electoral votes in the November election.

Those forums could be broadcast on a rotating basis starting with the broadcast network with the highest levels of viewership, then rebroadcast, unedited, on all the other networks. 

In addition, verbatim unedited transcripts of the forums could be widely circulated by print and other electronic media outlets.

At a time when Americans do not trust the media on political news, candidate forums could:

Eliminate the media setting debate rules, preparing debate questions, serving as debate moderators, and offering their rapid reaction post event analysis and fact checks.

Maximize voter’s opportunities to reach their own conclusions about candidates based on what they observe during a forum and/or read about after a forum. 

Provide all voters with easily accessible and more reliable information prior to voting.

Now more than ever, candidate forums instead of debates are an idea whose time has come.

David Reel is a public affairs and public relations consultant who lives in Easton.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Why Isn’t Harris Winning More if Trump is So Bad? By J.E. Dean

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I heard less about Kamala Harris’ momentum this weekend. This morning, I read that Trump is leading in four of the seven battleground states. All this follows a three-week period that should have been an election disaster for Donald Trump. He is getting crazier in his name-calling. He flip-flopped on reproductive rights. And he just is not looking well. I read one tweet on X that questioned whether he would “make it” to November.

What is happening? Shouldn’t the Harris-Walz ticket be surging? Younger, low-income voters who favored Trump before President Biden’s exit from the race now support Harris by double digits. Does that mean that Trump is picking up support elsewhere to partially offset other losses in support?

I do not know the answers and am not sure I want to know them. I frequently question the choices of Trump voters, but I am not ready to call them idiots, “deplorables,” or suggest they should not have the right to vote. I wonder about the enthusiasm for Trump demonstrated by many of the ex-president’s followers. What are they enthusiastic about? In interviews, these supporters do not seem to be the type of people who have read all 900+ pages of Project 2025.

One explanation for Trump’s resilience in the polls is that Harris’ economic message is not what many voters want to hear. Promises to tax corporations and billionaires, for example, often fall on deaf ears. People do not believe that taxing Bill Gates or Elon Musk will solve their personal problems. Instead, many believe the new taxes will be evaded or, worse, wasted by the government before benefiting people that could use help. Many voters still believe Reagan’s claim that “Government is not the solution to our problem; it is the problem.”

Many voters, especially White males, also remain skeptical of Harris, which is to say they do not trust her. Some simply do not want a woman in the White House. But others believe Trump when he says that she is a communist bent on destructing America. By destructing America, he means imposing new rules and regulations meant to create a more equitable society. These voters assume some of those rules and regulations will change their lives. One claim I have heard many times is that employment opportunities will go to “minorities” (who is the minority these days?) at their expense.

Trump appears confident that a combination of “destroying the brand” of Harris and Walz while promising to close the border and end inflation (isn’t inflation already ending?) will be enough to win the election. He may be right.

The Harris agenda should be attractive to most voters. A more equitable society is a safer one. And most of us do not like housing shortages that result in homelessness, school-age children not being properly fed, unavailable health care to many, failing schools, and more. The problem, I think, is that it is difficult to communicate proposal details to skeptical, sometimes lazy, voters.

 A call to stop millions of undocumented immigrants from entering the country is simpler to understand than a detailed plan to expand housing opportunity by tax credits, promoting denser housing in cities, and other similar regulations. Harris is not yet trying to educate voters on her proposals, apparently believing that slogans like “We won’t go back” are all that is needed to win in November. For example, she is not attempting to explain how her proposal to address the housing shortage would work, how it would impact individuals. All I hear is that it will be easier to buy a house if you are a low-income person.

So, what is my advice to the candidates? If I wanted Trump to win the election, I would tell him to visit a hypnotist who would help him focus. Without the craziness, Trump’s message, racist as it is, would reach more voters who might support it. Trump, in other words, is his own worst enemy. His base is fine with his simple MAGA agenda, but they are starting to worry about his age and sanity.

I, of course, do not want Trump to win. My advice to Harris is to get comfortable talking policy in greater details while being careful not to offer policy proposals that lend themselves to Trump’s demagoguery. Moderate and independent voters are hungry for a candidate who is not Trump, but they also need to be comfortable with that candidate. They hunger for an intelligent discussion of policy alternatives.

Harris has the first part nailed. She is the antithesis of Trump in likeability, ethics, energy, and more. The second part requires stronger performances in interviews, a better-than-expected showing at the September 10 debate, and the ability to not succumb to Trump’s attacks on her gender, ethnic background, and history as a California progressive.

Can Harris do it? Our future may depend on it.

J.E. Dean is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant. He writes on politics, government, and, too infrequently, other subjects.

 

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