Good morning. Paul Thornton here. Today is Saturday, June 29, 2024. Here’s what we’ve been doing at Opinion lately.
By the time you read this, I may already be in Oslo, Norway. The timing is perfect. Now feels like the time to be far, far away from the US. (I should probably mention that I’m heading back in the next few weeks, late July.)
Let’s be honest. Thursday’s debate between former President Trump and President Biden was “embarrassing,” just as my colleague Mariel Garza predicted in our last opinion newsletter. The president should have hit a home run, but he managed to bunt just fine. But it’s a mystery why the president should be held to a different standard than Trump, who lies at every opportunity to get away with it and is comically incoherent on his best days. It’s also a mystery how anyone could debate someone who lies so shamelessly.
But certainly the lone defender of democracy in this race is in a precarious position, because if we take the polls seriously, American voters are ready to tear down the constitutional order because of high gas prices and rising grocery prices. Add in the physical decline of age and you might see a significant number of voters give up on voting.
Thankfully, there are plenty of people who can take a step back and look at the bigger picture, even if they don’t particularly like either candidate, like opinion columnist LZ Granderson, who says this election is a matter of survival, especially for LGBTQ+ people like him.
“Have you forgotten that one of the first things the Trump administration did on its first day in office was to start removing references to the LGBTQ+ community from government websites? In the space of a few hours, as if erasing queer people was one of his top priorities…
“That’s what I was thinking as I was coming to terms with the reality that the choice for president of the United States was between a very old man with a good heart and a crazy old man with an agenda.
“For most of us, it’s a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils.
“But this is not such a big deal for those of us who remember past administrations hunting down gay federal employees and driving them out of work (the “Lavender Rush” of the 1950s, 60s and 70s). Or the Republican administrations of the 80s and 90s letting us die in the streets during the AIDS crisis. There are more than two evils to consider.
“The only thing we can do is survive.”
The Times editorial board also noted that Biden beat Trump on substance, but acknowledged that the president needs to allay concerns about Biden’s fitness for another term.
“When asked about his age, Biden countered by pointing to the accomplishments of his administration — a variation of the ‘watch what we do, not what we say’ phrase — and it was well-founded. But voters who saw the debates as a test of their vitality might well be left unsatisfied by that response.
“For the remainder of the campaign, Biden needs to work harder to defend his record not just in the debates but in the dignified manner he demonstrated in his State of the Union address this year. The stakes for the country are too high.”
Joe Biden has always put his duty to his country first. Will he do so again this time? Former Republican strategist Kurt Bardella wrote in 2019 that he hoped Biden would run for reelection. He cited the same qualities back then when he called on the president to step aside now after his disastrous debate performance: “I have boundless respect and admiration for the president. He embodies the character and leadership that our country deserves. He has become one of the most influential presidents in American history. But he cannot stand the test of time. With all my heart and respect, I say this: Joe Biden, your country needs you, just not in the way you would like.”
Los Angeles’ decline in homelessness shows that efforts to house people are working. Finally, the numbers are heading in the right direction. According to the 2024 Point in Time Homeless Count, the city’s homeless population fell 2.2% last year. That’s an encouraging change after a 10% increase in numbers last year. “For Los Angeles County and the city, no problem has been more challenging, expensive, or painful than housing and supporting tens of thousands of people living on sidewalks and in shelters,” the editorial board said. “So it’s encouraging that the strategy employed by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass appears to be working.”
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Has Hawaii paved the way for courts to enforce California’s climate pledges? It’s one thing to set lofty targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions that must be met in the distant future, and another to put in the hard work to implement them. A lawsuit brought by Hawaii’s young people over the state’s progress toward its climate goals highlights that difference. Now, the settlement that sets the interim targets could serve as an example of how young people and leaders in other states can work together, write Carla Horowitz and Evan George of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
He has recurring memory problems. Dementia? Author Todd Balfe suffered a stroke that seriously jeopardized his ability to write (and therefore his career). He mostly recovered, but for years he suffered from memory problems. So he took a cognitive test, and the results were poor. What has he been doing since then? Balfe writes: “In a few days, my first non-fiction book in 10 years will be published. I began researching it within a few months of seeing the cognitive test report, which includes source notes and a lengthy bibliography of books I read for research. A few family emergencies delayed my start, but I met the deadline for the book and finished the majority of it in three months.”
More of this week’s thoughts
From the columnist
From the Opinion Desk
From the Editorial Board
Letter to the editor