Don’t Count Out Ben Jealous and His Progressive Message for Maryland

Don’t Count Out Ben Jealous and His Progressive Message for Maryland

Don’t Count Out Ben Jealous and His Progressive Message for Maryland

A massive mobilization of an anti-Trump, heavily female, and African American base in a very blue state could lead to a November surprise.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

When much of America was watching Brett M. Kavanaugh’s interview on Fox News on September 24, there was another important broadcast being aired: the Maryland gubernatorial debate, in which Democratic nominee Ben Jealous faced off with incumbent Republican Governor Larry Hogan.

Ahead of the debate, polls showed Hogan with 64 percent job approval and a 22-point lead in the race. This debate, the only one scheduled when Jealous had requested as many as five, was an opportunity for him to share his story and vision, tying both to the state’s future. At the same time, he had to try to reveal the sheep’s clothing on the wolf who is Hogan.

Hogan has been defined by the mainstream media as a moderate. The Washington Post, for instance, has claimed that Hogan has “governed as a moderate,” and ran a headline that called him “radically normal.”

Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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