"This is a time to roll up our sleeves…to organize, to mobilize, and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together. Many people feel like we are entering a dark time. But only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. Let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion of stars. The light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service. And may that work guide us even in the face of setbacks toward the extraordinary promise of the United States of America. "
Kamala Harris
Day 18: December 18, 2024
President-Not-Elect Musk
Perhaps more than any day yet, Day 18 foretold the future we should expect when it comes to the operation of the federal government:
Elon Musk, not elected to anything, used X to initiate repeated attacks on the end-of-year budget deal in Congress that would curtail a government shutdown. He threatened to oppose any supportive House Republican in their next primary, prompting GOP House members to publicly signal their opposition. Hours later, Trump and Vance followed, also announcing their opposition. The deal is now dead, two days before a looming shutdown.
In part due to the uncertainty and dysfunction, the Dow Jones fell almost 1,000 points—timed almost exactly when the drama began to unfold on social media.
Truly a bizarre and dysfunctional sequence of events. But no doubt a harbinger of the future.
This quote from FDR in 1936 feels as apropos as ever: “It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over Government itself.”