In a nutshell, Steve Schmnidt’s 7.8.24 essay — “We Are Running Out of Time” — says that we really, really don’t have much time left to stop a catastrophe.

Transcript: “Where is the mighty voice of the Democratic party asserting Americanism? It’s absent, it’s a whisper, it can’t be heard and this is the tragedy. Democracy is collapsing, not because it’s not good but it’s become weak and corrupt, and because fascism is rising in its place as it did almost 100 years ago.

“This is an extraordinary moment, a dangerous one. The leaders of the Democratic party have deluded themselves, lied to themselves, engaged in a game of pretend. They looked away, they wished away what was clearly in front of their eyes and here’s the deal — life does not permit such things, it always catches up.

“This moment requires leadership, patriotism, conviction…it requires on the part of Joe Biden an act of humility, an act of patriotism.

“We should appreciate what we’re witnessing. We don’t have much time left to stop it. In fact there are only 42 days until the Democrats [nominate Joe Biden and in so doing] give away the country to Project 2025 and to Donald Trump and [only a few weeks later] Donald Trump will wait somewhere in a hotel suite, perhaps at Mar a Lago, waiting as the seconds tick down until the networks are ready to make their projections. The difference is that in 2016 the world was surprised, [and] in 2020 we we all saw it happen and knew it was over for Trump. But this time Trump is winning and there won’t be a surprise when ABC News and NBC News and CBS News and CNN and Fox all say the words ‘Donald John Trump, the 45th president of the United States, is tonight the president-elect of the United States.’

“It will be a moment of immense tragedy…a tragedy that could be seen as far off as any that has ever been able to be seen for it and we will have watched it come down the tracks at us, from the moment the light was just a little pin prick peeking out in the dark until it ran over everything. What a shameful moment for the country, for the media, and for the Democratic party…what a terrible low moment.

“But [our path] can be redeemed. There must be another road taken and what that road rejects is self-interest…what that road rejects is power for the sake of power…what it embraces is duty and honor and sacrifice. It is the American Road and down that road awaits a brilliant legacy for the 46th president of the United States, and on the road not taken something terrible awaits…not just defeat but an eradication of everything that Joe Biden has done. Because the only memory that will remain, the only indentation in the sand that will persist is a legacy of losing to Trump.”