Can't Report from New Hampshire Anymore!

By Sue Bergeron

July 10: It is with great sadness I must report I'll no longer be able to report from New Hampshire. Effective Saturday, July 11th the Granite State, a place I grew much affection for during the Primary season, will be poisoned and off limits to me. Donald Trump will be arriving in the seaside village of Portsmouth, NH to plant another Death Bomb.

When I read the awful news, I was especially angry for several reasons. Foremost, Hew Hampshire is among one of the few states left in the U.S. where the Covid-19 infection rate is well-controlled, and the death rate is very low. Presently, NH Health Dept. data shows 5,932 positive cases to date and 795 deaths attributed to Covid-19. The Granite state is nestled in a little pocket of northern New England that has been, relatively speaking, spared the horror of the raging wildfire of disease that has ripped through other sections of the country. This state is made up mostly of remote, rural, seaside and mountainous areas and smaller cities. They have a lower population than most states.

I left New Hampshire on the morning of February 12th after Joe Biden's devastating 5th place loss in the NH Primary race. I did not return there until June 15th, when I spent three days in a remote cabin on a river with my husband Ron and our cat Peepers in tow, to celebrate Ron's birthday. While there we noticed from the safety of our car, that people walking on the streets, pumping gas, going into coffee shops were not wearing masks. My trip had been twofold; it was also a bit of a reconnaissance mission. I'd been considering the possibility of returning to campaign in NH, to do a "no contact lit drop." I would mask up and distribute Biden literature in battleground neighborhoods, but this time I would not knock on their doors. I would avoid personal contact. 

But in the age of pandemic pandemonium door knocking can still be a dangerous form of campaigning. Unfortunately, I see now that I won't be able to do that for several reasons: Most importantly, Donald Trump has ensured that after July 11th anyone walking unprotected on the streets of any city in NH will be taking their life in their hands. That's because most Granite-Stators do not seem to see a need to protect themselves. Because of their low infection rates they seem to think they're insulated from the pandemic. Ron and I were required to quarantine for two weeks before visiting the state but they have no enforcement. They fail to consider the danger of outsiders bringing the disease in. And as I recently discovered, even if I still wanted to campaign in NH I couldn't because, unlike Donald Trump and the GOP, Joe Biden is prohibiting it.

In a recent conference call with Biden delegates I floated my no contact canvassing idea and was shot down in no uncertain terms. I was told "Vice President Biden has put a moratorium on outdoor campaigning right up until the election. He wants everyone to stay home." It just illustrates another major difference in these two candidates' capacity for having concern for their supporters and the American people in general. I did hear Biden announce recently that there will be no rallies, either. And, of course, as I reported recently, the live DNC Convention has been cancelled.

There are other ways to campaign. Sure, they are harder and cumbersome. We use the internet, phone banking, Zoom meetings, television news conferences, letters to the editors of major newspapers. Apparently, it's getting the job done. Just look at the polling. Nationally, Biden is crushing Trump by double digits. And I can report our internal polling numbers in the battleground states are awesome, with Biden pummeling The Lone Ranger by 11 points in Michigan, for example, and even knocking him off his horse in his new "tax dodge home" of Florida with an amazing 7 points, something unheard of just months ago. 

Also, with an opponent like Trump, all you really need to do is employ the technique called "rope-a-dope" made famous by boxing great Muhammad Ali: Get him on the ropes and let him flail about and punch himself out until he tires and loses. That's what's happening right now. But make no mistake, Trump is no ordinary adversary. We who are fighting for the soul of this nation must not let our guard down. This criminal narcissistic psychopath will stop at nothing to attempt to clutch hold of the White House for at least another four years---if only just to stay out of prison. And Joe Biden knows it. It's one more virtue I admire him for, the fact that Biden does not exhibit the over-confidence and hubris that is the fatal error of so many failed candidates who have gone on before him to lose a race by resting on their laurels. 

Trump knows he has a solid hardcore base of Trump supporters in NH. But polling numbers suggest he's about to lose NH along with the other battleground states where he's tanking, so he doesn't care what happens to his rabid cult followers. I was shocked and horrified to watch the crowds in Oklahoma and South Dakota, shoulder to shoulder, maskless, shouting and expelling moist respiratory droplets all over their neighbors during a raging pandemic. And the President of the United States was distributing tickets to this Virus Fest. He's endorsing this behavior and his sycophants are enabling it.

We are just starting to see the result of Trump's disastrous "Comeback Rally" in Tulsa. Covid rates in Tulsa are on the rise. Wait until Mt. Rushmore numbers start coming in. Does Trump care? If we're to believe what Trump's niece Mary Trump tells us about him the answer is no. He cares only about himself, about winning, and about accumulating power and money. He is the world's most dangerous man. He's going to keep campaigning and holding rallies even if it kills hundreds of thousands of people.

He's even willing to kill our children now. If it garners favor with the GOP who want to open up the country and get families back to work, he'll do it. Instead of formulating an actual plan to help families arrange child care for their children who are unable to attend school safely, Trump threatens to pull funding from states whose governors want to take the cautionary measure of keeping kids home until the Covid spikes subside in their states. The room where Trump stores his diabolical methods of fulfilling his own selfish needs has no floor or ceiling.

I have many friends, old and new in New Hampshire and I'm terrified for them right now. I fear that the safe haven where they've happily been insulated from the pain and suffering of what most of the rest of our country has been experiencing is about to end, courtesy of Donald Trump.

Starting July 12th, the state motto for New Hampshire will have to change from "Live Free or Die" to "Live Free and Die".