The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron.

Every day, the 45th President of the United States finds a new low to which he can drag down the country, whether in eviscerating the rule of law, subverting our international relations, wantonly pandering conflicts of interest, or rapaciously using his presidency for unbridled personal gain. Every day, the headlines pummel us into submission, as we look in vain for a meaningful handful of Republicans in power to stand up to him,  some credible opposition leader to emerge, or even tendrils of a plan to lift the opposition party out of its clinical depression.

We elected a convicted felon and un-indicted co-conspirator to the nation’s highest office, and now most simply shrug at the morally bankrupt kleptocracy he’s creating.  Elections have consequences, but even many who voted for him and did not expect that he would go to the lengths he has, docilely or fearfully acquiesce to his implementing the worst of the 2025 agenda and more. We despair when he and his minions savage the machinery of government that has brought health care to the un- or under-insured at home and life-saving medicines to the vulnerable abroad. We clutch our pearls worrying about what his fiscal and monetary know-nothingism will mean for our economy short-term and for the lives of our children and grandchildren. And don’t get me started on the egregious human costs of his misbehavior,  and what his thoughtless regulatory undoing will mean for dealing with climate change and environmental crises. We tear our hair at his eviscerating public broadcasting funding, more than 70 percent of which goes to rural areas not served by mainstream outlets. We cry out when his far-right dominated Supreme Court repeatedly overturns lower federal court rulings against his transgressions, giving him virtual free rein to go wherever his authoritarian whims take him.

But now, Donald J. Trump has gone too far. He is claiming credit for the Boston Red Sox winning streak, now at ten games.  His proof is that they haven’t lost since a bunch of players (Trevor Story, Justin Wilson, Abraham Toro, Romy González, Connor Wong, Greg Weissert, Wilyer Abreu, Garrett Whitlock, Brennan Bernardino and Rob Refsnyder), in D.C. with their families for a series with the Nationals,  dropped by the White House for an impromptu tour. Routine handshaking followed. The Leader of the Free World wrote on Truth Social, “They haven’t lost since they saw me in the Oval.”

Given everything that’s happening in Washington,  given a choice between having members of my  team shake hands with this dictator wannabe in order to gain at least a potential playoff spot  or, dare we dream, another World Series championship, versus boycotting the Oval Office visit and thereby compromising their place in the standings, well, what’s one more Faustian bargain in the political world today?  Black Sox. Red Sox. It’s only a shade of difference. Would you trust Trump’s word that the fix was really in? I don’t expect a remake of Damn Yankees this season.

As a lifelong Red Sox fan, (the legacy of my maternal grandmother,) I am incensed – but not surprised -that he would co-opt my team’s hard-won success streak for his own self-aggrandizement.  Admittedly, the fact that Trump is a self-declared Yankees fan makes his claim of influence all the more repugnant. If the Sox are going to win, they will have to do it the hard way, on their own.

All this brings us to the more pressing challenge: what are we going to do to take back at least the House in 2026 and not quietly roll over for Vice President Vance in 2028? The Democrats have no leader and no strategy. In an oft-quoted remark, “if you got no man, you got no plan.” About 2 ½ years away from the next Presidential race, the Democrats are nowhere. They have no strategy, no leadership and little understanding of why young people, including young Black and Hispanic men, gravitated to Trump in 2024.

Could Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Michigan Governor Gretchen Witmer, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshears  be such leaders and build successful campaigns? In asking around, I find precious little optimism for any of them and even less for oleaginous California Governor Gavin Newsom when it comes to breaking out of the minor leagues.

Perhaps there is someone else? It’s worth remembering that Carter, Clinton and Obama were all largely unknowns three years before their victories. So, please tell me who someone you consider we should seriously consider and learn more about. Lots can happen between now and 2028.

All today’s negatives help to explain the importance of baseball this summer: baseball, beaches, barbecues, buddies, babies, and books. So, keep your hands offa my team, Mr. Trump. And go, Red Sox.