SHALL LONG ENDURE? Can Blue America long endure?

FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 2025

Michelle Goldberg's daring advice: Can a nation like ours long endure? In November 1863, Abraham Lincoln asked. 

Lincoln emerged from a distant locale. The same is true of a teenage girl who lives in Presque Isle, Maine.

Presque Isle is way up there. Despite what you might think from its name, it isn't found along the Maine coast. As you can see from a map of the state, Presque Isle is roughly 160 miles due north of the northernmost point along that rocky coast.

Presque Isle is part of Aroostook County. Here's the dope on that part of the vast American nation:

Aroostook County, Maine

Aroostook County is the northernmost county in the U.S. state of Maine. It is located along the Canada–United States border. As of the 2020 census, the population was 67,105. The county seat is Houlton, with offices in Caribou and Fort Kent.

[It's] the largest county in Maine by total area, the second largest in the United States east of the Mississippi River...With over 6,800 square miles of land; it is larger than three of the smaller U.S. states. The state's northernmost village, Estcourt Station, is also the northernmost community in the New England region and in the contiguous United States east of the Great Lakes.

Aroostook County is way up north! By area, it's substantially larger than the state of Connecticut. Its population is somewhat smaller:

Population, 2020 census
Aroostook County: 67,105
State of Connecticut: 3.60 million

It's a very large, lightly populated county. Presque Isle—population, just under 9,000—is its largest city. 

The United States—our flailing nation—is an extremely varied place. This brings us back to that nagging question:

Can a nation like ours long endure?

Last Sunday, we were appalled by what we saw during the first hour of the Fox News Channel "news" program, Fox & Friends Weekend. Let's review the carnage:

During that 6 o'clock hour, co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy was instantly mocking "Tampon Tim." Betraying a stunning lack of wisdom, the seemingly reinvented Lisa Boothe then let us know who is, and who isn't, "pure evil."

Charlie Hurt was dumb as a rock. Nearing the end of the hour, we were invited to bow our heads to join these players in prayer.

Upon what meat doth our Red America feed? Sadly, it feeds upon this! That said, midway through the 6 o'clock hour, then early in the 7 o'clock hour, we saw discussions of a topic which almost surely hurt Blue America at the polls last year.

In effect, the hosts were discussing a teenage girl from Presque Isle, Maine. This young person was interviewed on Fox & Friends the next day—during Monday morning's 6 o'clock hour. 

In our view, this young person was very composed—quite impressive. When we googled the story behind the story, we quickly found this news report at the Fox News site.

The news report starts as shown. We'll offer this initial bit of advice—try to set aside any impulse toward instant moral judgment:

Maine girl involved in trans athlete battle reveals how state's policies hurt her childhood and sports career

Cassidy Carlisle was in seventh grade when she had to change in the same locker room as a transgender student, she said. 

During a gym class at Presque Isle Middle School in northern Maine six years ago, she said she walked into the locker room to find a biological male who would change with her and other girls. She alleges she was told by administrators that if she tried to avoid changing with the trans student, she would risk being late to class. 

"That was really my first experience in just knowing that something isn't right, but not knowing what to do with that," Carlisle told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. Fox News Digital has reached out to Presque Isle Middle School for comment.

Gender identity was first included in the Maine Human Rights Act as part of the definition of sexual orientation in 2005. In 2021, the law was amended to add gender identity as its own protected class...

You may not approve of the term, "biological male." It may be that you do approve of the policies described in that passage.

There's nothing "wrong" with holding such views. That said, this young person was 13 years old at the time, and it seemed to her that something was wrong with the practice at her school as it's described.

We found ourselves flashing on President Lincoln as we watched the interview unfold. Impressive people emerge from distant locales, though that doesn't mean that you have to agree with every assessment they make.

In this case, here's what happened:

Back when she was 13 years old, she didn't want to change her clothes in the same room with a transgender person she may have regarded as "a biological male." (The news report doesn't quote her using that term.)

You don't have to agree with that view, but at the age of 13, she didn't want to do that. And now, we show you how this relates to our basic question—to the question whether our struggling nation, such as it is, can hope to long endure

What does the one thing have to do with the other? As the news report continues. it jumps ahead in time:

The memory especially stuck with her in her junior year of high school, when she found out she would be competing with a trans athlete on the state Nordic skiing team. 

It was an athlete with whom she was familiar. She had already lost to the trans athlete in cross-country competitions in previous years.

When her father told her she would have to face the athlete again in skiing, Carlisle didn't believe it was happening. 

"I was like, ‘Oh, that’s only something I kind of hear about on the news. … It’s not going to happen to me," Cassidy recalled.

What she could do was vote in last November's election. As a first-time voter, she cast her ballot with the issue of trans athletes in girls sports at the forefront.

In this way, the issue of trans athletes in girls' and women's sports had apparently created another vote for Red America's candidates. That may have included Red America's candidate for president, who won last year's election by less than 1.5% of the nationwide vote.

We ourselves didn't vote for Candidate Trump, but many people did. How many people cast their votes on the basis of this one issue? We don't have the slightest idea, but the Fox News report says this:

A national exit poll conducted by the Concerned Women for America legislative action committee found that 70% of moderate voters saw the issue of "Donald Trump’s opposition to transgender boys and men playing girls and women’s sports and of transgender boys and men using girls and women’s bathrooms" as important to them. 

And 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was "very important."

You may not approve of the wording in that survey question. That said, a New York Times/Ipsos survey phrased the question a different way—and this report in the New York Post accurately describes the results which appear in the survey's official data:

NYT poll finds majority of Democrats oppose transgender athletes in women’s sports

A recent New York Times/Ipsos survey found the vast majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, don’t think transgender athletes should be permitted to compete in women’s sports.

“Thinking about transgender female athletes—meaning athletes who were male at birth but who currently identify as female—do you think they should or should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports?” the survey asked.

Of the 2,128 people who participated, 79% said biological males who identify as women should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports.

Of the 1,025 people who identified as Democrats or leaning Democrat, 67% said transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete with women. 

This survey asked about "transgender female athletes," not about "biological males." That said, the survey results were overwhelming, even among Dems.

No one has to agree with that widely held view, but a question arises. Is it possible that this topic, all by itself, may have swung last November's election?

We can't tell you that it did, but we also can't say that it didn't. That brings us to something Michelle Goldberg recently wrote in the New York Times.

We'd score Goldberg as center left / liberal / progressive / Democratic. Like us, she didn't vote for Candidate Trump, but in a recent column about the disaster confronting Blue America, she offered the highlighted view:

What on Earth Is Gavin Newsom Doing?

[...]

Outlets like Air America and ThinkProgress that helped start the careers of important figures in the liberal firmament—Rachel Maddow among them—have been allowed to wither and die, and then Democrats wonder where all their young voices are. Rather than try to ingratiate himself with [Charlie] Kirk, Newsom might try to elevate the progressives who could someday compete with him.

It was especially ill advised for Newsom to roll out his pivot on trans women in sports in a conversation with Kirk, a man who once described trans people as “disgusting, mentally ill, neurotic, predatory freaks.” As a matter of both political expediency and simple honesty, Democrats should be able to acknowledge that it’s unfair to expect elite female athletes to compete against trans women who’ve gone through male puberty. But at a time when the Trump administration has singled trans people out for persecution, Democrats need to couple their recognition of physical difference with a broader defense of trans rights.

In her column, Goldberg excoriated Governor Newsom for the way he recently seemed to shift his position concerning trans women and trans girls in sports. But she also said this:

Democrats should be able to acknowledge that it’s unfair to expect elite female athletes to compete against trans women who’ve gone through male puberty. 

Democrats should continue to offer "a broader defense of trans rights," Goldberg said. But she said Dems should also "acknowledge that it’s unfair to expect elite female athletes to compete against trans women who’ve gone through male puberty."

So said columnist Goldberg! You may not agree with that view.

You may not agree with that view! But here's what happened last Sunday morning as we watched three Fox employees spreading the approved corporate messaging about Tampon Tim and about who is "pure evil" on the Fox & Friends Weekend program:

During the 6 o'clock hour, then again during the 7 o'clock hour, we saw the co-hosts chuckle about the easy gains President Trump makes from what they correctly described as "this 80/20 issue."

They chuckled about it again and again. In our view, the bulk of their conduct that day was appalling. But with respect to that topic, they were unmistakably right.

The survey results on this topic are overwhelming. No one has to share those views, but all in all, we think Goldberg is basically in the ballpark:

Blue Americans should at least be able to understand why so many people, all across the nation, assess this issue in the way they do.

Last Sunday morning, we thought Campos-Duffy, Boothe and Hurt behaved extremely poorly. The next day, Fox & Friends traveled to Presque Isle, Maine and Campos-Duffy spoke with a high school student.

We thought that student was very impressive. We flashed on Lincoln's question several times as these programs unfurled.

Lincoln came from a distant locale. So does this impressive young woman.

Meanwhile, we Blues keep finding ways to lose. We endlessly did so in the past few years, and Candidate Trump squeaked by.

We Blues keep finding ways to lose! We very badly need to discuss this unfortunate tribal impulse. We ourselves are inclined to a certain explanation, but at some point, the discussion should begin.

In the meantime, Blue America lies in a world of hurt. Lincoln wondered if our nation could long endure. In large part due to our need to heal ourselves, we'd say the answer is no longer real clear.

Go ahead—watch the interview with that kid from Presque Isle, Maine! She comes from a small, very distant place, but talent comes from everywhere, and her reactions, which are widely shared, deserve our consideration and even our grudging respect.

Also, what the heck is wrong with us? What makes us behave as we do?