Get Tough, Democrats

Our Democracy is at Stake

When the 2020 election was called for Biden around this time last year, thousands of people danced and partied in the streets like the Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz, practically singing, “Ding dong the orange nightmare is gone!” In the movie, the dead witch’s even more evil sister shows up to take revenge, making the jubilation premature. It feels like that’s where we’re at now in the U.S. So many of us thought we could move forward and focus on fixing Trump’s mess rather than continuing to fight to save the shreds of democracy we have left. We underestimated Trump’s stranglehold on the party, or the persistence of his cult.

That became painfully obvious when Trump incited a violent coup attempt on January 6th, and only now are the brazen acts of the orange fascist and his administration to steal the election in the last months of his corrupt presidency coming to light. You’d think that being forced to run from a venomous mob intent on murder would have made the GOP finally declare “enough” and dump Trump forever. For those who openly denounced Trump on the floors of the Senate and House that day, like Lindsey Graham and Kevin McCarthy, their Trump cult constituents made sure that didn’t happen. After experiencing blowback from the base, Republicans who spoke out quickly lost what tiny ounce of courage they possessed. McCarthy rushed down to Mar-a-Lago and kissed the ring in penance, and Lindsey Graham backpedaled on his backpedaling. Only a few congressional Republicans continue to reject Trumpism, and they have paid the price with death threats and being stripped of committee assignments and RNC money.

It’s clear that Trumpism is a systemic disease infecting our country, and it takes more than banishing Trump from government to root it out. Trump owns the GOP. And because Trump has been so successful at rallying the base and bringing in the money, there are now dozens of mini-Trumps fouling up the Capitol, spewing lies on Fox News, and just generally running amok; and dozens more running for state and local offices all over the country. Like the Lernean Hydra’s regenerating heads, when you cut one down, several more take their places.

Doing nothing in Congress pays big bucks for mini-Trumps Gaetz and Greene

We now only have ONE political party to defend our democracy. And the other side is powerful, determined, and has a ton of money behind it. Just as it took every ounce of Hercules’ strength and intelligence to fight the hydra, the Democrats will need to use every tool in their arsenal to defeat Trumpism. Sadly, I haven’t seen much hope that they are up to the task.

From what I’ve seen of Biden’s presidency thus far, Democrats seem to think that they can make good policy, do good things for the country, and the votes will follow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this work. Passage of the ACA is a perfect example. After Obama was elected in 2008 and was gifted with a Democratic majority in Congress, they all worked very hard to reform our healthcare system. Was it perfect? Of course not, mainly because a few centrists watered it down. But healthcare reform was necessary to save Medicare, and the ACA has over time proven to be a huge success and saved thousands of lives — mine included.

And how did the American people repay the Dems? By wiping out their majority in the 2010 midterms. Obama was effectively hamstrung for the rest of his presidency, because Mitch McConnell et al. were determined to stop him at all costs and pulled out every dirty trick to do so, especially when it came to appointing judges and a Supreme Court Justice. Meanwhile, polls showed that while Republicans loved the ACA, they hated Obamacare.

Democrats will NEVER convert the base by doing good things for them. I have Trump worshippers in my family, and they’ve been indoctrinated by years of right-wing propaganda to hate us. They simply don’t live in reality. And they’re quite happy to benefit from Democratic policies while denouncing Democrats as adrenochrome-eating babykillers. It’s a very strange phenomenon.

Then there are the independents — the swing voters who helped Biden get elected. The recent swing back to Republican rule in Virginia, my home state, proved that you can’t count on them to reliably vote blue.

Virginia’s new governor, Glenn Youngkin, sure seemed to squirm whenever anyone asked about his endorsement from Trump, given how unpopular Trump is there. However, he had no problem appearing on the podcast of virulent anti-semite and neo-Nazi Sebastian Gorka. He also had no problem with the state Republican party’s antisemitic campaign ads, and even invoked the GOP’s favorite antisemitic dog whistle of blaming George Soros, himself. When asked about whether he approved of his supporters practically kissing a flag that was probably used to beat a Capitol police officer on January 6th at a rally in his honor, he gave a pretty pathetic denouncement, calling it “weird”.

None of this seemed to matter to Virginians who handed him the election. Republicans in Virginia may be anti-semitic, but hey, at least white parents don’t have to worry that their precious kiddos will be subjected to that awful “critical race theory” they can’t even define, since Youngkin vowed to ban it as soon as he takes office (even though no public schools in the state teach it.) Apparently, uneducated suburban white independents didn’t loathe Trump as much as we thought. They just wanted Trump in a sweater-vest, without all the vitrol and drama.

I really hope the devastating loss in Virginia will serve as a wake-up call to Dems. Any state house they lose becomes a state that is likely to follow the lead of Texas, Florida, Georgia and others to pass restrictive voting laws and thereby put our entire country at risk. We’re now in danger of losing Virginia in 2024, as Republicans will probably also pass a law giving the legislature the power to overturn election results — one of the most anti-democratic, dangerous policies Republicans came up with after Trump failed to steal 2020.

Enacting policies to effectively steal elections is part of a multi-pronged attack on the state level to turn America into an authoritarian state. The GOP and its donors have funded fake grassroots organizations to attack local school boards. The party has embraced members of the Proud Boys and other neo-Nazi groups as candidates for local offices. Local election officials are receiving death threats, and many of them are quitting. Seems like the GOP’s goal is to replace election officials with Trump loyalists. I really hope Democrats see the big picture here, because we are at a dangerous crossroads.

The only way to fight fascism is to FIGHT FASCISM. We must do everything legally within our power to stop it. If the shoe was on the other foot, you can bet Republicans would be pulling out all the stops to lock Democrats up and kick them out of office.

It’s been almost 10 months since the insurrection, and the Republican traitors that incited it are still serving in Congress. Also, despite having committed dozens of crimes, including federal crimes, Trump is still holding rallies and acting like a deposed king down in Mar-a-Lago. Yesterday, he even announced he was sending nutty loyalist and former DNI Director Ric Grinnell to Kosovo on a “diplomacy mission” (which is a clear violation of the Logan Act, by the way).

There has also been no accountability for the traitorous mini-Trumps in Congress. Insurrectionist and future likely dementia patient Paul Gosar posted a cartoon on Twitter where he killed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and threatened President Biden, and only a few Democrats have moved to censure him. Matt Gaetz has been under investigation by the FBI for trafficking underage women for a while now, and hasn’t lost his seat. Marjory Taylor Greene has been accused of improperly using campaign funds and is still free to menace and threaten her colleagues, and raise more money out on the road. I could go on and on.

In the business world, threatening a colleague through a letter slot would get MTG fired, and probably referred for a mental health violation. But it’s A-OK in Congress.

There are too many fascists getting away with too many crimes. There’s a sense that the rule of law has broken down in the U.S., and concern that the wheels of justice are moving way too slowly. Especially when the media is predicting a rout by the GOP in the 2022 midterms. (Never mind that in my opinion, the entire political party should be stripped of its ability to run in any more elections. That’s a subject for a future article.) I really hope that the moving pleas of the Capitol police who testified about January 6th a few months ago to hold everyone behind the riot accountable didn’t fall on deaf ears.

“Where’s Merrick Garland?” has been the persistent question in the midst of all this lawlessness. So is it any wonder that many of us breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when Garland finally showed up and announced a federal grand jury indictment of Steve Bannon for contempt of Congress? Even though it’s unlikely he’ll ever see the inside of a jail cell, that one small action on the part of the DOJ was necessary to give those of us concerned about democracy on life support a sliver of hope. Hopefully it sends a message to the other Trump loyalists who are unlawfully ignoring congressional subpoenas, and Bannon’s indictment is just the start.

Here’s what I think needs to happen to save democracy:

1. Create an independent commission or special counsel to investigate ALL of Trump’s crimes while in office, not just January 6th. The commission’s mandate would also be to provide recommendations to shore up our institutions and processes so that corruption on such a widescale level NEVER happens again;
2. The courts have become too politicized. The three Trump Justices were appointed to enact a radical right-wing agenda that’s extremely unpopular. Trump even said as much on the campaign trail. The only solution is to expand the courts — federal and SCOTUS;
3. Indict every single insurrectionist, especially those in Congress. Investigate them for ties to malicious foreign actors, like Russia;
4. Indict Trump for the umpteen federal crimes he committed (starting with the Mueller Report’s obstruction of justice allegations);
5. We’re finding out now about the shady groups that funded “Stop the Steal.” Everyone who FUNDED the insurrection, and I mean EVERYONE, no matter how rich or well-connected they are, from Charles Koch to Ginni Thomas, needs to be investigated and considered for indictment;
6. ELIMINATE OR MODIFY THE FILIBUSTER. At the very least, do a McConnell-style “carve out” for the voting rights act;
7. Pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act;
8. Hold Facebook and Twitter accountable for facilitating the fascist GOP, whether that be through breaking up their companies to dilute their power or holding them accountable with litigation.

As many pundits have stated, if a failed coup goes unpunished, it’s just practice for the next one. It’s pretty clear the fascist GOP isn’t going to stop trying to seize power, probably indefinitely. We’re running out of time, Democrats. Take the gloves off.

Copyright 2021 S. Wade