A Crucial Year in American History
So, what do we do now?
People often equate politics with an elaborate game, like chess. Lots of rules, pieces, available moves and intricate plotlines. Hidden plans, secrets, sudden surprises.
And they aren’t wrong, either. I’m no game historian, but I’d bet money that chess probably evolved as a training tool in the past. It sure seems plausible.
A Medium writer, Frank Faiola, has an article he wrote that lays out the situation in a kind of methodical way, though I think, as most people have done before him, he’s missed a few things I’ll explain down the page a bit. But, first, read his article.
Not bad, huh? Nicely laid out, and it’s a good start to where I want to take you.
Anyway, my articles for the last couple of weeks have built up to show a picture of where I see our country embroiled in a chaotic game, with more than just two sides, and at least one long term group of people I’ve called Rich White Males (RWM) with their strongly held values/goals of establishing themselves as the true leaders/controllers of at least our society if not the world. But I want you to understand that this isn’t a simple situation. It’s easy to look at a group like the GOP and think they’ve got it all under some kind of hidden control under the direction of the RWM.
But I don’t think they’re as much in control as they’d like you to think. Why?
One thing, one person. Donald J. Trump.
I know, I know, the way the GOP has jumped on his bandwagon you’d think he was the RWM’s chosen savior/messiah, right? I dunno, but think about it.
If that group had truly been ready in 2016 to start moving forward into the final parts of their plans, you’d think the guy they’d put in charge would be one of two things. Either he’d be an intelligent and competent manager of a complex and intricate conspiracy to overthrow a long established democracy of the strength and popularity of the US, or at least he’d be a popular guy totally under the thumb of the guys truly behind the takeover, and easily manipulated to guide the willing crowd of eagerly led idiots, but letting the true guides of that conspiracy do their thing behind the scenes.
I ask you, do either one of those sound like the Donald Trump we all know and loathe?
I don’t think so, either.
No, Trump was a wild card, whether he got tossed in by someone wanting to throw off the RWM’s plans, or someone they used to distract the rest of us, or just made his own decision to, at the near end of his life, make a huge splash and a ton of money. In the end, what we’ve got is chaos, for sure.
But I’d bet the RWM got blindsided, because I’d bet money they weren't even close to ready. Come on, we’re talking about a group that, over multiple generations, have guided themselves through American politics with a single minded goal, to maintain some semblance of power over the American economy and society. Sure, they’ve slipped up here and there, but you cannot doubt they’ve had some nice victories to crow about over the last twenty years. Citizens United wasn’t anything to disparage, you know, if your goal was to allow the rich more authority and control, right?
But you’ve got to admit, in the years since 2017, the sheer chaos that’s resulted just seems…disjointed and uncontrolled. It’s surely a copy of the Hitlerian playbook, yes, but while Hitler had the perfect fall guys for blaming things on in the Jewish population in Europe, the GOP hasn’t managed much better than to blame “Immigrants.”
Yeah. Sure. Blame a group that every single American, with the exception of the natives we basically stole the continent from, can trace their own ancestors back through, sometimes as far back as a thousand years ago. Yeah, good work there!
That hasn’t exactly managed to gain a whole lot of adherents, has it? Seen any riots lately like the German experienced in what they now call Krystalnacht, or The Night of Broken Glass? Targeting “immigrants”?
No?
And you won’t either. Trump is not the RWM’s chosen starting dictator. He’s a wild card, and he’s pushed back their plans by at least ten years. Of course, that isn’t stopping those who think they can still use him, but frankly, I’ve my doubts.
No, I believe the true threats are still to come, not that the GOP of 2024 isn’t a threat. It is, just not the major one those RWM represent.
So, what’s the deal? How can we see what the true elements of that threat may be? I’d say to see what threatens us long term. Like the Dobbs decision. Yes, Trump assisted the RWM by putting three conservative justices on the Court, and they’ve done their jobs by eliminating our Right to Privacy using Dobbs as the vehicle. How is that a long term threat?
Notice they’ve let the whole anti-abortion thing continue to play out? Nobody on the right has tried to use that yet to threaten any other privacy rights we’ve become accustomed to. That’s the longer term part, waiting for the right time to have that fight. Let the abortion thing play out, because to the RWM, abortion isn’t the issue.
It’s your right to privacy that is. Take a gander at history. Look at past dictatorships and other authoritarian governments. What’s the very first right to disappear? Privacy. Those governments start to tap your phones, bug your houses and offices, open your mail, and other nefarious things to spy on their opponents as soon as they gain power.
Dobbs was a preparation for that eventuality, but it had to take place early, so it would kind of disappear into the background where you’d forget about it. Sure, let the Dems re-establish abortion, but since nobody’s talking about that privacy thing, it’ll be re-established based on some other reason, like the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law. When they’re ready, the new laws based on your no longer guaranteed rights to privacy suddenly appear.
I know this is a lot, and it seems disjointed and chaotic, but isn’t that what we’re facing already? A chaotic political situation.
So, what do we do?
Democrats must unite. We have to change our tactics. Establish with the public what our goals are, and make sure they hear, every day, what we plan to do to accomplish those goals. Stress that the things like Biden’s unpopular stance on the Gaza situation is temporary. It’s something we can deal with later, while if Trump took over? He’d double down on that, trust me. Stay home over Gaza, and you’ll virtually guarantee a GOP victory.
We need to completely overwhelm the GOP and their MAGA voters. We do have the numbers. We beat Trump in the popular vote in 2020 by over seven million votes! But we need to do that in downballot races, too. We need to take back Congress, and do it in such a way that we cannot be frustrated by a couple of wannabe’s like the two unmentionable idiots that frustrated all of us in the beginning.
Look, Frank up there has an excellent article that explains clearly how and to an extent why they’re lying to us, and we must overcome that by showing that Americans are basically Progressive, like we’ve shown in poll after poll accepting as quite popular almost every single proposal Bernie Sanders proposed in his campaign against Clinton.
So, dammit, let’s double down on that! Two major issues. Just two.
Abortion has already shown itself to be a linchpin in this election, even in deep red states, Republicans cannot beat that. So pound on that continuously. Do not let it go unmentioned.
But I’d bet the farm that if Democrats also pushed Medicare for All, we’d wipe the floor with the GOP. If there’s one other issue Americans are getting fed up with, it’s the insane cost of medications and health care. Literally thousands of us go bankrupt every year over medical bills, just to keep us and our loved ones alive. Never mind the ones at the bottom of the economic barrel who can’t even afford the keeping healthy visits. Also the ones who cannot afford the neonatal care, or the elder care, or… well, you get the picture.
Winning in 2024 isn’t about opposing the Republicans. They’re the Party of No. No ideas, no solutions, no morals. It’s about making sure Americans know what the Democrats and Progressives want to do for all of us! That most of that will provide better care for all Americans, especially the ones at the bottom.
Even if they vote for Trump.
So, let’s stop trying to expose the lies of the right. It ain’t working, because the right isn’t listening, and the ones we want to talk to already understand. But they need to know what we can do for America. That “we” being Americans, together, caring for one another.
Believe me, the ones we’re targeting and trying to get to vote for Biden and the Democrats are the ones who’ll like that.
We outnumber the others, so let’s stop giving them free publicity.
It’s January, 2024. The primaries are almost underway. Let’s act like Trump doesn’t exist, and Biden and the Democrats are running against the best and the brightest of the GOP. Find a local candidate and join their campaign. Or find Biden’s local campaign group, and work with them. Or for a State official’s campaign, or a member of Congress.
Urge family and friends to do that, too. Get on your favorite social media outlet, and push Progressive ideals. Write your Congresscritters and urge them to do this, too, and tell them what positions on these issues you want them to take.
Don’t fight the right wing idiots, the attention is what they want! Push your own ideas, things that will tell others what we want to do when we win.
Not “if”, but “when”! Be positive! Don’t talk to people about “if” we beat the GOP, talk like we will! Because that positive attitude is catching, and it tends to spread.
But above all, get out the vote. At every opportunity, tell people, “Vote Blue”!
So, next November, let’s all
