We just lost a major election that frankly, given the issues and the politics on each side, along with the qualifications, character and ability of the candidates, would have been a slam dunk thirty years ago. The factors which brought us a second Trump term are not all the fault of Democrats. We've lost our free press, billionaire ownership of the media, including once reliably "fair and balanced" sources, along with the ability to reach into most of the population with a clear message, no longer exists. Those elements of our society which provide for an educated and informed electorate have disappeared. And a renegade Supreme Court, bent not on strict constructionism, but on reforming and changing the Constitution's meaning from the bench, made it possible for money to buy election results through their Citizens United ruling several years ago.
The cost of this election and owning a political candidate to one specific billionaire turns out to be about $300 million.
But there are some things for which the leadership of the Democratic party must accept responsibility, and leadership which brought those things about, and the manner in which they continue to lead must be addressed. Doing so is not bashing, it's the kind of discussion we need. This needs to happen fast, in order for the party to be able to effectively limit Republican aggression, and Trump's gross mismanagement and abuse of the Presidency, put a stop to his abuse and dismantling of American Constitutional Democracy, and elect a Congress in 2026 that will shut him down.
The Biden Administration accomplished some remarkable things. But during a two year period, when we had a majority in both Houses of Congress, a sitting Democratic President and control of the justice department, we failed to deal with the single largest issue of the day, which was the act of sedition committed by Trump in organizing an insurrection to attack the Capitol on January 6th, and his subsequent illegal attempts to thwart the peaceful transfer of power.
We had good, solid, experienced party political leadership, but not bold enough to take some risks that would have overcome the obstacles cited as excuses for not achieving his arrest and conviction, and prevented him from being eligible to run again. "It would look too political," they said. It was a risk that would require some innovative thinking to pull off, and some courage to carry out, in that some of our leaders might have had to risk the sacrifice of their power and position in order to see it through, on behalf of their constituents. The old school, status quo manner of doing business precluded the boldness, and self-interest and self-protection precluded the risks and the courage.
That's one big failure for which Democratic leadership must account. The other was failing to recognize the transitional nature of Biden's Presidency, and the weakness within caused by perception of his age and ability to do the job. Running the risk of a faltering, stumbling debate performance, combined with fewer public appearances getting media coverage that the press was giving to Trump, was a failure, and in the final analysis, it was a major factor which did cost Harris the election. Democratic leadership, which allowed an embarrassing, month-long period of confusion, mostly negative media coverage, and open the door for Republicans to insert unfounded speculation and criticism , must be held accountable for this as well.
Steve Schmidt: We Are Under Attack
I take much of what former Republican political strategist and Bush and McCain campaign advisor Steve Schmidt has to say with a grain of salt. I expect him to take off the velvet glove in his criticism. But Schmidt has earned credibility for his recognition of the subversion of the GOP by Trump, and by his willingness to go out on a limb to express it, risking the loss of his position and power, which he did. And he sees politics for what they are, and he recognizes the status quo bullshit with which some of the old line Democratic party leaders still do business, including Chuck Schumer.
"Let us be clear what it is that is being stolen from all of us in plain sight without a fight."
I will say this because it needs to be said, Steve Schmidt, the former Republican Bush-McCain strategist, a political independent even at this point, though he is an MSNBC contributor, is 100% correct. These words are now out, incredibly, and I won't take them back. Steve Schmidt got this right. Go ahead, finish reading the linked article.
Why Did We Lose an Election We Should Have Won Easily, With Our "Outstanding" Leadership?
We failed to prevent an "existential threat" to American Democracy from being able to run for office again, and we lost the election in which he ran. Let's put that into perspective. We lost an election to a con artist who had a track record of abject failure as both a businessman and as President. We lost to an inarticulate, age-demented, corrupt, spectacularly immoral and indecent clown. With the kind of leadership and experience the Democratic party brought to bear on the election, we still lost.
The excuses are just more of the status quo political bullshit some Democratic party leaders think still works. Well, when she lost, two years ago, Pelosi stepped down. Oh, she still wields influence, but she recognized that, while she did a great job, her time had passed. Chuck Schumer now needs to do the same.
So it is that I'm looking at Steve Schmidt's words with some renewed interest, since he seems to have a better grasp on the reality of the situation than what's left of current Democratic party leadership, most of whom clearly didn't see what was coming, even though there were plenty of warnings, and in spite of the fact that when they had the advantage, and could have prevented this whole scenario during the first two years of Biden's administration, they didn't get it done.
And that's not bashing Democrats. That's just the truth.
Let's take personalities and past political associations out of the equation, so we can look at this fairly. This is an excellent assessment, it has the facts straight, and the conclusions drawn and solutions offered are more than reasonable.
Trump is an existential threat to American Democracy. And yet, the actions of Democratic party leaders over the whole nine year period of time since Trump first was elected in 2016 do not always match the truth of that sentence. For the most part, as Schmidt points out rather sharply, it is Chuck Schumer who characterizes much of the Democratic leadership's failure to see this coming, figure out how to deal with it, and successfully stop it.
He's quite critical of Schumer, in a very negative way. I think this paragraph is the best summation of criticism of Schumer, though there are several other Democrats who also bear some of the responsibility for acting the same way:
"He is a fool being unmasked in the town square, where he stands naked pretending to fight back against something he didn't stop when he could have, and didn't see coming when he should have."
I don't know if I would say that there are a lot of Democrats who didn't see this coming. They did. They just ignored it, hoping it would go away. They kept saying Trump was an existential threat to Democracy, but they placed far more value upon the preservation of their own personal political power, and avoiding the appearances of being "political" than they did on making sure Trump was removed once and for all as an existential threat. And they've done nothing but make excuses for it when they failed.
Let's put this in terms in order to understand how big of a failure this was. A man who organized an insurrection, sedition by the correct definition of the term, for the purpose of overturning a legitimate election and overthrowing a legitimately elected American government, subject of a damning Congressional and FBI investigation in which every scrap of evidence turned up indicted him, was not prosecuted to the full extent of the law because the prosecution was grossly incompetent, did not make this prosecution a matter of urgency, and was defended in his incompetence by party leadership who failed to keep this in front of the American people.
Trump's back, as corrupt as ever, now a convicted felon who got away with flaunting the rule of law because Democrats let him get away with it, and as Schmidt says, "while the Constitution is being singed by the flames of arsonists, Schumer has reached for an avocado and a Corona."
Sharpness of the Criticism Aside, It's Time for Schumer to Step Aside as Senate Minority Leader
To be fair, Schumer isn't the only Democrat who needs to step aside and let some leadership that is not steeped in old school politics take charge of the attack on the Trump administration. Republicans have always made messes, blockaded legislation and stopped progress of Democrats, even when they are the minority in both houses, because they use everything they have at their disposal to get it done. They find every obscure motion or procedure they can use to delay, obfuscate, and oppose, and they make progress a frustrating and confusing tangle of legislative mess. They get some Democrats to back down because of the trouble and risk involved in stepping forward.
So we need some bold, risk takers who understand that if Trump really is an existential threat to Democracy that they claim he is, then there is NOTHING good coming out of his administration and there should be no compromise, or routine business involved in governing during his administration. Every vote should be a resounding NO!, no confirmation should get through without major opposition and every process should be slowed down to the crawl, or stopped if possible.
And anyone who crawls down to Mar-a-Lago for the purpose of "bi-partisan" compromise should be considered a full member of the opposition.
Attention needs to be focused on every Democrat who is now the minority leader of every senate and house committee, starting with Senator Durbin on the Judiciary committee. Are they capable of boldness? Are they willing to take risks? Will they abandon the ridiculous protocols which Republicans ignore and use to their own advantage? If not, then step down and let someone else step in.
We finally got a leadership change at the moribund Democratic National Committee, an organization that was virtually worthless during this past election cycle. I'm more excited about David Hogg being vice-chair than I am about Ken Martin as chair, but that's because I really am not all that familiar with him. He certainly accomplished a lot in Minnesota. If he brings that kind of moxie to the DNC, it will be a good thing.
A "Wake up Call", Which is What This is, is Not "Bashing"
I'm a lifelong Democrat, and I believe in its core values, especially in promoting diversity, equality and inclusion, in the unity in diversity it promotes, and especially in its "big tent" philosophy that stands in stark contrast to the anti-American, anti-Patriotic, white supremacist, Christian Nationalist oppression of the Republican party, now run by right wing extremist Trumpism and the phony, subversive, fascist Heritage Foundation. I'm not a "take my vote and go home" kind of American. I'm a get involved, find the best place to be in effective service kind of voter.
Party loyalty may seem to be a good thing, on the surface. But it creates good-old-boys clubs, circles of exclusivity that are counter productive and prevent the cream of the crop in leadership from rising to the top. We are where we are because of political party establishment's failures. Country and Constitution need to be priorities, and willingness to sacrifice in order to preserve them the highest quality of our party leadership, not self-preservation and protection of power.
And we'd better work fast, because Trump and his handlers sure are.
No comments:
Post a Comment