Bonnie Tyler, "I'm Holding Out for a Hero
The Trump administration is slowly dismantling the government, based on populist premises that government is overly wasteful, not only spending too much money but that the treasury is just paying out without accountability, every potential government program for the benefit of people, from social security and medicare to USAID is rife with fraud and Trump is going to save the taxpayers trillions by letting Elon Musk turn off the tap, because he supposedly knows how.
This is all one big lie. It appeals to what people believe, coming out of all of the conspiracy theory talk that flourishes on the political right, among people who tend to be less educated, more ignorant and easily gullible. Some people tend to believe ridiculous things, like we spent $50 million on condoms for people in Gaza, which is another big lie that they directly spread, or that there are literally millions of social security checks going to people who are over 100 years old, yet another lie. Conservatives must have a straw-man to knock down, an obscure, nebulous "enemy" to fight against, one that is conspiring to remake the world on their own terms and has the tech savvy, know how and support to drive this worldwide conspiracy against the "regular white guy."
It's not like we didn't know this was coming. He told us. Democratic party leadership labelled him an existential threat to democracy years ago. But I question, really, whether they took that as seriously as those of us who observed, who saw what he did and intended to do on January 6th, what he said and how he said it. If they did, then more effort would have been put into getting him to trial for insurrection against the United States, which is the crime he committed. Some risks would have been taken. It would have been worth it to break the filibuster, and it would have been worth it to pack the court. Those would have been big risks, but looking at what we're facing now, finding solutions to live with the consequences would have been a lot better than having to endure the damage to the country of a second Trump Presidency, including some real doubts about whether the Constitution and democracy will surivive.
And here, on this side of where we are, what have we got? Nothing, that I see. If we didn't have leaders who were willing to risk a few things to make it happen when we had the power to do it, we aren't going to have any now who will risk it. Right now, protecting their own interests is the priority.
I watched Mitch McConnell, when he had just 47 votes in the senate, make a shambles of Democratic party plans, by playing every possible hand the senate rules gave him to play. Ironic, isn't it, that McConnell is now the only Republican in the Senate who seems to have a realistic grasp on the damage that Trump is trying to do. I've heard some impassioned speeches, some angry words, and a few threats. But when it comes down to McConnell doing as much to put a stop to this as any Democrat, we're in big trouble.
There are lawsuits being filed, and a good measure of success there so far in getting some of the worst abuses stopped. That'll last as long as there are still judges who are committed to following their oath to the Constitution. But it won't last forever, and right now, the biggest doubts are whether the Supreme Court will uphold, and enforce, the lower court rulings. Those conservative justices didn't get those huge bribes for nothing.
So What Exactly is it That We Should Expect of Our Leaders?
We should expect them to do their job. And that's not protecting their turf, or preserving their electability. That's protecting us and preserving the Constitution.
The first thing that is on the agenda is to win three Congressional seats that will give Democrats a razor thin majority in the House, where most of this can be stopped. Maybe I need to look in a different place, but I don't seem to be seeing a concerted effort to make this happen. These are special elections, and turnout will determine the outcomes. What is the Democratic party doing to ensure that its voters turn out in record numbers in these three very winnable districts?
I still see appeals for money coming from the Harris campaign, from other Democrats who are almost two years away from the next election, and all kinds of cross purposes and self interest. Apparently, Democrats running for election in those districts are on their own to win. And if they're not, then show me the evidence that sets this straight. The Republicans are so afraid of what could happen, they're slow-walking the appointment of Elise Stefanik, in the hopes of delaying a special election there. The 2024 election is over, we have three more seats in Congress opening up, and that's where our money and attention should be going.
I might be willing to provide a few campaign contributions in the direction of Harris if she had taken up the mantle of party leadership in the wake of this razor thin election, but she went home to California, Tim Walz went back to Minnesota, and we haven't heard much from either of them lately. He wants to run for Senate. Well, then, get out in front of this and provide us with some leadership. My Governor sure is taking steps to resist this.
I'd like to send my contributions where it will do the most good.
It hasn't taken long, and we've seen that Trump is exactly the existential threat to democracy that Democrats have been saying he was. My expectations in this regard are high. I expected indictments for inciting an insurrection, a trial, and guilty verdicts long before the ink dried on the electoral ballots. But that was too much for the leadership we had at the time. Failing that, I expected a trial and verdict well before the 2024 election had a chance to get moving.
The Supreme Court was a casualty of failures to get the vote out in important mid-term elections. In fact, the entire justice system is now riddled with partisan judges on the bench, and if that's where we are now putting our confidence in stopping the worst abuses of Trump, then we are not in any position of strength. If we manage to hold the democracy together, I'll be impressed.
Now, we're left fixing the mess with more rudimentary means. The Constitution clearly provides for the removal of an incompetent, or dangerous, President. Unfortunately, none of the founders ever envisioned a justice system in which it would take years to get crimes to trial, or so difficult to get a just verdict, or they would have specified that a convicted felon could not be eligible to serve. But that doesn't matter a lot, since the convictions were never coming.
So the expectation is that the Democrats, independents and whatever allies they can make, must use the system as it is. We have to figure out a way to get just enough Republicans in the senate to vote to convict in the event of an impeachment. He's been impeached twice, finding grounds for that, among the hell he's raised over the past two weeks won't be the slightest problem, he has disqualified himself, including mentally, in multiple ways.
It will take pressure from Democrats in ways they haven't ever even dreamed of using. Clear messaging and getting inside the Republican misinformation silos won't be easy, but boy, what damage could a solid, simple, understandable message do to his political chances? The way misinformation flies through that network, think what well-placed, simple truth can do. But it will take Democrats becoming leaders, learning how to deliver a clear message and being believeable. I don't know if we have anyone in Congress capable, or willing, to take that kind of risk. But that is what it will take.
During the height of the opioid crisis, just following the 2016 election, Bernie Sanders made a speaking appearance in Welch, West Virginia, a town hard hit by the crisis. Welch is the county seat of McDowell County, deep red in a deep red state. It is an impoverished place, employment once booming because of coal, now depressed as thousands have moved away, replaced by jobs at a state pentitentiary and federal correctional institute, it is one of the most desperately depressed economic areas in the state.
Sanders interview with Chris Hayes, Welch, West Virginia 2018
Sanders, very out of place as a liberal, Jewish Senator in a county buried in the West Virginia mountains, along with Chris Hayes of MSNBC, delivered a message that resonated with the people there. Sanders has a knack for this, and while he's getting up there in years, he is one Democrat who doesn't back down, and doesn't count the political cost before he makes a decision. This is what we need. And while people don't like him, and might disagree, it's tough to argue with his success. He tells it like it is.
We need ten more just like him.
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