democracy

I’ve come to believe that the polarities in our country have less to do with political parties then with being in favor of or against democracy. And it may be a pretty even break. Since we have a representative democracy where we elect leaders to represent us on Federal, State, and Local levels, the actions of those representatives reflect the mood, temperament, and wishes of the voters of their district. So when all of the Republicans in the House vote against a bill that all the Dems voted for, you’ve got a good picture of the country as a whole. And when you have a routine measure like the debt limit voted on the other day, the picture becomes crystal clear. The debt limit was protected against partisan manipulation back in 1868 when the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed, and it hasn’t been an issue since…until now.

What’s more, the debt limit does not relate to current spending but to the previous spending of the prior administration, in this case the 7.8 trillion that Trump spent  to add to the deficit. That means that all the Republicans in the House voted against the ability of the government to pay for the money their dear leader Trump borrowed, and they approved, in the last part of his presidency. Their purpose? To seek political revenge against the Democrats, while hurting the country at large. That is not how a democracy is supposed to work. It’s not an adolescent game of tit for tat, of if you do that to me, I’ll do this to you, of, as a Mafiosa boss might say, play ball with me or you’re toast!(except the Godfather doesn’t represent anyone but himself and “his family”).

Of course the main thing a democracy guarantees is the right to vote, and the 14th Amendment took care of that for all male citizens, black or white, though not yet for women. That didn’t come until 1920 with the 19th Amendment. And the 14th insured there would be no abridgment of the right to vote, which included voter suppression laws that are now presently in effect in some 17 Republican controlled states. My question now is why hasn’t the present Justice Department under Merrick Garland challenged those laws on the basis of the 14th Amendment? What’s he waiting for? The ’22 election is too important to allow those laws to go unchallenged, and the DOJ is the only viable agency to do so. So wake up Mr. Garland and do your job!

Democracy’s been around since the 5th century B.C., starting in Athens, Greece when that town was itself a city-state. It started as a direct democracy like they have in Switzerland today, but evolved into different forms such our representative form and Britain’s Parliamentary form. But you may not have known that at the very beginning of our country, there was a strong anti-democracy movement, similar to what we see today with Trump and the Republican party. This was spearheaded by the aristocracy who were mostly elites and slave holders in the Deep South and in Appalachia. They were blatantly and openly white supremacists who believed the “Negro” race as well as poor whites should be subservient and enslaved to the rich who alone were civilized and cultured enough to set the standards for society. They used all sorts of rationales, including the Bible and the pseudo-science of the day to eventually convince even poor whites from the South and midlands to fight a Civil War to preserve slavery and the positions of the wealthy plantation owners throughout the Deep South. That foul air of white supremacy lingers to this day in the policies of the Republican Party, Donald Trump and his cult followers who would like to see him back in power, not as a president but, this time, as an oligarch and, perhaps, worse.

So, yes, we’ve seen this before–with Native Americans, with black slaves from Africa, with Irish Catholics from Ireland, with Jews from Eastern Europe, with Hispanics, with Moslems, with Chinese immigrants, with gays and lesbians, with the disabled, with Black American citizens. Have I missed other fringe groups? Probably. We have not been a particularly tolerant and compassionate country. And we needn’t look any farther than today to the actions of the Trump Republican Party to  see examples of this intolerance and obstructionist policy.

But now they see a real opening to bury this ancient blot on aristocracy called democracy with a Napolean called Donald Trump. So they rally round this charlatan and drape him in praise and gold. They explain away his obvious lies. We all saw the January 6th insurrection with our own eyes. We saw Trump incite the crowd beforehand. We saw the Trump infused animals storm the Capitol, harm officers, put our legislators in fear for their lives, smash TV equipment, even kill one officer, Brian Sicknick. We saw how they desecrated and tried to overturn the workings of democracy, without remorse, without shame. And now Republicans are trying to pass this off as an anomaly, as just one day, as something Trump had no part in.

It doesn’t fly, does it. It just doesn’t bloody fly. Our eyes told our brains the truth. And as long as the truth stands tall and true, democracy will endure. These wee radical right wing, white supremacist Trump politicians can’t destroy it. It has endured since the 5th century B.C.

Oh, and btw, another provision of the 14th Amendment put forth, in case the GOP and Fox News didn’t tell you: In its later sections, the 14th Amendment authorized the federal government to punish states that violated or abridged their citizens’ right to vote by proportionally reducing the states’ representation in Congress, and mandated that anyone who “engaged in insurrection” against the United States could not hold civil, military or elected office (without the approval of two-thirds of the House and Senate).” Perhaps Donald Trump and company weren’t aware of that provision…nor apparently is Merrick Garland.

As for democracy’s essence and prophecy, Lincoln said it simply and best: ” this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

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I believe we are at a crossroads in our journey as a country requiring radical action to preserve our “one nation…with liberty and justice for all.” Voting rights suppression, racial injustice, women’s rights, religious persecution, Supreme Court politicians, Donald Trump and his cult following are all on the table and active. Biden and his administration is certainly better than Trump’s but he is slow to act to preserve our union. The Republicans who oppose him, as they opposed Obama, have little concern for this country and its people. They are divisive and polarizing, wanting only to obstruct and serve only themselves and their political futures. Trump craves power and will do anything to return to the White House and establish an autocracy much like his friend Vladimir Putin. Mitch McConnell is essentially a traitor, willing to sacrifice the welfare of our people to score political points. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Mo Brooks, and their ilk should be banished from Congress permanently. They are stains on the integrity of that august body. Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, Roger Stone and their followers should be imprisoned for treason. White supremacy groups need to be infiltrated by the FBI and investigated for endangering public security and summarily disbanded. The Supreme Court needs to have three more liberal-oriented justices added to the court, which can be legally done, although to be perfectly honest, I’m not confident who Biden would appoint. He seems to live in another era of bipartisanship. This Republican Party, and virtually all its members are very far from that ideal. As they did with Obama, they are opposing Joe Biden and his life enhancing policies every step of the way. Consequently, the Senate filibuster needs to be modified or eliminated to permit the passage of the two voter rights bills now stalled and the comprehensive $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill also stalled. These bills will insure the voting rights in all of our states and set the country on the road to recovery and prosperity for every American. And finally, the room where the electoral ballots were counted on 1/6/21 should be consecrated and renamed the Brian Sicknick Room. Brian was an American Hero who gave his life helping to save our republic. He needs to be aptly acknowledged and honored.

I know these are controversial measures. I know each will have its blowback. But the resultant good they will do for our country is worth their enactment. Our country is deeply polarized to the point of some calling for armed insurrection. It was also such in the late 1850s just before the Civil War. The South wanted to retain slavery, the use and defining of Black human beings as chattel property, that sustained and fed their wealth and greed. The North opposed slavery and the degradation and vilification of human beings. The two sides were irreconcilable and went to war to decide the fate of the union. We all know what followed, and in some ways, that sad war is still being fought today under the banner of white supremacy. It’s sickening.

Some will call me a fiery radical for these proposals. Some will call me an extreme left winger. Some will call me a Socialist or even a Communist. I am none of the above. I am a deeply concerned American–an American whose ancestors came from Russia and Germany to find some peace of mind, some solace and relief from persecution, a safe and welcoming place to raise their families and perhaps even to prosper. I am here, alive today, because our country permitted their entry, offering a sanctuary from oppression and fear. Here was a country where they could practice their religion without obstacles. Here was a country where, at least on paper, everyone was treated equally and offered the opportunities of education, employment, and a decent place to live.

But it was also a country unwilling to face the harsh realities of its past: its treatment of black Africans who were and are now African Americans, first as slaves and later as second class citizens; its treatment of Native American Indians, whose people were massacred to pave the way to steal their ancestral lands and destroy their ancient cultures and practices; its treatment of Chinese and Japanese and Hispanic and Indo Chinese members of society with discrimination and even internment; its treatment of Jews, Moslems, and Catholics often denied full entry into society and lacking full protection under the law.

Now, even in these present times, elements refuse to accept a fair, democratically contested election, refuse to acknowledge the traitors that attacked Congress to try to overthrow our government, refuse to acknowledge, still, their innate racist thoughts and actions, refuse to acknowledge Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our justly elected President and Vice President, refuse to acknowledge the courage and bravery of police officers who defended the Capitol against insurrectionists (Trump has still refused to pay his respects to the family of murdered officer Brian Sicknick),refuse to acknowledge the pandemic that is raging across our country and the world by grossly refusing the simple solutions of wearing protective masks and taking scientifically proven vaccines,refuse to acknowledge a climate crisis that is human created and that can be human solved–a crisis that is putting the planet and its people at risk of destruction. Again, it’s sickening.

So in this hour of urgency, what can we, as citizens, do? One thing is do whatever we can to prevent the GOP from taking back one or both Houses of Congress in the 2022 midterm elections. In fact, we need to help strengthen Democrat numbers in both Houses, especially the Senate in order to disempower Joe Manchin and his wolf in sheep’s clothing so-called moderate agenda. Manchin, acting more Republican than Democrat, is of no help in protecting our democracy. His only aim in reelection in a Trump state, and protection of Big Coal. Joe Manchin has no moral compass. He too is sickening.

Donald Trump and those who seem to worship him, are symptoms of a virulent cancer that must somehow be arrested and stopped. He is a tumor that must be removed, and must be removed by any and all legal means. Biden does not seem to be up to that task. Nor does Merrick Garland. I don’t know who, but someone must endeavor to put Donald Trump behind bars and end his reign of terror. Yes, Trump is as much or more a terrorist than ISIS or al Queda. He is a political terrorist who has amassed a cult following in this country. He is dangerous man, as his own niece Mary Trump has asserted.

The entire Republican Party has devolved into an obstructionist, extreme right wing entity, essentially an enemy of democracy, decency, and decorum–its members in Congress marching in lockstep, or should I say goose-step, to the Hitlerian rantings of Donald Trump. And yet, millions of dollars continue to pour into their coffers. And millions contemplate voting to put these people back into power. Again, this is sickening that those millions would support and encourage such people.

Social media has become a platform for insane conspiracy theories that undermine people’s faith in our government, our scientists, our teachers, and our reasonable leaders. Elements using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter are damaging the health of our young people. These media know this yet do nothing to remedy this gross disregard for what their administrators allow, apparently in order to keep the billions rolling in. Like Pandora’s Box, when social media opened to the masses, some good came of it, but much toxicity also followed. The solution? More government regulation to quiet the poison that emits from social media every minute of the day, ad infinitum.

Yes, I’m angry and concerned. Many of us are asleep at the wheel, battered and downtrodden by a pandemic that has changed life as we knew it. I get that. But we must awaken to the danger of a beast like Donald Trump. He is a con man through and through, caring nothing for our country but only for his personal aggrandizement and power. He wants to change the very fabric of our democracy and transform it into something out of the novel 1984. We must stop him, his cronies, and his followers. The fate of our country is at hand. The reality and sense of urgency is upon us.

Thank you.