The mid term elections are speeding towards America and there will be a collision. On November 6th, either the will of the majority will plow into Donald Trump’s unchallenged rule or the Trump-worshipping GOP will smash through most of the remaining barriers of American democracy.
It’s unfortunately a cliche to say, “This is the most important election of our lives.” The urgency of that phrase has been expressed in previous elections and at those other times, it may have been earnest. However, as we’ve witnessed the steamrolling of critical precedents and many pillars of our democracy by Trump and the GOP, even those most reserved about hyperbole may be hard pressed to deny that this year’s election is the most important one in our lifetimes.
After Trump was declared the winner of the 2016 election, many Americans seemed shellshocked, depressed and demoralized. By Inauguration Day, the clouds began clearing in the minds of many and the new era of activism and protest was launched by the record-breaking Women’s March.
As Trump’s election was inconceivable for many, the idea that he could operate day after day as a compulsive liar, openly racist and cuddling up with the worst dictators around the world seemed hard to believe. How could Trump take a wrecking ball to law enforcement, our intelligence agencies and our press without it swinging back to flatten him?
We’ve taken far too much for granted. The primary check and balance on an out-of-control sociopath occupying the White House is Congress. We know how averse Republicans are to putting country before party but we wrongly assumed that if there was an existential threat to our democracy, even they couldn’t go along with it.
Last week, on display for all to see in the hearing where Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Beer Kavanaugh…er…Bret…testified to Senators (and in the case of Beer…er…case of Bret Kavanaugh, ranted, cried and lied as a “dry drunk”), Republicans shamelessly demonstrated how completely corrupt and anti-democratic they are.
Right now, there are no congressional brakes on the Trump Crazy Train. It jumped the tracks from the start and continues crashing through the lives of women, children, people of color, immigrants and anyone else who breathes air and drinks water. Not to mention democracy.
If Democrats don’t win control of at least one house of Congress, five Tuesdays from today, Trump will be emboldened to throw his crazy train into even higher gear. The damage to the country and most Americans will become exponentially disastrous and Republicans in Congress, seeing that there is no price to pay for sacrificing our democracy for power, could only feel empowered to do more of the horrible things they’ve only dreamed of.
Killing the ACA, privatizing and slashing Social Security and Medicare, freeing corporations to pollute and poison water, air and land while showering them with taxcuts and taxpayer money, chopping down the rights of citizens and further pushing of Americans to be at the throats of each other.
This isn’t doom and gloom, it’s openly discussed GOP policy. This is what awaits our beseiged country if Democrats don’t win back a house of Congress.
Thankfully, polling seems to support that Democrats are strongly favored to win back at least The House of Representatives and there’s a viable but challenging scenario for Dems to take back The Senate.
What should be fresh in voters’ minds though is that most of what was taken for granted, before and since the 2016 election, has proven to be mistaken.
There’s advice given to runners when running a race, you don’t slow down until after you’ve passed the finish line. Voters in America would be wise to take this advice to heart. No one should take the polls for granted (again!), no one should assume that others will vote in enough numbers that their vote won’t be needed. No one should believe that their efforts in helping get out the vote aren’t necessary. Run through the finish line and don’t slow down until the race is won.
This upcoming election is going to be a turning point, one way or another. Either it will steer the nation more abruptly towards an increasingly cruel, dishonest, oppressive and undemocratic rule or back towards a democracy where checks and balances between the branches of government protect the people and their country.
The countdown is on. Just five Tuesdays left and counting. The United States of America needs your vote and your help to get others out to vote. The stakes couldn’t be higher. The days of taking things for granted are over. The day for taking our future back into our hands is coming very soon.
Vote.
How to describe 620 days of chaos? Are the days of thoughtful discussion over? Or am I just dreaming that there were times here in America where the political communication was at least collegial? I’m 72 so if we can’t find a way to correct this divide my generation may be the last that didn’t live in a dictatorial police state. Hyperbole? Three years ago I would have laughed at such nonsense, now I see upwards of 30% of my fellow citizens accepting amazing amounts of lies and propaganda demonizing their more liberal neighbors. I see the ‘lugenpresse’ stratagy working here just as good as it did in 1932 Germany. I see clips of Trump cult members at these personality lie fests practically genuflecting at the mention of his name, they only believe him and that is frightening.
By the way AdLib, I took the step of posting your excellent article to my FB page I hope that’s ok? Spot on with every point.
Thanks so much, gyp46!
We’ve been surrounded and steeped in hatred, bigotry, misogyny, lawlessness, cruelty and unconditional tribalism for those 620 days so it can sure appear that we’ve fallen into a very dark hole that’s inescapable.
But many nations and societies have gone through terrible times and one thing is true, they don’t last. Especially in a democracy.
The Obama Era seems long ago and hazy now but that’s how the insanity of Trump’s reign will be before too long. We forgot how horrible the Bush Era was by the end of the Obama Era, I think it’s the way human beings are.
Dems will take back the House in just five weeks, maybe the Senate too. And in 2020, we’ll take it all back and re-establish sanity and the America we believe in.
Until then, we have to endure this madness.
As for the 35% or so of the country that seems so mindless and hateful, the truth is that they’ve been there all along. Think back to the 1960s and the virulent racism throughout the South and around the rest of America. The same people justifying their hatred and racism by calling themselves “the Moral Majority” in the 1980s. The “Tea Party” was the new phony image these racist, anti-democratic types disguised themselves as more recently.
And now, they are MAGAs. They never went away, they were just shamed out of the spotlight and Trump simply led them back on the stage.
We’ve beaten them before, we’re going to again and we have to be prepared to do so again in 2020 and on and on.
As we’ve learned through the decades, this is a battle that never ends and we don’t get to ever sit back and rest after our victories. Now we know, these hateful rubes will always be around to one degree or another, lying in wait to march behind authoritarians who pander to them to use them.
And we must always stand in their way and push them back into the shadows even when they seem to have changed everything into their hateful images.
Trumpism won’t last, it’s already coming apart and will end up on the ash heap of history (along with the GOP as it’s become).
Five weeks from today we can bring down a powerful hammer on Trumpism. Two years from then, we can bury it.
Have faith, we can do this!
Pesimissism is not my normal state of mind and I agree that we can regain control if the thinking masses get out and VOTE. Not sure how we invigorate the lazy but somehow I know the problem lies in education. We must have at least a year of civics again, mandatory not selective. Without an understanding of the basic concepts of liberty and democracy I fear the minority will continue to cause hate and division. My one big hope is taking the Senate, with Congress under progressive leadership we can bring Trump to a standstill. That must be the goal.
It’s sad but we do have to accept that a third of this country, is pretty much a lost cause. They are ignorant, authoritarians, racist and hateful.
As I like to say, you can’t use reason to convince someone out of views they didn’t use reason to accept. They are beyond reasoning, they are adversaries of progress and harmony. They must simply be beaten and sidelined.
Until 2020, we will be mired in conflict and chaos. Once Trump is pulled down like the Saddam statue and replaced with an honest, principled human being, the spell will be broken and we will look back in relief on the previous 4 years as a bout of temporary insanity.
Step 1 is winning back The House and maybe the Senate in less than 5 weeks. Step 2 is electing a Dem to the presidency in 2020.
And Step 3 should be criminally prosecuting Trump, his family and his cronies to make a statement about no one being above the law and establishing a number of laws to prevent any future madman from having such free reign and near dictatorial powers in the future.
And among them, barring nepotism and requiring 10 years of tax returns to be released for all candidates would be good first steps.