"We had eight years of governing nihilism in the Republican Party, even when they were the majority in the House, and then in the Senate. And that paved the way for the Trump era, because what we saw from Trump as a candidate was a post -policy candidacy - and now we have three plus years of a post policy presidency...This is why the coming election cycles are so important. Parties change only when voters tell them they have to change.." - Steve Benen, last night on The Rachel Maddow Show, explaining why policy issues are no longer taken seriously by the modern GOP.
It turns out that the latest deformed meme to be making the rounds is that "protests have more impact than voting or politics" (Denver Post, 'Young in U.S. Question Value of Voting', June 7, p. 3A). As we read in the piece:
"Barack Obama had a favorite saying on the campaign trail, 'Don't Boo--- Vote!' But young protesters galvanized by police brutality seem to be sketching out a present day response: 'Sure, maybe. But first some well -directed fury'"
And of course we know that well - placed fury clears the sinuses, gets the blood boiling and satiates those ramped up emotions- especially building after spending two months looking at the 4 walls in quarantine. But that heady feeling of marching in the streets and yelling heads off still doesn't address the core problem: the presence of toxic enablers and white supremacy panderers in their various political positions - who will keep on keeping on stoking hate and fear, until they are removed.
Trouble is, voting - casting ballots in elections - is the only way to remove these roaches. Protest until you're blue in the face and your throats are hoarse from screaming, with your body now wracked by Covid- that won't get rid of the sewer rats. You have to move asses to register to vote, and then do it.
Back in 2008, one of the most stirring sights in Colorado political history was that of angry students from Colorado College (in Colorado Springs) pouring out of their dorms and classes to vote in the 2008 elections. Indeed I kept the image clipped out from The Colorado Springs Independent:
Colorado College students yell 'Obamanos!' on their way to the polls in November, 2008.
These youngsters had had enough of the Bush-Republican epoch of nonstop wars, killing, and torture (e.g. of the Abu Ghraib prisoners in Iraq) and knew in their hearts merely marching in the streets wouldn't be enough. They knew while marches and protests might have a 'feel good' elixir effect they really needed to get out, register, and then vote! And so it was their massive actions swept Barack Obama to the presidency, and we beheld a new dawn of promise. (And perhaps equally important, an end to Republican misrule.)
According to the Denver Post piece, however, for the young today that may not be enough, given marching in the streets seems so much more exciting. And besides, many cities are even responding with new declarations of police oversight. So why vote? Well, because protests galore won't rid us of the toxic malignancy fouling the White House and from whom all the hate, white supremacist venom, and division spew.
According to one young college student quoted in the piece, her preferred candidate (Bernie Sanders) was knocked out, so what was the point? She had about as much interest in Biden as slurping up a cold bowl of porridge. Others expressed a sense of frustration, i.e. that those in office have done little to stem the flood of crises- from mounting student loan debt, to exploding health care costs, to environmental atrocities and recurring economic uncertainty.
A 27 year old protester in Philly named Zoe Demkowitz moaned:
"In an ideal world, all of these issues would be solved by going out and voting. I tried that. I voted for the right people and this shit still happens!"
Welcome to the real world, kiddies! Here's what few of these idealist voters (and not- yet voters) don't get: Not voting, going only the protest route instead, leaves the door open for much WORSE actors and outcomes. Exhibit A: Donald J. Trump. In the words of a recent TIME essay (June 15, p. 30):
"If the George Floyd video was the match and the coronavirus the kindling, Donald Trump provided the gasoline. Since the start of his term Trump has turned the Oval Office into an instrument of racial, ethnic and cultural division. A man who both -sided a white supremacist march, went to war with NFL players protesting police brutality, called African nations 'shithole countries' and told American congresswomen to 'go back' to where they came from, was never going to appeal to harmony now."
In a related Post piece ('Trump Tests Role He's Long Admired: Strong Man', May 31) we're warned that Trump may just be "tuning up" his autocratic, authoritarian ways for a 2nd term - assuming not enough people cast ballots to get rid of his toxic ass. We learn he is especially fond of Philippine strong man Rodrigo Duterte's methods, i.e.
"Duterte is already planning to sign legislation to allow his government to classify some political opponents as terrorists, this mere days after Trump claimed he would designate a group of protesters as 'Antifa terrorists'
And let's bear in mind under Duterte's regime, using squads of violent police vigilantes and hired thugs, over 8,000 have already been killed or dispatched in other ways, i.e. to remote labor camps. Make no mistake that having shattered nearly every norm of law and accountability Trump will yearn to do the same if he gets re-elected on account of American voter complacency. It will literally be "Trump Unchained" - a foul maniac and traitor who will now believe he can do anything he wishes- plus he will have William Barr to assure everyone Der Fuhrer is above the law.
Those who doubt such excesses could come to pass ought to hear from Janice's German friends Marlies and Ingeborg, who recalled how no German believed Hitler could actually come to power and launch concentration camps. But he did. The chance we have now is to prevent this from repeating with Trump, the new Hitler.
But that means voting - even if one faces long lines, or having to get a proper ID first (see top graphic) - oh, and even "crawling over broken glass" to cast that ballot if you have to.
Again, I return to my theme that voting isn't just about getting "the ideal" candidate into office or having him or her perform to a preternatural, ideal standard of righting all wrongs, or sealing a "green New Deal". No, it also means, even more importantly - preventing the bad guys remaining in office or grabbing more power - like Trump, William Barr, Lindsey Graham etc. Hence, the uber objective is stopping these vermin from completing their destruction of this democratic experiment. In other words, voting is as much or more about limiting damage and eliminating toxic leaders as it is putting in the best.
Here Masha Gessen's book 'Surviving Autocracy' sheds much needed light on our predicament. Gessen observes that the U.S. has been totally unprepared for a destabilizing demagogue like Donald Trump. Not because he 'came from nowhere' but rather he took advantage of a political system ripe for demagoguery. He succeeded because too many voters abdicated their responsibilities and in doing so threw a monkey wrench into governance. As Gessen writes:
"No powerful political actor had set out to destroy the American political system itself - until that is, Trump won the Republican nomination. He was probably the first major party nominee to run not for president but for autocrat. "
The past three and a half years, of course, have revealed not only his penchant for authoritarianism - and worshipping autocrats like Rodrigo Duterte - but also for side -action destruction of the state and its protections via dismantling of regulations, blowing off congressional subpoenas, and attacking everything from health care to women's procreative rights and the environment. It doesn't take a Mensa level IQ to see that all the above are set to be magnified in another Trump term. Especially if yet another Right winger is appointed to the Supreme Court, paving away for a permanent judicial holocaust ripping away right by right as the last residue of our Republic crumbles. Indeed, another Trump term has the potential to finish this nation off as a functioning democracy.
Even WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan, after Trump's last abominable two weeks - which included routing peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square under clouds of tear gas and rubber bullets - knows the writing is on the wall. As she wrote in her recent (June 6-7, p. A13) piece:
"This will not end well. With his timing he'd know it. He should give an Oval Office address announcing he's leaving: 'America, you don't deserve me'. Truer words have never been spoken in that old place."
The problem is that Trump will never resign, he lacks the moral compass, and self-awareness of his malevolent folly and incompetence. So it's wishful thinking. The only way to oust this maggot is to vote him out. (Though Janice hopes Covid-19 will take him out when he resumes his rallies.) But again, voting is the only realistic antidote so this is not the time to make the perfect the enemy of the good, or even the 'just ok' or 'acceptable'.
At the end of the Denver Post piece one guy named Jason Culler - who marched in a Philadelphia protest- was asked his opinion of voting in the coming election. Culler "predicted the current election cycle would not produce leaders who adequately reflected the crowds filling the streets" and he went on to assert:
"Not this election. Not the Democratic Party, not the Republican Party. These people don't represent us. That's why we're fighting out here on the streets."
Eliciting the need for a mental intervention in the form of a sobering quotation from Steve Benen's new book,'The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing And Seized American Politics', e.g.
"The electorate long had reason to assume both major parties were mature and responsible. ...But the actions of the Republican Party over the last decade make it abundantly clear it's time to re-evaluate that assumption.
The current iteration of the GOP is indifferent to the substance of governing. It is disdainful of expertise and analysis. It is hostile toward evidence and arithmetic. It is tethered to few, if any, policy preferences,.The modern Republican Party has become a post policy party."
Got that, Jason? So by conflating the two parties in your false equivalence quote you are displaying: a) gross ignorance, and b) a cavalier attitude to facts and history that could see Trump re-elected. Among the most disturbing comments from Steve Benen last night was how Republicans "have simply taken their 2016 platform and slapped a sticker on it saying '2020'. So Republicans still don't have much interest in governing."
In other words, no new policy positions or advances, none. This also matched Trump's campaign web page which revealed no policies or issues, compared to 30 on Biden's web page, according to Benen.
And given Trump's fascination with strongman dictators like Duterte one also has to ask Jason how much longer he and his cohort believe they can protest if Trump is re-elected and marshals violent right wing vigilantes and para -military police operations to crack down, All because little Jason punked out on account of petty grievances and disappointments with both parties. Thereby failing to distinguish between the existential threat of Trump with his cult GOP and the Democrats and Joe Biden - who at least endorse active governance. (Even if all their accomplishments may not measure up to Jason's fantasies.)
Or as Janice put it with one of her inimitable analogies: "Mistaking not getting a three course, fine dining experience at the Ritz for being force- fed five day old tacos full of salmonella and E Coli. at "Trump's Taco Emporium"
This is what Jason - in his hopeless naivete - fails to grasp: Voting is not a simple matter of electing someone to perfectly represent you or your ideals, but more importantly, ensuring the demagogue who despises you and your ideals is not elected, period!
If you want to make things 1,000 times worse for yourself and your millions of fellow protesters, fail to turn up to vote in November to oust the demagogue authoritarian and his toxic enablers in the Senate GOP, poisoning the national well. If you opt to prevent even a hint of positive change to surface, keep drinking the kool aid that protests alone hold the key to historical change in this country.
See Also:2020 Elections | Donald Trump
by Michael Winship | May 13, 2020 - 5:50am
| permalink
Excerpt:
"There must be one mission above all, one goal supreme: Vote this monster out of the White House. And along with him, tow to the nearest dump the clown car of malefactors who gave him license to cripple our republic.
Donald Trump’s defeat and the defeat of those in Congress who have enabled him with nary a word of protest are Priorities Number 1 through 100. Focus. Don’t be diverted by ideological hairsplitting and intraparty squabbling. Drive this creature and his army of creeps, leeches and miscreants back to the wet market from which they came."
No comments:
Post a Comment