I came across two comments yesterday which, although on totally different subjects, sort of overlap.
The first, for all its simplicity, was one of my favorite quotes I've heard during the election, since what was said isn't just funny but also speaks to a larger truth about Democratic voter turnout. A reporter asked a woman standing in a line that stretched extremely far how long she'd been waiting to vote. She answered, "Four years." The other was a tweet from journalist Ezra Klein directing attention to an article he wrote for Vox. He said, "I cannot emphasize enough how much McConnell's actions on Garland and Barrett have radicalized Democratic senators. As I've argued before, McConnell's single most consequential legacy may be what he convinces Senate Democrats to do." All this comes on the heels of the Republican-led Senate cramming through the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court, only eight days before the election, with voting having started a couple of weeks ago, around 50 million Americans having already voted -- four years after their angst-filled, little hearts poured out mournful tears that 300 days, almost a full year, was too close to an election to even hold a hearing on President Barrack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, But this isn't about the Supreme Court. In part because that's a very long, involved issue that I haven't figured out for myself which of the many options I think are the best for Democrats to pursue. And in part because when I think about Merrick Garland and this nomination and Mitch McConnell laughing about his deceit and Lindsey Graham insisting there wouldn't be a Supreme Court confirmation in the final year of Trump's term if he was chairman of the Justice Committee and pontificating to "use this tape" of him saying that against him if there was such a vote (which, of course, there not only was, but he raced it through and broke Senate rules to do so)...my fingers curdle and my body clenches too much to type. Rather, this is about what connects those two, otherwise-unrelated comments above. And what connects them is the perseverance of anger. I'm not sure if Republicans in Congress, or those who live in holes while waiting for the next Trump sighting on the Mount have any idea of how tenacious most Democrats have become starting -- no, not just four years, but back almost 12 years. Yes, that long. Really. I believe the unrelenting anger dates back to Mitch McConnell saying on literally the very first day of Barack Obama's presidency in 2008 that the Number One goal of the Republican Party was to deny the president a second term. The Number One goal, even above things like, oh, "the good of the country." And for the next four years, that's how Republicans in the Senate and House governed. And when President Obama was re-elected by the American public, that's how Republicans in Congress continued to act out of a combination of spite, racism and the lack of ideas. And no, that's not hyperbole -- ever since the Affordable Care Act passed, for just one instance, Republicans have been trying to destroy it and insisting that they have a better plan. That's something Trump regularly says is coming in "two weeks" since he first took office in 2017. And we're now in 2020, Trump is still saying that, and Republicans still haven't come up with anything. Anything. In 12 years. And yet Republicans are still trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act and pre-existing conditions...in a pandemic! Without a replacement. So, yes, this visceral reaction of Democrats against the GOP really did get its start 12 years ago, and has continued through Republican attempts to block everything purely just to block it, not because they had something better, and blocked 105 federal judge appointments by President Obama that they later were able to fill under Trump's subsequent nominations, and kept Merrick Garland from getting a hearing for the Supreme Court, and then 16 Republican House investigations of Hillary Clinton on Benghazi in order to discredit her as the likely Democratic presidential nominee and which found nothing, and Trump campaign collusion with Russia (which is, in fact, what the Mueller Report did find, but said investigators couldn't make a case of it being illegal because obstruction by the Trump administration kept material from them) and a reopened FBI investigation got Trump elected, followed by separating immigrant children from parents, putting immigrant children in cages, praising some neo-Nazis as very fine people, calling Mexicans rapists, trying to block Muslims from entering the country, refusing to even utter the words "Black Lives Matter," regularly calling the press the enemy of the people, firing intelligence officers daring to tell the truth about dangers to the country, trusting the word of the Russian leader over all intelligence services, and over 20,000 documented lies from the White House and impeachment for trying to bribe a foreign leader, ignoring science that's destroying the country from a pandemic and crushing the economy, as well as dismantling the Postal Service to assist other voter suppression efforts and so much more, all of it enabled by elected Republicans in Congress who are complicit in it all -- all of it, everything, voting near lock-step unanimously on everything in support of a fascist administration -- has built to a perseverance of anger among Democrats that has reached a depth I don't think Republicans have a clue of. All the while Republicans celebrate each of their actions, keep chanting "Lock her up," prompted by Trump, which now overlaps from Hillary Clinton to today Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan with the result that there was a serious threat by white supremacists to kidnap and kill her. And the same for the mayor of Omaha. And now the governor of Ohio. All to silence by Republicans in Congress, all blissfully acquiescent to the dangers to other politicians who oppose them. And dancing at the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett. As they danced to the confirmation of the highly-questionable Brett Cavanaugh. And on and ever on, blissfully unaware as they dance about the perseverance of Democrats, which should be blatantly obvious from them standing in lines to vote for not just five hours, but for four years. And not grasping why Democrats in Congress have been radicalized by their 12 years of actions and are now therefore looking seriously at all the options available to them in dealing with the Supreme Court, should they win the majority and White House. And in dealing with all issues to come. As the expression goes, even for those who blissfully dance -- Be careful what you wish for, you might get it. Which leads to one other comment, this from Jason Kander, former Secretary of State of Missouri, who I've written about here often -- a low-key, even-handed and talented up-and-coming politician. Yesterday, he wrote -- "In ten years, some politicians will treat the Trump administration like they do the Iraq war: Everyone will pretend they never really supported it. I’m not cool with letting anybody get away with that." Not long ago, Mitch McConnell tried to shut down Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the Senate floor, attempting to demean her unrelenting outrage by saying with ridicule, "And still she persisted." He had no idea. He had no idea what he was unleashing then, and what he and Republicans in Congress have released for 12 years. And still she persisted, indeed. So have they all. Since the first day of Trump's inauguration when the massive Women's March flowed through the streets of the country, and all the marches and protests since. For four years they've persisted. And it's been building for 12 years. This is about the perseverance of anger. What it is not about is Trump, because we know who he is. This is about the elected Republicans in Congress who enable him, who have moved towards fascism for many years, and are fully and knowingly complicit.
2 Comments
Douglass Abramson
10/27/2020 07:29:12 pm
I know what I think is the easiest and least long term damaging option to fix the balance of the Supreme Court, but I don't think Schumer has the imagination to do it. If the Democrats retain their margin in the House and take control of the Senate, they should impeach Justice Thomas for every instance he didn't recuse himself when his wife was working for one of the litigants in a case that came before the Court. It would require some Republican votes in the Senate, but the ones up for reelection in 2022 can decide if they want to help remove an unpopular justice or if they want to risk their seats by feeding the anger over Mitch's gamesmanship and the courts; knowing that if the impeachment doesn't work, the Democrats would still be able to raise the number of justices on the Court with their majorities alone. A few might actually choose country over party and vote to remove Thomas. I wouldn't hold my breath, but it would be worth a shot with little downside for the Democrats.
Reply
Robert Elisberg
10/29/2020 02:02:14 pm
As it happens, I'd thought of impeachment, as well -- though more for Neal Kavanaugh who had some questionable issues come up during his confirmation hearing, separate from the accusations. I hadn't written about it yet, since I thought a column at this point was premature.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
Categories
All
|
© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2024
|