If you’re like me – and I hope for your sake you’re not – you’re watching the news just about every day and wondering when you’ll reach your tipping point of political polls, predictions, and pundits.
Can we just vote, already?
Through all this, I do want to take exception to the seemingly universal position that former President/unindicted criminal/cult leader/national embarrassment Donald Trump isn’t on the ballot this year.
He most certainly is. While not by name, his power, his philosophy of Trumpism, and his chances for a disastrous return to the White House in two years certainly are. That should scare us, and then it should motivate us to vote in gigantic numbers on Nov. 8.
I know our current economic climate is very important to a lot of people, as it should be. That’s why I’m concerned that too many of them won’t take into account the real threat to democracy and the pending maneuverings to pave the way for Trump or whoever the GOP candidate is in 2024 if the Republicans gain control of the House, Senate, or both.
As one pundit put it – I’m paraphrasing now – Trump was the first president to lose an election and then attempt to install election deniers via the midterms who would then help him win in two years.
Here’s what we face if the GOP takes control of the House over the next two years:
*Threats of shutting down our government or defaulting on our debt if they don’t get what they want, despite the real-life implications of both actions.
*Investigation upon investigation of Democrats, most if not all overblown or fabricated. Also, the shutting down of the Jan. 6 committee and any other investigations into Republicans.
*Multiple impeachments of President Joe Biden and others in his administration.
*Elevation of the most insane – and dangerous – voices from the Right, which will increase the vitriol in our politics and could lead to more attacks like the one on Paul Pelosi.
*Laying the groundwork to steal the 2024 presidential election for the Republican candidate, either by direct action or by making sure GOP-controlled state legislatures aren’t impeded in their efforts to tilt the scale in their favor. All of this based on the Big Lie of voter fraud.
*No signification legislative accomplishments.
*Repeated attacks on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the social safety net.
*An eroding or our support for Ukraine, which will be an aid to GOP favorite Putin, and a shifting of United States allegiance to other dictators.
*The protection and support of domestic terrorists aligned with the Republican Party.
*The end of efforts to address climate change as the Republicans will continue to put their fossil-fuel donors over the benefit of the whole country.
Now, we do have a safety net regarding a lot of these things in the form of a Biden veto. And any impeachments leading to a Senate trial will end in an acquittal because there aren’t enough Republicans in that body to convict.
Also, the Senate filibuster will stop a lot of the Republican agenda from passing, with the exception of things that qualify for reconciliation.
Still, Biden won’t be able to stop the fake investigations, lies, and a Right-wing disinformation machine that wouldn’t know the truth if it bit it in the ass. The dysfunctionality will be a massive embarrassment to any sensible citizen of our country.
All this will also heighten the vast policy and philosophical differences between the two parties. Both will be looking for talking points and sound bites to use in 2024. In other words, Congress will be more about politics than policy. More about self-interest than progress.
It will be even worse if the GOP also gets control of the Senate. The roadblocks to a flood of the parties pro-rich, anti-poor-and-middle-class agenda will still be there, but Republicans would then be in a position to block the filling of any openings on the U.S. Supreme Court, or any other federal court for that matter.
Is all that worth voting for a party that bitches about inflation and the cost of gas but has no plans on how to address either? Or that demonizes immigrants but, again, has no ideas on how to solve the situation at the border?
Is the spite of “owning the libs” worth the funny-if-it-wasn’t-so-scary version of a House (of Madness) where retribution is the driving philosophy and the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene are the leading voices of the majority party?
God help our country if this comes to pass.
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That you for reading my post. You can see more of my writings on my blog: Musings of a Nobody.