The organizing principle of the 2018 election must be impeachment. And until then absolute and total resistance to policies that are malign and trample the rights of Americans.
The Democratic Party should advocate and promise the immediate impeachment of Pence, Trump, members of the cabinet who have stolen and lied and any judges who will have shown by 2018 that they have contempt for the Constitution. #RepublicanTreason needs a firm and uncompromising response
Pence can be impeached for being associated with a treasonous president, for depriving citizens of their lawful rights ……. lots more of a rationale than Monica and Benghazi.
Then impeachment of Trump.
Followed by the impeachment of cabinet members who have profited in their jobs. And throw in ethically challenged judges on the Supreme and Appellate Courts who have undermined our laws and the rights of Americans. It is these judges that have eroded the rule of law and our democratic practices by choosing to deprive Americans the ability of vote based on no evidence of fraud.
Are not the actions of these Republican bootlickers to disenfranchise the American people and elevate oligarchy not high crimes and misdemeanors?
The Democratic Party could promise to make Barack Obama Speaker of the House after the 2018 elections. First the Speaker need not be an elected member of the House. And once a Presidetn and Vice President are impeached, the Speaker would be elevated, but not elected, to the Presidency. President Obama, despite all the fake news the mainstream media recycled for 8 years aimed at destroying his legitimacy, is the only unifying person left in American public life. And he is in his 50s — a vigorous and experienced man.
By making impeachment the organizing principle of the 2018 election now, the rest of the pieces for the next two years of our politics will fall in place.
Because the Senate map is so unfavorable to Democrats for 2018, the majority needed to convict any office holder in the Senate is impossible unless we act now. That is to identify weak Republican senators and recall them. Otherwise, we will need to find quite a few Republican senators who would break with their party — and sorry to say there aren’t any. Because Republican office holders do not serve the people, they serve their wealthy paymasters who have made their pact with racists, sexists, zealots and nationalists.
DNC Chair Perez and Vice Chiar Ellison have a lot of work cut out for them. But messaging should not be the issue. The message is loud and clear. Impeachment.
The Party needs to then recruit candidates for every state and federal office that stand by this one issue. It is time for the Democratic Party and its candidates to mean what they say — instead of over promising and under delivering as they have done the past 40 years.
Should the party choose impeachment as its organizing principle then the policies that buttress that decision are easy to identify and advocate.
- reinvigorate democracy by insisting on voting rights for all, logical and fairly drawn single member districts at the Federal and state levels and transparency in election funding and political advocacy.
- a market economy that works for all and for the planet by reforming the rules of the market to spread out decision making through vigorous anti trust enforcement and financial regulation, to stop the outright subsidization of polluting industries and encourage sustainable energy, agriculture, and transportation and to insist on employment laws that reward work with adequate pay at all levels of the workforce.
-reestablish principles of taxation at all government levels that treat all like taxpayers the same, that tax on the basis of an ability to pay, and that do not distort the economy. Currently the tax system, and the privatization of government functions, is leading to massive asset stripping of our government, as our current economic policy has led to the asset stripping of our factories, farms, shops, infrastructure and homes.
- reestablish quality N-12 education as the birthright of all Americans whose primary objective is not to create worker bees, but to develop citizens whose potential to fully develop their own gift and skills is the main aim of education. Citizenship means being inculcated with the obligation to engage in our society on the basis of shared values of mutual respect of all.
- pursue peace and international cooperation that addresses the problems of global warming and the need for all people to have stable and responsive government. That means cooperation and the use of soft power, not saber rattling or the use of actual sabers when our actual survival is not at risk. Because in the long term our survival depends on peace, cooperation and a lifting of all boats around the world.
- emphasize the importance of faith for personal development and ethical action in the world. What would Jesus, or Buddha, or the G*d of the Torah and Quran really want humans and their societies to do? Destroy this precious earth and render human kind extinct? Religious leaders and believers must be reached to break the bigoted and self-defeating ideological prisons to which many have been consigned.
- build up the commons — in infrastructure, housing, education, employment, health and leisure. Isn’t that what the pursuit of happiness is really about?
Is there an alternative to impeachment in the next 18 months? Anything else is advocating incrementalism that plays into the hands of the malign forces that brought us Trump and Republican governance. And that will lead to divide and rule policies that result in the loss of rights and power for the people. We must use bold democratic and constitutional methods to fight the fascism and oligarchic kleptocracy that has risen quickly in our midst.