I’m interested in hearing what people here think, because I’m just not seeing anything I supposedly should be confident in, trusting of, in “unity” with or galvanized by. To me, the message I see from the Democratic leadership is one of near-complete surrender.
Surrender to the fact that Trump is going to be lawless for the next year and a half, there’s simply nothing to do other than ignore it and hope that the 2020 election is a fair one and happens to go the Democrats’ way. Surrender that there’s no path forward on any policy, and that just throwing up their hands once a month or so to say “we’ve passed our bills through the House, so…now we’re done” is really the only exercise of power they have, which is no power at all. Surrender on gun violence—no one even talks about it anymore. Surrender on the fate of the Ogallala Aquifer. Surrender to corporate malfeasance.
Trump admitted to another giant crime on national TV last week: that he would accept foreign interference. First, he showed that he didn’t even comprehend that such a thing was problematic. Second, he all-but confirmed that he had done so in 2016. Third, he showed that illegality was no barrier to his strategy going forward, that he just determines which laws he happens to think are worthy enough for him to decide to follow. Fourth, he basically suggested “if there’s something wrong (i.e., the information hurts me), I’ll go to the FBI. If it helps me, it’s just oppo-research.” In other words, Trump is essentially saying that he himself will be the determinant of whether secret, illegal information that comes only to him will be subject to law enforcement, during an election he himself is on the ballot for.
One would think that the vibe I’d get from the opposing party wouldn’t be mostly “surrender” to that. Tom Cotton is probably jogging and carb-watching right now, because he knows he could become president before his 48th birthday, and he could well still be president on his 78th birthday. Once we have set the precedent that Republican presidents are permanently above the law because nothing they do has any consequences beyond “whether they remain electable or not,” then all rules are gone. Impeachment exists for a reason.
Maybe some of you disagree with my premise, and think that the House is busily working away and there’ll be a great reckoning of Trump’s behavior coming very soon if we keep waiting. But if so, there should be signs of a coherent plan that we should be able to see by now. If the Democrats wanted to brand themselves as an investigative juggernaut intent on ripping Trump’s criminality limb from limb, we should be seeing much more activity from the House. People being thrown into the House jail. An immediate court challenge to the idea that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Bi-weekly press conferences absolutely filled with investigative leads and witness lists and etc, live-streamed on Instagram if no network will cover it. I see the investigations inching forward. But there doesn’t appear to be the urgency of time or purpose in this presentation that we need, and they’re completely underselling the process as well. An impeachment inquiry would at least put a spotlight upon this thing. Hearings with John Dean and empty chairs is barely minor league baseball.
Or if the party were to instead reignite its #Resistance brand, and say “Ok—our bad, we somehow managed to put all our eggs for 2 years into the basket of proving that Trump conspired with Russia, the one crime we can’t prove that he committed, instead of going after the 200 crimes we can find rock solid proof of, but we’re still going to raise hell and fight absolutely everything he says, in total war against him and his party because we stand our posts against fascism!!!,” that might be an acceptable way to at least show that Democrats will wield their power when they realistically can. But no. They keep signaling that they’d like to work with Trump. “Maybe we can come together and get a big infrastructure bill passed and create tons of new jobs!! (Which will only help Trump come election time, not us.).” Key Democratic leaders like Adam Schiff are echoing Trump’s bogus talking points about the various 3 wars we’re about to enter into. Schumer fast-tracked 30 lifetime Trump judges last fall, under the guise that maybe it would give a few Senate Democrats a few extra days to campaign. Now the Dems in the Senate have no power anyway, and the only lasting thing that will come out of the Senate will BE those lifetime Trump judges. The leading Democratic presidential candidate is eagerly selling that he will work with Republicans because they’ll have an “epiphany,” i.e., Trump is a real villain, but the 200 people that think and act like Trump and defend him at all costs, even his criminality, are generally pretty good people.” I don’t see calls for direct action. I don’t see cals for doing what it takes to really have this fight. Recent articles show that Dems didn’t use all measures they could have in order to seat Merrick Garland, and Schumer was also telling Democrats not to go too hard after Kavanaugh because there was no way he’d be confirmed. The vibe I’m getting is “hubris and a lack of appreciating the gravity of what is happening.”
The one other acceptable tack the party could be taking is “Trump does represent an existential danger, but hopefully he’ll be gone soon, and McConnell is almost 80, hopefully his reign of terror is almost over too, let’s push for an incredibly forward-looking, bold spate of policies and priorities that will carry us to victories for the next generation!!” But…no. Schumer’s recent pet project? Regulating robocalls. I mean, good for him, but it’s kinda small potatoes in this political climate, no? But at least it’s not actively harmful. Pelosi last week attended the Pete Peterson Foundation to talk about how “Trump’s insults of her are disappointing because he’s not spending his time trying to reduce the national debt.” W….what? That’s a RIGHTWING priority. Goodbye Medicare for All, Green New Deal, free college, and even a big public infrastructure initiative if Democrats, when next in power, become focused on austerity measures to reduce the debt. Is THIS really what Speaker Pelosi regards as more critical to discuss than impeachment? Did Tom Perez REALLY determine that “following the rules” is more important than satiating both the candidates and the base by making one of the 12 debates about climate change? I mean, I understand that “we’re going to have a more robust discussion of the climate during the existing debates than ever before” is some kind of a nod to the right direction, but I don’t think the subject was ever even MENTIONED in the last cycle, so…. Once again, this doesn’t seem like a party that is defining itself in a way that will win the future. Or the present.
So what am I missing? To me, Biden is “surrender.” It’s like taking a nice long nap 6 hours before the great flood arrives. Peaceful, yes, and we probably could use the rest, but it’s just an acceptance that we’re going to waste our final hours doing nothing before the abyss claims us. A handful of Center Right tweaks around the edges, a couple new disastrous corporate trade deals, some Entitlement cuts, and (essentially) a morphine drip, because the fascist wave that will take over after Joe will be the one that finally ends us as a Republic and perhaps as a species.
To me, Pelosi is “surrender.” “We passed a bunch of bills, some of them very good ones, but our itinerary is basically done now. 16 months of waiting around are ahead, maybe a few tweets about Trump’s tax returns and a Politico article or two about how “Trump and Bernie are each still deflecting blame for what they did to our country,” but otherwise the Blue Wave is utterly dissipated, and we should all just go back to sleep until the Iowa Caucus. Some attempt will be made in either 2021 or 2025 to “fix the ACA,” and there’ll be a few more lazy shambles toward a few positive things (ending discrimination against gays in the workplace) and a few negative things that Democrats will perceive as positive (censoring more outlets on the internet because they challenge Establishment orthodoxy on certain issues, and thus must obviously be compromised by the Kremlin), but that’s really it. They’re just playing out the string.
Hillary had no particular message in 2016, beyond “I’m a woman, and we’re all stronger together.” Why was this? Why was the essence of her campaign “I’m With Her,” rather than a vision for the country? Because the Democratic Party doesn’t really stand for anything anymore. They vaguely want health care for people, they vaguely believe in science over religion, they vaguely think that there shouldn’t be discrimination based on identity, and they vaguely think that the climate is a problem. That makes them better than Republicans on all 4 fronts, but beyond that the message is just an insipid blob of gray. “We lead with our values.” Ok, what values are those? “We’re the party that can beat Trump.” Not so far, you aren’t, and what happens after you do? This is the problem with the “lesser of two evils” mantra. Screaming down every voter that isn’t happy with the Democrats to “FALL IN LINE OR ELSE IT’S YOUR FAULT THAT WE GET FASCISM” doesn’t really solve the problem of “what if the Democrats suck? How do we ever get anything better, if we’re forced to vote for them, which means that they have no incentive to improve because they know we’re not tying our vote to the tacit contingency of them improving?” The message itself is “surrender,” because regardless of how good or bad the party performs, there’s only one choice (vote for them or else), and one choice may as well be no choice.
I want to overhaul the Democratic Party. I’m just one imbecile in a comments section, and if I had any real power I’d have used it by now. But that is my goal, and it should be the goal of everyone else who actually wants to fight and not surrender. Does Chuck Schumer inspire any of you as a fighter? Tom Perez? Andrew Cuomo? Dianne Feinstein (at least in the last 25 years)? Chris Coons, who is in favor of RE-ESTABLISHING THE F*CKING JUDICIAL FILIBUSTER IF DEMOCRATS TAKE OVER IN 2021? I don’t want to wait for the Republican epiphany, I want to crush them into dust and then maybe, after they crawl back to us in a position of total humility, maybe we can discuss bi-partisan compromise. I want someone who is going to use their power, not wait forever and hope that the public does their job for them. We’re down 4 touchdowns in this game, the time for cautious 2-yard runs is over. We’re not going to have a Republic in 10 years at this rate. It’s time to primary the @#$^@ out of this party and get some leaders who will actually show some urgency. Going back to the status quo from pre-Trump gave us the conditions that gave us Trump. It’s not good enough.
Or am I reading this wrong?