Denying Reality is No Way to Govern
Elected Republicans have abandoned their duty to democracy
Do know there will never be any commercial ads to distract from our effort to hold the powerful accountable, strengthen democracy and serve justice.
They continue to kowtow to Trump. They refuse to acknowledge that all the talk of election fraud is devoid of evidence and a lie. They pretend that the challenges at the border are the country’s gravest threat. They deny the reality of climate change. They refuse to confront the epidemic of gun violence. They behave as if white supremacist-fueled domestic terrorism doesn’t exist or doesn’t require their attention. They swear systemic racism is not a thing. They refuse to tamp down the potential of further political violence. They ignore the need to expand immigration as the population ages. They refuse to admit the role of the Russians in our elections. They pretend January 6 was not a deadly attack committed by Trump supporters. They reject the necessity of a Congressional investigation.
Denying reality is no way to govern.
Yet the Republicans have abdicated their responsibility to our democratic system and to the needs of a nation confronted by genuine threats. They have shown us that they are focused on getting and keeping power by any means necessary, even if it means denying the right to vote, the legitimacy of actual election outcomes, the life-and-death danger of insurrection, the necessity of shared facts and truth in a healthy society, and the possibility that democracy itself may not survive. There’s a reason why Republican voters heard “a lot” more about the pulling of Dr. Seuss books than the fact that the House passed the COVID relief bill or President Biden announced in March that the country was on track to have vaccines for every adult by late May.
I’d like to think they know that most Americans recognize they have abdicated their responsibility to govern. But their actions underscore that taking power is their singular goal, even if it means abandoning the ideals and principles captured in the U.S. constitution and rejecting the values that have fueled American progress.
Equality? Diversity? No one is above the law? A global beacon of democracy? Nope, all expendable.
The profoundly cynical response to January 6 remains the most vivid expression of the willingness to toss it all away. On the evening after that heinous attack, 147 Republicans refused to certify the proven outcome of the election. To this day, most have refused to state that Joe Biden won the election fair and square. In GOP-controlled state legislatures around the country, Republicans have aggressively pursued and passed laws intended to discourage and deny voting rights and voting access. Republicans who witnessed the insurrection in their own workplace have voted against an investigation of the crimes. These same individuals chose to purge one of their own leaders who called them out for their Big Lie and their refusal to reject Trump and condemn his incitement. They remain quiet as some of their accomplices insist the day’s events were either like a peaceful tourist visit or committed by left-wing agitators and intended to make Trump look bad.
In a sane world—a world where shame is still operative and morality still influences leaders—Republicans would grasp that doubling down on behavior that increases the poison in the body politic and likely accelerates their party’s eventual demise is a mistaken strategy. But in the absence of sanity, the abundance of cynicism and the mistaken conviction that rolling snake eyes is really a winning hand, they have ensured that the rest of us will do what we can to limit their power and their ability to cause more and more damage. That begins with holding the insurrectionists and their inciters accountable for their crimes.
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If this insurrection was indeed Antifa, as Republicans insist, don't you think the former guy would have called out every available resource to stop them? He tear gassed peaceful protesters for a photo op. If this wasn't orchestrated by him, an attack on the Capitol would have had him being spirited away to the safety of the bunker, by Secret Service, immediately. The Republicans aren't even very good liars, but, then again, they don't have to be. When you're dealing with people who have been brainwashed for decades, every word they say is gospel. What I can't quite figure out is, why weren't they like the flying monkeys, in The Wizard of Oz, after the Wicked Witch was killed? The monkeys were relieved to be free of her grasp. The only think I can come up with is, the Republicans are him and have been all along. They're free of the grasp of pretending they weren't. He freed them to be who they really are. Even Liz Cheney, who the media immediately made out to be a hero, stated last night that the big lie has nothing to do with voter suppression. There are no Republican heroes. Period. Our country is still in grave danger, and until all of them who incited and assisted in the insurrection are held accountable and removed from power, the danger remains.
Have you noticed republicans using the word “fail” very often recently? What they’re doing is creating a perception of a “failed government.” They will say we are a “failed democracy,” that President Biden is a “failed president,” etc. It’s part of a comprehensive plan on the part of a group of wealthy republicans that was created at least 40 years ago. The goal is to ditch democracy and create a libertarian/fascist government. The constant lies they tell aren’t an accident or a delusion on their part, they know exactly what they’re doing.
The reason McConnell refuses to cooperate and blocks everything democrats want to do is so he can tell supporters that democrats failed. McConnell very obviously doesn’t want to help the American people. He’ll do all he can for the wealthy people and nothing at all for the rest of us. That was pretty clear during the pandemic.
Understanding that republicans have a plan to force our democracy to fail is the only way you can make sense of their behavior. They are as serious as a heart attack about it. They won’t vote for gun control because they don’t care if people die. None of them stepped up to intervene when Trump was grossly mishandling the pandemic because they want death and turmoil. It serves their purpose.
Republicans are now very close to getting what they want, closer than they’ve ever been, so they are going to do everything they can to close the deal they made with the devil all those years ago. So we should expect more violence in the streets, more petty arguments in Congress and 100% refusal to cooperate with anything. They will string out negotiations with Dems as long as they can until finally declaring the democrats to be unwilling to come to an agreement. They will stop progress on anything and everything and then declare that democrats and democracy have failed.
I snapped to this about 3 years ago and I’ve written about it to various senators and Representatives although I didn’t have as clear of a picture of it as I do now. It feels like we are at a tipping point though and I’m thinking the only way to put a stop to it is to shout it to the rooftops so everyone understands what we are dealing with. You can’t solve a problem if you can’t define it and you certainly can’t solve a problem if you’re not aware of it, right?
If I sound to you like your tipsy, doddering, elderly aunt, nattering on about a dream, read the book “Democracy In Chains” by Nancy MacLean.