Snapshots from Democracy's Edge
The last week vividly revealed the continuing battle to sustain democracy and prioritize the will of the people. What a circus.
For Mother’s Day, President Joe Biden’s words reminded me how important it is to have national leaders bringing out the best in people by emphasizing values that seek cohesion and well-being: “Today, we show gratitude to moms and mother-figures for loving their children unconditionally; raising them with care, courage, and grit; and leading by the power of their example.”
Biden also described the efforts his administration has undertaken to support mothers year-round. “Moms do so much for all of us, and my administration has their backs,” he said. Among those efforts: signing the American Rescue Plan, which gave support to childcare providers assisting working mothers; expanding the child tax credit which helped cut child poverty rates in half; and increasing the number of good-paying jobs, making “reasonable accommodations” for pregnant and nursing mothers at the workplace, and expanding access to health care.
“I urge all Americans to express their love, respect and gratitude to mothers everywhere,” Biden concluded, describing his own mother as fearless, caring and brave, a woman who inspired Joe and his siblings “to lead lives defined by honor and integrity.”
That wasn’t so hard, right? Serving up some basic human decency, acknowledging the value of others, prioritizing the needs of families trying to make ends meet and even get ahead, recognizing the responsibility of government to help create a more stable and secure society. That was on Friday, ushering in a weekend when families in America and around the world would celebrate the mothers in their lives.
And then there was Saturday in Wildwood, New Jersey, where criminal defendant Donald J. Trump had the chance to share what was on his fractured mind.
First he described his admiration for the gangster Al Capone.
“Al Capone was so mean that if you went to dinner with him and he didn’t like you, you’d be dead the next morning,” Trump said. “And I got indicted more than him. On bullshit, too. Just bullshit.” Trump paused as his crowd began cheering “bullshit.”
Then he praised the fictional serial killer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter.
“Has anyone ever seen The Silence of the Lambs? The late, great Hannibal Lecter. He’s a wonderful man,” Trump said. “He often times would have a friend for dinner. Remember the last scene? ‘Excuse me, I’m about to have a friend for dinner.’” This was ostensibly intended to fuel fear about the dangers of migrants who enter America from “insane asylums.”
Not exactly celebration, reverence and respect for our mothers or anyone else. No, Trump was more interested in wallowing in anger and self-pity.
Trump also exploited his public platform to refer to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as “fat Alvin” and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie as a “fat pig.” (Some in the crowd began chanting “fat pig.”) Notice that he didn’t attack last week’s trial witness Stormy Daniels or this week’s witness, his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen. For this moment at least, the gag order and Judge Juan Merchan’s threat of jail had succeeded in quieting his judicial abuse and witness tampering.
But it didn’t stop the presumptive GOP nominee for president from calling his trial “a Biden show trial” (eliciting boos) and urging the audience to respond to his attacks against the Biden administration. “Everything they touch, turns to what?” he prompted. “Shit,” they responded.
That’s his grotesque public circus. But behind the scenes, the plotting is even worse. Last week we learned that Trump met a group of oil and gas executives and lobbyists at Mar-a-Lago in April, urging them to raise a billion dollars for his campaign. In return, he promised to end President Biden’s “anti-business” environmental policies and rules.
According to people in the room, The New York Times reported, Trump said the fossil fuel bosses would earn back their billion dollars in contributions from tax and legal savings after he repealed Biden’s climate regulations.
So what if doing so hastens rising carbon emissions, further harms the health of the planet, supercharges the oceans and extreme weather events, poisons and otherwise endangers human populations? Trump could care less. All he wants is money for his campaign to help get him back in office and save his own skin.
It’s not just Trump, of course. Yesterday, the Times published an insightful investigation of Elon Musk and his businesses, chronicling how the billionaire has been using X, formerly Twitter, to coddle up to right-wing and authoritarian leaders to enhance his business opportunities. Forget his false advocacy of free speech. Never mind that the site has become an abusive cesspool inhospitable to progressive voices and inclusive, democratic thinking.
From Argentina and Brazil to India and China, there’s “a pattern by Mr. Musk of fostering relationships with a constellation of right-wing heads of state, with clear beneficiaries: his companies and himself.” Musk has “backed their views on gender, feted their opposition to socialism and aggressively confronted their enemies” and, in turn, “pushed for and won corporate advantages for his most lucrative businesses, Tesla and SpaceX.”
For Musk, this may be all about increasing his own power and wealth, but it has the clear effect of hastening right-wing authoritarianism around the world. As Times reporters Ryan Mac, Jack Nicas and Alex Travelli put it in their report, “Mr. Musk’s endorsement has given many nationalist and right-wing heads of state more international cachet, which they have eagerly promoted as a validation of their policies and popularity.”
And then there’s the anti-democratic Clarence Thomas, the corrupt Supreme Court justice and husband of insurrection-supporting Ginni Thomas. While he has remained largely silent about ProPublica’s investigation of the lavish gifts and other donations he’s received from billionaire Harlan Crow, Thomas lashed out Friday at a judicial conference in Alabama, complaining about the “nastiness” and “lies” that he and his wife have endured. “It’s just incredible,” he complained.
In other words, it’s not him or his wife, it’s “them.” The issue is not what he and Ginni did, but rather bad people that oppose them.
“What you are going to find, especially in Washington, is that people are going to pride themselves on being awful,” Thomas added. “It’s a hideous place.”
So why does Thomas continue to endure what he calls “reckless” people who will “bomb your reputation or your good name or your honor”? In fact, he claimed that he would have preferred to remain a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. But he felt he was called to public life by God.
Meanwhile, back in the non-theocratic judicial world, Michael Cohen will take the stand this week in the Manhattan hush money/election interference case—in what may be the last week before the prosecution rests its case. We can expect more anger and whining from the criminal defendant, especially as he grasps the reality of the gag order.
“If I put one wrong word in, they’re gonna put me in jail,” he said after Stormy Daniels’ testimony last Thursday. He also reportedly told pool reporters: “I’ll go now and sit in that freezing courtroom for eight or nine hours and think about being on the campaign all day.”
On Friday, laughably, Trump attorney Todd Blanche unsuccessfully tried to get the judge to make Cohen stop talking to appease his angry, frustrated client. “It’s becoming a problem every single day that President Trump is not allowed to respond to this witness but this witness is allowed to talk,” he complained.
But don’t doubt that Michael Cohen—even as he lays bare his and Trump’s role in the campaign coverup—was anything other than just the operator his former boss wanted. “He’s aggressive, he’s tenacious, he’s a bulldozer,” noted advertising executive Donny Deutsch, a friend of Cohen friend and a former Trump friend. “And so what you’re hearing in court, a lot of the perceived negatives, is what made him a positive for Trump.”
As the circus of lies and animosity mounts, President Biden is not remaining silent. CNN reported that he shared his blunt assessment of Trump with backers at a private fundraiser near Seattle on Saturday. “It’s clear that…when he lost in 2020, something snapped in him,” Biden reportedly said. “He’s not only obsessed with losing in 2020, he’s clearly unhinged.”
It’s comments like these that need to find their way into Biden’s remarks to the general public as well. Because, as the circus of Trump rallies, Musk right-wing praises and intense media coverage of the Manhattan trial continues, democracy continues to teeter on the edge. The president needs to be a louder voice advocating for reason, decency and factual reality. Anything less and the cynical clowns will decide our fate.
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It is disheartening and frightening to see how many embrace this cruelty and dishonesty.
The only time I hear tffg is when I can't get to the TV remote fast enough to turn it off, but it makes me wonder with sadness what miserable, joyless lives his followers must lead that gives them reason to cheer this damaged, depraved person's hateful words. How did they get to this point?
The tffg and his supporters complain that they have grievances. But to insist that they've suffered more severe grievances over those of people who have been enslaved, or have had to flee for their lives from their homes, or who are being bombed, shot and massacred for the only fault of existing, is astounding.
We all struggle -- all of us -- to varying extents. We may feel left behind or forgotten. But there are peaceful ways to effect change. What is being proposed by tffg will lead to unimaginable grievances like the ones listed above. Is this really what we want??
I don't think tffg crowds are considering the implications of this dark, awful future because they think they're on the "right side". They are in for a horrific awakening. The rest of us see it coming, and can't sleep at night.
It grieves my heart when I watch clips of Trump's rallies. He gets the loudest applause when he curses (I guess cursing means strength), or when he grossly denigrates another American, or classes all immigrants as low-life criminals. Little applause for anything positive. Is there a shred of decency in that crowd?