The Battle for America

The country remains at a dangerous turning point, and most days it seems the hostile minority is winning

(Photo by Stan Grossfeld/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Joe Biden entered the presidency determined to prove that government can work—that competent, strategic leadership backed by professionals and a desire to make American lives better can translate into quick, noticeable gains. Over 200 million shots in arms in the first 100 days gave real hope that the pandemic could be successfully tackled and people could get back to work. The passage in March of the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill (without a single Republican vote) put money in struggling families’ pockets, provided additional unemployment relief, helped people stay in their homes, cut child poverty and directed billions to K-12 schools.

These early wins are dwarfed by the once-in-a-lifetime, FDR-level ambition of Biden’s infrastructure plan to transform the US economy and society with both physical and human investments that will meaningfully touch the lives of tens of millions of Americans and set the country on a positive course to confront the climate crisis. Beginning today, the House will address the $1 trillion infrastructure bill and attempt to cobble together the larger $3.5 trillion plan. In both cases, their prospects for passage likely depend on the Democrats making this happen without a single Republican vote.

The social imagination and optimism required to pursue this kind of bold undertaking should be reason alone for celebration. So should the fact that the US now has a president who wakes up every morning seeking to make positive change and has surrounded himself with experts and humans who see good governance and ethical conduct as a duty and a given. I for one have hoped that by demonstrating competent, humane leadership this would begin to chip away at the anti-government, anti-democratic, anti-life sociopathy of the last four years.

I’m not naïve; no one said it would be easy. Few sane people assumed that January 20 would be a simple pivot—not after January 6, not after the continuing perpetuation of the Big Lie and denial of the gravity of January 6, not after the self-serving years of desecration and degradation of American values and the Constitution, not after the Oval Office was exploited to avoid criminal liability and enlist Republican accomplices hungry for power and happy to toss aside democracy.

But we are exactly 250 days into this project—this battle for America—and I wake most days doubtful that the hopes of the majority will win out. Honestly, I hate writing that sentence. But the displays of madness and hate of a hostile minority are all around us: In the fury toward school boards trying to protect the lives of children. In the refusal to get a free vaccine. In the white-supremacist venom and disinformation spewed by Fox News and its conspiracy-mongering media ilk. In the determination of other states to copy the Arizona “fraudit” and fuel doubt about the election system. In the abortion ban passed in Texas. In the dozens of states which have passed laws to deny voter access. In the growing number of elected Republicans getting ahead by lying and trolling and pursuing policies that are raising death counts. In the continuing support for the criminal sociopath still bent on America’s ruin.

Of course there was a cancer in the system when Joe Biden took over, but rather than his positive actions slowing the spread, the sickness is continuing to metastasize. And just as we count on a cancer doctor to give it to us straight, let’s be clear here: We are in a crisis now—not lurching toward one—one that will surely get significantly worse if the GOP takes back the House and/or the Senate in the 2022 mid-terms.

I believe this conversation is necessary now because we still have time to shift the narrative—to move beyond the cultist minority’s angry death rattle in service to Trump propaganda—and ensure that the majority determines the country’s fate. Yes, democracy is in trouble. Justice is in trouble. The truth is in trouble. And yet we are saddled with Democratic leaders that either fail to grasp the dangerous urgency of this moment or are too tied to special interests and time-worn rules that will keep the anti-government forces in control of our fate.

Ending the filibuster. Passing federal voting rights legislation. Holding the inciters, planners and funders of the deadly insurrection and coup attempt criminally accountable—particularly one Donald J. Trump. These are among the responses to our current crisis that help give us a fighting chance of repairing what’s broken. (Looking down the road, so are expanding the Supreme Court and ending the Electoral College.)

I don’t doubt the political powder keg—and perhaps a real powder keg—that President Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland may ignite if they publicly acknowledge that they are investigating the criminality of Trump and are prepared to bring charges and prosecute him based on their findings. This is a complicated minefield; it’s uncharted territory and capable of triggering violence among the extremists untethered from reality and the rule of law. Meanwhile, a lot of smart people are convinced that Trump will be the candidate for president in 2024, as if holding him accountable is off the table.

We are at a crossroads in America, where the forces of darkness are bent on taking and keeping power by any means necessary. A record 81,238,098 Americans voted for the empath Joe Biden with the hope of evicting Trump and setting the country’s course on a healthier direction. They are counting on him and the Democrats to finally evict Trump and slow the sickness that he’s unleashed. We are all still waiting to exhale and to say confidently that America has turned the corner.

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