Where is the Sense of Urgency?
As the US and the globe face major challenges to democracy and human survival, there's a lingering mentality that it's good enough to continue business as usual
What time is it? Check out the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists and you’ll see it’s now 100 seconds to midnight. Since 1947, their Doomsday Clock has moved forward and backward, starting at seven minutes to midnight, catapulting forward to two minutes before midnight in 1953 after the Americans tested a hydrogen bomb and the Soviets followed suit, then ratcheting back in 1991 to 17 minutes after the US and Russia agreed to deep cuts in their nuclear arsenals.
Over the last two years, the combustible cocktail of perils—including nuclear war, climate change, the pandemic and disinformation—led the scientific advocacy group to move the second hand closer to midnight than ever in its history. The seconds between 100 and catastrophe offer some small consolation that the clock can still be fixed in our collective favor.
But what time is it for democracy? Or put differently, how much time do we have before democracy is inextricably stripped away by anti-democratic Republicans bent on holding power long after the majority has abandoned them? The answer to this—and the sense of urgency to address this ticking time bomb—may well decide the fate of the nation for decades.
That’s the thing: There seems to be a strong disconnect between the dangers in our midst and the sense of time and urgency to respond. As if time is bendable according to the age-old rhythms of Congress or other agencies that govern our lives. As if there really aren’t endpoints beyond which it’s too late to fix what’s broken and put it all back together. As if there’s always a solution, a new invention, a silver bullet—always another way to ensure a bright, shining future.
Yet what if that optimistic vision is wrong? What if it is a bright, shining lie that numbs us from confronting the dangers in our midst while there is still time? What if the lack of urgency is leading to a downward spiral that we cannot pull ourselves out of?
Let’s consider several examples and ask ourselves: Must we—you, me, elected officials who care, everyone who cares—accelerate our action?
The latest global report from the international Institute for Democracy and Election Assistance notes that “the number of countries moving in an authoritarian direction in 2020 outnumbered those going in a democratic direction.” The institute’s report asserts that “some of the most worrying examples of backsliding” include Brazil and India, and they lump the US with Hungary, Poland and Slovenia as countries that “have also seen concerning democratic declines.” That doesn’t exactly sound like seconds to midnight, but is their alarm too gentle for this moment?
A few facts: The former White House occupant refused to support a peaceful transfer of power after he lost. He continues to spread the Big Lie of election fraud and that he really won in 2020. A stunning 59 percent of Republicans not only believe him—they think believing him is important to being a Republican. Nearly a third of Republicans now believe political violence may be necessary to “save” the US. Nineteen states followed up the Big Lie by passing 33 increasingly restrictive voting rights laws, in some cases seeking to give GOP legislators the prerogative to deny actual voting outcomes and insert their preferred candidates. Around the country, non-partisan election officials have faced attacks and death threats.
The passage of federal voting rights legislation—once passed nearly unanimously by Congress—has stalled, undermined not just by GOP intransigence but also by Democrats refusing to align with their Democratic majority. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court further gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Meanwhile, the worn-out filibuster remains in effect as a wedge to block change, the Electoral College continues to undermine the democratic principle of one person, one vote—and in the latest attack on this principle, new gerrymandering has made it increasingly probable that Republicans can take or keep power by twisting voting districts into extremes of non-representation.
The midterm elections will be decided a year from now. Historically, the party that holds the presidency faces defeat, even a serious “shellacking,” as in the case of President Barack Obama when the Democrats lost 63 House and six Senate seats. If the Republicans take back the majority in the House or the Senate or both, do you doubt they will accelerate the democracy’s backsliding toward oblivion? Are there any signs that they will stand by the principle of free and fair elections and the right of every citizen to vote? The House and Senate have less than a year to pass federal voting rights legislation.
Are Democrats acting like they fully comprehend this clock is ticking? “It’s the greatest assault on voting rights in the history of the United States—for real—since the Civil War,” President Biden said last month. But where’s the similarly urgent and clear statement on ending the filibuster to pass federal voting rights legislation?
Then consider the House investigation into the deadly January 6 attack. Is there any doubt that a GOP majority will shut it down if they take over the House? While they methodically work through their investigation—dealing with the subpoena deniers and others (including Trump) employing court procedures to slow things down—the lack of results involving the inciters, organizers and funders who didn’t directly breach the Capitol increasingly risks demoralizing Democratic voters and decreasing midterm turnout. Of course, the investigation is not simply a political tool to influence voter turnout—this is about justice—but there’s no doubt the longer this drags out, the more it benefits Republicans determined to deny the gravity or the significance of that day’s horrors.
In another dispatch, I will dig into the sense of urgency—or the lack thereof—surrounding the climate crisis and the need to slow CO2 level increases. I take encouragement from the Biden agenda that’s focused on and invested in changes that will help Americans adapt to, if not meaningfully slow, the continued increase of carbon emissions to avoid devastation from a warming planet. The refusal of India and China to support the phase out of coal plants in the COP 26 climate agreement several weeks ago in Glasgow underscores the global dilemma facing us all.
While the climate crisis remains an existential threat that mankind has yet to fully confront, the global nature of COVID-19 has demonstrated the necessity of acting in cooperation and with greater urgency. Let’s return to atomic scientists, who have wrestled with how loudly to ring the alarm bell since the end of World War II. “The lethal and fear-inspiring COVID-19 pandemic serves as a historic ‘wake-up call,’” said Dr. Rachel Bronson, the group’s president and CEO, “a vivid illustration that national governments and international organizations are unprepared to manage the truly civilization-ending threats of nuclear weapons and climate change.”
It’s not midnight yet for democracy. But let’s not take solace in that fact. We should expect the surviving pro-democracy Americans to recognize that the clock is ticking louder and louder—and act accordingly.
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I don’t think our democratic leaders are unaware of the multiple challenges we are facing or how serious they are, but I do think they MAY be paying too much attention to cleaning up the mess left behind from the previous administration and the importance of having enough money to fight off the GOP, and aren’t paying enough attention to strategy. I also think the public is just now starting to grasp all that will be lost if they don’t start engaging with politics in a very big way.
I get it. Very few people WANT to get involved in politics, even when the political scene is relatively quiet. But what we’re currently seeing is the politics of stupid & mean on steroids, with a whole lot of crazy on the side, and all of it is deliberate. It’s all meant to scare people and it IS scaring people. But being frightened by mean, intransigent idiots is a luxury we simply can’t afford.
We can’t afford it because we are the key to turning this crisis around. There are far more peaceful, hard-working, live and let live, genuinely nice people than there are mean, dumb idiots with little or nothing to lose. If we lose our country to them, it will be because we let them win.
It’s our responsibility to make sure Pres. Biden and all Dem leadership know exactly how concerned we are. But we also have to show up and provide support however we can, whether it’s going to town halls, donating to candidates or showing up at school board meetings to help keep the peace. If we do that, our leaders will be able to fight for us with confidence and determination.
We’ve all taken our government, our rights granted to us by our Constitution and our relatively prosperous lives for granted. I’m not saying there haven’t been times that were tough in each of our lives, once we’ve lived to a certain age almost all of us have had very difficult things to cope with, but we should consider those difficult times good practice for what we have to do now.
Keep in mind that former president Trump was not legitimately elected. He had a lot of help from Putin in the form of money and vote hacking. His presidency was a huge fraud on the American people. Yes, it’s
documented. In fact, if you poke around long enough on the internet you can probably find documentation of that on your own.
Also keep in mind there have been Russian operatives present in America for a very long time and they’re still here. So are Chinese and Iranian operatives. I’m not pointing this out so you or anyone else will treat foreign born people with suspicion and hostility, I’m pointing it out to give you a better idea of how we got into this mess. We live in the wealthiest nation on earth, that automatically makes America a target.
Anyway, these professional operatives have been manipulating and coaching a whole lot of Americans for many years to behave very badly. For example they infiltrated the NRA and other organizations for the express purpose of radicalizing Americans. In fact, they’re responsible for much of the intransigence of gun owners. Overall, these operatives are trained professional manipulaters who are here to cause chaos and division.
Speaking of chaos, the hysteria over masks, Covid vaccinations, critical race theory (that is NOT part of the curriculum in 99% of public schools), book banning (like kids don’t see far worse things on tv every day) etc. are all manipulations for the express purpose of creating chaos, fear and exhaustion among the general public. When you understand that, it’s easier to not engage, because engaging in these ridiculous controversies can be exhausting.
A lot of people wonder why Dems don’t energetically push back more often on republican nonsense, but think about that. For years the GOP has been creating its own reality, its “alternative facts” and lying about almost everything for political gain. Verbally fighting with people who do that is like physically fighting on quicksand. Everybody gets dirty and there’s no clear winner. How on earth do you fight with someone who makes up their own facts?
Speaking of facts, unlike the Watergate era, mainstream reporters and journalists are no longer functioning as truthtellers. As far as I can tell, their marching orders are to report on and embellish controversy because that’s what sells these days. To be clear, most of the msm disfunction we’re experiencing is being driven by greed. But that a topic for another day.
We can turn this trajectory around if we vote more democrats into Congress, giving Dems a clear majority in both the House and Senate. That’s the key. If we don’t do that I really fear for what can happen, especially since we are staring climate change in the face. We must have a strong federal govt,
(the opposite of Trumplandia during Covid that left states on their own to obtain desperately needed equipment in order to save lives and prevent nurses from dying) to cope with the challenges of climate change, otherwise we risk losing our way of life forever. I’m not being melodramatic, I’m being realistic. If we have a republican majority and a republican president again, chances are they will continue to claim climate change is a hoax until it’s so bad that we can’t do anything about it.
Arm yourselves with factual information about climate change and point out to your friends and family the necessity of a strong federal government as the crisis accelerates, don’t bother with greedy dopes who live in an alternative fantasy world.
The Democrats seem to be unable to form a message, or if they do they fail to get it out to the public. Mainstream media picks up on the most trivial and obnoxious of insurrectionist's speech and run with it through the entire news cycle, if not longer. Some Democrats point out that we are running out of time for staving off the Republican assault on democracy, but that is usually a lead-in for a plea for donations. We seldom hear any push-back reported by the media. Maybe that's because the journalists are out chasing the firebrands that bump up revenue and ignoring the grinders in the trenches trying to govern against the endless assault from the right.
I can't help but wonder about the complicity of law enforcement in the direction society is taking. Public officials and private citizens face death threats almost daily, yet there is no indication anything is being done to put a stop to that. Our next test will probably come in the form of one of those nutjob white supremacists wounding or killing a public official at some level of government. It could be a Republican who rejects the Big Lie.