All hands are needed on deck right now to save
the republic. No joke.
By Michael Winship
November 30, 202:
Information Clearing House
-- "Common
Dream" I'm
beginning to think that when it comes to saving the
United States and our fragile democracy, perhaps the
only answer is to hit the off button and reboot.
Or maybe administer a high colonic.
Lame jokes aside, an enormous change is necessary
and here in our current crazy situation, I'm
sometimes uncertain as to whether we'll ever get
back to the real world and common sense without the
defibrillating shock of some awful defining event.
Because the problem is huge. And terrifying.
Truth is, we're broken. There's a chance to fix
things, yet it's a sad reality that Republican
leadership lusts for power above all but lacks any
decent ideas, practical programs, or the skills or
inclination to govern. There's no moral compass or
even a decent sense of humor among them. They want
to create an authoritarian state in which they rule,
no matter the will of the public. Any and all
dissent will be quashed.
This is serious. We have one of our two major
political parties running on nothing but prejudice,
malice, insults, fear, disinformation, and bad,
sometimes violent behavior. And doing quite well.
Look back at the insurrection of January 6, at
how so many Republicans initially made public
comments denouncing the attack but within days had
reversed their stance, suddenly declaring that the
assault on the Capitol was a legitimate expression
of outrage or even just a tourist visit. Fearful of
offending their deranged former president and his
followers, they backed down like the cowards they
are.
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Observe House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy
blab-a-thon, nonsensically bloviating for eight and
a half hours on the House floor to stall the
inevitable vote on Biden's Build Back Better bill.
And he was one of those pleading with Donald Trump
on January 6 to call off the crazies rampaging
through the Capitol, only to change his tune. His
rambling rant sounded, as per
The New York Times, "like a Mad Libs of
Republican attacks."
As McCarthy spoke, many of the more extreme and
reckless GOP members sat behind him nodding in
approval, including Louie Gohmert of Texas,
Georgia's Andrew Clyde, and North Carolina's Madison
Cawthorn, who thoughtfully brought along a paper cup
into which he could spit his masticated chewing
tobacco. Classy. (Full disclosure: my Texas
Granddaddy Lloyd chewed, but kept a tin can on the
floor of his car next to the gas and brake pedals,
never carrying it into the marble halls of a
government building.)
Listen to
Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana a few days
ago, redbaiting Soviet Kazakhstan-born Soule
Amarova, Cornell economist, American citizen and Joe
Biden's candidate to be the next comptroller of the
currency. "I don't know whether to call you
professor or comrade," Kennedy brayed. This from an
Oxford graduate, a Phi Beta Kappa at Vanderbilt who
decided a while back that cornpone-laced derision
and right-wing flimflam were the proper path to
power.
Or goofy-as-a-fox Senator Ted Cruz of Texas
singlehandedly blocking the nomination of more than
50 Biden appointments because he felt like it, while
simultaneously attacking Big Bird and Sesame Street,
allegedly for spreading horrifically liberal or
socialist ideas. (Another full disclosure: I was
employed as a writer by Sesame Workshop off and on
for seven years and it was some of the most fun and
fulfilling work I've ever done, but about as
political as a set of Legos.)
Socialism—a concept that, when asked, I'd bet few
if any of the GOP screamers actually could define,
and yet they use accusations of socialism as if the
real or imagined advocacy of such a thing would
create chaos,
Bill Murray-style: "Human sacrifice, dogs and
cats living together... MASS HYSTERIA!"
They willfully refuse to learn or understand the
actual meaning of socialism (or communism for that
matter) much the same way they reject the notion of
critical race theory (CRT). Contrary to their
ravings, it's not being taught in public
schools—it's just being misused by them as a hot
button, another way of Republicans twisting
respectable and respected academic work into knots,
using it to scare white people and roil their
bigoted rage.
Sadly and to a shocking degree, they're achieving
success with these tactics and inching us closer to
the edge of a cliff -- a flailing republic
plummeting into dictatorship. (Add to the
aforementioned roster of reprehension Georgia's
Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert of
Colorado—the
Doublemint Twins of xenophobia. This past week's
edition of hate speech featured
Boebert's attack on Minnesota's Muslim
congresswoman Ilhan Omar and her subsequent attempts
at a half-hearted apology.)
"Trickle down" may be disastrous as economic
theory (as in, "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's
raining") but works really well when you apply the
same tactic to perpetrate prejudice. As
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez noted during the
recent debate over the House censure of Arizona
Republican Congressman Paul Gosar—for threatening
her and President Biden with assassination in a
crude Twitter attack -- "As leaders in this country,
when we incite violence with depictions against our
colleagues, that trickles down into violence in this
country, and that is where we must draw the line,
independent of party or belief. It is about a core
recognition of human dignity and value and worth."
Sure, it's not all about Trump: before him, there
were plenty of dimwits filled with hatred from head
to toe. But he's the enabler supreme, his incendiary
words and deeds giving a blank hall pass to every
two-bit reactionary who cares more about Fox News,
reality TV and trashing anyone considered to the
left of Czar Nicholas I. He is the alpha and omega
to every angry, dissatisfied, powerless white person
who clings to race as the mark of their superiority
no matter the circumstances.
And all of this despite an incumbent president
who for all his faults actually is trying to govern,
attempting things that would help Americans
regardless of race, religion, political stance or
gender identification, aiming at the most
progressive agenda since LBJ's Great Society. And
doing this in the face of our ongoing fatal
pandemic, a volatile economy and a constant drumbeat
of sneers and jeers.
So do not be fooled or lulled into complacency by
the GOP's buffoonish behavior. Words and actions
that just a few years ago would have been ridiculed,
their proponents ridden out of town on a rail, are
standard operating procedure now. And echoed by
their voters.
We must fight back, with our own votes and our
voices raised in protest and in a concerted effort
to keep speaking truth. We must register voters and
make sure they get to the polls. We must attend the
public meetings of councils and school boards to
make sure each crazed accusation from the right is
met with honesty, sobriety and facts.
Make no mistake—their nonsensical statements
often are a smokescreen for the concerted campaign
to not only suppress the vote of the majority who
oppose them but to create a system where election
results are determined and even overturned by
partisan hacks changing election laws,
gerrymandering districts and filling election boards
as well as the offices of state attorneys general
and secretaries of state.
According to Monday's Washington Post,
"A year after local and state election officials came
under immense pressure from Trump to subvert the
results of the 2020 White House race, he and his
supporters are pushing an ambitious plan to place
Trump loyalists in key positions across the
administration of U.S. elections.
The effort goes far beyond the former
president's public broadsides against well-known
Republican state officials who certified
President Biden's victory, such as Georgia
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey. Citing the need to make
elections more secure, Trump allies are also
seeking to replace officials across the nation,
including volunteer poll watchers, paid precinct
judges, elected county clerks and state
attorneys general, according to state and local
officials, as well as rally speeches, social
media posts and campaign appearances by those
seeking the positions…
"The attacks right now are no longer about
2020," said Colorado Secretary of State Jena
Griswold (D). "They're about 2022 and 2024. It's
about chipping away at confidence and chipping
away at the reality of safe and secure
elections. And the next time there's a close
election, it will be easier to achieve their
goals. That's what this is all about."
With intemperate, toxic words and actions
designed to bring down democracy and create a
dictatorship, Republicans and their followers would
restore to power an incompetent tyrant and cause our
complete collapse. The famous "shining city on a
hill" will be in ruins.
Pay attention. I'm not kidding. This is no joke.
Michael Winship
is the Schumann Senior Writing Fellow for Common
Dreams. Previously, he was the Emmy Award-winning
senior writer for Moyers & Company and
BillMoyers.com,
a past senior writing fellow at the policy and
advocacy group Demos, and former president of the
Writers Guild of America East.
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