Thursday, January 28, 2021

The Unity Delusion

 

Unity. It’s a divisive concept. After four years of Trump claiming Democrats “want to destroy you,” calling for his political opponents to be locked up, cancel-culturing journalists, and, now, threatening democracy by promoting his election big lie, it was disorienting to hear President Biden speak of it. Since our two political parties have starkly differing definitions, we know it’s impossible. 

For President Biden and Democrats, unity doesn’t mean policy agreement in all things, but common purpose when hashing it out. For current Congressional Republicans, it means Democrats don't propose anything they don’t like. Rejoining the Paris Climate Accords, for example: divisive. Unlike Trump abandoning them. Wanting to address domestic terrorism, racism, climate-change, take the pandemic seriously, create meaningful election reform. Most Americans don’t consider those divisive. Today’s Republican legislators do. Solutions, if any, will have to come from Democrats.

In the evenly-divided Senate, the fifty Republicans represent many millions fewer Americans than the Democrats. Add the Constitutionally-unmentioned filibuster and, for much legislation, the minority has veto power, which Mitch McConnell wields like a Samurai sword.

The minority rights protected by the Constitution are civil rights. Nothing in it says the minority should hold sway on political matters. Be recognized, considered? Sure. Especially back when they weren’t a haven for the insane. But preventing the will of the majority isn’t democracy. At the extreme, where Trumpism would take us, it’s dictatorship. The filibuster needs to go: something else that won’t happen.

Packing together during the insurrection, Republicans refused to wear masks. Afterward, packing side-arms, they declined to pass through metal detectors. In Georgia, several school board members remained defiantly unmasked at a meeting, despite the posthumous request of a teacher who’d died of Covid-19. This is how deeply Republicans are dug in to Trumpism.

Oregon’s Republican Party, having once produced such admirable people as Mark Hatfield, Tom McCall, and Portland’s then-favorite politician, my amazing aunt, recently selected a Qanonymizer as its senate candidate. This week they officially declared the D.C. insurrection a “false flag” operation, created to discredit Trump and Republicans. Right. Imposters: the whole maskless, Parler-posting, kill-Pelosi-and-Pence, Trump-cheering lot of ‘em. When even Oregon Republicans follow red-staters down the rabbit hole, their party has fully embraced the crazy.

Mountains of evidence to the contrary, three-quarters of Republicans still believe the election was stolen. Half think Trump should play a major role in their party’s future, seeing nothing wrong with a “president” pushing the big lie in an attempt actually to steal the election; nor with exhorting a crowd, boiling with manufactured anger, to march on the Capitol and not be “weak.” (The moronic, destructive, useless “anarchists” and “Youth Liberation Front” in Portland, by contrast, are neither supported nor encouraged by any major party.)

Momentarily bewildered when Trump didn’t show up at the last minute to take office and begin executing child-trafficking, cannibalistic liberals, Q-anoners now believe he’ll be inaugurated as the nineteenth (!) president on March Fourth. Not kidding. These are not rational people. Republicans, though, have elected several, including to Congress, at least one of whom supported calls to murder Democratic leaders. Too cowardly to censure or expel her, they put her on the education committee.

Trump will escape impeachment conviction. What consequences does the party of “law” and “order” and “personal responsibility” think he should face? None: there was no incitement, the rioters weren’t even his. No crime when the election was as fraudulent as Trump University. (They put it differently.)

Hoping to avoid taking a stand on his sedition, Republican senators say Trump’s gone, so why bother? Paraphrasing others, here’s why: Unpunished, a failed insurrection is a dress rehearsal for worse. Fearing their party’s new base, still the party of Trump, those public servants ignore their oath to defend the Constitution. Proclaimed patriotism, evidently, doesn’t include integrity. “Time to move on,” say those who pursued Benghazi for years. 

After taking office, Trump issued orders to please the minority that “elected” him and the corporations that paid for it, but which were unpopular with most Americans: undoing environmental protections, climate change agreements, worker protections, and the Affordable Care Act. His lopsided tax cuts. The Muslim ban.

In reversing Trump’s deleterious actions and introducing progressive ones, President Biden is doing what the majority of Americans want, which defines a functioning democratic republic. In its shrinking demographics and shaky future if democracy prevails, the Trumpublican Party doesn’t see it that way. Now, their D.C. insurrectionists and their Oregon party’s devolution, among many sad examples, prove how far down they’d take us.

20 comments:

  1. " three-quarters of Republicans still believe the election was stolen"? Really? Where did you get that?
    I think 3/4's or more are happy he's gone, and, never to be a factor again! (what ex-Pres is ever a factor?)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What about the rest of the facts?

      Can you support 75% are glad Drumpf is gone? I know you can't.

      Delete
  2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/19/which-republicans-think-election-was-stolen-those-who-hate-democrats-dont-mind-white-nationalists/

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  3. Also: https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-joe-biden-won-election-legitimately-poll-1562343

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for your replies, and, I had no doubt the number was the result of a poll. I've offered my droning complaint of how polls aren't worth the toilet paper you clean them off with, so, no need for me to repeat any of that here.
      Notwithstanding those thoughts, the world enjoys those things such that the news media continues them. And, of course, 74 million inexplicably voted for the idiot, and my thought is they were voting against Biden, or, rather, against their impression of what he represents.
      It's my optimism, one rooted in agreement with our duly and properly elected President, that unity is the prime directive now. Our media will continue to rub salt in the wounds as long as it garners more webhits and mouse-clicks for as long as they can, but my hope is that our President's desire to unify supercedes the plague we've been in for four years. It's definitely possible with him, as it would have been (shudder) impossible with another four years of complete idiocy.
      It's my optimism that 3/4ths of who voted for the idiot will realize soon that the world is not exploding with one at the helm who seeks to unify rather than deepen the divide, and when they see it working, which it will, they'll come around.
      As for anyone who claims they know what's in "Republicans" hearts and minds, particularly ridiculous polls that work to "establish it as fact", I say the same thing one of my favorite TV detectives says, "Phooey!". Nero Wolfe would do well in today's Covid-environment, too. He would never leave his house!

      Delete
    2. "It's my optimism that 3/4ths of who voted for the idiot will realize soon that the world is not exploding with one at the helm who seeks to unify rather than deepen the divide, and when they see it working, which it will, they'll come around.
      As for anyone who claims they know what's in "Republicans" hearts and minds, particularly ridiculous polls that work to "establish it as fact", I say the same thing one of my favorite TV detectives says, "Phooey!"."

      Really?...Am I reading this right?

      Sooo you predict republicans will "come around" and then say...

      "As for anyone who claims they know what's in "Republicans" hearts and minds,..."..."Phooey!"?

      Hypocritical it seems to me.

      Delete
    3. (for you, perhaps, Sid, if you won't post)
      Why the insults? Always? "Hypocritical?"
      For a possible discussion, what does "come around" mean? When I offer it it's for the purpose of not supporting an idiot like Trump again, but I have no expectation that "come around" means they'll become Democrat. Consider that Trump is talking about his own party, in his flailings. He's gone from the Republicans, forever. And, good riddance.
      There is a thing feared, and that's this specter of what "Republicans" have become. I don't have those fears. We'll know in two years, whether the stink will stick. For those who think half the population is accursed for being Republican, and continue the onslaught of hate against all things R, well, party on.
      But for me, a Democrat, I can tell you that we can get along again. Just as in the simplicity of Rodney King's request, and, in the hope of Martin Luther King Jr.
      "We shall overcome", with emphasis on the "We". You see, I see that as a nation overcoming its differences, not as one group overcoming another group. We've been there, and done that.
      Biden's platform is unifying, not destroying.
      Or, perhaps, that part is not understood?

      Delete
    4. Apologies: I'd almost rejected those comments, and I should have.

      However, I don't think I'm as sure as you are that Trump is "gone" from the R party. McCarthy's pilgrimage seems to confirm that. Rs are afraid Trump will start a third party, which would relegate theirs and Trump's to irrelevance.

      They're reaping the whirlwind to which they attached themselves, no longer able to rid themselves of the crazies on whom they've been counting. It'd be amusing if it weren't so depressing.

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    5. Well, there's "certainty" and there's "surety", and there's hope, and there's belief.
      My hope is in our duly elected President, and I believe he will prevail. Even with all that is raging against him! It's what he wants, and I think he knows what he's doing to work towards that. I also think Kamala is respectful of him, and will do those things to support him, even though there is an element of something more radical attributed to her.
      Joe just started, there will be many more years in his effort. Our people will respond to his successes. "Sure" of this? Perhaps "confident" is the better word.

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    6. "Well, there's "certainty" and there's "surety","

      Well, they are the exact same thing only a different word.*sigh*

      Defined as "the state of being sure or certain of something."
      "I was enmeshed in the surety of my impending fatherhood"

      Delete
  4. To quote "The Shadow" What evil lurks in the hearts of men/women?

    Rodney King asked "Why can't we all just get along"?

    If and when we can truly and honestly answer these ambiguous questions, the answers will continue to vex us. Personally, I believe the democrats are closer to discovering the truth than the republican politicians. Democrats seek unity for ALL citizens, not just old white voters.

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  5. Good one Sid, as usual. It seems minority rule will continue. There's the big lie, and thousands more to surround it. It reminds me of a Solzenitsyn quote - "In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the state." Also as relevant are the comments he made about lies and violence. I don't have much hope left, I read there are over 100 bills restricting voting rights sitting in GOP state legislators. I consider all our GOP gutter politicians who voted not to accept state electoral votes as a political mob. A Q mob exactly like the insurrectionist mob who took over the capital, they are one in the same, no difference other than insurrection from within. Mitch McQ. the original qnabler is no different, perhaps he really represents Q itself. I consider our democracy lost, gone, done, finished. So I mourn for the futures of our children. I mourn the future of humanity, as many of us throughout history have. Having said that, I am grateful to have witnessed, although fleeting, a better side of what we could be, what we could have been.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Cory. Sadly, I agree with everything you said.

      Delete
    2. We got Qanon in Squim...And now the world knows.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaHzX-ufndA

      Delete
    3. I'd mentioned that in an earlier draft of this, but cut it for space.

      Delete
    4. It seemed to fit so you know me...I'll post it.

      I'm a radical leftist inciting fair play and equality anywhere I can. Shedding light on the facts.

      Delete
  6. Here's our girl telling it like it is!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlI6RvSHwtc

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  7. Why Republicans won’t agree to Biden’s big plans and why he should ignore them
    Robert Reich

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/31/republicans-biden-covid-trump-congress

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  8. For all those that say "Awwww...There's good people on both sides..."

    No...There is two sides and one is corrupt and no you can't deal with them. They must be punished period. Politics w/o guardrails is a dictatorship. A Drumpf/alt right, white power, rule by force cult is on one side and people trying to save democracy on the other.

    Sorry, not sorry, but the alt right needs to go...Forever. No negotiating.

    https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-prepared-punish-corporations-curtailed-pac-donations-n1256369?cid=eml_mra_20210201

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