Affirming Democracy, Gathering Resistance

In this abhorrent moment in our nation’s history, we are reminded that a crazy man can accomplish great evil…but only if he is aided and abetted by people who are malleable enough to let their own morality slip away in honor of The Evil One.  Yes, there are people who are evil in their own right (think Steven Miller and Russel Vought for starters), but even they, together, would not be enough to undo our country’s long, flawed-though-it-has-been, service to democracy.

For their malicious deeds to succeed, they need the masses in Congress to bend the knee, to refuse to say in public what they whine about behind closed doors.  And Trump has had those sycophants operating on his behalf in great measure.  My disgust, anger, and anguish over the Republicans’ response to the orange malevolence that has blanketed our country, and now the world, is omnipresent in our lives.

What do they expect the outcome of their cowardice to be?  By the time they figure out what they owed the country, posterity, and even themselves, it will be far too late.  History is awash in tragic examples of this very thing.

Shame on them.

But given that these are the givens, we must also admit that the Democrats are NOT meeting the urgency of this moment.  They keep talking about what the people want/what the people care about.  They spill lightweight arguments about winning the election by giving the people what they want, and then they will be able to fix things.  Fix what?  Fix inflation?  Fix the war?  Fix our standing in the world?  Those things will take years and decades to accomplish.  And some things that this evil and insane man has done will never be fixed.

Why on earth are Democrats pretending this is business as usual?  IT IS NOT!  As Timothy Snyder wrote in “The President Speaks Genocide” on the night that Trump was prepared to begin his genocide on Iran, everything is different now.

“Whatever happens tonight, the president, by saying such things, has already changed the world for the worse, and made acts of mass violence more likely. If we are Americans, he has also changed our country. He has changed us, because he represents us; we voted for him, or we didn’t vote and allowed him to come to power, or we didn’t do enough to stop him. These words are America’s words, until and unless Americans reject them.”

There is no going back to “normal.”  There is no before-Trump any longer, only after-Trump.  And until we, as a people, as a nation, deal with what he, and we, have wrought, nothing will be okay.  These are wrongs that are so big and so destructive that we must understand the hell that has happened, and hold people to account.

PLEASE Dems, be more than the politics as usual you have been playing at. Yes, it is true that people are struggling to make ends meet, and they need help.  But most people do not have the time to be as informed about what is actually happening as you do.  The leadership in this country is all on the evil side of the ledger.  Your weak reactions to the terror that is happening is not enough.  We need you to actually LEAD the opposition, to create an understanding of where we are so that the people can coalesce around a genuine choice that is different from what Trump and his minions are offering.  And sure, talk about inflation, but for heaven’s sake, talk about the fact that the US is behaving as a bad actor in the world, and doing so in our name.  We need to stop it.  I appreciate No Kings, but it’s not enough.  We need leadership on the democracy side of the ledger.  The people do and will care about this once they fully understand what is at stake.  What we need is a movement.

 Open your eyes and see this moment for what it is—a once in a multiple lifetime horror that must be met with acknowledgment, understanding, and action.  Don’t wait until it is too late.  Our nation, and the world, are depending on you.