By Brigitte L. Nacos
President Joe Biden has yet another talk with Senator Joe Manchin. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tries to keep the Before-Christmas deadline to hold a vote on the Build Back Better bill. The House Select Committee on January 6 digs deep into the horrific facts of that day.
As important as all of the above may be, everything pales in comparison to the existential threat that President Biden and congressional democrats fail to deal with aggressively—even at the expense of other items on their agenda.
I cannot get a recent column by Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times and a recent article by Barton Gellman of The Atlantic out of my mind. Goldberg in “The Problem of Political Despair” and Barton in “January 6 was Practice” lay out the clear and present danger to our democratic values and American democracy itself.
The insurrection attempt by domestic terrorist groups and Trump supporters as well as the coup attempt by the former president and his clique of enablers inside and outside the White House failed nearly a year ago. But there are plenty of signposts that the Trumpian Big Lie about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election results has a good chance to prevail in 2024.
The mid-term elections next year will preview the effectiveness of GOP majority states to destroy fair elections as we know them.
Whether the former president decides to run again in 2024—or not, the one-time Grand Old Party does no longer exist. The Trump Party has become the theater of the absurd in which would-be performers deliver shock messages and threaten political opponents.
A recent podcast performance by “War Room” host Steve Bannon and his guest Congressman Matt Gaetz was a case in point. They talked about an “army of patriots” and “shock troops” as they previewed a future in which Trump was president again.
Bannon: “This is Trumpism in power. That's when we went to the 4,000 shock troops we have to have that's going to man the government. Get them ready now. Right? We're going to hit the beach with the landing teams and the beachhead teams and all that nomenclature they use when President Trump wins in 2024 — or before."
Gaetz: “And we're going to go after this administrative state and we're going to start at the Department of Justice and the FBI. That's the job I want. You know, send me over to the Judiciary Committee and their sphincters will tighten because they have been doing a lot of corrupt things over there."
Oh, yes, one wants to laugh—just as many of us did, when Trump announced his presidential candidacy in the summer of 2015. Then, he was merely a spent reality show performer with birther conspiracy theorists on his side. Now, he controls a major party whose members are on bended knees to please their dear leader and progressing rapidly in the destruction of our electoral system—and our democracy.
Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress are preoccupied with another FDR-like legislative package that promises to help many Americans in need. But if this passes, it is highly unlikely to increase Democrats’ chances in the 2022 and 2024 elections--just as the expansive Covid-19 Relief Package passed in spring did not enhance Biden’s or Democrats’ public approval.
They should put all their energy in getting a voting rights act with teeth adopted that enabled the Department of Justice to effectively fight voter oppression. And they should work in states and local districts to mobilize their base that shows far less enthusiasm for political engagement than the supporters of the Trumpian Party.
Michelle Goldberg warns at end of her column cited above,
Given the bleak trajectory of American politics, I worry about progressives retreating into private life to preserve their sanity, a retreat that will only hasten democracy’s decay. In order to get people to throw themselves into the fight to save this broken country, we need leaders who can convince them that they haven’t already lost.
Indeed, we need those leaders to lead and act now—first of all Joe Biden. The President should memorize the dark scenario that Barton Gellman sketches in his article mentioned above,
Technically, the next attempt to overthrow a national election may not qualify as a coup. It will rely on subversion more than violence, although each will have its place. If the plot succeeds, the ballots cast by American voters will not decide the presidency in 2024. Thousands of votes will be thrown away, or millions, to produce the required effect. The winner will be declared the loser. The loser will be certified president-elect.
Wake up time for Democrats!
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