Our Problem
POST 1132
This Piece is Entirely One-Sided
Here’s why.
No Democrat is threatening violence on anyone. No Democrat is in a militia practicing to assault the Capitol Building on January 6, 2025 or is preparing to send Christmas cards with pictures of themselves brandishing an AR-15 and lusting over the blood of patriots. No Democrat is making death threats to poll workers or to Republicans who support Trump. No Democrat went to an election rally and applauded hateful and racist slurs or chanted about death to anyone.
And no Democratic leader is inciting anger and hatred or promising to terminate our Constitution and to crush our institutions that protect us and make the trains run on time.
That’s why.
We’re Running Out of Time
It isn’t over until it’s over.
– Yogi Berra – also Lenny Kravitz
You might like this version better:
The opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings.
– Dan Cook, writing for the San Antonio News-Express, Texas, ~ 1976
And the fat lady ain’t sung – yet. The burning issue for us now and for the foreseeable future (that means always) is to keep the savages at bay, to prevent the Huns from sacking our country.
We have truths that we proclaim to be self-evident but which some abandon as soon as there’s profit to it, and there’s great profit to be made right now by abandoning those truths, integrity and sacred oaths. That abandonment is what Trump, Musk and the Republicans are doing in order to make yet larger piles of gold in front of themselves.
Be clear that we are at terrible risk. This is a fight to the political death, where, in the end, either democracy or fascism will lie dead on the floor. At issue is in this moment is how we fight for what is right, the patriotic fight, the fight for truth, justice and the American way, so that democracy prevails.
Can You Spot What’s Missing From This Picture?
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That’s right: In this fight for the heart and soul of America, the Democrats are MIA. They’ve self-neutered. Customarily the Republicans/MAGAs bring automatic weapons to a fight and Democrats bring bean bags. Now the Democrats aren’t even showing up.
The Republicans are “flooding the zone with shit,” as the daddy-issue-encumbered and hateful Steve Bannon calls it. It’s the same thing Trump has always done – spew one outrage after another, whether in actions or lies, such that responding is an overwhelming task.
Far worse, now he has all MAGAs doing it, lying, making up shit, claiming victories that aren’t theirs, demonizing everyone not MAGA, promising whatever they can think of but will never deliver – like lowering food prices. As they do that, the Democrats self-disable. What happened to that “protect and defend” thing in the oath they swore to? Why aren’t they rising to this occasion bare knuckled?
Democrats don’t seem able to understand going on offense. Enough of the cute golden retriever puppies. We need an army of pit bulls and they’re nowhere to be seen.
We need to employ political savagery. No genius is necessary to see this, because the nice guy Dems get the snot beat out of them over and over. We consistently need something far more visceral and aggressive than standard wimpy Democratic Party patty cake.
Consider the presidential debate. Trump declared that Haitians in Ohio are illegals in our country (false) and that they’re eating the dogs and cats of the local residents (false). Kamala laughed derisively at him. That would have been an appropriate come back at a cocktail party, but not in a street fight.
She should have told him, “No! Either you’re a big enough fool that you believe whatever crap you’re told by conspiracy idiots or you’re lying right now. And I will not let you get away with lying to the American people!”
But she didn’t say that. No one else in the Democratic Party is fighting like that, either. They look like lap dogs.
Voters couldn’t be more clear about wanting a strong leader, a tough guy, but Dems consistently show them they’re amiable guys, polite guys who smile derisively when they should be throwing rocks through windows.
I love Jamie Raskin, but he sounds like the law professor that he is. That doesn’t reach working people.
I love Mallory McMorrow, but she’s a Michigan legislator and doesn’t have a national platform.
Hakeem Jeffries occasionally shows signs of life. AOC does that all the time, but the Dems muzzle her.
Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer both died years ago and nobody told them.
We don’t need Romney-esque, “Oh, golly, that’s unfortunate” pablum. The American people are primed and ready for an ongoing attack by Democrats in the name of We The People, but the Dems continue to refuse to fight.
Where are the snarling dogs with ripped flesh and blood dripping from their teeth? Where is the chorus singing the same song over and over, the one that actually reaches voters? Oh, right: that’s the Republicans.
The MAGAs are submarining our economy, our institutions and our Constitution and they aren’t even sworn in yet. Meanwhile, the Dems are silent or inept. Harris and Walz are nowhere to be seen, even though over 75 million people voted for them and want to hear from them. They want them to punch back, to attack over and over, but they aren’t even in the ring, much less taking a swing at the anti-patriots.
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Thom Hartmann dove into this last week, in part detailing what happened at a fancy DC restaurant the night of President Obama’s first inauguration. The Republican movers and shakers and power brokers in attendance focused on throwing Obama’s presidency into a dumpster. From Hartmann:
After the meeting, Kevin McCarthy famously said of their commitment to obstruction:
“If you act like you’re the minority, you’re going to stay in the minority. We’ve gotta challenge them on every single bill and challenge them on every single campaign.” [He was right. JA]
And, sure enough, they did. And continue to do so to this day. And the voters rewarded them, “shellacking” Obama’s Democrats in the next election.
Where are the Democrats today with that kind of spine? Where is our resolve to fight, rather than enable, fascists? What happened to our principles and commitment to democracy? [emphasis original]
Following that meeting these Republican snakes announced that job number one was ensuring that Obama would be a one-term president.
That was their notion of their sacred duty in Congress: focus on trashing the opponent in order to help themselves. They had no concern for growing American jobs, the welfare of our vets, dealing with George W. Bush’s disastrous wars, healthcare – nothing. They were all about slash and burn, jam up the gears so that nothing would get done, this in order to make Obama look bad. That’s what Republicans did and it’s what they still do.
And Democrats can’t even call out blatant Republican lies.
That is our problem.
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The fat lady hasn’t sung yet, but she’s waiting in the wings, as Elon Musk asserts the power of the presidency.
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Democrats: You’re way late.
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***** WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU? *****
Required Reading
Jamelle Bouie’s brilliant piece, Don’t Surrender and Call It Compromise.
Rahm Emanuel’s wake up call, The Road Back to Power For Democrats.
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- PS: Feel free to thank me for omitting all the anger-dripping sarcasm I did not print here.
- NOTE: No post this Wednesday.
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Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.
