By Senior Washington Correspondent John Hay
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Sept. 1) – On this first day of September, the alarms about the future of American democracy are shrieking.
Just today, we learned that despite a court order, the Administration is barreling ahead with an illegal plan to thwart mail-in voting, with the goal of rigging the midterms to keep in power a massively unpopular Republican kleptocracy.
We also learned that in a time of war, a drug-addled Defense Secretary is continuing his maniacal purge of competent uninformed and civilian leadership at the Pentagon, putting U.S national defense at grave risk.
This is the same Administration that is insanely prolonging its war of aggression in Iran, which it has already lost. Just today, a frustrated and obviously demented tyrant is threatening Iran with
When a reporter asked if this meant nuclear weapons, the rattled kleptocrat snarled that the question was stupid. In the meantime, the Mad King continues to post AI slop boasting of non-existent triumphs.
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| Mad King several pieces short of a full bucket |
While our armed forces are squandering U.S. military strength and credibility in this futile violence, they continue to commit war crimes by attacking and killing the crews of small boats on the high seas, who may or may not be smuggling drugs or catching tuna, but who are indubitably not engaged in an armed attack against the United States.
In Venezuela, the Mad King has stolen $13 billion of oil revenues with no accountability and no reporting on where the money has gone. Now he has announced a vague new scheme to pillage billions of barrels of that country's oil to reward himself and a few cronies.
Closer to home, the demented Mad King is fomenting a trade war against our neighbor and closest ally solely because the Canadians have dared to oppose his insane plant to annex their large and powerful country over the objections of the population.
Everywhere you look in the Mad King's regime you find devastation and corruption. His equally insane HHS Secretary, Brainworm Bobby Kennedy, continues to trivialize the public health disaster of this year's measles outbreak by variously trying to rig the statistics and insisting that it's no problem because only the weak die from measles (which of course is false).
To degrade and destroy our environment, the Mad King, not content to perpetuate dangerous climate denial while the Earth boils, has decided to sell off parts of our national parks to his corrupt friends and exempt useless energy-gobbling data centers from environmental regulation.
And we haven't even gotten to the Mad King's assault on the rule of law, from ordering fraudulent indictments against those who stood up to him (like Jim Comey) to unleashing a brutal secret immigration police on law abiding residents to demolishing portions of the White House to build a monument to his vanity. Despite the blatant illegality of the project, five bent Republican Justices on the Supreme Court gave him the green light to continue.
The barrage on what is left of our democracy have reached a level of intensity not seen since the Western Front of World War I. The Congress and the Supreme Court, dominated by equally corrupt and extremist Republicans, have failed to do their jobs.
At this desperate hour we turn to our last hope: the large Democratic minorities in the House and Senate. Surely they will make every effort to defend our beset nation. Surely they will not pretend it is business as usual and shirk their duties by leaving town as quickly and quietly as possible.
It's pretty to think so, isn't it?
But this afternoon,
What could be finer to the hacks at the New York Times than an outpouring of bipartisan enthusiasm?
Why were Democrats so eager to carry on business as usual in a time of national crisis?
The vote was a lopsided 370 to 48, a reflection of the bipartisan enthusiasm for heading off any funding fight before November, when voters will decide which party will control Congress for the final two years of Mr. Trump’s term. It paved the way for lawmakers to quickly return to the campaign trail for the critical final weeks before the elections.
Oh. And what does anyone think will happen in November?
Another CR moving the deadline into the new year is likely....
At this point the captious may argue that the Democrats, being in the minority in both Houses, could not have blocked continued government funding. First, that's not quite true, as such resolutions require 60 votes in the Senate (which rubber-stamped the CR back in the predawn hours of an August morning by a vote of 90-6).
In any event, politics isn't just about legislating; it's about fighting.
Imagine if all Senate and House Democrats had stood firm and demanded fundamental changes in the way the Mad King regime does business. Imagine if they demanded defunding the Department of Justice's corrupt prosecutions of political adversaries Imagine if they had demanded an end to insane retaliatory tariffs. Imagine if they had sought to defund anti-vax drivel. Imagine halting the destruction of the White House. Imagine requiring ICE reforms, like banning warrantless arrests and home invasions, not to mention their shiny new torture mitts. Imagine prohibiting using the Postal Service to suppress mail-in votes.
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| Democrats were pleased by their peaceful resolution |
The nation's attention would be focused on these and other critical issues, rather than what some Twitch nitwit said a year ago. The Democratic base would be inspired and energized. The national agenda would be driven not by the demented ravings of a corrupt madman, but by an organized effort to direct the electorate's attention to the assault on democracy and the rule of law.
Further, keeping the House and Senate at work and in session would provide many opportunities to question Republican cowards about whether they agree with the latest plutocratic insanity. And there's plenty every day. Instead Republicans will be able to hide out in their districts or at fancy resorts where they can schnor money from rich s***s.
But demanding that Congress address these fundamental issues would have required courage, not to mention a willingness to cut short one's undeserved second vacation.
Either this country is in a grave crisis of democracy and legitimacy or it's not. When Democrats are willing to do business as usual, they're telling their base and the nation that there's nothing to see here, people, move along.
Midterm elections are thought to depend on base turnout It's hard to imagine a strategy less likely to motivate the Democratic base to vote when large majorities of their legislators couldn't be bothered to put up a fight.
