Three Republican senators of conscience, unburdened by never needing to prostrate themselves before the right-wing oligarchical donor class ever again, have thrown down the gauntlet challenging others in their party to stop pretending to ignore our Constitutional crisis and national emergency.
So far the response is: crickets.
Because: tax “reform.”
For which the writing is now on the wall: it’s going down the same tortured, gut-wrenching path to utter failure that “healthcare reform” did.
Those same “gentlemen of conscience” could spare the country months of pointless, needless excruciating pain, and leave a legacy of which they could be proud: Moving America forward from the gravest threat to democracy since the Civil War.
All they have to do is announce that, for the rest of their terms in the Senate, they will caucus with the Democrats, like independents Angus King and Bernie Sanders do. They didn't leave the Republican party, it left them for its sleazy, disgusting, degrading, and ultimately suicidal affair with Donald J. Trump.
Schumer announces a “Coalition to Save America” and promises not to push any “liberal agenda” items until after the 2018 elections. Murkowski and Collins, and maybe even Rand Paul, join the coalition. McConnell is no longer Senate Majority Leader. Bannon already has a target on his back, and it’s only a matter of “when” he’s out, not “if.”
The Coalition would define itself as a patriotic movement putting country before party, a neutral, caretaker centrist government of “adults” to preside over things until the Trump mess can be sorted out. The living ex-Presidents issue a joint statement supporting the Coalition as the best path forward to healing our divided country, the bipartisan tourniquet America needs to close the wound before the patient bleeds out entirely.
Enough has leaked to know the conclusions coming from the Russia investigations, as does anyone with a security clearance in Congress. Anything that hastens the inevitable outcome as quickly as possible will be enormously popular with a sizeable majority of Americans so drained and fatigued by the daily onslaught of scandal and outrage. The zero-sum partisan politics of which America is so overwhelmingly sick will be foresworn for the duration. The swamp may not be drained, but will, at least, be frozen over until the next election.
With “tax reform” officially dead for now, implacably blocked by the Senate until after the 2018 election, the House no longer has any reason to ignore the many high crimes and treasons of the Trump administration. All those who collaborated or acquiesced to Trump can have their big public "come to Jesus" moment and "redeem" themselves before November 2018. Americans love repentance narratives.
Enough Republicans in the House join the Democrats to force Ryan out as Speaker, for his utter failure of leadership. They’re going to do it anyway, so why not now?. Articles of impeachment are filed, and it's a given that the votes to convict in the Senate are already in hand. Trump and Pence resign rather than face humiliation every day for months on end as the process plays out live on television. Trump is indicted for his crimes, but not prosecuted, on the grounds of “mental impairment,” as long as he goes quietly. He can blame everyone around him for “misleading “ him, as one after another they are tried and go to prison. His bloated, fetid corpse can go to its grave, still “innocent” in his own mind, as he will delusionally believe in any case.
Committee chairmanships change hands to Democrats, who push for reinvigorated investigations and set deadlines to release preliminary reports of their findings before the 2018 election season is in full swing. Democratically controlled committees start clearing out Trump's hideously incompetent and downright evil Cabinet secretaries, who daily betray their oaths of office to execute the laws of the land.
The Coalition members declare common cause and place the nation on a war footing to defend against the Russian attack on our democracy and sovereignty. They promise to have auditable paper trails in place by the 2018 election in every polling place so there is no question about the outcome of that election. They promise to set standards and regulate the big social media platforms so the source of all paid advertising is identified, and any claims unsupported by facts (ie. lies) are identified as such. The right-wing will be free to peddle their lies on their own fringe platforms, as they do now, but the giants that now function as public utilities binding the country together, will no longer be leveraged by those who mean harm our country.
Sure, the willfully ignorant Trump supporters will lose their shit. There may even be Charlotteville-like demonstrations or Bundy Ranch-style stand-offs. But they will have to answer the questions: What are they afraid of? Do they really support Putin’s co-opting our democracy? After nearly a year of Trump, can they honestly say they think anything good will come from another three years of the chaos wracking the nation and plunging us toward tinpot dictatorship status? Are they personally any better now than a year ago? Can they believe another three years of this will make their life any better? Do they want to leave a better world to their children, or a fascist corporatocracy choking the last gasps of life out of a dying planet Earth?
Similarly, the right-wing billionaires will scream bloody murder through their mouthpieces about democracy being “hijacked.” But they already know they are going to get nothing from this current Republican “administration.” The sooner the nation returns to some sense of “normalcy,” the sooner they can get back to their scheming and influence buying. These guys can read the numbers, and just like most of corporate America, they suddenly became supporters of gay marriage once a clear majority was in favor. Similarly, they will beat their breasts and moan over how that horrible Trump misled and betrayed them all, once it’s clear which way the tsunami of national shame is breaking.
Lord knows, huge damage has been done to this country over the past year. But peak polarization and partisanship have blown away the smoke and obfuscation of our previous “politics as usual” pre-Trump. The racists have been caught in broad daylight. The scheme to “repeal and replace” is now commonly understood as the huge tax break for the 1% it always was. The need for comprehensive immigration reform is abundantly clear, when the alternative is rounding innocent people up like the Gestapo going after Jews. People now understand that things were pretty good under Obama, and even W doesn’t look so bad after this past year. The right-wing propaganda machine has cracked and shown just how completely untethered from reality and any sense of morality or national interest it is. Americans know that their community, under these incompetent and venal clowns, is one disaster away from becoming the next Puerto Rico, depending on how they voted in the last election.
Finally, the vast majority of Americans who want their government to function from the center in their best interest will feel like their voices have been heard. Working together to come back from this crisis of the Trump nightmare could be this generation’s finest hour. And the ultimate proof that democracy, for all its flaws, remains the best, most resilient form of human self-organization ever.