The media’s fixation on a broken Democratic party and its path forward, post election day, is flabbergasting. If Donald Trump had lost the popular vote in two states, Hillary Clinton would be president. The Republican party was more than prepared to accept defeat in this election, and it prayed to hold onto its plurality in the House and Senate on the night of November 7th. The script was most certainly written and waiting to be read to the public on the morning of November 9th, detailing the Republican Party’s desire to distance itself from Trump. “This candidate did not represent our Party.” “Our values as Republicans were not Trump’s values.” “Traditional conservative goals will be reaffirmed by our Congressional leadership, and we look forward to rebuilding the party to reclaim the White House.”
Suddenly the media isn’t covering that script at all. No, the horse race has been run, and the Democrats lost. Therefore the Democratic Party is in free fall, requiring repair. How amazing that 50 electoral votes can be the difference between one party’s demise and the other’s. 120,000 votes in Florida, and 70,000 votes in Pennsylvania are the difference between President Trump and President Clinton.
In fact, the Republican Party is in shambles. They will either self destruct in the next four years, never to be seen again on the political landscape, or America’s 240 year experiment is over. Our republic is not a nation of haters, dividers, narcissists and cheats. And yet, the Republican Party is lining up to embrace the candidate they would have gladly discarded and the values he espouses, as their own. Good luck with that. They’d be better off disavowing themselves further from him, in the face of victory, than aligning with him. There is no way that the country will rally around any of the Trump/Pence agenda, and the Republican Party will pay dearly for it.
This is the story that the media isn’t telling you. The story should be about a crumbling Republican Party which couldn’t put up one candidate to defeat an authoritarian demagogue. Don’t be afraid to push back, as a majority, in the face of an unstable power grab. There is no consensus within the Republican Party. And Trumpism certainly isn’t conservatism. So when the Pence led agenda unfolds, be prepared to resist it. And expect positive results in the face of an overwhelming Republican majority in Washington, D.C., because our country is in agreement that America was not founded on the exclusion or prejudice of religions, (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”), or the lack of rights for women and minorities, (“all men, (humanity), are created equal.”).
The groundswell of resistance to untenable efforts by Republicans and a President Trump will be terrific. Along with this tsunami of pushback will come efforts to protect our land and our planet, to transform our country’s energy system into an environmentally clean and independent formula. Our collective resistance to a backwards agenda will ensure a future for our children and our parents. Believe in this, and act upon it. Its all we can do. And we must.