My fellow Democrats
While we are arguing over the relative merits of a public option or Medicare for All or whether or not having a fundraiser in a wine cave is a bad idea, or if Joe is too old, or if Warren is too shrill, we need to keep a few things in mind.
We were not 100% united in 2016 and here is what we lost:
The Republican party. Trump now controls the GOP from the RNC down to local organizers in red states and purple states. GOP loyalists have been pushed out in favor of operatives and appointees who have literally signed an oath to Trump. There is no GOP – there are 60 million Trumpistas organized by a national infrastructure whose goal is to re-elect Trump, destroy Democrats and democracy, and turn the US into an authoritarian theocratic kleptocracy. There is no longer a GOP opposition to bargain with; there is a Trumpista Party that will only accept our destruction.
The ability to compromise for the common good. Trumpistas don’t compromise; you are either with Trump or you are a traitor to be destroyed. There has been almost no change in the positions of Americans on Trump according to 538 over the past three years; 53% of us hate him, 45% of us love him, and 2% are not engaged. There is no middle ground, no way we as a nation can give a little to get a little to improve the future. And there is no way to change minds.
Truth and facts. From “the media is the enemy of the people”, the Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts” to Trump’s dozens of daily lies big and small, truth no longer matters to almost half of Americans. They simply believe what Fox News tells them and Fox News and Trump work together to eliminate not only truth but the need for truth.
Policy loses. Immigrate rights, abortion rights, the NRLB, the World Court, allies, major pieces of the environment, regulation of toxics, corporate tax revenue, and more. And what have we gotten in return: homelessness, a shorter life span, a home-grown drug epidemic profiting one Trump-supporting family, 2 million dead from OD’s, toxic drinking water, domestic terrorism…and much more.
If Trump wins re-election here is what we will lose
Our right to vote. The extreme billionaire racist right wing of the GOP has been working to eliminate democracy in the US since the Goldwater debacle in 1964. The 2016 election showed how they can control the White House with a minority of voters to impose their policies on an unwilling majority. Trump has abetted them in every way he could and they have kicked off an ever larger, better-funded and more lawless campaign to do the same in 2020; if they win, Trump and the Trumpista Party will use Executive orders, phony crisis, and corrupt Federal judges to permanently bar Democrats from voting or from having their votes count.
Our right to survive economically. On the Trumpista chopping block for a Trump second term are Social Security, Food Stamps, Medicare, national parks, public schools, public higher education, public employee pension funds, unions, and anything the government pays for that helps anyone other than billionaires and corporations. We will truly become a third-world country where the starving masses are ruled by a tiny rich elite.
Women’s right to control their bodies. The unholy alliance between the evangelicals and the Trumpistas, based on a trade of anti-abortion judges for votes, will complete the white religious patriarchy’s s quest to deprive women of abortion, birth control, and equal rights. Trump appoints the judges, supports the governors and legislatures, and appoints religious racist, bigots, misogynists to powerful posts. Reelect Trump and any woman who is not white and rich can become an unwilling baby factory.
Our country. The United States was conceived as the nation structured to give people control over their government. Not money, not religion, not cults, not demigods could rule. Our 300-year old experiment in balance of powers and civilian control was designed to withstand a power-hungry would-be autocrat; it remains to be seen if it was designed to withstand Trump. Trump has said many times he wants to establish a Trump dynasty – with his family controlling the White House and the Trumpista party controlling nation, forever. He is steadily moving toward this goal. If he wins re-election, especially if the Trumpistas control of one or both Houses of Congress, he will be able to complete it. We will no longer be the USA, the shining beacon on the hill; we will be the EST-the Enslaved States of Trump, like Iran and North Korea only larger and with more bombs.
Finally, defeating Trump will not solve our nation’s problems.
Trump has changed the USA and its politics permanently. By destroying the GOP, norms of truth, the ability to see one another as people and not enemies, the ability to compromise, Trump has created a fundamentally different nation and different politics. We are fractured – no longer the United States, but the Waring States of America. Our politics has gone from bare-knuckle to murderous. We are eating ourselves from within and our enemies know it – and are taking advantage of it. Every empire in history has fallen when corrupt leaders have sown disunity to stay in power; we may be the next.
Trump is not going away. With complete control of every level of what used to be the GOP and 60 million blindly-loyal base followers, whether he is in or out of office he will remain a force. Even if he dies or goes to jail, Trumpism and the Trumpista Party will be a powerful negative force for at least a generation. They will rebel if he loses the election and fight state by state to change the outcome. They will rally at the White House to prevent an incoming Democratic President-elect from taking office. The rank and file of the military, who have come under Trump’s sway, may reject their officers ‘orders to remove him. They will attack every Democrat in Congress with lies and character assassinations to win the 2022 elections. They will fight to put Ivanka or Eric or Trump Jr. in the White House in 2024. And they will do these things by causing continual chaos and even violence in the political system and the media.
What Democrats need to do”
- Stop attacking each other. Every attack on every Democratic primary candidate will end up in an ad against that candidate if he or she is the nominee. DON’T GIVE THE TRUMPISTAS AMMUNITION.
- Play dirty. If the Trumpistas can start false rumors about the Democratic candidates, mislead voters, purge rolls, engage in character assassinations, and lie, so can we. We may have to. We need to realize that we are in the final battle for the future of America, the other side does not play by any rules and if we want to save our country, we have to stop bringing knives to nuclear wars. Stay legal, but be creative and outrageous and effective in suppressing Trumpista votes and making sure we win.
- Win the key states. This is a base election. Five states will determine who controls America: Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Focus on these states; discourage Trumpista voters and do not let a single Democrat get purged, intimidated, discouraged or blocked from voting. This will require thousands of lawyers, lawsuits, demonstrations, civil disobedience, online advertising, door knocking, and maybe even some gotcha videos and strongarm tactics at the polls pushing back against the Trumpista “Green Vest” thug squads. There can be no division among democrats, no Bernie Boys vs. Amy’s Girls or No-Go Unless It’s Joe. It does not matter who the nominee is, the only thing that matters is whether or not the candidate can beat Trump. And she or he won’t beat Trump if we are not 110% behind him or her. EVERY DEMOCRAT MUST VOTE FOR THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE. NO EXCUSES. NO EXCEPTIONS #votebluenomatterwho
- Jail Trump and his family and the Trumpista organization. The Trumpistas won’t go away if the Trump Crime Family is in prison, but it will be a start to dismantling the national organization and showing other Trumpistas that they can’t get away with crime. A Democratic AG should begin immediately to (1) clean house of all Trump loyalists, and (2) impanel grand juries to hand down indictments against Trump for his crimes both in and out of office
- Control the election outcome immediately. Trumpista voter suppression may cost us 2%; the Russians another 1%, so we have to win by 5% to avoid endless recounts, lawsuits, civil disobedience by Trumpistas. But regardless of the per percentages, if we win, the next day the President-elect needs to go to a Federal Court and get an order preventing the destruction of records, documents, computers – anything in the Administration’s suffices and archives. And Transition Teams need to be ready to go the next day - with court orders - and muscle, if necessary – to prevent the Trumpistas from destroying the infrastructure of governing as well as incriminating documents.
- Protect the Senate. In the event we win the Senate, the President and Senators elect to get a similar order preventing records and infrastructure destruction in the Senate. And the Democrats and outside progressive groups need to do everything they can to disrupt McConnell’s attempts in the lame-duck session to appoint judges, change rules and pass laws that will hamper incoming Senators.
I know this sounds very paranoid, but just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they are not to get you - and we know they are, completely. I know this sounds very us-vs-them, but it is. They hate us and want to destroy us. That is the unifying force of the Trumpistas. For Hitler, it was Jews and gypsies; for Trump, it is Democrats and Progressives (and Jews, and gypsies and gays and Muslims, and people of color, and women and…). Hate and fear are the two most powerful forces in politics; Trump uses both masterfully and we need to respond. And don’t worry about descending to his level – you can’t.
The choice comes down to, do we bicker among ourselves and fold like snowflakes when the fight gets tough, or do we save the county. No one believed Trump could win the 2016 election, so Democrats in key districts stayed home, or voted for a Third-party or said they can’t vote for Hillary, or a hundred other things – and look what happened. We have one chance to fix it. If we don’t, what I have written may be an understatement.