September 25, 2020

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH

What America needs is for another country to liberate the majority of citizens from the merciless and ruthless rule of a diminishing minority: the Neo-Confederate Republicans.

James Baldwin said that “White is a metaphor for power.” Look at a Donald Trump, a Mitch McConnell, a Jim Jordan, a Martha McSally and you realize how on-point Baldwin was. Heck, with the exception of Mitt Romney’s vote for impeachment, the entire Republican House and Senate caucuses represent that metaphor, and they will confirm Trump’s SCOTUS nominee whom Trump will have vetted to make sure she will declare mail-in ballots counted after November 3 fraudulent and, therefore, Trump can claim victory (if he is ahead on the evening of November 3).

Donald Trump emerged over four years as the great dominator with a voracious appetite for owning liberals and turning cruelty into a source of pride for him and his white cult. He has been the master entertainer, indisputable media spectacle, cult leader and creator of chaos.

The US came into being as a “democracy” in which only white male property owners, about 12 percent of the population, were allowed to vote. On the Library of Congress website, in a section entitled, “The Founders and the Vote,” it explains,

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed."

But how would Americans consent to be governed? Who should vote? How should they vote?….

Eventually, the framers of the Constitution left details of voting to the states. In Article I Section 4, the Constitution says:

The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations.

Unfortunately, leaving election control to individual states led to unfair voting practices in the U.S. At first, white men with property were the only Americans routinely permitted to vote.

So, if Trump wants to return to the original Constitution, it will limit democracy to white male property owners. He would probably be happy with that. Of course, as the US has resiliently amended the Constitution, former slaves, women, naturalized citizens, poor people, etc., were given the right to vote that is assumed accorded to every citizen, unless suppressed, purged or declared fraudulent (without any proof) by Republicans seeking a political advantage.

What Trump offers to an ever-shrinking white Christian minority is an American form of apartheid, with anyone who is not Republican considered “un-American.” (We now know from a top ex-Pence Coronavirus aide, Olivia Troye, that Trump actually thought many of his supporters were “disgusting.” Indeed, as progressive publicist Ilene Proctor has noted, for Trump, “The enemy of the people is my people.”)

Trump’s likely disdain for his followers appears to be similar to fictional character Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes in the 1957 film, “A Face in the Crowd.” Rhodes goes from rural drifter (or in Trump’s case, urban grifter) to become a radio and television star because of his folksy “down home” personality. His downfall comes when he is caught on a “hot mike” referring to his devoted fans as “idiots.” No doubt, the ultimate con man, Trump, views not just soldiers as “suckers and losers,” but also his MAGA devotees.

However, as a demagogue and hardcore racist, Trump needs followers who are his insurance in acquiring full dictatorial power, particularly his brown shirt militias that can hit the streets if his strategy to steal the 2020 election starts to falter. After all, Trump and Bill Barr (who will issue a legal opinion the night of November 3 that supports Trump’s claim to have won the election by ignoring so-called “fraudulent” Democratic ballots) need a second-term to avoid being prosecuted. Being president is the only thing right now keeping Trump from at least two major prosecutions in New York state, not to mention what a Biden administration DOJ would uncover in terms of illegal acts Trump has committed as president — and Barr as Attorney General. So he is not just running to continue his corruption, he is running to stay out of jail, which is a mighty strong motivator.

In the alternative reality Trump has developed, Democrats submit fraudulent votes by definition because they are not “real” Americans. This paves the way for what Trump, Mitch McConnell and Republican administrations in the past four decades have fought, lied and cheated for: a single party white Christian patriarchal government controlling the White House, the federal judiciary and the Senate.

Since the presidential election of 1992, Republican candidates for president have all lost the popular vote, with the exception of George W. Bush in 2004. As Mother Jones also notes, “In 2018, Democratic Senate candidates won the popular vote by a margin of 54 to 46 percent, but Republicans gained two seats in the chamber.” A minority population can only control the government by being lawless and pitiless in the exercise of power.

In general, Democrats, when in office, advance themselves running on principles. Republicans climb the ranks by the audacity of their efforts to acquire additional raw power, and by trolling the Democratic political leaders who are not fully comfortable in asserting power and don’t know how to play rough. Shouting, badgering, crashing committee meetings, endless Benghazi-style hearings, lies, dirty tricks, Russian interference, social networking ads that lie and feigning victimhood all get you bonus points with the GOP in Congress and with Trump.

As an example of wasted Democratic opportunities, where are the Democratic hearings about Trump’s intentional mishandling of the Coronavirus pandemic that may take 400,000 lives by the end of the year and is still being egregiously mishandled? Doesn’t his continued enabling of the spread of the virus disallow him from being president and make him criminally negligent? People are still dying and the Democrats in Congress are raising nary a word in protest.

BuzzFlash loves Michelle Obama, but her 2016 advice, “when they go low, we go higher.” will render us a despotic nation run by a hateful, delusional, cult minority. In her DNC speech this year, she appeared to suggest that the Dems should also be tougher, a welcome modification.

Frankly, as lofty as Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Adam Schiff may sound when chastising Trump, the GOP isn’t fooled for a minute: they know they can push the Dems around without consequences. Have you even recently heard that Trump was impeached? It doesn’t matter to them.

The Democrats need to bring out the brass knuckles; they need to activate and energize the base; they need to stop fearing mythical “centrist” voters and start fighting back. They need to get on the offensive and knock the Republicans off their game.

If anything symbolizes the weakness of the Dems, it was Al Gore conceding to George W. Bush and not developing a counter-narrative to the Roger Stone “Brooks Brothers Riot” stop the recount, and that Gore and Lieberman are trying to steal the election meme. Stacey Abrams is a role model in that she still has not conceded the 2018 Georgia governorship to Brian Kemp because he “won” through massive voter purging and suppression. Lesson learned: do not concede to criminal behavior. The massive fraudulent voting activity is all Republican, with hundreds of thousands of purged and suppressed votes, maybe millions in a national election.

We, those of us who are not white Christian Republicans, are the majority in America, and yet Donald Trump is our Saddam Hussein. If the Democrats can’t liberate us, who can? It’s time for Democratic leaders to speak softly and carry a big stick. It’s time to “virtually” cap some Republican knees.

Trump has broken through nearly every guard rail of three co-equal branches of government, conducting himself lawlessly with rampant and unchecked corruption. He is also responsible for tens of thousands of deaths for which he and Mike Pence should face a tribunal. He represents a minority of Americans, by millions of people.

The time to fire up the outrage is now. The time to start swinging the metaphorical truncheons is now. The time to push back on the media’s transmission of Trump’s disinformation and threats is now. Having principles doesn’t mean you have to be weak.

Obama should have never allowed Garland to hang in the wind because of McConnell. He should have taken the injustice to the American people. The Senate Dems should have started going on strike. And if it takes digging up dirt on GOP leaders and highly tarnishable Republican thugs like Jim Jordan, now is the time to do it.

Moscow Mitch should fear Dems, not regard them as flies he can swat away. No country is going to rid us of our Saddam Hussein, so it’s time to “rise up,” as the refrain in the Democratic National Convention urged.

”Rise up.”

There will be no savior. It’s in our hands.

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