And the meek shall inherit the earth…After everybody else is dead of course
Hey everybody! It’s so nice to see you. And if you’re stopping in to read this, then you’re at least keeping up enough with current events to have an interest. I’ll Try not to disappoint.
The 2022 midterms are going to be an election like no other we have seen. In 2020, we barely survived a Trump inspired insurrection in January to overturn the results of the election, and make Trump Emperor. Even so, with the sting of that defeat, the GOP on the state levels are trying everything in their arsenal to ensure that in 2024, there will be no repeat. If a Democrat wins, the GOP states themselves will take matters in their own hands to ensure the proper result. Which literally makes 2022 Democracy’s Last Stand.
Our democracy is based on the two party system. Like most European democracies, the two main parties are the liberals and the conservatives. But unlike EU based parliamentary systems, the Democrats and the Republicans are the only ball game in town. And one of them has given up on democracy as a form of governance.
The GOP has given up on national governance as a successful strategy. They have instead fallen back on issues like racism, culture wars, and ridiculous grievance topics to motivate their base. Their sole goal is power, and to obstruct any Democratic attempt at actual governance.
Did you benefit from the additional $300 a week from the expanded unemployment benefits? Thanks to a Democrat. Do your children have more and better clothes and shoes now, and eat better thanks to the Child Tax Credit? Thank a Democrat. Did your small business manage to stay afloat to reopen after the lockdowns started to lift, thanks to the small business loans the government provided? Thank a Democrat.
The GOP uniformly opposed all of those and more, and instead of helping America to recover, they are instead working full blast to rig the state voting laws to allow them to override the popular vote. At the local level, they are trying like hell to change the way that history is being taught to keep America’s students from learning any uncomfortable truths about slavery or racism. They are laser focused on the maintenance and expanding of their power to rule in the minority.
Here’s the meat and potatoes. If you follow me, then you’ve heard this before, but it is central to this article. Regardless of what the year is, and which party is in power, when the generic popularity of congress is polled, the almost universal result from all voters is to Throw the bums out! Both parties. But when individual legislators are the subject, then almost universally the opinion is that their particular incumbent isn’t so bad. People hate congress, but not their own members.
But not now. Not this time. Because this time, democracy itself is on the ballot. And that is larger than the individual personalities involved. The Democrats are trying everything they can to govern to make like better for all Americans, Democratic as well as Republicans, while the GOP is totally consumed with consolidating power in the minority at all costs.
The old axiom is that All politics is local. Not this time. The stakes are too high. When you get ready to go to the polls in 2022, don’t look at the individual, look at what their party represents. Do you want a party that is fighting to legislate forward, and improve American life for all people? Or do you want a party obsessed with power that they are passing state laws that will invalidate your vote if it doesn’t go the way they want it to go.
Because that is what this all about, small d democracy vs authoritarianism. Listen to the arguments on each side. The Democrats will be presenting concrete plans and proposals, and the GOP Critical race Theory, commie Muppets, and white grievance. It is all about power and control.
Are you a Democrat who thinks that Biden isn’t liberal enough, or hasn’t gone far enough? Look at what the GOP alternative is and put on your big boy pants. An independent who thinks that the Democrats are too fractured to get things done? Look at what’s already been done, and think about how you’ll feel when your vote is worthless under the GOP. A soft GOP voter wishing for the days of his grandfathers GOP? Forget local candidates, and listen to the toxic swill that is coming out of the current GOP.
Make no mistake. This is ground zero. This is far beyond the popularity of any individual candidate, and instead on the struggle between the two parties for control of the country. If we fuck up 2022, it may take a generation or more to undo the damage, if it can be undone at all. It’s that simple. A functional Democratic democracy, or the Trump Nazi party. No margin for error.
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35
It’s the “micks shall inherit the earth” and I keep waiting.
Well said Murfster, without a law protecting our voting rights the American Nazis will soon be in power. Scary shit
I never wanted to live in interesting times, but here they are. I hope things are not as bad as you say, but strongly suspect they are. Good writing. Oh, George Orwell !
Excellent, Murph, just…the way we should all be looking at it. When you started with the “…all politics is local. This time it’s NOT”, I was thinking “huh???” But you are SO right. Right now it’s not, more than it’s ever been NOT. Great piece!
Just over a decade ago, we were largely in the same situation (except the GOP hadn’t gone completely batsh!t crazy–just on the road, there after succumbing to the radical TEAbagger movement) and there was a large group of Democrats who actively called for sitting out the midterms to punish Obama for not giving everyone their magic unicorns (mainly because he “caved in” to the insurance companies with the Affordable Care Act). Their whole premise was “Let the GOP take over and, within a decade, the people will rise up and vote in super-progressives who will usher in a Great Utopia.” Well, the GOP picked up SIX Senate seats (cutting the Democrats’ lead to just 6–including 2 independents who caucused with the Dems) and took over the House after picking up SIXTY-THREE seats (giving the GOP a very comfortable 24-seat margin of control). And, in both instances, the GOP actually won the majority of the votes: In the Senate races, the GOP got 34.6 million total votes compared to the Democrats’ 32.4 million; and in the House races, the GOP got 44.8 million total votes compared to the Democrats’ nearly 39 million. People so often talk about how the GOP win seats but don’t receive a majority of the votes but this was certainly not the case in 2010.
Democratic voters–far too often–just don’t get out to vote in every election while the GOP’s voters (and usually the most radical of the pack, at that) get out and vote in virtually every election. When the Presidency is at stake, we see Democrats get out; but when it’s “just” Congress–they don’t seem to care. We were warned in 2010 that the Supreme Court was at stake (even though it would be a full 6 years before that warning would really be fulfilled when one SCOTUS judge would die more than 9 months before the election but McConnell held up any nomination because “the next President should decide and the people should have some say” but, four years later, that precedent was meaningless when a SCOTUS judge died less than 2 months before the election and McConnell was all “We need to get another judge IMMEDIATELY”) but that was simply not enough for *our* voters. (We got very lucky with recent SCOTUS decisions which kept the electoral process operating in a democratic manner; that may not happen again if “our” voters don’t turn out and vote for whoever has that “D” beside their name.)
And we already know the GOP–especially at the state level (where elections are managed)–will do whatever they need to do in order to keep themselves in power. Whether we’re talking about gerrymandered districts or changing voting laws to make it tougher for Democratic voters (or voters perceived to be Dem-supportive–although Georgia’s absentee ballot law was changed a few years ago primarily to help elderly white voters, perceived to be pro-GOP, and that didn’t really do them much good in 2020), they’re going to make it tougher for Democrats to win elections–aside from districts designed to pack in as many (likely) Democratic voters or states where Democrats are pretty well-entrenched as it is. And with a Supreme Court packed as it is with GOP-backed judges, we’re not likely to see any end to partisan gerrymandering any time soon (thanks, especially, to Chief Justice Roberts).
Excellent article, Murph! I will share it widely.