We vote. Sometimes we vote for a face, sometimes we vote for a principal, sometimes we vote for a particular plan or message, And sometimes we vote simply because our family has always voted. So we line up in a smelly high school gym, make a bunch of “X” marks, or punch a bunch of holes. And then we drive back home with our little ticker, and we go back to sleep for the next two to four years.
That’s the way it’s always been, and that’s the way it’ll a;ways be, right Right Except maybe not, at least on the Democratic side. There was something about that moment, that moment at noon on January 20th, 2017, when we watched that insufferable pig place his hand on the Lincoln bible, and vow to spend the next four years throwing us all under the bus for his own personal pleasure and profit that ignited something. What it ignited was a national outrage, including outrage in some people whose very inattention and inactivity made that moment possible in the first place. And contrary to popular belief, it did not diminish over time, instead it grew.
And it came to light in its full, phoenix rising from the ashes glory in 2018, The Democrats pulverized the Republicans at the polls. They rode a big, blue tsunami to form control of the House. They did it by campaigning on “kitchen table issues,” and by the GOP’s total lack of awareness of them. They ran on infrastructure, pay and social equality, better schools, better jobs, lower healthcare costs. And people showed up at the polls in droves. With few exceptions, Democratic candidates avoided Trump like the kid in school with the cooties. But it didn’t matter, because another whole wave of voters showed up with one very simple issue on their minds, “Put that day-glo fucker on a choker chain!”
And they don’t get that. Not at the DNC, and not in the leadership ranks of the Democrats in congress. They’re al running around doing their end zone dances, high fiving and slapping themselves and each other on the backs about how masterfully they managed the issues in the last election. But they seem blissfully ignorant of the fact that a sizable portion of the curl that they ran the pipe in to shore was not an issue that they brought up and campaigned on. And those people voted on the premise of checking the profligate excesses of The Great Pumpkin and his criminal family.
And it’s not like people aren’t telling them. Nancy Pelosi just got heckled in her own backyard. Tom Steyer is spending millions to blanket the airwaves with boasts about the millions of signatures on his online petition, and to demand that congress, not just the Democrat, but congress, do its job. Incumbent after incumbent reports that while the word impeachment was seldom mentioned during the 2018 campaign, it is now on the lips of the majority of constituents who contact them. And Rob Reiner, Robert DeNiro, and other Hollywood glitterati are preparing to take to the airwaves as well, not only to pressure, but to educate. When Justin fucking Amash is the moral voice of your party, you’re in deep kim-chi.
There is going to be an impeachment inquiry, simply because, Robert Mueller. When Robert Mueller made his center stage, blinding spotlight hand off to congress to solve the problem, it could be easily ignored and glossed over for the reason that so few people took the considerable time to read the damn report! But when Mueller stood in front of those cameras, with his steely countenance and his calm, dispassionate voice, and spoke the words, and they got blanket coverage for the next 48 hours, people finally got the point.
And that’s the entire point of the impeachment inquiry. James Comey didn’t command the attention he did because he was the latest heartthrob, announcing he was gay, he commanded that attention because there was no choice! He was on every news channel from gavel to gavel. Dear God, bars even opened early to hold “watch parties.” The owners of those establishments knew the full power of television. And so does Trump, which is why he wants impeachment hearings the way you or I want a cancer diagnosis. Because he better than most understands fully the power of television, it put him in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. People could avoid the William Barr or Michael Cohen hearings pretty much by simply avoiding CNN and MSNBC. But an impeachment inquiry hearing will be covered by all major networks as a public service requirement. Your democracy at work, that kind of thing.
The Democrats have one simple job to do first, and it isn’t dumblegutzing around trying to delay the inevitable. For one in their lives, they need to win a messaging war. They must come out first, and pound it home like a ten penny nail that they are not impeaching the president. they are investigating whether or not there is just cause to impeach the president. This serves three useful purposes. First, it saves time, since they’ll be asking exactly the same questions that they’d ask at a committee “hearing’ that nobody will watch. , Jut think of the woman in the Amash town hall who was stunned to learn that there was anything negative about Trump in the Mueller report because nobody on conservative news said anything about it. Second, people will watch, whether they want to or not, because it will be all that is on. And third, it will solidify the activist wing of the Democratic base, which will be pleased to finally see the train pulling away from the station.
The best reason I’ve heard so far for not impeaching Trump is that impeachment hearings will only rile up Trump’s base. I’ll say the same thing now that I’ve been saying for the last 2 ½ years. Fuck Trump’s base! Those idjits are like electrical wire at a hardware store, they came pre spooled. They weren’t enough to win the popular vote, he slid in because of 77,000 twits in 3 states who felt that a delusional septuagenarian reality star was better than a qualified candidate with the last name of Clinton. Oh yeah, and bout 5 million morons who thought that stroking Gary Johnson’s ego was more valuable than the safety and security of the country. Dear Lord, Trump did everything but print his name on the 2018 ballot running unopposed to get his base to show up, and the GOP lost nationwide by more than double what Trump lost by in 2016! How much longer are we going to continue to assign superhuman powers to these 98 b weaklings?
The d days are gone. The days of invincibility due to name recognition and seniority are over. Just ask Joe Crowley about that, or even Eric Cantor. The face of the “base” has changed, and this fresh crop of incumbents know that. The activist base of the Democratic party may not be the majority yet, but they are the ones motivated enough to show and vote in the primaries. And if Nancy Pelosi does’t want a laid back, California version of AOC staring across a debate stage at her early next year, along with the rest of the senior Democratic leadership, it would be better if they learned that lesson sooner rather than later. The sands of appealing to the base are shifting, an d if they’re all not careful, they’ll get swallowed up.
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“The Democrats have one simple job to do first, and it isn’t dumblegutzing around trying to delay the inevitable. For one in their lives, they need to win a messaging war. They must come out first, and pound it home like a ten penny nail that they are not impeaching the president. they are investigating whether or not there is just cause to impeach the president.”
Right.
Because, heavens know, the Democrats will be able to get that message out in the media, just as they’ve done so successfully in the past 30 years.
Seriously, Murf, exactly WHERE can the Dems “win a messaging war” when the “liberal media” have effectively chosen to give 90% of the airwaves to pushing the GOP’s message on everything? The Sunday morning talk shows (and not just on Fox “News”) have been dominated by GOPers and I don’t recall the last time the network news shows have actually challenged the Trump spin.
For once they ALL need to push the same damn message, every damn time a camera and a microphone is pushed in front of the,…Get that out right off of the bat, and TEN go on to talk about what they ased you…
I think timing is important to starting hearings. Start and end too early and by the time the elections come around, people will have forgotten what they heard as they move on to the next thing and the next thing, plus the short memory problem Americans seem to be afflicted with. I hope in the meantime that Dems are in the planning stages, plotting out how the hearings are going to go, who the cast of characters are. There’s so much criminal activity to cover. I sometimes watch Rachael at 6pm and 9pm both because there’s just too much to assimilate with one viewing.
My point is: before hearings are announced, there needs to be preparation and I sincerely hope we started that phase if not after the 2018 elections, then at least after the Mueller report. I agree that Dems need to push harder on their messaging, but the mealy-mouthed media also needs pushing to get the message out. I refuse to watch the Sunday morning shows. It’s bad enough watching Brian William’s show during the weeknights.
Go look up the Watergate hearings. They ran for months in 1973 and 1974.
We can only hope that the curators of the Lincoln Bible thoroughly decontaminated and sanitized it following the fake inauguration!