Good morning. This is not going to be uplifting.
Let’s briefly review the circumstances.
- The January 6 commission, along with several other investigations, have turned up abundant evidence of the Trump Administration’s intentions, plans, and efforts to overturn a fair election and usurp power. We have conclusive evidence of conspiracy and collusion by prominent journalists, elected officials, law enforcement, legal professionals, and members of the military.
- Despite mountains of gaslighting and claims to the contrary, it remains documented fact that the Republican Party colluded with a hostile foreign government to gain advantage in the 2016 Election. The depths of this collusion, and the identities of all involved parties remain unknown.
- Across the country, Republican-controlled state legislatures have worked to gerrymander districts, disenfranchise voters, and install Republican sycophants in key offices where they can overturn the will of voters and usurp power for their minority party.
- While Republicans enjoy unchecked control of electoral maps in states like Wisconsin and Florida, courts have overturned efforts in states like New York to offset Republican ratfuckery, because Republicans and Democrats aren’t subject to the same rulebook and never have been.
- Republican appointees in the federal judiciary and the Supreme Court are such abject partisans, they’ve flouted jurisprudence and legal interpretation to declare that the Centers for Disease Control don’t have the authority to control disease, and drafted a leaked ruling that would not only undermine a 50-year-old bedrock precedent, but burn it and dance on the ashes. The leaked draft would not only overturn Roe v Wade, it would lay the groundwork to turn the clock back 100 years on LGBTQ+ rights and racial equality.
Despite all this, the Democrats — who miraculously claimed a legislative trifecta in the 2020 Election — have done nothing to protect the right to vote, nothing to protect reproductive freedom, and almost nothing to hold insurrectionists responsible for an attempted coup. While the lowest-level minions are aggressively prosecuted, gullible rubes whose role was climbing barricades and illegally entering a federal building, the people in power are free to regroup and reinforce, like Russian military “withdrawing” from Ukraine.
Joe Biden’s election was a sound rejection of Donald Trump, and Biden took office with no greater charge than to stop the growing Republican insurrection. But with six months until the 2022 Election, his Attorney General has no apparent intention to prosecute insurrectionist leaders, despite mountains of evidence and open declarations that they intend to do it again.
It’s difficult to explain Democratic inaction. They appear to fear accusations of partisanship, which is bizarre when their opponents aggressively position themselves for one-party rule. Some statement suggest Democrats believe Republican gerrymandering will drive voter turnout and boost their fundraising, as if this were 2012, as if American democracy were not preserved two years ago by the actions of a handful of people, all of whom have now been removed from power and replaced by Republican co-conspirators.
Maybe they just don’t take it seriously. Loyalty to the ruling class has long been the dominant mode in Washington DC. Perhaps that blinds people like Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, and — especially — Manchin to the reality on the ground, that the GOP is no longer playing by the old rules. Their America disappeared the day a Black man was elected President, and if they cannot Make it Great Again, they would sooner burn the nation to the ground than accept defeat.
If our democracy were on the stock market, the smart money would be to short it. Put another way, if United States democracy is sitting at the blackjack table, the dealer is showing an ace and we’ve got a pair of eights.
