If you are actually someone (or thing) which reads what I write on this “blog” you must know in the title I point out I was a sixth grade teacher in the last third of my working life. I taught in a high poverty Middle School for around 23 years and I’ve been active on this site since around 2008 – although, my opinions on issues like the NEED to vote the republican party as it exists today (actually, it’s MUCH worse now than it was when I first began making that claim) into the HISTORY books. Of course, it appears there haven’t been enough people listening to me YET, because they keep pushing the party farther to the RIGHT every year – when it seems they couldn’t go any farther and have ANY chance for political viability it just keeps getting worse.
A while ago I wrote that the Supreme Court’s extreme agenda would motivate many democrats to actually vote this coming November and that the January 6th Select Committee in the House would also motivate people to vote AGAINST republicans. Well, I hope I’m correct, but we won’t know for about three months and, trust me, these republicans can cause a LOT of DAMAGE between now and then. Six years ago I started writing about the potential DAMAGE Donald Trump could cause for “we the people” and now, there’s a “wave” of republicans who are trying to out-Trump Trump on the chance they could replace him on the 2024 ballot. Circular firing squad? Whatever!
By November, both sides – those who oppose Trump and those in his cult – could be extremely motivated. Remember, in several states the legislatures have passed laws which actually allow them to overturn the results they don’t like. This makes this an “uphill climb” for democrats – who, by most prognosticators, will lose control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate. However, the issue of ABORTION has motivated WOMEN all across America to vote in November. On top of that, it appears more and more Americans are becoming aware our democratic republic is, in essence, on the ballot this November. Could things get a lot worse? Well, duh! If republicans take control of either House of Congress you can bet the next two years will be “Trump-like” painful. History tells us democrats will fail to vote in large numbers in November! Yikes!!!
The optimist in me continues to hope “history” is wrong and “we the people” will turn out in record numbers for a mid term election. The republican LURCH to the “right” has been widely referred to as “Trumpism,” but I believe this “lurch” began many years ago and Trump was just the perfect “vehicle” to pull America’s white nationalist core into the “mainstream” of republican politics. Trump is a pathological LIAR and, sadly, the REQUIREMENT for any politician wanting to be “electable” on the republican side of things is having a willingness to LIE! And, we’re talking about bold faced LYING. You watch these candidates LYING and you get the idea they’re ALL a bunch of pathalogical LIARS – if you’re not familiar with someone who LIES that often they actually begin to believe their own LIES are “true” as the words flow off their tongues. KellyAnne Conway coined the term “alternate facts” to rationalize what is happening.
I know MANY people in my peer group (Baby Boomers) who’ve been lifelong republicans and they reflexively vote for republicans. I was talking to one of them today, a retired dentist, and he said, simply put “I always vote for republicans.” I asked him if he was aware that one of the top republicans in the House has credibly been accused of “child sex trafficking.” He said, no! Who is it? I said, “Matt Gaetz.” He had no idea who Matt Gaetz is and said, “Well, he’s go to go!” I thought to myself “I need to invite him to lunch where we can have a discussion about what he’s actually voting for” – because, to a large degree, he has no idea. And, in our district, our representative, who voted to impeach Trump, Jaimie Herrerra Beutler, she was defeated in the primary by a Matt Gaetz wannabee – named Joe Kent. Our district, years ago, was gerrymandered into a reliable republican district and, undoubtedly, there are MANY republicans who will vote for Kent with no idea what he stands for.
Kent will fit in nicely with Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, Jim Jordan, Gaetz (until he’s FINALLY indicted – come on Mr. Garland, do your job!) Paul Gosar, and the rest of the white nationalist republican caucus. It really is deflating for someone like me to see this great nation beginning to rot at her core. I likened it to dry rot a few years ago – it starts in a small place and, if not radicated, it just continues to spread getting worse EVERY year. Depending on the vote in November, it could get to the point where it’s in danger of “rotting” our system of government to the point where it will be unrecognizable. The DANGER posed by this is aimed directly at women, members of the LBGTQ community, the “Black and Brown” community, and, sadly, the younger Americans who are recognizing in increasing numbers the perils of the Climate Crisis.
Make no mistake – republicans recognize – and have recognized for years – they represent a MINORITY of the voting public so they’ve been busy working on a scheme to gain MINORITY control of our system of government – and, as I’ve said MANY times here, their “thinkers” are so far ahead of the democrats it’s almost no contest. I’m not the only one who’s wondering how much the democratic leadership understands the challenge facing “we the people” in this coming election. It’s NOT “business as usual.” Republicans have clearly gained CONTROL of the courts and they’re busy working to pass voter suppression legislation in virtually EVERY “red” state in the country. Their plan is to “fool proof” their “grasp” of the Electoral College for upcoming presidential elections and they’ve already gerrymandered enough districts nation wide to require democrats to have MILLIONS more votes nationwide in Congressional elections to have any chance of controlling the House.
Remember, when we’re talking about the Senate, it’s even worse than the House. For example, there are around 40 MILLION people in California and they get two Senators. South Dakota and North Dakota have around a Million and a half people – COMBINED – and they get FOUR Senators – almost always guaranteed to be republicans. Wyoming has less population statewide than the city I live right across the Columbia River from, Portland, Oregon and they get two Senators. The republican Senate caucus – whether in the “majority’ or not – represents a significant minority of the American people – ALWAYS! This is why we’re always seeing issues where LARGE majorities of the American people FAVOR one side of the issue and the republicans in the Senate ALWAYS stand in the way.
That is, unless they can manage to “win” the “White House” along with controlling the House. Remember, the last two republicans who “won” the “White House” did so with a significantly fewer number of “popular votes.” Bush/Cheney in 2000 actually “won” the presidential election via a declaration by the Supreme Court – with a 5-4 republican makeup AND, of course, with a 5-4 decision along “party lines.” For some reason “we the people” simply accepted that result – KNOWING that had the court allowed the Florida recount to be completed Al Gore more than likely would have been president (and, of course, there would have been NO Iraq invaion – just sayin!) Trump LOST by 3 MILLION to Mrs. Clinton and over 7 MILLION to Joe Biden – and, of course, Trump and ALL his minions are still claiming the “election was rigged.”
Let’s be clear, the only way the 2020 election would have been “rigged” would have been had Trump actually managed to get more Electoral College Votes than Biden. Trump did everything in his power to remain in office – likely anticipating legal entanglements he was facing once clear of the OLC memo which protected him from indictment while he was in office. Trump is so “dirty” that NUMEROUS acts that SHOULD have fallen under criminal scrutiny have simply been “washed away” – because there’s seeminglly always a new accusation of illegal activity every week. Just when I was thinking Trump was about to be indicted for SEDITION regarding his actions around the INSURRECTION it appears he’s facing possible INDICTEMENT for violating the ESPIONAGE Act. Sedition, Espionage, hell, what’s next? Actually, the only way it could get worse for Trump is if he’s charged with TREASON!
And, the FBI simply doing a search based on a “probable cause” warrant has the Trumpisphere “sh@#ting nickels.” It’s as if the very SAME people who were chanting “Lock her up” at Hillary Clinton over the use of an email server in her residence believe Trump should be able to break ALL the laws he wants to. We’ve listened to republican “leaders” attempting to “whitewash” the January 6th INSURRECTION, for example, for almost two ;years now. In the immediate aftermath even republicans were lambasting Trump for the attack on the Capitol, but it took only a couple of weeks and all of a sudden the INSURRECTION was “legitimate political discourse” or it was “regular visitors to the Capitol simply taking pictures” – as if all of us who watched it unfold right in front of our eyes were seeing things which weren’t there?
Trump SHOULDN’T get a “pass” from all his LAWBREAKING simply because he WAS the president (the TWICE IMPEACHED so-called two time popular vote LOSING (ex) president) – he is now what you’d call a “citizen” – and, he’s subject to the same laws as the rest of us. There are close to 1000 “ditto heads” being prosecuted because Trump whipped them into a fury and then directed them to attack the Capitol and “fight like hell or you won’t have a country anymore.” And, Trump – of course – continues pushing his “Big Lie” to this day – and, demands the same of anyone else calling themself a republican and wants to be in office. What this tells me is there are a LOT of STUPID republicans out there to continue believing this nonsense. And, worse yet, they continue sending him money.
Occasionally the republican mailing lists find my name somewhere and I get one of their – in this case Trump’s – emails asking for (the last one) $45 – apparently because he was the 45th president (although the ONLY one IMPEACHED twice – maybe he should ask for $2). When you look carefully at the solicitation – which I did – having, of course, no intention of helping his grifting – you see that the emails are designed to suck you into recurring donations you won’t notice (unless you check your bank balances regularly) until you’ve “donated” way more than you intended. Fortunately, for me, my email “app” has a “junk” option and I can block any more of this “junk” from coming my way. Josh Hawley managed to get through the firewall the other day and his email showed him with his fist raised to the INSURRECTIONISTS (a couple hours before he was hightailing it to a secret place in the Capitol’s depths running from the MOB he had just saluted) apparently, he thought that picture would be enough to get me to donate to his grift as well!
The bottom line is this republican party is fully willing to resort to fascism (and, that’s NOT hyperbole) in order to gain and maintain POWER. They’ve succeeded in polluting the courts with Trump appointees (which, may ultimately be their undoing) and they are working on a scheme to ensure republicans win elections up and down the ballots – or else! As I said above, if those in charge of the legislature – in several states now – don’t like the results of an election, they can simply “undo” it. Especially, when it comes to presidential elections and the electors coming from that state. (More evidence the Electoral College is as outdated as the way we choose our Senators) Americans MUST understand that, if they don’t like the decisions coming from the Supreme Court, EVERY election for the forseeable future is critical – any time republicans control the Senate they are committed to blocking judges nominated by a democratic president or ramming through right wing idealogues should they also control the “White House.”
Final Thought: I’ve been over this NUMEROUS times in the past four or so years – NO ONE should be “above the law” if we are truly going to remain a “nation of laws and not men.” The idea being thrown around by Trump and his sycophants that should he be prosecuted – right now they’re referring to his VIOLATING the Presidential Records Act and possibly the Espionage Act along with OBSTRUCTING the investigation – they will sick their violent extremist mobs into/onto the “streets.” To that I say, “so be it.” To me, the sooner we get this over with the better. For heaven’s sake, it SHOULD be clear to anyone paying close attention to the EVIDENCE presented by the Select January 6th Committee that Trump is LIKELY guilty of SEDITION – maybe the Justice Department can combine the charges regarding his flagrant misuse of CLASSIFIED documents and his inciting the INSURRECTION. I’ve been saying for years, Trump belongs in the history books right next to Benedict Arnold!