Long Nights in Loserville

“It was outside the realm of what happens, so incongruous and out of touch with the way things are meant to be in the world that people would deny and dismiss and discount anything you said because it didn’t fit with normality.” Tom Burgis, Kleptopia: How Dirty Money is Conquering the World

The White House must resemble a funeral parlor these days. Rank and file staffers tiptoe in the corridors, deathly afraid of causing any commotion that might further upset the Big Baby in the Oval Office. Trump has finally stopped throwing himself on the carpet and screaming “Fraud” at the top of his lungs, but he continues to hurl Big Mac’s and French fries from his gilded high-chair. The defeated Orange Menace has kept a low profile of late, with few public appearances, but he’s as active on Twitter as ever, and his camp is working the grift as hard as they can, hectoring supporters for contributions to fight the fraud and thwart the steal. Most of the money raised will go to retiring the campaign’s debts rather than fund doomed-to-fail legal challenges.

Even though the GOP is utterly Trump’s party, he lost while most Republican candidates fared just fine. That must really gall Trump. It’s a flashing example of how much he is disliked by the majority of American voters. But, and this is a question the Democrats need to answer, what do the results in House and Senate races say about the Democratic Party?  

I’m pretty certain that a Biden administration will not spend much time, if any, probing the many misdeeds committed by Trump and his gang of miscreants. Like Obama before him, who declined to go after the criminal bankers who caused the Great Recession, or George W. Bush administration officials who sanctioned torture in the failed War on Terror, it’s not in Biden’s nature. He’ll call America to turn from the past toward the future, and in so doing perpetuate the gangrene that afflicts the American political and economic system: lack of accountability. In case you haven’t noticed, accountability and punishment in America is reserved for the masses, not the elites. The masses are lucky if they get three strikes before the heavy hand of the law lands on them, and far too many people are put away for a single mistake. Trump deserves to swing for all the damage he has inflicted on our fragile democracy, our standing in the world, the environment, government agencies, the federal courts and race relations. And for playing deadly politics with the Covid pandemic, deceiving the American people about the seriousness of the Coronavirus for months on end. Mocking people for wearing masks. Calling it a hoax. Blaming the Chinese.  But it’s not only Trump. His many enablers deserve punishment, too, starting with Chief Ratfucker, Mitch McConnell. Measure orange jumpsuits for Lindsey Graham, Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, Doug Collins, Kevin McCarthy, Kelly Loeffler, Louis Dejoy, and Stephen Miller. (Add one of those masks like Hannibal Lecter wore in Silence of the Lambs for Miller. He’s a creepy fucker.) The lot should be chained together and marched down Pennsylvania Avenue. 

I’m not holding my breath. 

The Cult of Trump may wither for lack of oxygen once the Orange Menace leaves the big stage, but it won’t disappear entirely because the conditions that gave rise to Donald Trump are still present. Cancerous cells don’t disappear of their own accord. The collective anger Trump tapped into in 2016, and spent the last four year stoking, won’t vanish. Millions of Americans are angry, frustrated, scared to death of the future and on the lookout for someone or something to blame. That impulse isn’t going away; it will continue to simmer. The Proud Boys and other groups of that malignant ilk, have enjoyed their fifteen minutes of fame and notoriety, dressing up in their camo gear, lacing up their boots, and dreaming of a country free of people of color.  In their twisted view it can all be made the way it never was -- a white man’s Garden of Eden. They seem to believe that we can return to the time when women stayed in the kitchen and Negroes and Mexicans knew their place, go back to the days when this was a Christian nation, ruled by the good book. Sorry, boys, you cannot unwind the clock. The world’s changed, the colonies look different now, America has competition, our country is already a rainbow, but you refuse to accept it. It messes up your story of victimhood at the hands of women, minorities, and Chinese factory workers. 

I saw a report recently that said that the pandemic has been a boon for billionaires. Since the start of the pandemic, America’s oligarchs have made money hand over fist while millions of working people have struggled to make the rent, buy food, and pay medical expenses. In times good or bad, the wealthy make out fine, but what’s happening now is madness. It’s painfully clear that the economy is completely rigged in favor of the wealthy. Working people are playing with a two-headed coin. The only way the masses win is if the coin lands on its edge, and how often does that happen? It took nearly half a century for the nation to get to this level of wealth inequality. It took gutting the New Deal, easing regulations on big business and putting a boot on the throat of organized labor; it took a reinterpretation of antitrust laws that allowed monopolies to form; it took numerous Supreme Court rulings that benefitted business and weakened the rights of workers, voters, and consumers; and it took massive tax cuts for corporations and the rich. Ever since Richard Nixon loaded the Supreme Court with business-friendly, conservative justices, working people and consumers have lost ground. 

The anger millions of Americans feel, and that Donald Trump skillfully harnessed against illegal immigrants, NAFTA, liberals, and China, is misdirected. That’s not what did us in; the style of capitalism we play is the culprit. Winner-Take-All. Too Big to Fail. No Monopoly Too Powerful. The Wall Street money guys, with help from Democrats and Republicans, killed the American Dream. 

 

A Recipe for Discontent

“A terrifying number of Americans would prefer to see their republic wither than have to share it with Others.” Anand Giridharadas

As I write this, Joe Biden has amassed 253 electoral college votes to Trump’s 213. Biden’s path to victory is wider than Trump’s. Key states are still undecided, among them Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina. 

As I predicted a week or so ago that he would, Trump tried to declare victory prematurely. 

Right on cue, Trump’s campaign issued its first legal challenge, in Michigan. More will follow. That’s how Trump plays. 

November 4 was a somber day for me, a tremendous letdown, and a learning experience about election polling that I won’t forget. As was true in 2016, polls this year painted a picture of election day that didn’t materialize. The Blue Wave of 2020 petered out far from shore. The men and women behind the Lincoln Project are experienced, bright, full of purpose, and I relied on their prognostications, but even they read it wrong. Democrats will not take control of the Senate, meaning at least two more years of Mitch McConnell with the gate key in his blackened hand, smirking with delight every time he blocks, impedes, or undermines a Biden legislative proposal. Nor did the Dems fare well in the House, they will have the majority, but there was no expansion. Divided government. Divided nation. In a time of crisis. That’s a recipe for suffering and even deeper discontent.  

Trump can pretend all he wants that the pandemic has disappeared, but the pandemic won’t forget him, and history, I hope, will not forgive him. Because this man deserves to pay a price for his arrogance and stupidity. 

I said it months ago: to avoid a divisive fight about legitimacy, the Democrats had to win overwhelmingly, take the White House, the Senate, expand their majority in the House, pick up some governorships, and do well down the ballot. It didn’t happen. 

The Dems left their best attacking players -- Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, AOC, Sherrod Brown -- on the bench and went with Joe Biden, the safe choice of the party bigwigs, insuring a campaign that lacked vision and a message with the emotional power to make people dream of a better country.  A vote for Biden was a vote for a known quantity, something to grab hold of as we plunge toward the abyss, something to slow our fall and offer a chance to regain our balance. 

Our American Dreams are nightmares now. Lines are drawn, sides and colors chosen, walls built. 

Never again can the United States lecture another nation about “democracy” and “free and fair” elections. Our voting systems are a travesty. The GOP has made a science of voter suppression and disenfranchisement. 

I can’t believe 60 million of my fellow Americans voted to keep Donald Trump in the White House. I honestly don’t understand what they see when they look at him, listen to him, watch him on TV. I want to understand, but I find it very difficult. A day or two after the 2016 election, still reeling, in shock, I wrote on this blog that Trump and his cronies would do serious damage to our country, its vital institutions, the rule of law; they have succeeded. Trump hasn’t single-handedly shoved our country into the shadows -- he had help from the GOP -- but he bears a ton of responsibility. Trump can pretend all he wants that the pandemic has disappeared, but the pandemic won’t forget him, and history, I hope, will not forgive him. Because this man deserves to pay a price for his arrogance and stupidity. More than 220,000 dead Americans, some due to Trump’s bungled response to Covid, his lying about it, downplaying the severity of it, his war against masks and expert opinion, on science and knowledge. Four years of corruption and lying. Trump pulled down his trousers and pissed on the Constitution, the American flag, and Abe Lincoln’s boots. 

Millions of Americans could care less, they voted for him and his GOP enablers; they voted for an incompetent authoritarian; they voted for a grifter; they voted for magical thinking and make-believe. The election reveals who we are and the depths of depravity many millions of us are willing to tolerate. 

Sad and somber. We may as well lower the flag to half mast, and leave it there. 

Are You Ready for Minority Rule?

 “Things are always changing. This is just one of the big jumps instead of the little step-by-step changes that are easier to take. People have changed the climate of the world. Now they’re waiting for the old days to come back.” Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower

It was cold in the apartment this morning. I started the coffee brewing and donned my heavy Chelsea Football Club sweatshirt. Although I didn’t want to, I looked at the news; it confirmed what I knew -- the GOP had succeeded in ramming Amy Coney Barrett down our throats eight days before the presidential election. 

Mitch McConnell achieved his dream of cementing minority rule, and said as much on the floor of the Senate. The cynical, corrupt man from Kentucky held the power, and he used it with ruthless efficiency. I wondered what might have happened if the tables had been reversed and the Democrats held a majority and tried to seat a moderate associate justice at warp speed. Would the Dems have trampled Senate rules, procedures and norms? I doubt it. They don’t have the killer instinct or sufficient disregard for the institution. For far too many years, the Dems believed they could deal with the GOP on level terms, as if both sides play by a common set of rules. They don’t. It was this naivete on the part of Barack Obama that drove me crazy during his first term. No matter how many times Republicans dissed him, Obama kept trying to find common ground. Obama wanted to make policy, the GOP only wanted to expand its power. Even if the GOP had been a minority party, I think McConnell would have found a way to block the Democrats from rushing to confirm a justice. Appeals to rules and fairness work on Democrats, but bounce off Republicans like BB’s off armor plating. 

I don’t know what will happen on November 3rd and in the weeks after. I’m not confident that Biden will win, despite early indications that the turnout will be record-setting. What I imagine, though, is that regardless of the results, Trump will preemptively claim victory, either on election night or the next day, and FOX News and Breitbart and all the other Trump mouthpieces will amplify his claim. Trump will blitz the public with tales of massive fraud, cheating, and fake absentee ballots. Lawsuits will follow in all the states where the vote tally is close. Trump might hold rallies in those states, and encourage his supporters to demand a halt to the count by marching on election offices in a sea of MAGA red. After living through the 2000 election, it’s not a stretch to imagine the final outcome being decided in Trump’s favor by a hyper-partisan Supreme Court. 

And then what? 

For many years the Dems believed they could deal with the GOP on level terms, as if both sides play by a common set of rules. 

Even if Biden prevails -- and let’s hope he does -- Trump will have more than two months to plant boobytraps, string Claymore mines, and retaliate against his perceived enemies. That’s a long interregnum, particularly with Covid-19 resurgent in many states. Trump & Company have surrendered to the pandemic, raised the white flag, folded the tents and let the horses and mules run loose. Damn the needs of the people, let them fend for themselves. The coming winter looks long and dark. Despair lives next door. In less than four years, Donald J. Trump has driven a wedge between millions of Americans. His talk of red and blue states, his sowing of mistrust in public health experts, and in simple measures like wearing a face covering; his constant lying about the severity of Covid-19, which he knew about in February; his demands for loyalty over competence; his grift and self-dealing; his cruelty and stupidity. The man is a reckless and destructive sociopath, and we are not free of his evil stench, not by a long shot. Trump may lose at the polls in a margin too big to steal, as legal analyst Glenn Kirschner puts it, but we shouldn’t for a moment think Trump will leave the national stage. His cult followers, the people who wear the red hats and can’t get enough of his act, will still believe in him, listen to him. If Trump calls them to Mar-A-Lago, they will go. If Trump tells them to march into the Gulf of Mexico, they will, like lemmings off a cliff. 

Tell me, please, what happened to America? 

In a week at least the fund-raising text messages and emails that daily barrage my phone will end. I remind myself that the antidote to despair is to focus on what is within my control. The present is a soap bubble. The old days aren’t returning. Octavia Butler is right -- things are always changing. 

Mitch's Fever Dream

 

“Free black people were forbidden to carry firearms, testify against a white person, or raise a hand against one even in self-defense.” Isabel Wilkerson, Caste

When I heard the news that Ruth Bader Ginsburg had passed away, I knew that Mitch McConnell would immediately start the wheels in motion to get another Federalist Society-approved judge on the Supreme Court. McConnell is about one thing and one only: power. He could care less if people call him a hypocrite, partisan, immoral, unethical, or Trump’s lackey -- none of it matters as long as McConnell can pack the federal courts with enough ideologues to sustain minority rule for the next generation. That’s McConnell’s fever dream, and he’s very close to making it a reality. Every gain won by Women and minorities, gays and lesbians and transgender folks, every protection for the environment, voting rights, gun control, the Affordable Care Act, all, and more, will be in peril if McConnell succeeds. At this point, I see no way to stop him.  

American conservatives have been gunning to overturn Roe vs. Wade for decades. A small minority of people, most of them white men, will decide what a woman can do with her body for years to come. This small minority will make that decision for white women and black women, Asian women and Latinx women, rich and poor, rural and urban, devout and agnostic, my own daughter included. This small minority believes it has the right to exercise control over female reproductive power.

From the beginning, American democracy has been more myth than reality, a structure designed to be ruled by a white minority, an elite. Non-whites, led and schooled by the intrepid example and courage of African-Americans, particularly women, immigrant workers of both sexes, labor unions, struggled mightily for decades to gain room to stand and grow. They made some gains, but have spent the past forty years on a losing streak. The world changed. The economy changed. The compact between workers and employers, between banks and borrowers, between Made in America and Made in Cheaptown, Wherever, was deliberately severed. 

Every gain won by Women and minorities, gays and lesbians and transgender folks, every protection for the environment, voting rights, gun control, the Affordable Care Act, all, and more, will be in peril if McConnell succeeds. At this point, I see no way to stop him.  

The American Dream died years ago; we live in the American nightmare. 

But maybe the biggest change, the scariest change for white people -- especially white men -- is demographic change; the day when white people will be a numerical minority in this land is coming as inexorably as the death of Roe vs. Wade is coming. I think this demographic reality is what drives Mitch McConnell. A minority that controls the economy, banks, the courts, elections, and key levers of government, including the national security apparatus, can rule a majority. McConnell aims to lock minority rule in place.

Locking minority rule down tight is also why the Commerce Department is trying to monkeywrench the US census. Don’t like the direction the count is moving? Lop a month off the data collection deadline. Undercount the undesirables. 

When it comes to race, I’m not sure McConnell can stand in the Racist Hall of Fame with Strom Thurmond, George Wallace, Theodore Bilbo, Bob Jones, and Bull Connor. Maybe he can. What I am willing to wager is that McConnell holds fast to the belief that white people are inherently superior to black and brown people and deserve to rule. McConnell’s racism might be as deep-seated as Trump’s, but better disciplined. I bet bourbon is flowing in the Hall tonight as Strom and George and Theodore and Bob and Bull toast the outcome of the grand jury investigation of Breonna Taylor’s murder at the hands of police, in her own home, her own bed. No murder charges were returned. People waited many months for justice to be served, marched, chanted, rallied on social media, posted signs, but as has happened in other places at other times, Breonna Taylor is dead and no one will be held to account. 

Trump may hope the situation in Louisville spins out of control so he and William Barr can send the shock troops in to restore law and order, protect property, and keep the rabble in their subordinate place. Trump will dig the optics as they say, betting that scenes of police brutality will burnish his image as a tough guy, and frighten white people sufficiently to peel some support from Joe Biden.  

I steer clear of polls, prognostications, and predictions. Turnout is all that matters. It must be overwhelming for us to have any chance of dislodging Trump. He’s already pissed in the pool, called the outcome into doubt, instilled the idea in his rabid base that the election is only free and fair if he wins. The Electoral College may tip the balance in Trump’s favor, again, and there’s the possibility of the outcome being decided by the Supreme Court. The will of the people may be ignored again, unless the turnout is historic. If young people cast ballots instead of sitting on the sidelines, we have a chance. If African-American men turn out strong, we have a chance. If Latinx voters go for Biden in big numbers, we have a 50-50 chance. 

Why is justice so hard to come by for some? Why in America do we so often punish the victims? 

Back in 1997, the late Molly Ivins wrote, “There is so much anger out here. It is taking so many bizarre forms. And most of the media can’t even see it: Economic apartheid keeps the bottom half of society well hidden from the top half.” 

Oh, Ms. Molly, if you could see us now.