Post-Election Blue And Post-Election Blues

First, an apology.  I had meant to post an election wrap-up piece days ago, but the wrap-up process, like everything else in Trumpland, is continuing to make a bad-faith effort to descend into chaos.  Nevertheless, at this point, there are obviously some big and important things that we know.  So, without further ado ... 

Roughly four years ago, I wrote and published this.  I have often wondered during the awful interval between then and now if I would have to write something similar in the wake of events on Election Day of this year.

Thankfully, the answer is no.  We will have a new President and Vice President as of January 20, 2021.  As a consequence, we've got at least a puncher's chance of returning to an acceptable level of sanity and legality in the executive branch of the federal government.  Equally important--and, in some ways, more so--the glass ceiling we all thought would be broken four years ago was, in fact, broken this time, and in spectacular fashion, with the election of a black, Asian, Indian woman (with a Jewish husband and a step-family) to the office that is the proverbial heartbeat away from the most powerful position on Earth.  Rejoice, progressives:  Kamala Harris will be a truly intersectional Vice President.  And she will be working closely with the most experience President ever to take the office, someone who understands that the job requires serving the people, and not himself.  On top of that, they will both be working with the first woman elected and re-elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, with a shot at legislation that would end the Trump pandemic and begin to advance progressive values.

Perhaps most importantly for the sake of democracy generally, turnout was epic, and the process itself was, despite legitimate and justifiable fears to the contrary, free of fraud and manipulation.  And, I might add, despite volumes of effort by Trump and his cronies, including firing the official who made the assessment of the election's integrity, to convince everyone otherwise.

That's a fair amount of good news, and I wanted to make sure that I began by recapping it as fully as possible.  And it's just as well.  Because there's still a more-than-fair amount of bad news as well.

Despite a strong class of candidates and an epic level of grass-roots fundraising, Democrats did not flip the Senate.  They did pick up two seats in Colorado and Arizona, but lost one in Alabama, and the balance of power in the chamber now rests with the run-off races for the two seats in Georgia, a state where run-off races have not been kind to Democrats.  They lost, as of this writing, a net of seven seats in the House, just barely clinging on to control.  Perhaps worst of all, and relative to the House races, they were unable to flip any state legislatures, which ensures that the 2020 redistricting process, like the 2010 process before it, will be abusively controlled by the Republicans.

Perhaps, for me personally, and for many others, the most revolting, mind-numbing fact is simply this one.  Joe Biden received the most votes of any presidential candidate in history, but Donald Trump received the second-most votes of any presidential candidate in history.  Yes, Biden had a decisive victory, but not the blowout that the polls showed he might have.  And the polls, which also seemed to guarantee the existence of a Democratic-controlled Senate next January, missed public opinion on that front by a large margin as well.

For me, for all of us, we have to face the future of American politics by confronting an ugly reality.  Despite epic levels of public corruption and threats to people of color, combined with a pandemic that has claimed nearly a quarter of a million lives, with no end in sight and the likelihood of an acceleration between now and Inauguration Day, more than 72 million Americans looked at the status quo, went to the polls, and said "steady as she goes."

It's a level of disconnect between reality and reaction that almost defies description as well as belief.

And so, as we the people pick up the cards that this election has dealt us, we need to wrap our hearts and minds around a few realities as well, if we are ever to get back to the point at which our politics actually reflects and responds to our desires and needs.

First, and to borrow a phrase I have heard and read many times, Donald Trump is not a disease, but a symptom.

It has been axiomatic for decades that turnout favored Democratic candidates, that Republican candidates did well when turnout was low.  Given the fact that the Democrats were successful in taking two of the three political levers of national power, and that there gains in the Senate, as of this point, are literally by a two-to-one margin, a case could be made that the epic turnout this year proved that point.  But the more significant point is this:  the gap between the Democrats and Republicans in gains is not nearly as close as previous high-turnout elections.  The presidential outcome this year illustrates this.  Biden was leading in the polls by 8 to 10 points but, as of this writing, it looks like he will win by somewhere between 3 to 4 points.

There is only one way of explaining this.  Trump has brought into the national electorate a large number of people who are extremely conservative, even delusionally so given that Trump is not really anything but a narcissist, who are now wedded to him personally and will do and vote for anyone and anything he endorses or otherwise supports.  These people had stayed home on election day in the past, because they were too far out on the fringe to be moved by conventional conservative appeals.  Trump came along and changed all of that.

This is a movement that, sadly, will almost certainly survive Trump's Presidency.  And so long as he is alive, and even if he is in prison (a topic for another day), they will act out any right-wing fantasy he promotes.  Indeed, the Trump movement seems likely to survive Trump himself; his children could and probably will easily find a way to transfer his popularity to themselves, and there is clearly a large raft of hangers-on in his Administration and in Congress who will try to do so themselves, even if that means trashing any reputation that they had before that.  I'm not alone in this view:  you can find it discussed in detail elsewhere on the Web (with three examples here, here and here).

And no one can afford to think that hiding from these people is any kind of a solution.  When they are confronted in any way, even an unintentional way, they are prone to using or threatening violence to acting out their political fantasies.  And this is true whether the people in question are private actors or public officials. 

This is the end result of a slow-burning fuse in our body politic that was lit many decades ago by Ronald Reagan, who declared his political opposition to be "so far left" it had "left America," and before him by Richard Nixon, who declared every Democrat a Communist if that Democrat stood in his path to power.  And, while Ronald Reagan lit the fuse of our self-destruction, the fuse was already there. Post-World War II prosperity help to turn us into a nation of lotus eaters, thinking that nothing, including mutual sacrifice for the common good, should stand in the way of our individual prosperity. I knew even then, as I know now, that we lost our appetite for doing big things, as well as our faith that we could accomplish them.  We lost them, or rather we forfeited them, because they got in the way of our personal comfort.

Too many Americans use what they see as the government's mistakes as an excuse for accepting anarchy, and otherwise see live as a zero-sum game in which only individual survival matters.  However, that government occasionally makes mistakes, and I concede that it does, is neither an excuse nor a justification for arbitrarily shackling its reach.  That’s why we have elections:  to tell government when it’s gone off track, not to permanently derail the train.  That latter desire comes from citizens who have essentially abandoned the responsibilities of citizenship, who think those responsibilities are a joke for suckers, and that the only purpose of life is to scratch your personal itch.  The millions of Americans who have suffered, sacrificed, and even died for the sake of this country would respectfully beg to differ.

It’s hard for me, after watching this nightmare play out over four decades, over almost my entire adult life, to escape the conclusion that, as a nation, we’re doomed.  At times, in fact, escaping it feels pretty much impossible.  But, as I noted in my last post, each of us owes a debt to the past and the future, And, regardless of how things look on the ground, I still intend to pay my share.

I'm hoping that my fellow Democrats and other progressives share that commitment.  At times, however, I have my doubts.  The failure of the Democratic Party to take a majority in the Senate, or flip state legislatures, combined with losses in its House majority, has already placed prominent party members in a familiar position in sifting through these failures:  that of a circular firing squad.

Was ticket-splitting an issue with regard to the Senate and statehouse races?  At least a possibility.  Biden was in a commanding position in the polls for several weeks before the election.  That might have lead some voters to think about choosing the outcome that they have chosen so often in national elections:  divided government.  Some of the movement in the Senate polls during the final pre-election weeks suggest that this might have been happening.  On the other hand, turnout on both sides of the party divide was off the charts, perhaps falling outside of the modeling of the pollsters.  And again, thanks to the Georgia outcome, a Democratic Congress is still not out of the question.

Was messaging a problem?  This is a perennial Democratic headache, reflecting the ying and the yang of the parties progressive and moderate wings.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the most prominent member of the former wing, thinks that the party's digital efforts to organize and motivate voters fell short because of the party's unwillingness to use the best digital companies due to their progressive connections.  Moderates, on the other hand, thought that rhetoric about "defunding the police" and a "Green New Deal" may have been a much bigger problem.  Which, in turn, leads to another perennial question: should Democrats try to be more moderate?

One is forced to wonder:  what does it even mean to be a moderate in this political climate?  Where is the middle ground between fighting climate change and denying that it exists?  Where is the middle ground between law enforcement reform and giving the police unquestioned support?  Where is the middle ground between the need in a pandemic to wear face masks in public, and pretending that the pandemic is a hoax?  AOC won a district and won it again that had been held by a powerful, high-ranking moderate, a man once viewed as a potential replacement for Pelosi.  She's made that point herself, in the wake of the election.

And progressive have a point when they say that, when people understand the details of progressive ideas and programs, the objections tend to fall away, leading both to enactment of progressive policies and election of progressive officials.  On the other hand, running away from ideas that are popular, far from being seen as a moderate course of action, is likely to be seen as a cowardly one that costs the support of voters who are essential to moving progressive ideals forward.  

The truth is that moderate Democrats are still Democrats, still concerned about the same issues that concern progressives, but needing the energy and creativity that progressives bring to the political process.  And, in the course of working together, progressives have a way of pushing moderates in a more progressive direction, and making them slightly more progressive while still allowing them room to reach out to more conservative voters.  The bottom line is that both sides need each other, and need to stop carping at each other while spending more time listening to and learning from each other.  That's what happened in this election, and it brought out a record number of voters that elected a Democratic Administration.  

And note that, in the process, moderate Democrats like Chuck Schumer have become less moderate in the process.  That's also true not only of Biden, but the American people as well.  Ten years ago, the ACA and the concept of a "public option" were viewed by Americans and the press as being somewhere to the left of Trotsky; now, both are considered mainstream political ideas, ones that Biden wholeheartedly supports.

And, even without the combination of a Democratic House and Senate, Biden will still be in a position to advance a lot of progressive values and translate those values into results.  It's too much to expect that his personality will lead to Lyndon Johnson levels of persuasion with respect to congressional Republicans, as some have suggested; Mitch McCONnell has proven time and again how resistant he and his Senate Republican colleagues are to such persuasion.  But, through various forms of executive action, Biden can and no doubt will be able to take a great number of highly consequential steps, especially with regard to the economy.

And, again, I cannot stress this enough:  thanks to the outcomes in the Georgia Senate races, we still have a shot at a unified Democratic government.  I encourage all of you, no matter how tapped out you feel financially at this point, to get involved in the two runoff races and make a contribution--hell, make as many contributions as you can--toward making that goal a reality.  If you need a guide to ways by which you can do that, take a look here.

I should add, however, that the situation in Georgia requires a cautionary note:  the Democratic victory there in the presidential election has already led to this.  Yet another reason to take state government, and state government elections more seriously.  To say absolutely nothing about this.

So, stay vigilant, everyone.  Stay strong.  Stay united.

At least for now, there's less reason to curse the darkness.  At least for now, we're still able to light candles, and light the way to a better future.

*************************************

This is the last post for TRH for November.  I'm going to be taking off the rest of the month to celebrate Thanksgiving, and to start getting ready for the holidays.  It's obviously going to be very different this year.  Thanksgiving will just be with my wife and sister-in-law, and Hanukkah will have to be observed not with my entire extended family physically present, but through phone calls and perhaps a Zoom meeting or two.  It's hard, eight months into the pandemic, not to feel a strong sense of isolation and limited mobility.  I know that's something we all wrestle with.  But everyone in my family (pu! pu! pu!) is healthy and safe.  Nothing is more important that that.  Nothing should be more important than that to any of us.  So, in addition to staying vigilant, strong, and united, please stay safe.  Better days are coming, and staying safe now will make those better days all the more rewarding.

"No Great Nation Is Ever Conquered Until It Has Destroyed Itself": Part 2

The quote with which this post is titled refers back to one of my last posts before the 2016 election.  It was, in brief, a warning against our even-then-obvious capacity for self-destruction at the hands of an unchecked Republican Party and its worst supporters.  Sadly, it has aged well.  Better, in fact, than even my worst fears at the time I wrote it.  I didn't have the pandemic on my radar back then.  But, given everything else, why should I be surprised about even that?

Obviously, this will be my last post before the election.  I've spent the last four years doing everything I can to make sure that this time, things will be different.  I voted via a paper ballot I delivered in person to my local board of elections.  I wrote to voters in Texas.  I've donated more money to candidates and get-out-the-vote organizations than I have done previously in my entire life.  And, of course, I've posted here, week after month after year.  And I've spent untold hours--more than I care to admit--on Twitter, and in front of MSNBC, sharing my thoughts and watching like-minded individuals doing all that they can do.

Will it make a difference?

If it's possible for sheer gumption and effort to make a difference, then, in any other election, my answer to that question would be an unqualified "Yes."

But I'm not so sure.

Part of that is the level of chicanery that is possible in a digital age from foreign actors, most notably Vladimir Putin (aka Donald Trump's best friend).  But part of it is the history of the nation itself, and, specifically, the unholy link between bigotry and money.  It was baked into our founding documents, it nearly tore the nation apart in the nineteenth century, it led to a profound turning point in our politics in the twentieth century, and now, it's tearing us apart again.  We have a constitution designed to protect property rights, often at the expense of human rights and, in this moment in America, that fact is being reasserted in our politics with a vengeance.

In fact, it's reasserting itself with a level of violence that can only be described as an inch or two below the level of open civil war.  Four years ago or more, a story like this one would have been a front-page, above-the-fold, banner-headline story.  Now, after four years of epic corruption that rises to the level of national tragedy, it's just another day that ends with the letter y.

At this point, the best thing I can do is pause, suggest you do the same, and ask you to take a time-out from reading this post, and spend several minutes carefully perusing this.  Trump's corruption has been so repeated in frequency, and so widespread in nature, that it's hard to wrap your mind around all of it, so as to be mindful of how urgent it is to remove him from power.  Thankfully, the Times is able to help with this.  For emphasis, I take this opportunity to stress two things:  as a capitalist, Trump is almost a parody of Soviet-style central planners, and, as a sword protector of our most basic rights, Trump sees people as things to be either manipulated or destroyed.

And his followers, inside and outside of the Republican Party, are no better.  If they lose Trump, they will immediately begin the search for a like-minded replacement.  And we have no guarantee that they won't find one.

A party that cares more about your right to own a gun and less about your right to vote is a party to be feared by every decent human being alive, anywhere.  It is a party that cares only about the next fifteen minutes.  It is not a party that cares about the future.

I care very much about the future.  I always have.  Given the fact that none of us live forever, and all of us depend upon the lives of those that came before us, we should all aim to contribute to the future. It's the best way to cherish the contributions of the past.

The past and the future are precious to me in a personal way.  Let me explain why:

This is the obituary of my uncle, who was killed in action in World War II.  Like thousands of other brave young men and women, he did not get to live the life that his sacrifices, and theirs, enabled the rest of us to live.  But that didn't diminish the value of the life he lived, and the death he suffered.  Both of those things, in different ways, are gifts to the rest of us.  They are not to be thrown away.  They are to be honored by doing everything we can in the process of selecting the next leaders of this nation.  And they would have hated to have a president who thought of them as "losers."

And then, there's this:

These are my granddaughters, one of whom was born with  a life-threatening pre-existing condition.  Thankfully, with the help of very brave, devoted parents, and the coverage made possible through the Affordable Care Act, she has made it (pu! pu! pu!) to the age of 8 and third grade.  Hopefully, she will be able to live a life and make her own contributions to the world that is fortunate to have her and her sister.  And the medical professionals who saved her, and who have saved thousands of lives throughout the horrors of this pandemic, are furious at Trump's suggestion that they have done what they've done for money.

We're not here on this earth for personal glory, folks.  We're here for each other.  As I've said before, we're runners in a relay race.  We get the baton of life and opportunity at birth, we run with it for as long as G-d gives us the grace to do so, and, hopefully, we hand it off to the future in as good, if not better, shape than it was when we received it.  L'dor v'dor.  From one generation to the next.  That's the only way a county like this one could come into being.  And it's the only way it can ever be bettered.

There is nothing to be gained by sitting this one out, folks.  Many of us might wish for a better choice of political parties than the one we currently have.  But we don't.  To my fellow progressives, and to everyone, I close here by say that civilization is built one brick at a time, one generation at a time.  And a civilization can destroy itself in many ways, but perhaps the worst one is by doing nothing, especially when it is actively being threatened from with in.  And it is.  The nation of E pluribus unum is now the nation of "GET OFF MY LAWN!"

So, progressives, please heed the advice given here.

And all of you, whether you're progressives or not:  this election may be your last chance to save the best of what we've been, and the best of what we can be.

Don't throw it away.

Donate.  Organize.  Write.  Get others to do all of these things.

And, above all, the day after tomorrow:

VOTE!