"Surviving" vs. "Fighting Back"

Democracy is not a spectator sport: it requires engagement and ongoing action.

Like a lot of people, I’m tired: tired of the shameless self-dealing and open criminality; tired of a lapdog press that helps to normalize the absurdity as well as the atrocity; tired of policy changes that don’t last a day (50% tariff on EU imports! Just kidding! Made ya look!). Tired, in fact, of all the announcements and pronouncements of a hopelessly corrupt administration headed by a man whose only ambitions are to stay out of prison, and to keep the world’s spotlight on himself — not necessarily in that order.

The first time around, the press treated it like the joke it was — for a while. Sean Spicer proclaiming, idiotically, that the inaugural crowd was the “largest ever, period,” when it manifestly and demonstrably was not. Spicer’s successor in the zombie apocalypse sequel is Karoline Leavitt, who out-Spicers Spicer with her claims that this opaque White House is the “most transparent administration, ever.” The press reports the words but fails to follow up with the facts; this failure to call out every lie, great and small, doesn’t serve the public; it degrades the media’s (already low) reputation and trustworthiness; and it helps perpetuate the myth that politicians are “all the same” and therefore indistinguishable — that it doesn’t matter who sits in the Oval Office, or holds the majority in Congress.

I am tired too of a Democratic Party that begs me, every day, to contribute a few dollars so they can fight. Fight how? They don’t say, and they have — so far — shown far less inclination to fight than to fundraise. Once in a while they’ll posture; but the feel-good moment doesn’t last; the speeches do nothing to actually impede the wrecking ball aimed squarely at our democratic institutions and the things that not only make government work, but the very thing that government is for: to serve the people. All the people. Instead, our government has begun overtly serving only the very wealthiest at the expense of the entire nation. It’s a plutocrat’s dream, and it turns Lincoln’s indelible phrase on its head: government of the people, by the people, for the people does not actually serve the people, it serves those wealthy enough to buy “the people’s” representatives. It is the apotheosis of trickle-down economics, newly weaponized to ensure that those who have the wealth and power retain it.

All of this leaves us, the people, where? We are still the majority, in numbers if not in Congress; we are still endowed with inalienable rights, despite the efforts to restrict and deny them. We can speak out; we can organize at every level to eject the usurpers. We can, if we work together, level the playing field; we can recalibrate and reinforce our too-delicate institutions of democracy and government. It takes courage, and it takes hard work. And it takes much more than falling back on old habits and relying on a collegiality that no longer exists: Democrats, the Republicans do not want your help. They do not deserve your help. They should not, under any circumstances, get your help. That means not voting to raise the debt ceiling; it means not voting to confirm unqualified and objectionable nominees; it means not begging for scraps at the bargaining table on the false belief that something is better than nothing.

Republicans have excelled at winning elections; they are not actually prepared to govern a self-governing people: they prefer to rule. Democrats — and the People — will not win this fight and right the ship by clinging to notions of comity. And fight, everywhere and in every way possible. Someone said, “You’ve gotta fight fight fight, or you won’t have a country any more.” Ironically, he was right.