yustyoking

Dear America,

You choose. You can stymie the Biden administration, defeat the Build Back Better Act and see that the Democrats get nothing passed in the Senate in 2022. But if you do, Donald Trump will get elected president in 2024.

Believe me, it’s going to happen and you heard it here first.

You are so busy thumbing your nose at Biden, you may not realize that the alternative is El Trumpo.

Short of suffering a stroke, Trump is definitely running. His media empire has amassed a $100 million war chest to see that he wins. Being Trump, he’ll pussyfoot around right up until the last minute, but let’s not fool ourselves, the man is running at the head of the Republican ticket. The Republicans love Trump.

His running mate? I predict Josh Hawley. He and The Donald are cut from the same cloth, share the same pragmatic style and they both are very tall. American presidents are very tall, it has become a requirement in order to get elected.

It’s a dichotomy. Either you let the current administration have a bit of success or you re-elect a rule-breaking, authoritarian narcissist three years from now. At which point, you can kiss American democracy, in its current form, goodbye. You choose. There is no longer some magical middle road where you can both beat up the Bidens and avoid the Trumps.

“The Democrats are eunuchs! They get nothing done!” the Republican candidates will shout this November, with justification. And they will get elected, taking over both houses of Congress.

Joseph Biden has backed himself into a corner. An old-style politician, he seems unaware of politics in the age of the Internet. Rather than keep his mouth shut and get Congress to pass hundreds of line items in small bits of legislation, President Biden has unfurled a grandiose $1.4 trillion plan (down from an original $3.5 trillion) with a dumb title that plays on his name: B as in Biden. B as in Build Back Better. Talk about painting a bull’s eye on your back! Well, okay, FDR had his New Deal, Truman had his Marshall Plan, Kennedy had his New Frontier, LBJ had his Great Society.

Biden is competing with ghosts.

The Democrats ran on a lie in 2020, and I don’t mean any mythological conspiracy theories about voter fraud. The Democrats promised the voters that if the Democrats just won the White House and a majority in both houses of Congress, this country would finally get back to the basic business of governing, instead of building walls and spouting happy talk about hydroxychloroquine.

America came through: Joseph Biden was elected president. The House maintained a Democratic majority. The state of Georgia  elected two Democratic Senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, creating a 50-50 Senate with Vice President Harris supplying the tie-breaking vote.

Bravo!

It’s a year later and despite all the big plans during the campaign, the Biden people now blame their abject failure on the filibuster.

The filibuster! Stop the presses, it’s the filibuster!

So what is it, this lumbering monster, this fire-breathing Godzilla of the legislature? Originally, a filibuster was Cicero-style oratory carried out on the floor of the Senate, for hours at a time, to block a bill from ever reaching a vote. Nowadays, they don’t even bother making the speeches. Mitch McConnell merely threatens to filibuster and all non-budgetary legislation stops dead. As minority leader, Mitch McConnell rules the Senate. This is not the way it is supposed to be, but the majority leader, Chuck Schumer, does not lead. Reactive instead of proactive, Schumer gets a sour look on his face and makes pointed remarks. This is not leadership.

How do you beat the filibuster? It turns out all non-budgetary legislation requires a supermajority of 60 senators to get passed. This is called cloture and it shuts down a filibuster. However, when can you get 60 senators to agree on anything? I mean, now they tell us! Why didn’t the Democrats inform the American people about the filibuster and the supermajority during the 2020 campaign? Were they afraid the voters would throw in the towel and stay home?

The Senate filibuster was created in the 1800’s. It is not part of the Constitution. A simple “yea” vote of 50 senators plus Vice President Harris would send the filibuster to the scrap heap of history. Yet, like fretting Hamlets, the Democrats cannot bring themselves to forego their lamentations and actually take action, by dumping the filibuster once and for all.

There are a thousand reasons for maintaining the filibuster. There are only three reasons to dump it: Governance. Passing legislation. Accomplishing something.   

The Republicans, meanwhile, are busy lining up behind their Great Leader and kowtowing to the angriest rightwing elements of the electorate.

It’s not that the Republicans are so strong, it’s that the Democrats are so weak and divided.    

Incredibly, at the moment, Democratic Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona are blocking passage of the Build Back Better Act. Way to go, team! Now that’s what I call solidarity. Not.      

You choose, America. According to a Washington Post – University of Maryland poll, a third of the populace believes that violence against the federal government is justifiable. Never mind democracy or majority rule, fair play or good sportsmanship, Christian charity or the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

One out of three Americans don’t care about all that. They want to see their champion return to the White House. Even if it takes a putsch to do it. They are hell-bent on defending their freedom. Their freedom.

You choose, America. You can play politics, give the federal government the bird, spit on the Bidens and elect Trump in 2024. Or you can stake out a path of your own and surprise the world by abandoning fanciful conspiracy theories, acting like adults and voting for the Democrats.

Not because the Democrats are any damn good, but because they are the lesser of two evils.

Be careful and stay well.

Kevin