I’m not posting as much as I used to because I find that every time I sit down to write, I am too angry to create coherent sentences, let alone coherent arguments.
Forty years of morally bankrupt “conservatism” has brought America to the brink of disaster. We spent four years with a disgraceful joke of a “president” who had no more idea of what government is for than a mosquito. And at the end of his term, he and a large cadre of Republican evildoers mounted a coup—which, thankfully, failed.
And yet here we are with pretty much the entire Republican party still pretending that nothing happened, hoping that Americans will be too stupid to catch on to their very last con (because if it succeeds, there won’t be any more free elections) and that they will sweep back into power in November. And all the signs are that twisted Republicans, checked-out independents, and naive, adolescent, politically naive liberals will buy the con.
Decent America should be as infuriated as I am. And yet there seems to be no groundswell of political anger. Can it be that even Decent Americans are more concerned with their day-to-day problems than with saving democracy? Are they really more concerned with pocketbook issues than with the survival of the democratic institutions that make it possible to have a pocketbook?
I know what is wrong with Scum America. “Conservatism” has rotted the brains and the characters of everyone who is attracted to it. Even so-called “decent Republicans” (among whom are “never-Trumpers,” some of whom have left the party) are so addled they cannot see that the cornerstone “ideas” of “conservatism” are incompatible with democracy—and with decency itself.
But what is wrong with Decent America? Have “conservatives” been so successful at spreading the false gospel of self-interest, irresponsible “freedom,” hatred of the “other,” and fear, fear, fear that even Decent Americans don’t see that it’s all false?
All you need to do is look at a short list of things Decent Americans cannot have because Republicans are blocking all progress. Here are a few:
Common-sense laws to protect reproductive choice, including abortion, for women throughout the nation
Common-sense regulation of corporations so that they contribute to society rather than rip it off for maximum profits
Common-sense laws to restrain capitalism from abusing the fundamental injustice at its core—capital’s use of economic force against labor
Common-sense energy regulations to get us off carbon-based fuels immediately so that we don’t destroy all life on earth
Common-sense gun regulation so that we can force people to kill one another in ways that are more difficult than just pointing a nozzle and spraying death indiscriminately
Common-sense income equity so that no American has to starve or live on the streets
Common-sense health-care equity so that no American has to go without medical care or be bankrupted by getting medical care
Common-sense recognition of injustices inflicted by unscrupulous white people on minorities over the entire history of the nation
Common-sense laws to prevent unscrupulous white people from committing future injustices against minorities
Common-sense laws to protect affirmative action
Common-sense laws to rebuild and protect public education—and especially civic education—from the assault of self-interested “conservatives” and religious cranks
Common-sense laws to rebuild the wall between church and state—especially laws that clearly define the obligations of religious groups to the society which tolerates them
This list could be extended indefinitely. Everything on it is actively, dishonestly, demagogically, and even violently opposed by demented Republicans.
What is Decent America waiting for? The last knell has sounded. We now know that Republicans will do anything in order to get their way. They tried to destroy democracy violently on January 6. They are now trying to do it by taking over the election machinery in enough states to swing the electoral college illegally.
If Decent America does not put all its efforts into pouring out this November and utterly swamping Republicans everywhere in the country, there will no longer be a democracy in this country. All the things on the list, together with the economic, physical, psychological, and spiritual welfare of the American people will evaporate in an instant. A degenerate “conservative” dystopia will spring up in short order—and the American people will no longer have a say in any of its dictates.
And yet we watch the train running full steam into the mountainside.
Decent America: you can make the train stop. Get angrier than you have ever been before—angrier than you were you were when you poured out for the Women’s Marches after Trump’s inauguration, and angrier than you were at Trump’s Muslim ban, and angrier than you were when Republicans led the cause to rip babies away from their parents at the southern border—and vote like your life depends on it.
Because quite literally it does.