Republican Anti-Government “Policies” Have But One Possible Outcome: Rule by Mafias, Militias, and/or Megalomaniacal Billionaires
There’s a Reason that “Wild West” Towns Invented Sheriffs and Charged them with Establishing Law and Order!
What do the following Red-State-imposed actions and edicts have in common?
“Open Carry” and “Must Issue” laws;
Abortion bans policed by neighborhood vigilantes and “posses;”
Bans on freedom of movement on state roads and interstate travel in aid of someone seeking an abortion;
Criminal prosecutions of health care professionals doing their jobs;
Party-wide and lock-step perpetuation of a preposterous and dangerous stolen-election lie;
The censure and expulsion of State Representatives who openly support anti-gun advocates;
Passing of laws to enable Governors to dismiss state prosecutors unwilling to enforce unlawful and unconstitutional edicts;
Legislatures ignoring state and federal courts that disallow their extremely gerrymandered voting districts;
Governors ignoring and defying federal law by enticing unsuspecting immigrants to board busses that ship them unawares to various states;
A governor violating international law by building barriers in border waterways to deter unwanted and disfavored immigrants;
Governors and legislators enacting myriad laws to discourage, disenfranchise, and intimidate black and young voters;
Governors creating new police forces and powers to “police” supposed illegal voting that does not exist, designed to intimidate inexperienced voters;
Presidential candidates, Members of the US House of Representatives and Senate, Governors, and many others using lies and propaganda outlets to provoke intimidation, threats, and violence against elected officials, journalists, educators, whistle-blowers, and other “enemies” of the Big Lie of a stolen election and a partisan, deep state conspiracy to persecute and prosecute Donald Trump and his army of insurrectionists and insurrectionary co-conspirators;
Billionaire allies who acquire and control major media outlets the sole purpose of which is to spread and magnify populist “MAGA” outrage over imagined insults, transgressions, and injuries;
The deployment by Red-state governors of state law enforcement and National Guard to other Red-states for the purpose of enforcing and carrying-out patently illegal detentions and arrests of both suspected illegal immigrants and suspected American citizen allies of such suspected immigrants;
A US House of Representatives controlled by a Republican majority that has no positive, constructive agenda for our country, but instead is consumed with an agenda of theatrics and media-grabbing fake investigations and grandstanding designed only to undermine the idea of government and the legislative process, and thereby to block legislative activity that would improve the lives of Americans; and instead sow a self-fulfilling prophesy of chaos and violence;
Republican-packed state (and federal) courts ruling in favor of these and so many more lawless actions, thereby adding the imprimatur of state and constitutional law to all manner of illegalities;
And more.
So, what ties these all together?
It’s the perverse Trump/MAGA project of undermining faith in our government and the idea of law and common-sense civic norms of behavior which we all, as citizens of this nation, have been modeling and developing for generations, and must continue to develop, reform, improve, and perfect for generations to come.
The endpoint of the apparent aspirations of the largely unreflective, misled, and Trump-entranced MAGA faithful is either the crowning of a national despot who can impose his will on all of us, or a collection of separate Red states ruled by autocratic leaders and outlaw gangsters (whether or not elected).
There are simply no other outcomes possible.
A couple of centuries ago, our storied “Wild West” was plagued by this problem of what was essentially widespread, out-of-control gangsterism. But those American pioneers, imbued with commitments to both individual freedoms and common, safe, civilized communities, invented “the sheriff” and other relevant law enforcement and legal procedures needed to prevent outlaws and mega-wealthy despots from imposing their will and literally “Lording it over their lives.”
This is what the despots in Russia, China, Hungary, North Korea, and too many other countries are still doing to their “citizens.”
America has been there, We’ve endured that “state of nature” and found it intolerable and destructive. We have moved well beyond that “state of nature” myth to a social order built on constitutional principles and a thriving, unparalleled civic sector of constructive community-building and engagement.
To go reverse all of this great achievement and revert to a land of lawlessness and subservience to outlaws and wealth thugs, to Neo-Nazis and would-be local and regional despots, would be beyond pathetic and stupid.
To submit to the ambitions of the Trump/MAGA Republican menace would be to submit to the collapse of the American Dream. It would be an utter abdication and disgrace upon the sacrifices millions of Americans have made over the centuries to secure the Blessing of Liberty.
Let’s put it another way:
Trump, Abbott, DeSantis, and the rest of the authoritarian reactionaries who would subvert our democratic Republic must be stopped. Otherwise, they will overpower and rule us as thugs and gangsters do: with intimidation, violence, and terror.
How did I miss this fantastic response? I suppose because there’s so much to consume, so many forums to participate in. And then there’s real day to day life. Thank you; appreciate the deep response and referrals to other smart people. Trying to be optimistic, but it’s more and more difficult. America, when she’s unwell, the globe in dire danger. And here we are...
Jon, Blown away with your writings, your hitting the nail on the head, your clear-headed assessment of where we are, what we’ve come from and the only way out. Found you via your comments embedded in Steve Schmidt’s equally critical writings. And now, I’m falling down the rabbit-hole of satisfaction, a waterfall of hydration for my deeply-parched, thirstier than hell throat -metaphor for my need to hear bare-bones intelligent, clear-headed critique of the toxic moment in time we are knee-deep in. I want to be optimistic, to feel you’re prescription for the Democratic Party --she expand herself joined by anti-MAGAt GOP forces, rise up to fully, forcefully and wholly defeat the fascist monster banging at our door-- is the solution, but I’m deeply concerned. Deeply. For ‘24 we’ve the wrong messenger. Joe Biden should and could have elegantly passed the baton, after offering himself as America’s “one-term savior, pulling her back from the brink amidst Covid and Trumpler,” a post-Trumpler hero, but he seems to have missed the point. Joe, truly a good man with the right stuff, though decay of age, his longtime inability to articulate, never mind forcefully articulate, to command we sit up and hear him, to vociferously orate at the masses, it is null and void. Joe should have stepped back, providing a silky smooth pathway to legitimate democratic primary event full of robust debate amongst a bench of highly qualified next gens: Gavin, Gretchen, Kamala, Pete B., Dean Phillips, plus legit GOP anti-MAGAt leaders - so much talent. Alas, unwritten, barely mentioned rule, the one where what is best for the nation yields to polite acquiescence not to step before an incumbent POTUS. This is our plight. This ridiculousness will very well be the hammer in the final nail in democracy’s coffin. I’m pissed, I’m worried, I’m raging at the plight, but if it’s Joe, he has my vote, even if he’s in a coma. Every dem from dog catcher to POTUS has my vote over any R - ever. I will never forgive them for what they’ve brought to our doorstop.