For the People
Image by Alex Shurpur via Unsplash
Having gotten several things off my plate, I started to write something early on Sunday about the mess the Democrats have created for themselves. Or maybe I should say that they abandoned normal Democratic handwringing in favor of going bat-shit crazy. The level of hysteria by pundits was off the charts. Local politicians and Democratic operatives were quaking in their boots over internal polling data. The issue was not really about who would make the best Democratic president over the next four years. It was about who would be the best campaigner over the next four months — that is, until Election Day.
Then, Biden either decided that all the fretting was right or that he’d lost the confidence of too many allies (forgetting about voters). It doesn’t matter, at least not now, not until sometime after the election. For now, it doesn’t even matter who the party’s nominee will be. Harris, Newsom, Witmar, Shapiro, etc. There are pluses and minuses for each of them. The odds are it will be Harris, but I’ll take any of them. The reason is simple. This election is not about which Democrat will have the best policies or who will be the best president over the next four years. It’s not really about policy at all.
The sole issue in this election is Donald Trump, the nominee of the Republican party. And, yes, there are associated issues: Project 2025, voting rights, the radicalization of the Supreme Court, abortion rights, immigration, and more. But Trump is the sole issue. He no longer needs to be a dictator on the first day of a prospective new term. The Supreme Court's immunity decision will allow him to be a dictator for four years. If there are people willing to do his bidding, there is virtually nothing to constrain him. He has spent the past four years finding those people.
People have fretted over the meaning of a president having immunity when he is carrying out his “core” responsibilities, no matter how illegal those actions may be. The murder of a political opponent has been a favorite example. However, many other possibilities are far more likely, and none of them have undergone court testing after the immunity decision. Does congressional oversight mean anything if the president orders anyone in the executive branch not to comply with congressional demands? Can the president unilaterally change tax rates? If someone acts illegally at the president’s request, does he also have immunity? Can the president fire the entire Civil Service, which is clearly against the law? Can the president simply refuse to spend money as Congress has said he must? Can he reallocate money wherever he chooses? Shall I go on? No. You can use your imagination. The answer is that no one knows, not even Trump. But should he become president, you can be sure he’ll try everything.
Just by the way, if you pro-Palestinian demonstrators think you will be allowed to demonstrate under a President Trump, think again. I can pretty much guarantee that if there is a return to the Black Lives Matter style demonstrations during Trump’s last term, this time around, they won’t be tolerated. If young people think their votes don’t matter or that they don’t care who the president is, I hope they don’t have to find out how wrong they were.
This is a prospective America that no living American has ever lived in. If Trump has seemed to prefer some combination of the 1950s and, say, the mid-18th century to the modern world, he has good company. Certainly, that’s where Justice Alito wants to take us. Justice Thomas might want to take us even further back. Between the three of them — Trump, Alito, and Thomas (I’m less sure about the other so-called conservatives on the court) — they want to roll back every social gain we’ve made in the past 75 years. Women’s rights, civil rights, voting rights, abortion rights, gay rights, and even the right to privacy (at least regarding sexual relations) are all things they want to disappear. And I haven’t even mentioned religion, but I sure could go off on that subject.
To do all this, it would help Trump if he had a congress willing to endorse his desires, not to mention his pet peeves. So, yes, the election will also include choosing a new House and Senate, plus more local offices. Well, there's no ticket splitting for me this year. This year, I will vote for any Democrat running for office, even if it’s for a dog-catcher. I know that, at least in local races, there are some Republicans who I might consider voting for in other circumstances. But this is today, and the stakes are too dire to vote any other way.
So, Joe Biden, thank you for your service. I mean that sincerely. And to whoever replaces you, good luck. You must win for all of us so we can continue to have a semblance of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.