THE CLARITY OF TRUTH

Joe Biden spoke the truth today, and it’s got the knickers of the Liar Party all in a knot.

On the anniversary of darkest day in our history - the January 6 insurrection - Joe Biden gave what many are saying may just wind up being the most important speech of his life. He took on the central problem of his presidency - the ongoing attack on American democracy and the role of Donald Trump and the Republican Pary in it - and did it more clearly and emphatically than anything he has ever said before.

“The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He’s done so because he values power over principle. Because he sees his own interests as more important than his country’s interests, than America’s interests. And because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution. He can’t accept he lost. [...]

“You can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t obey the law only when it’s convenient. You can’t be patriotic when you embrace and enable lies. Those who stormed this Capitol, and those who instigated and incited, and those who called on them to do so, held a dagger at the throat of America -- at American democracy. They didn’t come here out of patriotism or principle. They came here in rage. Not in service of America, but rather in service of one man.”

Too many in the media have been far too easy on those who embrace or even simply tolerate this idea, perhaps because it has completely taken over the Republican Party, and too many in the media still approach any question on which Republicans and Democrats disagree as though it must be given an evenhanded, both-sides treatment.

There are indeed two sides to this: Democracy and Anti-Democracy. The choice is clear and stark, and there should be no contest as to which side is right, to anyone who truly loves this country of ours.

We have to treat those who claim Trump won in precisely the same way we treat those who say the Earth is flat or that Hitler had some good ideas. They are not merely “deluded;” they are either participating in, or at the very least directly enabling, an assault on our system of government with terrifying implications for the future. They are the true enemies of the United States. And they have to be treated that way.

The lie about 2020 justifies and enables all the things Republicans are doing now to establish the means and the willingness to overturn the next election if they don’t like the results. It maintains the sense of chaos and injustice, a world gone so mad that no tactic is out of bounds to restore Republicans to their rightful place in power.

This is not the time to go try and convince the unconvinceable of their error. This is the time to gather everyone who chooses Democracy, and stand against the believers in Anti-Democracy.

The threat is real.

Those who embrace Trump’s Big Lie include 69 candidates for governor in 30 states; 55 candidates for the U.S. Senate; 13 candidates for state attorney general; and 18 candidates for secretary of state in places where that person is the state’s top election official.

If those people win, America is lost.

Between now and next November, every Republican must be publicly confronted and asked this question, plainly and publicly: Who was the true winner of the 2020 election?

If they don’t say “Joe Biden,” that is the most important thing we know about them. It must be the fact of their identity that gets repeated every time their name is mentioned.

We should treat it as something so outside the pale that it would be malpractice not to make it the center of all discussion of any person who takes that position.

They should be treated as the contemptible villains they are.

At this point, the question of “balanced budgets” and “Medicare for all,” which are important topics to discuss; they are animating policy points between the two legitimate political visions of this country, are not the Top Priority.

The top priority is putting out the fire in our house.

It’s time for everyone who believes in this country to become a “one issue voter.”

Democracy, or Anti-Democracy?

A commenter on another Substack page wrote this today. It’s the only point worth making:

“Then it hit me: It's worth fighting for good because good is worth fighting for. That's it. The reward is I can look at myself in the mirror and like who is looking back.”

Anyone who supports Democracy is my ally. Anyone who does not is my enemy. It’s as simple as that.

We can get back to drawing Venn Diagrams on Scotch-soaked cocktail napkins after an evening of discussion and debate when the fire’s out.

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