THE CRISIS IS NOW!

This post is for everyone, because everyone needs to read it, and then call your congressional representatives and tell them to take their heads out of their asses and recognize reality.

That said….

I don’t always agree with Matt Yglesias, though I do always pay attention to him. Right now I agree with him and everyone should pay attention to this and agree with it if you have any hope of living in a constitutional democratic republic after January 6, 2025:

“The more you think America is collapsing into an authoritarian dictatorship, the *more* you should be urging progressives to trim their sails on left-left cultural politics in order to win.”

I don’t know what it is about Professional Lefties, but their ability to “misread the room” is legendary, and I’m not just talking about now, or the Democrats.

In 1932, the German Communists campaigned against the Social Democrat’s candidate for the presidency of Germany, calling the party “social fascists.” When the more-level-headed asked them “What about the Nazis?” their reply was that a Nazi victory would “speed the revolution.” Those with the slightest knowledge of history will the idiocy of that statement.

When I heard Susan Sarandon use those exact words - “speed the revolution” - when she was asked in 2016 about the potential danger of supporting Green candidate Jill Stein against Hillary Clinton and the Democrats in the face of the Trump campaign - I wanted to throttle her. Susan has, over the years, been one of those “Hollywood lefties” who often demonstrate how distant one can get from reality living in the upper levels of “Duh Bizness,” but that was a Top Ten.(Her specific words were: “If the Democrats lose to Trump, that will speed the revolution.”)

Watching the past month of U.S. politics as they are practiced nowadays leaves me thinking of a New Yorker cartoon in which an “obvious intellectual” (he has elbow patches on his corduroy jacket) says to a friend “Yes, those who fail to understand history are condemned to repeat it, and those of us who do understand it are condemned to go along for the ride!”

I have a very good friend, a now-retired “academic lefty,” who’s been my friend for going on a bit more than 54 years now. It sometimes drives me nuts that his politics haven’t evolved from those of 54 years ago. That’s particularly true when - in the midst of any political difficulty - I get an e-mail from him that we are finally going to “increase the contradictions” and demonstrate to “the people” that “compromise and reform will never work.” I have to sit on my hands so I don’t hit “reply” and then “let fly” with a dose of common sense. It won’t work, it will just mean a period of no communication. And besides, much of what he says otherwise is at least worthy of taking into consideration - as long as it isn’t about politics. But now, even he agrees it’s time to look at the lesson of 1932 Germany.

This past six weeks is another of those times when I ask myself if I really am “of the left,” when I see otherwise-sane people daring each other to go replay that “chicken” scene from “Rebel Without A Cause.” (For those who forget, the “game” involves getting two people to climb into two cars aimed at each other, step on the gas and drive at high speed toward each other. The one who comes to their senses in time to veer off to the side is a “chicken.”) It’s all well and good to play “chicken” with a pair of old clunkers, but not with a country.

What really drives me nuts is, the Democrats KNOW the other side is a collection of drooling morons. They KNOW the other side is a bunch of Evil Fucks. But they seem to think that the fact they can sit down in the Congressional dining room and have morning coffee with one of those people and have a nice conversation about how the Nationals are doing means they are friends and friends can always “reason together.” I’m sorry to say, these aren’t the Republicans I could have dinner and drinks with at Frank Fat’s and over the course of dinner and several refills have a conversation about the problem du jour and at the end of the evening we could take two Scotch-stained cocktail napkins and write down an agreement, each of us signing the others’ napkin, and go home secure in the knowledge that the next morning my boss and his would both honor what had been agreed to the night before. It doesn’t work that way now, no matter how these idiots convince themselves it does! (The survivors of the Republicans with whom such activity was possible can all be found these days over at The Bulwark. Waving their arms and shouting “Trumpists Are A Threat!!!”)

I am in total agreement with a recent tweet from Tom Nichols (those of you who Tweet should follow @RadioFreeTom): “This is like watching the Russian opposition bicker about who gets a seat in the Duma while Putin cemented his grip on power. I never thought I’d be wishing for a more bare-knuckled Democratic Party, but here we are.”

A “bare-knuckled Democratic Party.” Yeah, that is exactly what I’ve wanted since at least the election of 2000. But there you are.

Dammit! - the Democrats KNEW back in June that there was no way Mitch McConnell wouldn’t use any opportunity he found to try and kneecap them, and that the most logical moment would be funding the government and raising the debt ceiling - because it’s their Go-To Game whenever they run out of other ideas. They ALWAYS do it when a Democrat is in the White House. Yes indeed, “Those who fail to understand history are condemned to repeat it, and those of us who do understand it are condemned to go along for the ride!”

The Republicans do it because they know they can keep their foot on the gas and the Democrats will swerve.

Hey, progressives - it’s time to turn the wheel and swerve! But not to the left! Not right now! Go around them, and then worry about turning left.

We are at this moment at a perilous moment for our democracy - I think it is an existential crisis, the outcome of which will determine whether we remain citizens of a democratic constitutional republic - and Democrats are not displaying the urgency and attention to that very danger the times require. Immigration, infrastructure, climate change - they are all terribly important, but right now, they do not matter, not when compared to the danger our Democracy faces from the current Republicans who sit back and damage and assault our very constitutional core. When the Republicans take control, the result will be the end of majority rule. Unless real and substantive voting reform occurs NOW, a small, authoritarian minority can and will permanently disable our American democracy.

Had the German Communists realized the actual threat that faced Germany in 1932, and thrown their support to the Social Democrats, they could have spent the next 12 years arguing about the future of capitalism versus socialism, instead of running for their lives with too many of them being the first ones grabbed by the Nazis and thrown into the Dachau concentration camp.

Progressives in Congress need to learn what my old boss Willie Brown knew: “You can do anything you want politically that’s legal - when you have the votes.”

Manchin and Sinema aren’t going away. Today - this evening - Sinema is having a fund-raiser with the people and organizations most opposed to the Build Back Better reconciliation bill; does that sound like she’s ready to change? Biden may meet with the two of them - as he is - and ask them what they want, but he is not going to get them to back down. They may be shitheads, but they are shitheads who know that now - in a 50-50 Senate - is the only time they will ever wield the power they do. Sinema is as completely unpricipled as anyone who was ever a member of the Green Party is - look up the number of Greens who have gone along with Republicans financing their political campaign so they can “stick it to the Democrats” - this is exactly Sinema’s playbook. Just like Jill Stein taking Putin’s money in 2016.

The only way around them is for three more Democrats to join the Senate in next year’s election.

The “problem solver’s caucus” isn’t going away in the House. If “the squad” wants to wield control there, they need 10 more members of the Progressive Caucus.

“You can do anything you want that’s legal - when you have the votes.”

Right now, we need the Democrats to figure out that the ball is actually a ball, and that they are supposed to keep their eyes on it, that that’s the purpose of the game.

So, take what’s there to be taken. Politics is ALWAYS about grabbing the half loaf that’s on the table and saying “We’ll be back for the rest later.” Vote for the Infrastructure Bill because that’s something the folks back home can understand without further explanation. Deliver something people need. Take what can get past Scylla and Charybdis, er,. I mean Manchin and Sinema, and get it signed. Deliver. Go home and show them the bacon.

Then take Medicare expansion of vision and hearing and dental (all wonderful things everyone my age - Republican and Democrat - wants to get from Medicare because we damn well need it!), take Medicare for All, and everything else that gets cut from the Build Back Better Bill, and make that the campaign platform for 2022.

“Hey, you like all this stuff? Put more of us in office and you’ll get it!” That’s the campaign.

Arguing now about getting things that are never going to be gotten in the current situation is truly “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.” We have to save our constitutional democratic republic from those who demonstrate every day in every way that they are just fine with burning it down. After we’re dodged the iceberg, rearranging the deck chairs is a good idea. AFTER we dodge the iceberg.

“You can do anything politically that’s legal - when you have the votes.”

How hard is that to figure out???

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