America is Broken

From David Corn's newsletter, Our Land, November 9, 2024:

"To survive, our political system—like any system—must be able to protect itself. And it has not done so. The 2024 election elevated to the highest office in the land a narcissistic and deceitful demagogue who less than four years ago tried to destroy this system through lies, scheming, and violence. When he failed to sabotage it, the system did not punish or expel him. Though many who work within it tried to—a majority, actually, if you look at Congress alone—they did not succeed, and the rules allowed him to remain a participant. This was a historic failure, and now Donald Trump, who was convicted of 34 felony counts for falsifying business documents to cover up hush-money payments to a porn star and found liable for fraud and sexual assault and who has been described by former aides as a “fascist” and a clear and present danger to American democracy, has won a presidential election with the support of more than half the nation. The system has not worked, and its very existence is now threatened." 

P.S. "Why is it that the right cannot acknowledge that Russia has intervened in the 2016 election (the hack-and-dump operation and a clandestine social media campaign), in the 2020 election (pushing disinformation about Joe Biden), and now in the 2024 election? They keep covering for Putin. This is hardly America First."

Up Against It Until November (Again)

"The fact that millions of Americans have voted to restore Trump to power—after he plotted to overturn an election and incited insurrectionist violence to overthrow the government. After he was twice impeached (and, in the second impeachment, found guilty by a bipartisan Senate majority that fell short of the two-thirds needed for conviction). After he was indicted twice for conspiring to mount a coup, and once for allegedly swiping top-secret documents, and once for paying hush money to a porn star to cover up an alleged extramarital affair. After civil trials found him guilty of massive business fraud and liable for sexual assault and defamation.

Of course, this is not fine. But the nation’s No. 1 problem is that millions view it as acceptable, if not desirable." 

David Corn, Our Land, Mother Jones

This about covers the grinding madness of the moment with a few of my own additional dire observations to add to the fire. 

While the "millions" are clearly not a majority of Americans (he's lost popular national elections twice now; thankfully) the millions includes one of the two major political parties, a commanding majority of a stolen SCOTUS, a compliant news media that thrives on his Reality TV dumpster fire theatrics, a number of red state legislatures ready to do whatever it takes to install their Fuehrer and, apparently, significant numbers of law enforcement. 

(How significant? Will police unions endorse the most criminal, treasonous, violently fascist candidate for POTUS in history, again?) 

This alliance is not just mystifying but terrifying. Pax Americana, with the assistance of hostile foreign dictators, is under assault from within: Racists, corporate monopolists, gun crazy nativists, and Christian nationalist know-nothings want to revive the violent white supremacy of the slave Confederacy. We are not just experiencing deaths of despair and declining lifespans in America but a significant chunk of the country clings to a fascist national death-wish. 

Biden should win in a landslide, a total rejection of America's violent bigot past, re-committing the country to multicultural democracy and sustainable growth economics and a better future for all workers and all Americans. 

The differences between the parties has never been starker, more clear. But this is what we're up against. See you in November.