Impassioned and forceful, President Biden spoke outside Independence Hall about the country’s electoral peril. His implicit message: vote Democrat if you want to be a good American. Saying this outright would be disastrous; people’s backs would be up. But there the implication hangs, the flip side of “Democracy is on the ballot” and of Biden’s remarks in Philadelphia.
Fightin’ Biden’s unspoken message is, unfortunately, correct. One of our two parties has rabies, a case that became official on January 6, 2021. Now there’s just one party that supports our country’s system of elections. Voting for that party, the Democrats, strengthens America’s democratic system; voting against it weakens democracy. No, matters shouldn’t be like this. Democracy should be safe either way. But today it isn’t.
As long as the GOP is MAGA, and maybe after, only the Democrats can be trusted with democracy.
Which leaves America with one arm to carry a heavy load. Let’s hope nothing drops. Civilization doesn’t come easy; conservatives ought to know societies can fall, and it’s not always because people are reclining on cushions and eating grapes, or calling themselves xie/xer. Civic life requires duty. Shuck that duty and the system sags and declines, and becomes a bit screwy in its operations. For instance, certifying the vote suddenly involves having the chief executive show up with angry citizens who carry weapons and want to supervise.
But GOP voters and leaders have gone ahead and shucked. They lost and wouldn’t say they lost. They said the election was no good.
Many years ago I read an outraged op-ed on a similar topic in a Guatemalan newspaper. The writer remembered a politician who went ahead and challenged the vote simply because it put him second and not first. The habit was poison for a country trying to be a democracy, the writer said.
Now look at the United States. That man in Guatemala knew something about where we are now. No offense to the brave and good people of his country, but it’s a shame and disgrace that his theme should be relevant to us.
Listen to Joe Biden and vote Democrat for an America that can weather the present electoral storm.
Ebuttalray by Oofday. Kevin McCarthy, leader of the House Republicans, tried glomming onto “Democracy is on the ballot” when he spoke against Biden in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It was pitiful. His big example: the FBI wants those papers back from Donald Trump.
McCarthy, the whiny prick, was positioned oddwise toward the camera and spoke with his eyes off to the right. He didn’t seem amiable, strong or even well-informed. He seemed feeble; a man locked into a charade he was too witless to escape. Implacable and outraged? He was peevish, peevish at length. In bad movies from the 1980s, there’d be a douchebag middle-manager of a boss who got faced down by the young hero, or a malcontent restaurant customer who wound up with soup in his face (adorable waitress-heroine, lively dog). These villains didn’t stay on the screen long—who’d want to see them? They were there for a nails-on-chalkboard moment, jabbing us with irritation before the irritation was relieved by something that was loud, possibly funny, and always very fast to arrive. Republicans have discarded that approach. They just let McCarthy keep talking.Impassioned and forceful, President Biden spoke outside Independence Hall about the country’s electoral peril. His implicit message: vote Democrat if you want to be a good American. Saying this outright would be disastrous; people’s backs would be up. But there the implication hangs, the flip side of “Democracy is on the ballot” and of Biden’s remarks in Philadelphia.
Fightin’ Biden’s unspoken message is, unfortunately, correct. One of our two parties has rabies, a case that became official on January 6, 2021. Now there’s just one party that supports our country’s system of elections. Voting for that party, the Democrats, strengthens America’s democratic system; voting against it weakens democracy. No, matters shouldn’t be like this. Democracy should be safe either way. But today it isn’t.
As long as the GOP is MAGA, and maybe after, only the Democrats can be trusted with democracy.
Which leaves America with one arm to carry a heavy load. Let’s hope nothing drops. Civilization doesn’t come easy; conservatives ought to know societies can fall, and it’s not always because people are reclining on cushions and eating grapes, or calling themselves xie/xer. Civic life requires duty. Shuck that duty and the system sags and declines, and becomes a bit screwy in its operations. For instance, certifying the vote suddenly involves having the chief executive show up with angry citizens who carry weapons and want to supervise.
But GOP voters and leaders have gone ahead and shucked. They lost and wouldn’t say they lost. They said the election was no good.
Many years ago I read an outraged op-ed on a similar topic in a Guatemalan newspaper. The writer remembered a politician who went ahead and challenged the vote simply because it put him second and not first. The habit was poison for a country trying to be a democracy, the writer said.
Now look at the United States. That man in Guatemala knew something about where we are now. No offense to the brave and good people of his country, but it’s a shame and disgrace that his theme should be relevant to us.
Listen to Joe Biden and vote Democrat for an America that can weather the present electoral storm.
Ebuttalray by Oofday. Kevin McCarthy, leader of the House Republicans, tried glomming onto “Democracy is on the ballot” when he spoke against Biden in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It was pitiful. His big example: the FBI wants those papers back from Donald Trump.
McCarthy, the whiny prick, was positioned oddwise toward the camera and spoke with his eyes off to the right. He didn’t seem amiable, strong or even well-informed. He seemed feeble; a man locked into a charade he was too witless to escape. Implacable and outraged? He was peevish, peevish at length. In bad movies from the 1980s, there’d be a douchebag middle-manager of a boss who got faced down by the young hero, or a malcontent restaurant customer who wound up with soup in his face (adorable waitress-heroine, lively dog). These villains didn’t stay on the screen long—who’d want to see them? They were there for a nails-on-chalkboard moment, jabbing us with irritation before the irritation was relieved by something that was loud, possibly funny, and always very fast to arrive. Republicans have discarded that approach. They just let McCarthy keep talking.