BY VERN TURNER
Yes, we progressives despise everything that comes from Trump and his White House. Yes, the Republicans are doing their worst/best to destroy the public safety net for the sake of their donors. Yes, the despicable Stephen Miller is doing hisbest to emulate Heinrich Himmler with his attacks on asylum seekers, aka immigrants. Yes, the administration of Donald Trump is fundamentally corrupt at all levels and seems to really like despotic dictators.
It’s true that Trump has called our beloved Constitution inconvenient.It isinconvenient to a dictator. Trump has just violated the Constitution by calling off due process for the incoming asylum seekers. Yes, he continues to violate his oath of office, fire everyone and anyone who doesn’t agree with his draconian outbursts, otherwise known as thoughts.
OK. We all get this. Trump and the Republicans are the worst thing to happen to our government since 1859. No question. We really screwed up. By “we,” I mean the people who voted and allowed this juvenile delinquent to become president.
Now, we have work to do, and it is not about how many ways we can descend to the depths of Trumpisms, rage or threats. That’s what the orange schoolyard bully is doing and he lovesit when we thinking people play with him in his cat litter sandbox in that schoolyard known as the nation’s Capitol. I’ve been just as guilty as those on Facebook who publish all sorts of stuff that shows their outright disgust and hatred for Donald Trump. It’s time for doing something else.
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, went off the rails in her outrage by calling for harassment of Trump true believers. So, naturally, Trump jumped on that with a passel of lies and threats. His base lovesit when he dumps on flaming liberals like Waters.
He went on to accuse Nancy Pelosi of being a supporter of MS-13 gangs, open borders and a promoter of crime. That’s his game, people. His game is one of hate, division, bombast and disharmony. His pathetic ego cannot stand peace and harmony, to say nothing of actual governing. His base, being base, has no idea about governing, either, so they’re perfectly happy with the angry dumb show in the Twitter-verse.
November is coming. Democrats must speak to the voters in rational terms, not the divisiveness of Trump’s game. In fact, Democrats should stop addressing Trump altogether when running for office.
Bashing Trump, as good as it makes one feel, does not impact the independent or undecided voter as much as the kitchen table issues of education, health care, taxes, jobs and infrastructure. Our college graduates and students are still wading through over $1 trillion in loan debt. The Republicans are hard at work destroying affordable health care, Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare so they can keep the country from defaulting while their donors reap the benefits of a tax cut.
Those items alone should be sufficient to get somebody’s attention.
Progressive Democrats already have the solutions to these issues and polling shows that over 60% of the voters approve of the Democrats’ plans and ideas in those areas. In 2013, a bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill passed the Senate vote, but the gutless Republican House “leadership” wouldn’t even bring it to a vote. Why? Because the speaker at that time was afraid of the Tea Party caucus dividing the Republican Party into the fragments we see today. The point is that the legislation is already available, but Republicans and this president aren’t interested in looking at it due to the base’s lust for more racist and xenophobic red meat.
We progressives and Democrats [often not the same thing] already have a model for winning a major election during times of great need. In 1948 Harry Truman was the prohibitive underdog to Thomas E. Dewey of New York. What President Truman did to win that election in a dramatic upset was get on the train and whistle-stop his way across the country speaking about the same kitchen table issues we have mentioned and are still viable today. He spoke to crowds large and small, friendly and hostile. He went to the people and campaigned as if the country’s future depended on it. It did then, and it does now.
It is a disgrace that less than 50% of our eligible voters vote during midterm elections. Not only that, but of those eligible, nearly 30% are not registeredto vote. In 2016, only 52% of our eligible voters voted. That translates to Trump winning only 26% of the votes from eligible voters.
How big of an axe handle do we need to be hit with to see that getting out and voting gets us the representation we should have and the representative government that actually respects and defends the Constitution? Look, if we the people don’t repudiate the Trump fiasco, we are doomed to a fate of despotism and dictatorship. That much is clear.
So, the game must be our game, not Donald Trump’s. Nothing scorches a mindless egomaniac more than being ignored. We must have record voter turnout and we will repudiate the Trump Administration in the best way possible.
Put progressive Democrats back in charge of the House and the Senate as well as unseat Republicans in state houses across the country and watch how fast all this rubbish coming from this president turns to meaningless noise.
Impeachment is a bad idea to push, right now, but if we win back both houses of the Congress, we won’t have to drag ourselves through that sort of broken glass. Trump will be neutralized and we can then begin the painful task of repairing his damage, both domestically and with our friends in foreign lands.
Get to work supporting a progressive Democrat for office. Write to them and tell them how you want them to represent you and how we can defeat Republicanism everywhere. It’s become our sacred duty to our country and our Constitution to do this work. Too many of our ancestors died defending these things for us to be lazy or unknowing about how to save our country from outright fascism.
– Denver resident Vern Turner is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer. His latest book, Why Angels Weep: America and Donald Trump, is available through Amazon.
