There is a Way to Stop the Republicans

The Democrats have to win.

Photo credit: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

If I were younger, I would run for office. Any office. Anywhere. I can’t, but I can speak out, and so can every American who sees what’s happening to this country and recognizes the dangers of allowing a single increasingly unworthy party to run us down and take over.

It’s folly to blame the Democrats for losing the battle for our existence without blaming the Republicans for causing the problems.

It’s madness to still think the Republicans will come to their senses and start governing as if they understand our constitution and our way of life. If serves them better not to—as they so often let us know.

They’ve given up any right to hold office in any governmental institution, let alone in congress or the presidency.

Their hold on us must be eradicated, and that means their party must be eradicated. They’ve fouled up any right to make rules, to make laws, to make any difference in the way Americans live their lives and do business.

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So now that I have your attention, those of you still here, I’ll ask the perennial question—the one nobody on earth seems to have an answer to: what are we going to do about it?

One solution: Get money out of politics. Oh, you’ve heard that one before? Me too. I saw just this morning that the handful of billionaires in the US made TRILLIONS of dollars during the pandemic while small businesses closed, millions lost their jobs, children went hungry, sick people were turned away from understaffed, overfilled medical facilities, and hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their lives to COVID.

The only permanent solution, clearly, is to punish the Republicans for their transgressions. Stop treating them like necessary, viable servants of the public.

Stop venerating them by keeping them in plush offices in the very building where a GOP-inspired insurrection attempt took place and paying them six-figure salaries with taxpayer funds.

Stop expecting they’ll do the right thing by voting for anything that would benefit the citizens of this country. They won’t. How many times do they have to show us and tell us they won’t before we finally believe them?

If they could pull off a dictatorship, they would. January 6 told us that. They’re in cahoots with the likes of Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, QAnon, The Proud Boys, MAGA, and every other slimy slug currently crawling out of the woodwork and onto the big stage. They’re still spreading The Big Lie—that Trump won—knowing we know they know it’s a lie.

We have to be in this together. Never mind those who are working against us, still spouting lies, still pretending democracy is outdated and unachievable when there are better options, like oligarchy, autocracy, theocracy. They’re wrong. But is it enough that we’re right? It would be if we forgot our differences and banded together for as long as it takes to end this mess.

What if it takes years instead of months? It might. Win or lose in the 2022 midterms, the battle for equity and justice won’t be over. The Republicans have shown their ruthless side and it’s clear they’re a formidable enemy.

They are the enemy. They gave Donald Trump a clear path to the most destructive presidency this country has ever seen. They worked to legitimize a crook, a conman, a clearly disturbed, revenge-soaked scumbag in order to build their own wealth and power. They became toadies to a would-be dictator, a wannabe cult leader, and helped him build an army of misfits and miscreants.

Hundreds of thousands of people died needless COVID-related deaths because the Republicans couldn’t bring themselves to stop the flow of big money—which undoubtedly would have happened if they had done their duty and once and for all prosecuted Donald J. Trump, the twice-impeached ex-president.

Even now they refuse to accept their culpability in the spread of COVID, in global warming, in the misery that corporate greed inflicts on us all. If not for the Republicans we would have universal health care, a vibrant middle class, an outstanding public school system, social safety nets, and an infrastructure modern enough to keep us moving and safe.

And let’s not forget the theocrats—Republicans all.

I don’t know why any American foregoes their best interests to vote in Republicans. I’m as baffled as you are. But we aren’t them. We are US. And if we’re ever going to get out of this mess, we’ll have to figure out a strategy soon.

Is the effort to get out the vote enough? Obviously not. Millions of citizens still won’t vote—or won’t take voting seriously enough to consider the facts (not the propaganda) and do the right thing. Can we convince them? I don’t know. The evidence against the Republicans is clear. The only way out is to vote Democratic. The ONLY way out. Yet the reluctance to do that persists.

I’m willing to be the sounding board, but I won’t think kindly if the only response is, “Well, if only the Democrats had or hadn’t…”. It’s too late for that. This is now. Today. Rehashing yesterday is a distraction when the ravaging hordes are bearing down on us.

What should we do? What CAN we do? Giving up is not an option.

So…next…?