Well today was something…
And I know, from reading comments in the various threads today, let alone any other day, that everyone’s angry, a lot of folks are afraid, some are overwhelmed, and some are a combination of all three. But there are still things we can all do. The first is to not let it all overwhelm us. I know that’s easy for me to say, especially as I’m good at compartmenting things, but it is important. Being angry and afraid is normal and understandable, but we’ve all got to channel it, rather than let it overwhelm us. For those of you who have been fortunate enough to not have to live and/or work (including deploy to) states that aren’t liberal democracies, one of the way that the people in those states and societies are controlled is that the people running the state overwhelm them. As a result every day becomes an exercise in just getting through the day. In getting home to one’s family. In just getting to the next day. Get angry, be afraid, but don’t let either or both destroy your ability to act. Take time off, take a break, but don’t let this break you!
And to do that we all need constructive things to do and to focus on, which brings me to the road ahead, to what we all can do. The first thing to focus on, of course, is the midterm elections in November. Double check your own registrations. Get everyone you know to register to vote and then get them to get everyone they know to register to vote. Then make sure to vote, to get everyone you know to vote, and to get everyone they know to vote. And they need to vote for Democrats.
I’d like to say that we have two functional, responsible political parties right now, but that would be a lie. Here’s some evidence from pp 5 and 6 of the DOJ indictment of Maria Butina (emphasis mine):
The first line of the proposal reads, “Project Description ‘Diplomacy.'” It goes on to state that a major U.S. political party [hereinafter “POLITICAL PARTY 1”], would likely obtain control over the U.S. government after the 2016 elections; that POLITICAL PARTY 1 is “traditionally associated with negative and aggressive foreign policy, particularly with regards to Russia.However, now with the right to negotiate seems best to build konstruktivnyh [sic] relations;” and that the [c]entral place and influence in the [POLITICAL PARTY 1] plays the [GUN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION]. The [GUN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION] [is] the largest sponsor of the elections to the US congress, as well as a sponsor of The CPAC conference and other events.”
POLITICAL PARTY 1 is the Republican Party. The indictment states that Butina, a 29 year old Russian operative, was passing this proposal along to a US national from the Russians that assessed, ahead of the elections in 2016, that the Republican Party “would likely obtain control over the US government after the 2016 elections”. This was the Russian assessment! The indictment shows that the Russians had recognized where the Republican Party was going and had worked out how to influence it and leverage it in the interests of Russia, hence the proposal. So all of the registering to vote and the voting – for Federal office, for state office, and for local offices – has to be for Democrats. The only way to create a check on the President is to elect Democratic majorities in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, as well as electing as many Democratic state governors and Democratic majority legislatures as possible.
Because of the work I do, and despite my personal political, social, and economic views, which are pretty obvious, I try to avoid making calls for partisan political action. However, right now I don’t have that luxury. Good, bad, or otherwise the US system has evolved to function with two large political parties. Right now we have one functional one that is interested in self government and in governing within the institutions, structures, and systems we’ve inherited for self-government and one that has been veering off into revanchist, herrenvolkish extremism that is so enamored with simply obtaining and maintaining power that they have as little interest in protecting the US from serious national security threats as they do in promoting the general welfare. They don’t believe in the latter at all and will ignore the former if it helps them to obtain and/or maintain power.
But there’s more that we can do. If, despite the calls of Director of National Intelligence Coats, the US government under unified Republican control of the executive and legislative branches is not going to do anything serious to safeguard our elections, then we have to start leaning on our state officials. Our elections are run at the state and local level. As such we’ve reached the point where it is time to start putting pressure on our state and local officials to take election security seriously. Call your governors, your state legislators (unless you’re in Nebraska, then legislator) even if they’re out of session, your secretary of state or whichever state official is officially responsible for overseeing elections and tell them you expect them to tighten up the cyber security, that you expect paper backups of all ballots cast as a failsafe so that proper recounts can be properly conducted, not just an internal system audit, and that seeing demonstrated action on these issues will influence your vote in November. And then get all those friends you’re going to nag until they register to vote and then nag again to vote and all of their friends that they’re going to nag to do the same thing!
Things are all hosed up right now. The US is in serious jeopardy. But we still have the ability to change things. There won’t be any going back to the normal that existed prior to 10:00 PM EST on election day 2016. That normal no longer exists. But we have the ability to try to ensure that the new normal we’re going to get, as much as we’d like to go back to the old normal, is a better, more positive normal than what is being pushed for by the revanchists and the herrenvolkists and the white nationalists and the Christian nationalists and, frankly, Vladimir Putin, who have captured both the Republican Party and the political, social, economic, and religious groups within movement conservatism that support it.
We are at what my Sensei calls marubashi – the log bridge. Two samurai approach a log bridge high over a gorge. Neither will yield. To retreat is to be cut down. Going to the left or the right means falling to one’s death. The only way out is to go forward. To go through one’s opponent. The only way out of this is through!
Open thread!