Crickets

Crickets

Sitting here watching the returns come in.?Watching Terry McAuliffe get his head handed to him by Glen Youngkin in the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Governor’s race. I have to wonder what the hell happened. President Biden won Virginia in 2020 by 10 points. Where did the coalition of women and African American voters and all the voters from the suburbs go? We still have the same political situation, the same ongoing threat to democracy. Youngkin is just another Trump, perhaps just a Trump-Lite, although he has gone to great pains to avoid the comparison. The spectre of authoritarianism still looms. Populism still runs rampant throughout the South. So just what the hell happened?

Democrats needed to keep Virginia in the blue column. What happened to the confluence of voters, the merger of interests, that gave Biden the victory? Gone it seems, gone, gone, gone!

I have written much in this space about Joe Mansion, the Democrat senator from West Virginia and how his intransigence over the build back better legislation has made the Democrats look weak, ineffective, and pathetic. Mansion has hurt the Democratic Party and in so doing hurt democracy.

But Manchin (and his sidekick, Kyrsten Sinema, the democratic senator from Arizona) Are only part of the problem.?Perhaps they are even only a symptom.

But much bigger is the problem that Democrats, writ large, seem to be doing, well, nothing. In the face of multiple existential crises, the Democrats appear to be asleep. From the top down where is the fight?

Look, I never liked Biden much. I wanted Warren or even Sanders, but I voted for Biden because I had to. He was the candidate given to me by the Democratic Party. Trumpism had to be ended, repeat had to be ended! So I was a good soldier and voted for Biden. But where is he now?

Trump famously characterized Biden as “Sleepy Joe”. While I never thought that that characterization was true, accurate, or even appropriate, Biden does now seem to be asleep at the wheel. I have to repeat myself, there is an ongoing existential crisis to our democracy. Again, I ask, where is the leadership, where is Biden?

Biden gave us one great speech, back in July, on the threat now posed to democracy by the Republican Party. Said Biden on what the Republicans are trying to accomplish: “the denial of full and fair elections is the most un-American thing that any of us can imagine, the most undemocratic, the most unpatriotic. … Time and again we've weathered threats to the right to be in free and fair elections. And each time we found a way to overcome. And that is what we must do today. … We're are facing the most significant threat to our democracy since the civil war period since the civil war”.

It was a marvelous speech filled with passion and conviction.

And then …….?

Nothing!

Crickets. From the top down, crickets!

I've said this before and must re-emphasize my concurrence with what president Biden said in his July speech; democracy, the right to free and fair elections, the concept of one person one vote, are all in jeopardy are all facing an existential crisis. Biden recognize this. He brought it dramatically to our attention. Now? Crickets!

The Republicans are waging all-out war. They are fighting tooth and nail to hold on to their power. By any and all means possible they are looking to conserve the streak of old white Christian men in power. They're willing to crawl through the mud to get the job done. They have been doing so for decades and have rededicated themselves with a new violence now that should not surprise us. Much of the unenviable situation in which we find ourselves is a result of acquiescence and passivity in the face of republican fervor. The Democrats have been loath to fight back. And rather than do so now, what we have is, you guessed it, crickets.

Republicans have lied over and over and over and over and over again. They have stood in the way of every democratic initiative, no matter how good they would be for the country. The Republicans have been laser focused on fixing the nonexistent problem of a voter fraud. They have been finding and implementing ways to change who can vote and more critically who can count the vote. They are filling local elections boards with Q Anon conspiracy adherents, often by the threat of violence to their democratic opponents.

Crickets! From the Democratic Party, from our leaders in the White House, the Senate, and the Congress, I hear naught but crickets. Where is the push back? Where is the fight?

Where is the fight to turn the COVID-19 pandemic into an endemic? Where is the fight against police brutality? Where is the fight for the infrastructure package, the absolute outrage at what has been done to this monumental, important, consequential legislation? Where is the fight for fair immigration policy? Where is the fight for the earth’s existential crisis, climate change? Where is the fight from the Justice Department? Do they, in fact, plan on ever bringing charges against anybody, including the seditionist leaders of the January 6 coup attempt? Where is the fight for all of the other pressing social issues on which the Democrats campaigned and won? And most importantly, absolutely vitally important, where is the fight for voting rights, for the John Lewis voting act, for free and fair elections, for the continuation of democracy as we know it?

(I pause here to note that once again republican obstructionists in the Senate, in their lust for power, have blocked another voting right piece of legislation!)

Where is the fight, where is the fight, where is the fight?

Crickets!

Where the bloody hell is the fight!?

Pramila Jayapal (D CA) and the progressive democratic caucus in the US House of Representatives are fighting for the infrastructure package. They are getting their hands dirty, showing some fire, show me some commitment. They are fighting for us at least this one front.

Well done progressive caucus! Well done. I wish they had a national political party, one that I could work and vote for. At least from them I see signs of life.

It almost doesn't matter if the Democrats win these fights (except for the voting rights fight, on that they cannot fail. Failure would bring about the end of democracy as we know it).

The perception of the willingness to fight is nearly as important as winning the fight. Democrats can't be expected to win 100% of their battles. But if we have crickets, if they do not engage, they will lose them all. And after all, this fight is for the people of America. This fight is for you. This fight is for me. The perception of the willingness to fight for the people of this country might well be enough to reforge the alliance of the women, voters in the suburbs and the African Americans that brought Joe Biden to power. It would at least be a start. It would at least be doing something.

According to Eleanor Roosevelt, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is today. (I'm paraphrasing here.) The Democrats needed to plant that bloody tree when Reagan took office.?They needed to plant that tree in the face of Newt Gingrich, the tea party movement and incessant republican obstructionism. The Democrats can't wait until tomorrow to start the tree planting process. It must be done now!

Of course, all the fighting in the world is not going to help Democrat Terry McAuliffe and the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Back in 2020 trump won 49% of the white women vote. Yesterday Youngkin got 57% of that vote. That is huge. That swing sealed McAuliffe’s fate. ?Apparently, Virginia voters were not amused when he told them that the government was better able to judge what was best for kids’ education then were their parents. Looks like moms didn't like that. Moms, suburban women voters in Virginia, gave their support and victory to Biden in 2020. They took their votes back and gave the victory to the other party today. SE Cupp, CNN commentator said it first and best, “Don’t mess with Mom’s”