We should be on the cusp of an unparalleled period of equality and prosperity in American history. We have a national majority in support of the right to health care, a national majority in support of gay marriage, a national majority in support of the right to an abortion, and racism is (supposedly) no longer tolerated (though the police department and various BBQ Becky's appear not to have noticed).
But the Democrats are an infuriating bunch who, it seems, are almost destined to have the rug of history yanked out from under their unsuspecting feet.
Since the risen political ghost of Richard Nixon committed treason in order to defeat Hubert Humphrey in 1968, the party of Trump has engaged in a series of predictable dirty tricks to win elections, while the Democrats have stood by""alternately shocked, shocked I say, that there is the proverbial gambling going on in the establishment, then determined that only total compromise can stop the obstructionism of the other side, then finally a retreat to their pristine corner to lick their wounds and take two years to loudly proclaim their leftist values, and then mosey on back to the center just in time for election season " and another certain defeat.
As entertaining as it is to watch the party of Trump play Lucy to the Democrats Charlie Brown, as amusing as it is to watch the Democrats run full speed toward certain victory only to have the football yanked away at the last second, it's just not as funny as it used to be.
Michael Dukakis in a tank? That was funny.
John Kerry (he of the Bronze Stars) being defeated on the basis of national security by the "draft dodger Bush" that was markedly less funny, given the lives being lost in Iraq.
But Hillary Clinton being defeated by Donald Trump? Donald Trump who is ripping children away from their parents at the border, who specializes in making excuses for Vladimir Putin's cyber attacks on our 2016 election, who gives a wink and a nod to the Nazis in Charlottesville, who is on the verge of appointing two anti-abortion and anti-gay judges to the Supreme Court, who pulled the US out of the Paris Accords on Climate Change, who has spent the first half of his administration attacking the freedom of the press and, it appears, intends to spend the last half of his (hopefully only) term in office destroying the Western Alliance and NATO; well, that is no longer funny.
This is not a reality show that either I or the rest of the world wants to watch, waiting to see how the Democrats will grab defeat from the jaws of victory this time.
It's not too entertaining when there might not be a next time.
This is the finale, folks. We don't get to play our little, "I'm more left wing than you"/"I can win elections and you can't" games any more.
Our lives are on the line. Our democracy is on the line.
If a majority of American citizens support the right to an abortion, support the right of gay people to be married, and think insurance companies should have to cover people with preexisting conditions, why are all of those rights currently in extreme danger?
The views of the majority of Americans are not represented in Congress in proportion to their weight in our population because of gerrymandering. In the elections of 2000 and 2016, the White House went to the candidate who lost the popular vote.
Do we really expect the party who is benefiting electorally to do something to change this? Do we really expect our democracy to be protected by a party that can only win elections via gerrymandering, or a gift from the Supreme Court, or by (yup, gonna say it) collusion with a foreign adversary?
Grow up. The football has been greased and we're getting nowhere until we clean it off. So, stop running at the disappearing football, stop playing the game by the Republicans rules, and go back to playing by the rules of democracy itself. But first we've got to de-grease the football, flip over the game table, shuffle and then cut the deck""whatever metaphor you'd like; but we absolutely must stop going high when they go low. Our democracy is depending on us.
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