QOTD: Focus On Congress, Not Just Presidential Race

 

Washington Post op-ed columnist Colbert King on how the election is about more than Biden vs. the Malignant Loser:

"The Biden-Trump collision will get sorted out on Election Day. But at least for this voter, Trump is a settled matter, and he has been since he crashed the presidential scene in 2016. I have said as much. The past eight years, with his abuse of presidential powers and his malignant conversion of the Republican Party into a cult of his own, have served only to reinforce what was apparent from the start.

It would be a mistake, however, to get totally distracted by Biden and Trump. The struggle for control of Congress matters enormously, too. Lose sight of Capitol Hill and say goodbye to any influence over laws that affect the life you want to lead. The House and Senate are not stately relics. They are the places where a president’s policies find life or death.

Much is being made, among the core and vital Democratic constituencies of Black voters and young progressives, of the fact that Biden has not delivered on issues he campaigned on. Policing, criminal justice and voting rights are at the top of the list. So are complaints that the Biden White House has not produced material changes in the lives of people of color and those left out of the system.

Those critics are myopic at best, and blind as bats at worst. They fail to look toward the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, where Congress sits and disposes of a president’s proposals. Take, for instance, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, named for the 46-year-old Black man killed by Minneapolis police in 2020. Introduced in the House and endorsed by Biden, the act died on Capitol Hill.

That’s because there weren’t enough yea votes for the bill in Congress. And that’s because not enough Americans showed up to vote in the House and Senate races to make sure there were." (our emphasis)

Two of the three branches of the Federal Government are elected, and they determine who will judge in the third branch. King reminds us that elections, from the Presidency, to Congress, to State officials, have to be paid attention to and participated in. Despite the attention paid them, the Presidential candidates are only part of the picture.

 

Black Voter Turnout Critical In 2024

It's hard to overstate the importance of mobilizing key Democratic voting blocs in 2024 to deny the Malignant Loser his chance to remake America as a fascist state bent on "vengeance" against his and his cult's enemies. Colbert King, writing in the Washington Post, examines the African American vote pattern over the past few Presidential elections, and notes this about the 2016 election:

"Trump won Michigan by 11,000 votes. But 277,000 eligible Black people didn’t vote. He won Wisconsin by 23,000 votes, but 93,000 eligible Black voters did not cast ballots. Trump’s 200,000-vote win in Georgia was helped when 530,000 eligible Black voters did not vote. Trump slipped by in North Carolina by a margin of 173,000 votes, while 233,000 Black voters stayed home. Much the same in Pennsylvania, which Trump won by 44,000 votes.

Who knew that better than Trump? Being Trump, he couldn’t just accept the unwarranted help and keep his mouth shut. He attended a mostly White victory rally in Hershey, Pa., in December 2016 and taunted: 'They didn’t come out to vote for Hillary. They didn’t come out. And that was a big — so thank you to the African American community.'” (our emphasis)

The margin of the Malignant Loser's victories in key states was dwarfed by African American voters who didn't cast ballots, presumably for Secretary Clinton. King points out that negative, anti-Clinton advertising targeting the black community likely suppressed their votes, and we're starting to see the same tactics at work now. Key African American voices -- from former President Obama and First Lady Michelle, to House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, to African American influencers in the entertainment world and church leaders -- will be essential to the Biden-Harris ticket to register new voters, motivate existing ones, and to underscore why this election is critical not only to them and their families, but to keeping America on track to improve its democracy for everyone.

(photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images) 

 

QOTD -- You Are Who You Vote For

 

"Trump holds cultlike control over Republican voters. They aren’t blank slates. They know what the struggle for economic and racial justice is about. They know, too, what Democrats are talking about when they go on about expanding access to health care and reducing prescription drug prices, or confronting the climate crisis, or advancing racial and gender equity, or treating immigrants with dignity and decency. And they know what they don’t like about any of that 'liberal or 'progressive' stuff, including those proposing it.

"So, when it comes to elections, bear in mind what’s really at stake. Donald Trump’s name will not appear on any midterm election ballot.

"The challenge is to turn out more voters who want the country to keep moving forward and upward than voters bent on empowering candidates to stand in for Trump and all he represents." -- Colbert King in the Washington Post,  providing the Occam's razor explanation of Republican voters: "Voters tell us who they are by who they vote for."  This is in contrast to a recent cottage industry of Post commentary by, for example, Republican publisher Gary Abernathy ("Don't call Republicans the cultists that they are!") and "analyst/ apologist" Eve Fairbanks ("Republicans can too change their minds about Trump!").  No links for them!

You are what you eat, and you are what you vote for.

Insurrectionists On Parade

 

In a Washington Post op-ed, Colbert King looks at today's far-right Trumpist insurrectionist rally in Washington, D.C., and the importance of countering their efforts to corrupt future elections and bring down democracy:

"The mere idea of people coming to town to hail insurrectionists charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol invasion as 'patriots' is as profane as it is insane. But this is where America finds itself at this stage in the 'big lie' campaign, which holds that twice-impeached, soundly defeated former president Donald Trump was cheated out of reelection.

It is, however, the pernicious and sinister intent of the liars — not their staged protests — that poses the real threat, which is no less than a slur on democracy.

That makes the work of the House select committee charged with investigating the Jan. 6 attack of paramount importance. The peaceful transfer of power was threatened by the Trump-inspired rampage. His 'big lie' as CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale reports, has spawned nationwide Republican efforts to change election laws to make it more difficult to vote, spurred Republican crackdowns on election officials who are doing their jobs, and provided ammunition to conspiracy theorists inclined to take matters in their own hands."  (our emphasis)

A far smaller cohort of the January 6 domestic terrorists are expected in Washington today, objecting to the justice being meted out for those who rioted, and implicitly celebrating their attempted overthrow of the 2020 election in order to install a mentally ill demagogue who clearly lost the election. However, in far greater numbers in state capitols and school board meeting across the nation, the domestic terrorists work continues to undermine democracy and force their toxic policies on the majority.

QOTD: Trump's "Damage That Can't Be Forgiven"

Washington Post editorialist Colbert King looks at the incredible damage done by malignant narcissist, Putin asset and racial demagogue Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump to this country, aided millions of Americans (see our post below). Read his whole article here. An excerpt:

"Whether Trump goes or stays is of little moment.

He has caused damage to an extent that only a herculean effort by a future president and a dedicated and Constitution-loving Congress can undo.

The bitterness of this election is not an accident — some kind of unforeseen departure from an “old America” to which the nation can return once the keys to the White House are turned over to the next president.

To contend that Americans ignited and exploited by Trump really, really, cross my heart and hope to die, don’t regard their fellow Americans as enemies, that they don’t hate other Americans, and that, after the final results, we won’t end up mad at each other? That is imagining an America that doesn’t exist.

Trump has encouraged Americans to offend each other. He has brought out the worst in us to satisfy his own twisted interests. The outcome of the 2020 election will not settle any of this.

Trump’s character defects, his disgusting behavior beneath the dignity of the presidency, his contempt for honesty and ethical governance have been on display since he entered the White House in 2017. And millions of Americans, as was true in the 2016 election, love what they see."

We're now seeing the flailing and lies of someone who is losing his grip on power, and who would like to freeze the vote in some states to give him a fraudulent victory, as would a banana republic dictator. But as each vote is counted and each voice is heard, his days are numbered and can't be rescued by legal briefs and maneuverings.