Former ReSCUMlickan operative, co founder of The
Lincoln Project, now political commentator Steve Schmidt has
recently made a rather profound observation. The upcoming election
will not be an embrace of the Democratic Party which has only
recently polled ahead of the ReSCUMlickans in public confidence even
though both parties stand in historically low esteem. No, says
Schmidt, this will not be a referendum on the Democratic agenda.
This will be a simple rebuke of tRUMP and everything he and his
knuckle-dragging enablers stand for.
Schmidt compares the situation with the sinking of the
Titanic in 1912. The public has a choice, stay on board and go down
with the ship or take to the life boats. The Democrats here being
the lifeboats. Nobody, says Schmidt, voluntarily leaves an ocean
liner and climbs into a lifeboat to be lowered down in the dead of
night into the cold Atlantic facing uncertain rescue unless one knows
that the ship is going down. Nobody embraces the life boat except
under dire circumstance; and one does so long on desperation and
short on hope.
The Democrats, in Schmidt's telling, offer a short
respite in the face of certain calamity. Nothing more, nothing less.
Whether the Republic survives is still in the telling, but the shift
toward the Democracy is the only hope still beating in the heart of
America.
In
this context the movement of large segments of the voting public
toward the Democrats represents not an embrace of Chuck Schumer or
Hakeem Jeffries, nor any particular part of the Democratic agenda but
a simple demand to, in Schmidt's words, “make it stop”. This
means, simply, that upon election the primary agenda of the new
Congress is to begin investigations involving subpoenas of medical
and financial records, transcripts of all communications, and the
testimony of every member of this maladministration on a wide range
of subjects including but not limited to: bribery, selling of
pardons, foreign business deals, bitcoin and meme coin manipulations,
government contracts, medical records and the testimony of every
member of this maladministration involved in anything that does not
pass the smell test. Given the stench now wafting from the bowels of
Washington, this should take some time and will confirm all our worst
suspicions. Disgustus and his henchmen must be held to account.
In
this I quite agree. But I must also protest that to draw the line
here is to once again fall prey to ReSCUMlickan strategy. You see,
by limiting our response to accountability, as critically important
as this is, one is left with the stark reality in that the
ReSCUMlickans are still setting the agenda. This is merely a
reactive posture.
We must do more than that.
For
nearly 6 decades the middle classes have been under siege, as the
forces of neo-liberalism (that is conservatism as we understood these
terms in our youth) have savaged the working class with higher taxes
and fewer benefits; as the burden of taxation has fallen increasingly
upon main street and less on Wall Street. In response, voters have
caromed like a pinball from one political party to the other,
desperately seeking some relief. Clinton talked about a 'bridge to
the twenty first century' promising reeducation, job placement and
plenty of new 'tech' jobs. Obama promised 'hope' and 'change'.
Nothing changed. So the public, in collective disgust, heeded the
siren songs of greed as they voted ReSCUMlickan on the false hope
that the goods would fall from the Capitalist table in a bounty more
than sufficient to feed the nation.
Neither
party delivered.
This
election is unlike any preceding election, presidential or mid-term
in the last century. Nowhere on the landscape is there any serious
discussion of what we are
going to do about this mess. Instead
we are being bombarded with hundreds of millions of dollars in
political smear, character assassination, and outright lies. It's
probably just as well for the public, having heard this song far too
many times, would quickly dismiss any soothing palliatives. Who,
after all this time, could take any suggestion that we pass Medicare
for all seriously.
Everyone by now knows that the medical and insurance cartels have
such a stranglehold on the process as to make any such suggestions
ludicrous. This isn't cynicism, it's political reality born of more
than half century of abuse.
This
is why both parties stand in such low esteem. The Democrats have
betrayed the very middle class it created; and the ReSCUMlickans
never intended to come to its rescue.
Something
has to give and soon.
I'm
suggesting here that Steve Schmidt is half right. No doubt the first
order of business is to begin to staff congressional committees to
investigate every aspect of this corrupt enterprise. But it must not
stop there. Within days of the swearing in of the new Congress,
legislation must be proposed to raise the minimum wage, control
derivatives, abolish cyber currencies, break up the mega banks, the
utilities the energy cartels, and scatter them into a thousand
separate enterprises. A new era of anti trust enforcement must begin
and notice given the courts that should they interfere the Congress
will discipline the federal bench. Congress has the power of the
purse over the federal judiciary and can not only impeach jurists for
obstruction but can reorganize the entire branch of government.
For
the next two years Congress, while investigating the hell out of this
cabal currently occupying the White House, can also roll 'grenades'
up Pennsylvania Avenue by way of bills to rescue the middle class.
Laws making labor organization mandatory, reinstating air, land and
water pollution standards, raising penalties for white collar crime,
re-establishing the authority of regulatory agencies and, among other
things, redefining the concept of 'advise and consent' when it comes
to executive appointments. I suggest that instead of holding
hearings on appointments and simply voting yea or nay, that the
Senate present the 'president' with three possible persons it deems
fit for the appointment among whom he is free to choose. This under
the 'advise' part of the constitutional clause. Any other
nominations will be dead on arrival. The Constitutional Convention,
after all, came within a single vote of make the senate a committee
of the whole empowered
to manage the entire executive branch. In the end, it was decided
that this would be to unwieldy and opted for a 'president' instead.
But the Founders clearly never intended Congress, and especially the
Senate, to assume a simple passive role, something our neo fascist
adherents of the 'unitary executive' theory popular in places like
the University of Chicago and Yale simply choose to ignore.
The
Congress can and should immediately begin rolling these bills up the
Avenue and make the Bastard veto them. This would quickly
demonstrate that this clown, or anyone who could possibly succeed
him, are anything but champions of those of us who work for a living.
In addition, laws putting teeth in the Epstein files law. Laws
creating 'rocket dockets' for cases involving political corruption or
malfeasance. Laws leveling the playing field. You get the picture.
We need a new New Deal.
It
is time to shove the face of this nation into the pile of shit our
erstwhile Caesar has created and, in so doing, begin to address the
inequities not only of our economic order but our legal and political
ones as well.
In
the meantime, Congress should not wait for this 'rogues gallery' now
occupying cabinet posts to move on the 25th
amendment. Congress, under the amendment, should create its own body
to determine the unfitness of this lunatic, and remove him with all
deliberate speed.
Impeach,
Convict, Imprison.
