(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Stop saying “alternative reality”. There’s only one reality, and we need to see it or else. [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2022-08-16

Open your eyes. Only you can save democracy.

It seems there is more worry about what would happen if Trump is indicted than if he is not. This, even though the public record clearly shows criminal behavior and intent. Let’s not delude ourselves. It will be much worse if he is not indicted for crimes committed. The reality is clear.

We rely on votes to settle national disputes and make decisions about what we want our country to be. However, for some time now – since the beginning really – we as American citizens have not been represented democratically in our government because votes don’t matter when they don’t work. Gerrymandering’s purpose, for instance, is to allow a party to win more seats with less votes. As such, votes in a state could go 60% Democratic and 40% Republican, but the representatives that win under the gerrymandered districts (State and Federal) go just the opposite, 40% Democratic and 60% Republican. Votes don’t matter when they don’t work. This problem of minority rule goes beyond the House. It a problem in the Senate, Supreme Court, and the Presidency. The minority in the Senate, which is not a democratically representative body in the first place, controls the legislation because they filibuster everything the majority proposes. The duly elected President had a Supreme Court appointment stolen by the party that received less votes for President. And multiple times now, the person who became President was the person who received less votes. The peoples’ votes don’t matter when they don’t work.

You might think that the populous in the majority party that has been disenfranchised by every part of the government being ruled by the minority party would be the faction that turns to violence. They tried voting and they won with the most votes, except the losing party stole the seats and power anyway. Yet somehow, it is the populous in the minority party, which has been winning power even when the party receives less votes, that has become upset with the stolen power they already have and started turning to violence. Much of this is perpetrated by willful ignorance, but it was started with purposeful lies. This is evil begetting evil through the forked lies of serpents such as McConnel, McCarthy, Trump and others (a long list currently: Graham, Cruz, Hawley, Johnson, Gohmert, Gosar, Taylor Greene, Boebert, Jordan, Gaetz, and the rest of the 147 supporters of the violent insurrection). These bad actors are mostly to blame currently, but our election process and dual party system make this almost inevitable. There’s no need to do good when you make voters believe that the only other option is worse. The current Republican Party will not change because they are able to wield power while in the minority. And power is all. Damn the Republic.

It is going to have to be the Democratic Party that saves the American Experiment. I am actually sympathetic to Manchin’s predicament and believe that he is trying to represent the people of his state (the Great State of West Virginia). But for the greater good of the Country, for democracy itself, I think this is the time to follow Representatives Cheney and Kitzinger’s lead. Manchin needs to fall on his sword to save democracy. I’m so proud of our current Congress and the successful negotiations between Schumer, Manchin, and Sinema to begin actually addressing problems that are staring us in the face. The future world will thank them (and us voters) for tackling climate change, America’s budget deficit, and a plethora of other issues, assuming we follow through. But democracy itself is still in peril. If we do not solidify and strengthen our democratic process through legislation reforming voting, districting, and the election process for the House, Senate, and President there will not be a legitimate government for which Sinema, Manchin, or anyone else can run for office or be a part. Currently, the House of Representatives does not represent, the Senate majority cannot pass legislation (without reconciliation once a year), and the President has too often been “elected” by a minority of votes with millions more Americans voting for the other candidate. How undemocratic can a “democracy” become?

The Democratic Party, every single elected individual, must have the courage to face the consequences of circumventing the filibuster and passing the voting rights bills (Voting Rights Act and For the People Act (H.R. 1, S. 1)). Indeed, even more should be done. We need to instate more efficient election processes such as rank choice voting. Rank choice voting will stop extreme candidates from winning primary elections and becoming nominees with 25% support (which means 75% did NOT vote for them in the primary) and simultaneously stop wasting money on run-off elections. We need the safeguards against mass delusion that are in H.R. 1, S. 1, the Voting Rights Act, and the laws that will be suggested by the January 6th committee to guard against the intrinsic and insidious domestic threats that we just witnessed reach the surface. This legislation must become law or American democracy is literally doomed to fail. This is our chance, maybe our last chance, to stop the downward spiral that is minority rule.

Republican constituents didn’t start out wanting to be Mericans AGainst America. The GOP molded them into their own image, frothing at the mouth for the efficiency of their propaganda machine. The lies kept building on themselves while the actions of the Republican partiers became more and more evil. There was the initial stormy fornication, the 25 accusations of sexual misconduct, aiding Putin with changes to the Republican platform, colluding with Russia to shape the election, stealing babies from their parents, abetting Putin by extorting Ukraine and holding back military aid for dirt on a rival, fervently supporting an attempted rapist for a supreme position in government, obstructing justice, firing truthtellers, passing out pardons to guilty criminals, a fraudulent charity, a fraudulent University, fraudulent electors, trying to manifest fraudulent votes, and assassination attempts on the vice president and speaker of the house during their culminating act of a coup attempt to topple the American Government. This is reality. A reality perpetrated by the Republican Party and their facilitation of mass delusion. They are pretending that these things didn’t happen or don’t matter because the guilty parties have an R next to their name. But describing their pretending as a reality of any sort allows their narrative a tangibility that does not exist. The pretending must be confronted as the lies spew out of their mouths and any belief in the pretend narrative can only be described as the mass delusion that it is. It is not an alternative reality. PLEASE stop using this term!

It is not ridiculous to worry about the pressure in the kettle from the right if reality trumps delusion. But I worry more about the pressure from the left who have been patiently (very, very patiently) relying on our system to correct its course based on the votes of the majority. But votes don’t matter when they don’t work. And where does that leave us?

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/16/2117097/-Stop-saying-alternative-reality-There-s-only-one-reality-and-we-need-to-see-it-or-else

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/