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On Being Civil To Incivility (Part 4): Death of Democracy in America- The Republican Endgame [1]
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Date: 2023-03-17
On March 7, the rather excellent Salon senior writer, Chauncey DeVega, published an article titled, Too little, too late: Why the Media Goes Missing When Republicans Go On the Offensive, and one that strikes to the very heart of this title's theme, now in its fourth installment.
In it, DeVega correctly notes:
"The rise of Trumpism and American neofascism was decades in the making. Contrary to what the hope peddlers, wish casters and professional centrists in the political media would like to believe, the roots of this democracy (and larger cultural crisis) are very deep and the poison they have unleashed is not going away any time soon."
No it isn't. But fact is, the death of democracy has been the Republican endgame for well over a decade.
They tried to end democracy by conspiring to obstruct the functions of government during Obama's presidency, by resorting to threats of shutting down government in order to enforce their will, and by refusing to even allow a vote on Obama's Supreme Court pick, threatening to never fill the 9th seat should Hillary be elected.
They tried to end democracy by electing Donald Trump, a demagogue and wanna-be dictator for life, and, via their complete subservience to him, by willingly giving him "the power to do what he had the power to do," to use his words. For which they failed (and still fail) to hold him accountable.
And they tried to end democracy when they tried to re-elect this fascist. After which, they tried to end democracy when they conspired with him to overturn the election, their representatives and their Fox "news," knowingly lying to them, to promote the BIG lie and thwart the will of the electorate.
Then they tried to end democracy when Trump incited insurrection, and his violent mob stormed the Capitol on January 6th, an attempted coup that was later sanctioned by the RNC as "legitimate political discourse."
And after which 147 Republicans voted to overturn the election results - voted to usurp the will of the people.
Yet, that was only the beginning.
Because having failed to kill democracy each of those other times, they began conspiring to undermine it through the rubber-stamping of a series of voter suppression laws across the country, as well as a number of other political maneuvers that would STILL allow them to overturn the vote and/or ignore election results THEY don't like... in an all out assault upon the integrity of our elections and the basic principles of our democracy.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
They are presently trying to end democracy in MAGA controlled states via their efforts to seize control of democratic inner cities, removing the power from the electorate therein, via their efforts in Texas to bring cases that portend to impact the whole country, before cherry picked conservative judges they know would rule in their favor,
via their efforts to ban and silence any instruction in our schools that acknowledges true history, including that having to do with slavery and the Holocaust, and any other knowledge that runs counter to their fascist ideologies.
They are trying to end democracy via their embrace of hate based sentiment, racism, bigotry and anti-Semitism. Via their assault upon women's rights, the LGBTQ community, upon separation of church and state, diversity, equity and inclusion...
all of that and more, in MAGA's continued quest to replace democratic principles with something far more sinister and FULL OF MALICE. As DeVega aptly puts it, "poison unleashed."
And the kicker is, much of the media, and possibly too much of America have, to date, responded far too sedately to the threat.
DeVega writes:
"...when Trump announced that he would seek to capture the White House in 2016, loud warnings and alarms have been sounding about how neofascism and naked white supremacy are a clear, present and growing danger in this country. The mainstream news media, political class and other elites, however, responded with laughter and shrugs because they lied to themselves, whispering fables into each other's and their own ears, that what Donald Trump and his movement represented could never win power here in America. Of course, they were wrong."
Too often and for too long I (and I'm certain others here as well) have watched and wondered aloud at the lukewarm responses and hesitancy in the mainstream media and TV news networks to call a spade a spade. The hesitancy to call out hate, supremacy, and raw fascism for exactly what it IS.
A hesitancy, for example, to show rightful outrage at candidates and elected officials, in Congress and elsewhere, when they call for, endorse, and incite violence, terrorism, and sedition. And a tendency to be too dismissive of the implications. ALL, causes for alarm.
The actions and rhetoric from the MAGA right are hostile and dangerous. Their incessant bile, venom and hate, an assault upon our senses and sensibilities..
So, why are THEY the ones still making the most noise?
[END]
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