Monday, November 05, 2018

Tomorrow


Americans have been voting for a month. But tomorrow is the day the final count will begin. Micheal Harris writes that the choice couldn't be more stark:

A Republican vote would mean that the country now accepts the butchering of a U.S. resident and journalist by the Saudis, provided there are enough jammy contracts to be had from the people who ordered the gruesome hit on Jamal Khashoggi. That’s Al Capone economics, grafted, of course, to the usual rhetorical bull.
To support the GOP on Tuesday would be to embrace the President’s assault on free speech and the media, which he repeatedly calls the “enemy of the people.” His mantra shows exactly what he thinks of the First Amendment. To bad he doesn’t think the right to bear thoughts is as important as the right to bear arms.
A GOP vote would buttress the idea that if only America became the valley of the gun, with teachers, religious congregations, and everyone else able to carry and conceal, as Trump himself did while living in New York, the U.S. would have the best gun control in the world. All guns, all the time.
And if you are an American female and you vote Republican, it would be equal to dismissing all of the hard-fought gains women have made, from getting the vote in 1920, to running so many candidates for office in these midterm elections nearly 100 years later.

If, on the other hand, the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives, there will be an earthquake:

A vote for the Democrats would reaffirm the U.S. Constitution’s brilliance — the separation of powers and oversight of the executive branch by the legislative branch.
Under this President, the Republicans control both houses of Congress and the White House. With spineless sycophants in the House and Senate, people like Devin Nunes and Mitch McConnell, the White House simply directs the whole show. It has become, as H.L. Mencken once put it, a case of “running the circus from the monkey house.”
A vote for the Democrats will confirm the bedrock principle of the justice system that no one is above the law.
Should the Democrats win the House of Representatives, congressional committees will start doing their work again — instead of the bidding of the White House.
Donald Trump Jr., for example, could be brought before the committee to answer publicly and under oath for his meeting with Russians in the Trump Tower prior to the 2016 presidential election. Not the lies his father prepared for him on Air Force One, but the truth — or perjury charges.
His father’s financial records, including his suppressed tax returns, could be subpoenaed to determine if this is a President who has broken the emoluments provisions of the Constitution.
Those provisions prohibit the occupant of the White House from profiting from the office. Trump has obviously monetized the presidency, making money from properties like the Trump International Hotel in Washington, not to mention Mar-a-Lago and all those golf courses.

Tomorrow's vote is more than historic. It's existential. The future of the republic is at stake.

Image: The Village Voice

4 comments:

the salamander said...

.. el Tumpo in conjunction with the GOP also 'weaponized' the White House and stocked it with family, enablers & abject losers. His 'Administration' is a bizarro collection of family (Trumps) misfits such as Manafort, Flynn et al and greed driven asshats. Its essentialy a scandalous TV show starring who else.. but The Donald, Sean Hannity & hosted via Fox TV and Twitter.. and there in the background are twisted droogs named Miller & Bannon etc.. McConnell & Ryan, plus a huge collection of sold out dirtbags & political pimps called 'Governors', Congressional pukes, abject wanks like Ms Huckabee Sanders & arenas full of silly scary vacant skulls wearing red hats.

May I present the current defenders of 'Democracy' ?

That's it folks.. those and their ilk who are embracing Russia, Saudi Arabia, neo nazi 'fine folks' and the Trump real estate & country club.. Oops, there goes the Secret Service, now branched into protecting Donald Inc, Melania, Barron, Ivanka, Jerod & their school age brood, Eric, Donald Jr, all the ex wives, new girlfriends & anybroods, Pence, his flock, and presumably the golf carts, Air Force Ones, Two's, 3's, 4's, cel phones, email addy's, Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts.. whew !
who know who else.. personal lawyers ? Ex girfriends?

Owen Gray said...

They truly are a collection of the worst exemplars of our race, sal. Who would have thought that so many of them could fit into such a small space?

J MacDuff (Weatherguy) said...

I really would not care what happens to the USA, but we live next door. Their apparent insanity is not creeping north, like a caravan of "criminals" it is roaring into our politics.
If the Republicans are endorsed by "the people" then the fall of the US empire is closer and the result of that will bring down a large part of the world with it. It has happened with other empires.

Owen Gray said...

It's happened before, MacDuff. And we're watching it happen again.