Diatribes of Jay

This blog has essays on public policy. It shuns ideology and applies facts, logic and math to social problems. It has a subject-matter index, a list of recent posts, and permalinks at the ends of posts. Comments are moderated and may take time to appear.

02 October 2018

Sixteen Reasons to Vote This Time for Democrats Only


[For a note on the likely electoral consequences of the GOP ramming Kavanaugh through to the Supreme Court, click here. For a note on why the issue has become personal for many, click here. For a short note on how important Professor Ford’s charges are, click here. For comment on President Obama’s decision to join the political fray, click here. For a possible path to Trump’s impeachment and removal, click here. For comment on Trump’s deal with Mexico, click here. For a brief homage to John McCain, followed by reasons to support Stacey Abrams, click here. For a brief note on vote suppression in Georgia as a reason to support Stacey Abrams, click here. For other good candidates and causes and how to contribute easily, click here. For recent posts in reverse chronological order, click here.]

It’s an open secret that Donald J. Trump is the worst president in our history. As he ages in place, with few or no changes in his thinking for decades, he only becomes more openly bigoted, more narcissistic, more erratic, more offensive, and more dangerous. (Remember that nuclear button?)

Most competent Republican pols know and understand this. But they’re like gamblers at an illegal sidewalk game. They are trying to keep their winning streaks going while the cops close in.

They can’t stop. The billionaires who finance them can’t stop either; they’ve made out big with tax and regulatory relief for themselves and their businesses. The bones their bought pols threw to ordinary people will sunset in a few years, leaving them permanently poorer and the billionaires permanently richer. Not a one of them is giving any serious thought to how this all ends.

Even Jeff Flake required an elevator harangue from two unknown females to do so much as support a real investigation into sexual assault charges against a Supreme Court nominee. Even then, the investigation might be a charade. And Flake has said he wouldn’t have done even that if he had been running for office again, rather than retiring.

So among all the confusion two things are absolutely clear. First, no change will come from the Republican pols without a change in government or some absolute catastrophe. Second, no change will come from the rich, who are on a roll regardless of consequences. Neither of these groups is thinking about you, your family, or what happens to your Social Security and Medicare when the bills come due to pay for the deficits that funded their huge tax cuts.

So if you’re not a Republican office holder, and if you’re not filthy rich, it’s up to you. You’re the only one who has nothing to gain from this insanity. And the only way you can make a dent in it is to vote for and elect as many Democrats as possible—all the way from dog catcher to US Senator. (Coincidentally, this makes voting easier than usual. You don‘t have to research the candidates; just vote by party.)

Here are fifteen more detailed reasons why you should vote Democratic—and only Democratic—to spare the country and the people we all love:
    1. To stop extremist legislation like the Trump Tax Scam, which gave a few bucks of tax relief to the middle class and millions to virtually every billionaire.

    2. To expose and stop extreme executive and regulatory action, like tearing refugee children away from their parents, or letting poisonous coal ash wash into Eastern lakes and streams in floods like Florence.

    3. To insure that legislation passes Congress only with bipartisan support.

    4. To let judges ascend to our Supreme Court only after honest and thorough investigation (as long as it takes!) of their backgrounds and all credible charges against them.

    5. To let judges ascend to our Supreme Court only with bipartisan support: in our current divisive and hyper-partisan state, that‘s the only way to be sure of their impartiality.

    6. To force Congress to take women’s concerns into account in law and policy, including on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

    7. To let at least one House of Congress investigate Russian and other foreign interference in our democracy, without a partisan axe to grind.

    8. To let at least one House of Congress investigate and expose voting rules and procedures that unfairly disenfranchise minorities, including partisan and racial gerrymandering, vote suppression and voter discouragement.

    9. To let at least one House of Congress investigate the vulnerabilities of our voting machines and voting procedures to domestic and foreign tampering, and try to fix the vulnerabilities. (Remember the Bush-Gore electoral fiasco of 2000? It didn’t involve any malevolent actors, as far as we know! How much worse could it get with malice?)

    10. To make sure that at least one House of Congress digs into the rampant corruption in our Executive Branch and reports honestly to the people, even if the Executive prevents the Department of Justice and FBI from doing anything further.

    11. To send a clear and strong signal that bigotry toward and unfair treatment of women and minorities—including innocent aliens and their children—are not the American way.

    12. To give Democrats a formal and collective forum to expose and condemn every act and statement of bigotry by Trump, his executive underlings, and complicit members of Congress (who ought to know better).

    13. To insure that when Trump and his minions tell or repeat lies there is someone in a strong public position to call them out.

    14. To punish and condemn the Republicans’ almost universal profiles in cowardice: pols who publicly condemned Trump’s bigotry and unfitness for office but became his sycophants and aided and abetted his most extreme and callous policies after he beat them.

    15. To strike a blow for decency in public life and get men of low character—they are nearly all men—out of public office, as Alabama did Roy Moore.

    16. To return our nation to a better and more decent state, when pols had to be polite, decent, unprejudiced and compromising because otherwise they couldn’t get anything done.

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posted by Jay Dratler, Jr., Ph.D., J.D. @ 10/02/2018 06:03:00 PM  

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