No! This Cannot Stand

By Dan Riker

We are going through a very rough time of American history but we can get through it and then we can reverse it. This cannot stand. We will not allow it.

The impending passage of the Republican tax bill is proof that the American democracy has been purchased by wealthy kleptocratic oligarchs only intent on getting richer with no regard for the welfare of the nation. Hundreds of billions of dollars will be transferred from the poor and middle class to the very wealthy. The national debt could be increased by at least $1.5 trillion.

The next step by the Republicans will be to try to make up some of that deficit with significant cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Those who buy their medical insurance through the Affordable Care Act will experience significant increases in premiums. There will be no funds for significant investments in infrastructure. Cutbacks in dozens of vital federal programs could occur.

The Republicans could be directly responsible for the murders of tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people on Medicare who contract cancer. They will die without treatment because Medicare coverage of cancer would be eliminated.

Student loans would cost more. Graduate students may face massive tax liabilities for any tuition waivers or grants they receive, liabilities most could not possibly pay. Will they be sent to debtor prisons?

Many Republicans admit that this bill’s only real purpose is to pay back the Party’s wealthy donors. One said that he was told by one of this donors that if the tax cut did not pass, he should not call again to ask for money. That is how crass and greedy these donors are. By caving in to this pressure – instead of supporting measures to limit big money in politics, which would immunize them from this kind of pressure – Republicans are showing pure cowardice.

Now is the time for the Democratic Party to step up and shout. “No, this will not stand!” The Party leaders, the Democratic National Committee, and state parties should all announce that these cuts are going to be temporary. As soon as we Democrats win control of the national government, this tax scam will be repealed. More than that, a much more progressive tax system will replace it, similar to what existed prior to Ronald Reagan - a system that existed during the time of the greatest prosperity of the middle class, the 1950s and 60s - a tax system that put a much heavier burden on the very wealthy and a lighter burden on the poor and the middle class. The inheritance tax will be restored. We may allow the corporate tax to remain in the 20% range but corporate loopholes, which were not eliminated in the Republican plan, will be eliminated.

Spending priorities will shift to rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, raising the minimum wage, providing health care for all, fighting climate change through fueling the growth of the wind and solar industries and ending subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. All of Trump’s climate threatening cutbacks in environmental regulation will be reversed. We also will enact a rational and humane immigration program.

We can do this. The American people still have the right to vote in most places. We Democrats have to give them the strongest possible commitment we can make that we will undo all the damage the Republicans are doing and get the country on the right track.

Trump's Threat to Liberal Democracy and How to Thwart Him

Liberal democracy around the world is in trouble. Right-wing populist authoritarians are gaining support. Putin copycats head the governments of a number of new and emerging democracies. Now, we have one.

Victor Orban, the authoritarian prime minister of Hungary, boasts that he has turned his country into an “illiberal democracy.” In other words, a democracy without rights.

Does anyone believe it can’t happen here? It’s already started.

I will try to answer two questions: Why is liberal democracy losing support? And what can be done to thwart the authoritarians?

I have drawn material from three articles in the March, 2017 issue of Atlantic, “How to Build an Autocracy.” By David Frum, “It’s Putin’s World,” by Franklin Foer, and “Containing Trump,” by Jonathan Rauch, “The Signs of Deconsolidation,” by Roberto Stefan Foa and Yascha Mounk, in the January, 2017, issue of the Journal of Democracy, and two articles in the Washington Post, “Trumpism: Made in Europe,” by E.J. Dionne, May 16, 2016 and “Americans are losing faith in Democracy – and in each other,” by Nathaniel Persily and Jon Cohen, October 14, 2016.

Why is democracy losing support? Why is an authoritarian like Trump our President? Trumpism is an import from the right-wing populists in Europe. Major factors behind the rise of right-wing populism are opposition to immigration, fears of terrorism and crime, economic nationalism, and promises of a muscular hand against the forces of disorder.

Underlying all of these are ethnic and racial fear and anxiety – the fear of the other – the fear that they are losing their majority and their culture. – that this will no longer be their country. By blocking immigration and deporting the undocumented they are trying to slow down the rapidly increasing population of minorities. In 2012, the Census Bureau forecasted that non-Hispanic whites could be in the minority by 2044 – just 27 years from now.

Last year the far-right candidate for Austria’s presidency lost by just 6/10^th of 1 %. Austrian voters also showed the same kind of geographic political, economic and cultural divide as our November election – with strong support for the authoritarian in the rural areas. The Brookings Institution reported that while Hillary Clinton carried fewer than 500 of America’s more than 3,000 counties, those counties she carried – mostly in and around major urban areas - generated 64% of the nation’s economic activity in 2015. Not only do we have the worst economic inequality among income groups in our history, we also have enormous geographic economic inequality, which is far more sinister and enormously more difficult to change.

There is huge economic anxiety among middle and working class people, especially those outside the major metropolitan areas. Across the Rust Belt, from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin there are hundreds of small cities and towns that lost their primary employers. Globalization put our middle-class workers in competition with very low wage workers in other countries. Our workers lost. Pro-big business government policies permitted massive mergers and consolidations, resulting in hundreds of plant and business closings. Walmart came to town with its low prices killing off local businesses while its employees needed public support to survive on its low wages.

Surveys discussed in the article, “The Signs of Deconsolidation,” show that young people around the world have far less faith in democracy than do their parents and grandparents. There also is a global rise of citizens wanting a strong leader. About a third of Americans want a leader who doesn’t have to bother with elections.

In mid-2012 51% of Republicans had a very unfavorable view of Kleptocrat Putin. That dropped to 14% in 2016. In January of this year a survey reported that 75% of Republicans said Trump had the right approach to Russia.

Trump does not have the support of a majority of the people but he has a solid base of support – of millions of people who believe what he says, regardless of how far from the truth it is. This is a very dangerous situation. We have as our President – I hope for not too much longer - a sociopathic narcissistic liar and bully who likes to use his power and has no morals, no conscience, no belief in democracy. 

He has to be stopped.

How can we do that?

Our Resistance must operate on multiple levels. We must vigorously oppose everything Trump and the Republicans do that threatens the nation. Without that opposition, millions could lose their health insurance, massive pollution of lakes and rivers could resume, nothing will be done to slow climate change, millions will be deported, maybe even the dreamers, and economic inequality will increase because he is not going to bring back those jobs. All he is going to do is help the rich get richer. And he may start a big war.

We must document and publicize the damage he does, challenge his programs in court, and demonstrate over and over. There already is active and organized opposition. There are networks of organizations working together to oppose Trump. We must help to grow that opposition. It may be that some of us are not suited to demonstrating, but we can publicize the demonstrations through social media. We can donate money. We can phone bank.

We need to show support for our elected Democrats who oppose Trump. Write letters to our senators and our members of the House. Letters are better than emails but you can do both. Call their local offices as well. Tell them how strongly you oppose Trump and how much you appreciate their opposition. If you are able to donate money to them, please do so. That makes a really good impression. Also, write our state public officials to reinforce their resistance to Trump. There is a lot that can be done.

We also must win over some of those who voted for Obama and then for Trump. Americans want change but they probably are not going to be happy with the changes Trump brings. Bashing and opposing Trump, alone, will not bring us victories. We have to show them that we understand their issues and are sincere in wanting to address them. To win, we must also offer viable, practical alternatives that will make a difference in their lives. Those alternatives are progressive programs and progressive government.

Progressive government means doing for the people what they need done but cannot do for themselves. We need higher wages and thus we need a much higher minimum wage. We need national health insurance – Medicare for all. We need a concentrated attack on climate change and an end to our reliance on fossil fuels. We need roads and bridges, and high speed trains. We need to end the war on drugs and legalize marijuana. We need to raise taxes on the wealthy and reform our corporate tax system. We need to improve Social Security. We must regulate Wall Street. These are just some of the things that the people need but cannot do for themselves. Progressives will do them.

Because there is an enormous deficit of historical knowledge among our population, we must go to them and show them how progressive governments and programs improved the lives of the vast majority of Americans.  It happened three times during the 20^th Century – in the time before WW1, during the Great Depression and during the 1960s. Out of progressive government came food and drug regulation, anti-trust and pro-labor laws, women getting the right to vote, social security, the minimum wage, bank regulation, Medicare, Medicaid, integration of public schools and public facilities, voting rights protection, Headstart, and much more. In fact, almost every popular federal program came from progressive government.

We can make the Democratic Party the progressive party. We are doing right now here in Oregon. Since last year, we progressive activists – many of us veterans of the Bernie Sanders campaign - have taken control of a number of county parties, and we may be on the verge of taking control of the state party. It’s happening in other states as well. By so doing here and across the nation, we can recruit and help elect progressive candidates for every public office from the local school boards to the national Congress.

Progressives will bring reforms and programs which will begin to solve the economic and geographic inequalities. If economic anxiety is lessened, maybe racial and ethnic anxiety also will diminish.

The danger to democracy is real and is growing as more and more people lose faith in it. Trump could accelerate that loss of faith. Our successful opposition to Trump may restore it. We must block him and go to the people with better ideas and better candidates for public office. There is no time to lose.

David Frum’s article in the Atlantic is a must-read and his conclusion will be mine:

“We are living through the most dangerous challenge to the free government of the United States that anyone alive has encountered. What happens next is up to you and me. Don’t be afraid. This moment of danger can also be your finest hour as a citizen and an American.”