In the kakistocracy where we now reside, every day is like a dystopic, “Groundhog Day.” The details may vary, but the themes remain depressingly consistent: widening evidence of treasonous corruption from everyone in the Trump administration; fresh assaults on our basic human rights; and policy decisions driven by the idea that the desires of the ultra-wealthy trump the needs of everyone else.
This week, Budget Director Mike Mulvaney issued a budget which betrayed his ignorance of basic economics or even elementary school math. The Trump budget’s defining feature is that it strips trillions of dollars in benefits of every kind from poor and middle class Americans. Mulvaney must also believe that wealth insulates one from disease, as his budget strips funding from the CDC and NIH.
Meanwhile, the sentient mass of toxic narcissism that is our 45th President congratulates Philippine President Duterte on his success in “handling” his country’s drug problem by executing suspected drug dealers without due process of law and casually blurts out that we have nuclear submarines patrolling near North Korea!
In Congress, Mitch McConnell says with a straight face that there is no difference between the Trump administration and the administration that Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio would have led. The cynicism betrayed by that remark is stunning. While there is wide policy gap between the views of Bush and Rubio on the one hand and progressives on the other, does McConnell really believe that those men saw the presidency solely as a path to personal enrichment and would have incinerated the Constitution in pursuit of that goal?
McConnell clearly believes that the Senate’s only job is to preserve power for Republicans in order to serve the interests of those they truly represent — plutocrats who demand the absolute right to maintain their wealth unfettered by taxes, organized labor or regulation. They are heedless of the impact of their monomaniacal greed on the country or the rest of the world.
For proof of this we need look no further than the CBO score of the revised ACHA that was released yesterday, three weeks after House Republicans rammed the legislation through on a party line vote. The new and improved ACHA would cause 23 million Americans to lose their health insurance and would increase premiums for many older Americans by 800%! The CBO score reveals the ACHA to be so indefensible that Republican Congressional candidate Greg Gianforte assaulted Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs just to change the subject.
Although it is easy to be beaten down by the incessant drumbeat of dunderheaded blunders that endanger us, cruel policy and abusive behavior, we need to be mindful of what else happened this week. In Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, Edith DesMarais won a seat in the state legislature, becoming the first Democrat to win that district since 1913. In New York, Democrat Christine Pellegrino won the 9th Assembly District by a 16% margin in a district that Trump won in November with 60% of the vote.
We must view the extremist behavior we are witnessing from Republicans for what it is — desperate measures from predatory, ruthless people whose hypocrisy has been exposed. Like cornered animals, they are lashing out because more and more of us are finding the steel in our spines to resist their twisted effort to transform the American experiment into a fascist fever dream. From the intrepid reporting of The Washington Post and The New York Times, to the measured fury of ex-CIA Chief John Brennan in his Senate testimony, to Democratic women running and winning in deeply red districts, Americans are telling these bullies, “Not on our watch.” We all had better learn self-defense, because we can expect to get punched.