Every now and then I remind myself that less than six months ago a violent right wing mob spurred on by the last despotic president tried to overturn the last election and potentially turn the floor of the Capitol into a bloodbath.
Less than six months later it might well have never even happened. The leader responsible walks free, and led a rally this evening. His party refused to remove him from office and now refuses even to participate in an investigation of the event. They are spending their time actively dismantling majority rule and last week the Supreme Court just gave them an additional green light.
When president Biden was sworn in two weeks after the attack on the Capitol, it felt like a cloud had lifted. I no longer woke up in the morning and immediately checked to find out what That Man had done or tweeted while I was sleeping. I was teaching from home on inauguration day and got to see the ceremony and had an ugly cry. It felt like a heavy burden had been lifted. With the Senate wins in Georgia, it looked like Democrats might be able to start fixing some of the damage. Vaccines started getting delivered more efficiently, the virus was in retreat. A massive relief bill passed through Congress.
Since then it's become obvious that the Trump Years were not an aberration, and that we are still living in the political world that gave rise to him. We see this in Republican attacks on democracy and the teaching of America's true history, but also in the cowardice and lack of vision among Democrats. The filibuster is being given a higher priority than the right to vote. The restrictions on elections combined with Democrats failing to deliver is going to mean an election loss in 2022 and perhaps in 2024 as well. Once this current version of the GOP has its hands on the levers of power I don't know how meaningful future elections will be.
Nobody I know who voted for Trump seems to have second guessed their decision, ever after the insurrection. A lot of people who voted for Biden seem to think that their work is done, and are doing nothing to counter the current tidal wave of reaction. I feel like I am seeing the whole Tea Party thing play itself out again, but this time with the masked dropped and outright fascism on full display. History repeats itself: first as tragedy, then as a bigger tragedy.
As I have been writing about time and time again, our country is in the midst of a low-grade civil war, one that has been going on for about thirty years now. The problem is that only one side is aware of this fact.
At this point I just want to issue a plea to all of the people who fought so hard against Trump to get off the bench and get back out there and fight. I know we are tired, but we have had six months to rest. Time to push on the filibuster, voting rights, and the social safety net. If you are a social studies educator like me you need to get to your local school board meeting and stop the reactionaries from changing your school's curriculum into nationalist indoctrination. The power trifecta won't last long, we have to make the most of it because another opportunity like this won't be coming soon. Time to play offense instead of defense for once.
No comments:
Post a Comment