gracchusdixit

The documentary film maker and liberal firebrand, Michael Moore, recently issued a passionate warning and exhortation to the American people.  He warned that our democracy is in imminent danger.  He exhorted us take to the streets, not merely in protest, but in active civil disobedience, even at the risk of arrest, to stop the Trump administration in its tracks before it is too late.  

Let it be said that Moore was one of the few on the left who foresaw the election of Donald Trump, all the while the pundit class took it for granted that Hillary Clinton was going to win.  He was right then.  Is he right now?  Since Moore is political, polemical and filled with passionate intensity, it is fair to ask whether his passion has, in this case, turned into hysterical hyperbole.   

I believe the answer to that question is:  no.

For anyone with open eyes, it is no longer possible to ignore the awful truth that our democracy has been hijacked by what amounts to a right-wing coup d’état.  Donald Trump became president with the connivance of a hostile foreign power, despite losing to Hillary Clinton by three million votes.  Republicans kept their grip on the Senate, after a majority of Americans voted for Democrats. All three branches of the federal government and a majority of the states are now in the hands of radical conservatives, not because they were able to win fair elections, but because of gerrymandering and voter suppression. 

The perpetrators of this coup d’état are intent on imposing their retrograde agenda on an unwilling nation, regardless of public opinion or the popular will.  Virtually everything these right-wing bolsheviks stand for—extravagant tax cuts for the rich, the abolition of health care protections for those with pre-existing conditions, the unfettered ability of corporations and billionaires to buy elections, the wholesale right of gun fetishists to buy any sort of obscene military weapon they choose—is opposed by large majorities of the American people.  Yet none of this matters to those now in charge.  They are intent on advancing their agenda, if need be, by silencing, intimidating, and quashing those who oppose or even question them.

Thus far at least, this coup has been non-violent, but it is by no means certain that its perpetrators will not eventually resort to violence if they don’t get their way.  In the name of “law and order,” the President and Attorney General of the United States have shown themselves to be more than willing to violate constitutional protections and fundamental human rights.  Why should we expect them to be squeamish about using force to protect themselves, preserve their power, and impose their diktats on the rest of us?   If ICE agents can round up helpless immigrants in the dead of night and jail or deport them without due process, Trump’s stormtroopers can someday come looking for the likes of you and me.

If that sounds a bit shrill, consider what happened last week, when Trump’s henchmen in the House of Representatives let loose on the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Assistant Attorney General of the United States in a scandalous display of mendacity, partisan venom, and intimidation.  Like spittle-spewing Nazi judges, they pummeled and humiliated two life-long civil servants, men of integrity and Republicans to boot.  The sole purpose of this shameful display—a true “witch hunt” if ever there was one—was to provide cover to the political gangster they serve.

To make matters worse, our last institutional bulwark, the Supreme Court of the United States, is on the verge of crumbling.  The first crack in the dike came in 2000, when conservatives on the Court abandoned all sense of impartiality by installing George W. Bush as president, despite the fact that Al Gore had won the popular vote.  The crack widened in 2016, when Mitch McConnell stole a seat on the Supreme Court by stonewalling Barack Obama’s appointment of Merritt Garland, violating all precedents and political norms.  Justice Anthony Kennedy’s suspiciously convenient decision to retire before the November election, has widened the crack to a gaping hole, through which the flood waters will soon rush in. 

Many have romanticized Kennedy as a “moderate” voice on the court.  Despite occasional and quixotic departures from right-wing theology, he is and always was a conservative through and through.  We have Kennedy to thank for Bush v. Gore, Citizens United, Masterpiece Bakers, and the validation of Trump’s Muslim ban.  His replacement will be even worse, which means that Roe v. Wade, gay marriage, voter rights, what remains of the Affordable Care Act, environmental protections, and the freedom of workers to organize will all soon be on the chopping block.  More dark money from corporations and billionaires will pour into Republican coffers, with the purpose of making their political control permanent.  It will take decades, perhaps generations, for us to dig ourselves out of this hole, if we ever do.

If we are to have any hope of that happening, we must stop pretending that this coup d’état is in any way part of a normal political process and, instead, recognize it for what it is:  the hostile take-over of our government by a hateful minority.  We must ignore those who say that calls for Donald Trump’s impeachment come from malcontents and sore losers, simply because they refuse to accept his election.  We must turn a deaf ear to those who sanctimoniously demand “civility” for members of the Trump administration, each and every one of whom lies for a living and willingly serves a criminal.  We must fiercely insist that neither Trump nor his party have any legitimate or lawful right to govern the country.

I am 69 years old, and I have led a fortunate life, thanks in large part to an America that is disappearing before my eyes.  Like many others, my wife and I made the mistake of thinking that the trajectory of our lives would continue on its course, largely untouched by the vagaries of history.  It is inescapably clear that lives such as ours can no longer be led, or expected, in this country of ours.  History has caught up with us all, and it cannot be ignored.