<Self-Portrait In Mirror
W/Mask: 3:00 AM/
The Reckoner>
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A message from Voters Not Politicians, for those who care about democracy, and want to stop Trump's latest coup attempt, coming Monday afternoon, to Michigan:Last week, we witnessed what happens when citizens speak out and stand up for democracy.
During the Wayne County Board of Canvassers meeting, hours of passionate public comment by activists, elected officials, and clerks ensured that voters’ voices were heard and that the city of Detroit’s votes were counted.
Now, it’s time for all of us to stand up together and speak out again to ensure that Michigan’s votes are counted and that no voter is silenced.
Tomorrow (11/23), the Board of State Canvassers will meet to certify the state’s election results.
All 83 Michigan counties have certified their results. The duty of the State Board of Canvassers is simply to affirm their work and certify the results for the state. Any attempts to delay the process are a subversion of standard election procedures and represent a bald-faced attempt to delay election results. The Board of State Canvassers needs to do their job on Monday, full stop.
There will be a period of public comment during the meeting on Monday. It is critical that we take this opportunity to make our voices heard and to demand that the four-member Board of State Canvassers protect our democracy and uphold the will of the people.
Today at 1 PM EST, a form will open to sign up to speak live during the meeting. The order will be first come, first serve. I urge you to be prepared to sign up immediately at 1 PM today.
You can find the form here at 1 PM today: https://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,4670,7-127-1633_41221---,00.html
This is one of the most critical moments in our state’s history. The future of our democracy hinges on decisions that will be made tomorrow, and we have the power to protect our democracy.
We each have a voice and we must make sure our voices are heard.
Thank you for standing with democracy,
Nancy Wang
Executive Director
Voters Not Politicians
Featuring MI House Speaker Lee Chatfield,
and State Rep. Jim Lilly (among others).
What are they cooking up, we wonder?
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Here we go again. Or maybe we should say, "There you go again," Gipper-style, to the Michigan state lawmakers who apparently couldn't resist the lure of an invite to the White House, because, well, The Orange Murder Hornet, Donald Trump, wanted to discuss something-or-other with them.
Cookie recipes from Slovakia, as only Melania can make them? Not likely. He needed a partner or two for a euchre game? Don't think so. Maybe he wanted to share a business tip or two, since they did stay at the Trump International Hotel, in Washington, DC? Hardly, unless he wants to teach them the fine art of shafting others, as only he knows how.
Well, the dust has settled, and the deans of Michigan's state Republican delegation, House Speaker Lee Chatfield and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, are claiming that Trump didn't invite them this weekend to discuss his latest coup tactic -- cook up some type of electoral crisis, then crowbar election officials into going along, by canceling out enough votes to throw the state to him. If they don't buckle? Then try to drag out the certification process, so GOP-dominated legislatures, like Michigan, appoint pro-Trump presidential electors.
No, Chatfield and company claim, none of those things were on the agenda. They simply went for a chat, and lobby Trump to get more COVID-19 relief for Michigan. That doesn't square with Donald Trump's reputation as a notoriously transactional guy, one who's never shy about voicing his demands, Janet Jackson-style: "What have you done for me lately?"
But even without Trump's latest threat against democracy hanging over our heads, the Michigan GOP group's cover story makes little sense, because it's not like they're doing anything lately to help their battered and beleaguered constituents. The above photo is one of several already making the media rounds, as Chatfield and company sip champagne at $495 a pop.
It's a remarkable image, one reminiscent of some Cosa Nostra sitdown, minus the FBI telephoto graininess to spoil the effect. They're not making any effort to hide themselves, nor their pricey drinks, with nary a mask in sight, nor any sign of social distancing, as critics have already noted.
Meanwhile, 30 to 40 million Americans face eviction, and millions more risk losing basic power and water, once those unpaid utility bills come flying across the dinner table. Food insecurity has never been deeper, nor wider, and nearly 100,000 businesses have already closed their doors for good. Two in three hotels may not last another six months, while 40 percent of all US restaurant owners expect to go belly up by March, unless the federal government kicks in more support.
With so much widespread suffering, amid all the grim facts I've just rattled off, you really have to wonder what's going on in people's minds. The whole vibe of the photo makes me think this bunch has really taken the chorus of "The Fame" (Oasis) waaayyy too close for comfort: "I'm a man of choice in my old Rolls Royce, and I'm howling at the moon/Is my happening too deafening for you?"
Even so, the photo fits the GOP's long-standing malignant consistency. I've seen this attitude creeping into countless letters to the editor, as in: They may be turds, but they're our turds. Or something along these lines: They may be turds, but they're consistent turds. That's why I voted for them. To keep the libs in check. End of argument.
Shades Of What Might Have Been (Sigh)...*
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Meanwhile, the Skulduggery Express and its unhinged driver, Trump, continues to barrel ahead, scratching for some miracle that will allow him an equally disastrous second term, one that requires subverting and overturning an election that his opponent won by some six million notes. The scary thing is that he nearly succeeded, when the Wayne County Board of Canvassers initially deadlocked, 2-2, on certifying its votes, a move that might have kick-started the additional chaos that Trump seeks to generate with his relentless, last-minute flurry of Hail Mary maneuvers.
The certification only went ahead after the two Republicans reversed themselves (only to try and walk back their reversal, a luxury that Michigan law doesn't allow, thankfully). Today, the action heats up at the State Board of Canvassers' meeting, where -- once again -- we'll have to sweat what should be a routine procedure, since the Canvassers aren't supposed to play detective. That work, in theory, has already been done by the local election officials on the ground, many of whom have decades of experience in dealing with them.
Once more, we'll have to see if the two Republicans join their two Democratic colleagues in certifying the results. (Honestly, does anybody out there still think an even-numbered body still sounds like a good idea, especially for these situations?) And once more, we'll function as Trump's favorite pinatas or stress monkeys, depending on his mood, because that's how he does business. Remember, we're still stuck with him for eight more weeks.
Looking back on the Trump era's turbulence, I've concluded that his real achievement, other than relentless self-promotion, is his ability to freeze the future. We watched it happen in 2016, as Trump threw enough shade at his rival, Hillary Clinton, to convince voters that a deeply flawed non-politician's time had finally arrived; experience be damned.
We saw it again this year, as Bernie Sanders's second presidential campaign ran aground on the rocks of fear and loathing from voters simply too terrified of a potential second Trump term, to envision a better future, let alone a tomorrow that might pass the smell test (as in, "only mildly awful," or even, "somewhat tolerable").
We're seeing that futuristic deep freeze playing out anew, on both sides. Trump's public mulling of a 2024 comeback, as many pundits have noted, will set the Republican field in cement till then. The net result will either be a party that struggles to turn the page, or one that's ready to follows him down whatever crackpot paths he cares to dragoon them. (Time will tell, but for now, I'm betting on the latter outcome.)
By refusing to concede the election to Biden, and rolling out blizzards of lawsuits, amid his electoral coup attempts, Trump also binds the nation ever more closely to him as a fellow political codependent, even though it's a largely unwilling one. (Remember, as any counselor will tell you, the greatest danger for anyone trying to end an abusive relationship is when the victim finally feels ready to leave it.)
The Democratic side remains equally frozen, at least for now, as Biden and his team figure the lay of the land. Prospects for many progressive priorities, like the Green New Deal, or Medicare For All, seem terribly dim, since the Democrats couldn't root out many of Trump's chief enablers in the Senate, while their U.S. House of Representatives majority shrank from, "safely outside the margin of error," to, "little room for error."
Not surprisingly, the neoliberal gargoyles of administrations past -- like former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who served under Clinton (1999-01), and led the National Economic Council, under Obama (2009-10) -- are already working and wooing Team Biden to focus mainly on triage, and let the bigger goals go. However, while there's no escaping the need for national triage, in light of COVID-19 and the economic crater it created, we're not obligated to wait for permission to keeping raising our issues, no matter how inconvenient they seem.
That goes doubly so for retreads like Summers, who popped up this past week to roll out the same tired arguments against canceling student debt, as progressives like Elizabeth Warren have proposed (yes, the rich hold more debt; no, they're in a better position than the urban poor and middle classes, who take much longer to repay it). Such spectacles only make the loss of a Bernie Sanders presidency cut all the more deeply, to those of us who dared to imagine such a thing.
As The Intercept notes below, the long-standing Democratic reluctance to "go big" effectively created the openings for Trump's emergence, and allowed him the luxury to keep chipping away at the very system that he so effectively gamed in the first place.
While we can't undo all the damage that's effectively kept Democrats stuck in the penalty box for much of the last decade, we can resolve to strike a different path -- "a government that can give people that kind of soaring common purpose, one that is expansive enough to have a meaningful role for everyone who wants it," as the Intercept's piece asserts, in part. That type of leadership "is also best positioned to begin to heal the political ruptures that are ripping apart this country."
In many ways, the biggest battles still lie ahead of us. But for now, however, defending democracy must take center stage today, as the above letter notes. You have the link, and you have the opportunity. Otherwise, we'll continue hearing those timeworn phrases ringing in our ears, like the oft-mangled quote from writer-philosopher George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Or, as the Intercept's article states:
"The truth, as usual, is we have to do it all: Stop the Republicans from stealing an election they lost and stop the Democrats from blowing a mandate they won."
Let the people take it from there. --The Reckoner
<Coda>
UPDATE (5:35 p.m., 11/23/20): The Board of Canvassers has just upheld Michigan's election results, 3-0, with one abstention, appearing to put stake in the heart of Trump's Weimar-era-esque dreams of following in his idols' goosesteps. But the long term work continues, and the challenge remains, as the following statement from Voters Not Politicians makes amply clear:
"Our democracy was put to the test this year and Michigan voters rose to the challenge.
"Just moments ago, the majority of the Board of State Canvassers ultimately followed the law, upheld the will of the people, and voted to certify the results of the election.
"The national spotlight was strongly focused on Michigan and the will of the people has – and will continue to – prevail.
"Voters Not Politicians volunteers played a pivotal role in this election, working with local clerks for over a year to expand voting access, which became imperative amid the global pandemic.
"We worked day in and day out to educate voters on the safe, secure, and convenient options available to them to cast their ballots, and the historic turnout definitively showed that when our democracy is more accessible, our elections more accurately reflect the will of the people.
"However, this process — which was meant to be a ministerial role — proved that we must continue to stand up and defend our democratic institutions and to ensure that the will of the people is upheld.
"We look forward to continuing to improve our democracy through direct civic engagement.
"Thank you for standing strong to protect democracy today,
Nancy Wang
Executive Director
Voters Not Politicians."
Links To Go (Hurry, Hurry,
Before Our Democracy Gets Tossed Under The Bus):
The Intercept
Now We Have To Fight Trump's Tinpot Coup --
Yahoo News
Michigan GOP Officials Were Pictured Drinking Champagne...
(*Sorry, I don't have the source for this image, or I can't find it: I will give credit or take down entirely, depending on preference. Thanks.)
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