No Time to Wallow in Defeat, Decent People Must Fight Harder To Stop Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee

The following is an editorial by PoliticusUSA’s co-publisher Sarah Jones.

The Senate Democrats could easily tie up the process for the next Supreme Court nominee and do to Trump what McConnell did to Obama, even though they don’t have the majority.

But they need to know that the Democratic base has had enough, as an “enraged Chris Matthews” said today.

Here’s the deal, though. All through Obama’s two terms and even now, when dealt a blow, Democrats retreat and you can almost hear the collective sigh as the air leaks out of their hope and they disappear to lick their wounds. This lack of fight is part of what allowed Republicans to do to Obama what they did.

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And it needs to stop now.

The reason it needs to stop instead of just being fair to stop is that it is ruining our democracy. The rules don’t apply to Republicans anymore, they just do what they want for their corporate wealthy donors and smile smugly because they know that the Russians have their backs so even elections can’t bring justice.

That’s where the Democratic base comes in. The Russians can run interference for Republicans only when the polls are so close that it’s not obvious. Only when Democrats and Independents shy away from confronting lies in public. Only when good people are silent in the face of injustice.

The time is now. Maxine Waters was right. The time is now, and if we do not fight now, it is very possible that all semblance of democracy will erode. When our votes can be stolen by a hostile foreign government and the Republican-led Congress and White House are not only enabling it to happen again but inviting it and counting on it, our country is in trouble.

So the decent people of this country, those who do not get in other people’s faces and sometimes allow themselves to be intimidated from voting by aggressively hostile Trump Republicans, we all need to get bold.

Feel defeated? Too bad. There is no time for that. It is time to fight for your country at every turn. It is time for non-violent protests everywhere. It is time to let the Democratic Party leaders know that you WILL NOT TAKE IT ANYMORE.

There will be no more calls for civility; there must be no more “what a nice guy” Mitch McConnell is. Mitch McConnell is responsible for what is happening with the Supreme Court, and down here in the trenches, in the real world, he is taking people’s rights away, undercutting their paychecks, harming their ability to take care of their families, and endangering this country by continuing to let Putin attack our elections.

I’ve been doing this for years, and I have leaned toward political tradition and civility, even when it would have benefited the causes I believe in to behave otherwise. But I am all done with that now. There is no more room for civility and tradition – not because I do not believe in those things or even value them, I do – but because to they are no longer reliable.

We can’t return to civility and tradition by allowing Republicans to destroy this country. Every time they undermine the rules and get away with it, the damage multiplies. They are like errant children who need adults in the room. And adults can’t always be nice and adults can’t always be liked.

Sometimes adults need to show the children that there are consequences to their actions. That time is now. But the leaders will not do this without the base telling them ENOUGH. The revolt is so close to the surface right now it can be felt.

And unlike Chris Matthews, I am not talking about a revolt against the Democratic Party. I hear from Republicans and Independents every day, and I have to say the Republicans are more disgusted than even the most liberal reader. Leave it to the liberals and they will be arguing about how it’s not nice to do to McConnell what he did to Obama.

Fight like a Republican, people. It is time to fight like conservatives do. Do not give up or give in in the face of defeat. Instead, you double down and you come back and you roar louder and you make more demands. You make your voice heard in every way possible. You write letters to the editors, you tweet, you confront, you work the polls, you vote, you drive voters, you insist on justice.

We must all fight now.


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