The Great Enemy Of Democracy, Part 3

There's a war being fought over the right to vote. Both sides agree that voting is our foundational right. They differ on who should have it.

As of late February there were no fewer than 253 bills with the goal of restricting voting access on the calendars of 43 state legislatures.

There is one bill in front of Congress that would quash them all, and it has Trump worked up in a big way:

"Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in Congress are racing to pass a flagrantly unconstitutional attack on the First Amendment and the integrity of our elections known as H.R. 1. . . . Their bill would drastically restrict political speech, . . . And turn the Federal Election Commission into a partisan political weapon. In addition, it virtually eliminates voter ID requirements nationwide, effectively ends all registration deadlines. . . . Requires states to give ballots to felons, automatically registers every welfare recipient to vote, and puts unaccountable unelected bureaucrats in charge of drawing congressional districts."¹

Nonsense! H.R. 1, or the For the People Act 2021, has these goals: "To expand Americans’ access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, strengthen ethics rules for public servants, and implement other anti-corruption measures for the purpose of fortifying our democracy, and for other purposes."²

H.R. 1 is a huge, sweeping bill that aims to undo years of unjust electoral legislation, restore the vote to perennially disenfranchised groups, expand voting access to all eligible Americans, reduce the influence of huge political donors while making it easier for small donors to have an impact, do away with the racist practice of gerrymandering, and strip away layers of racist barriers to voting that date back to the Jim Crow era.

Trump hates it. Republicans fear it.

Let's look at just a few things Trump doesn't like about it:

We'll get that "unconstitutional" nonsense out of the way first. H. R. 1 is above all about making voting as easy and efficient as possible, which is fully in accord with the history of the Constitution. Six of the 27 constitutional amendments expand access to voting.

Now to his specific complaints from CPAC. H.R. 1 will:

"Drastically restrict political speech." Subtitle C of the bill calls for greater accountability and transparency regarding political advertising and greater security against foreign involvement in elections. Subtitle D, cutely titled "Stand By Every Ad," requires full disclosure of all who pay for every ad. Openness and honesty and light in dark corners--of course Republicans don't like it.

"Make the Federal Election Commission a partisan weapon." For years the FEC has been stymied by having 6 members divided equally by party, so it became paralyzed and unable to act. H.R. 1 reduces the membership to five (2 Rep., 2 Dem) with an independent chairperson and gives the commission more enforcement authority over election irregularities. Commission members are term-limited to avoid staleness. Trump and his cronies have been happy with a toothless FEC that let them get by with all kinds of shenanigans. No more.

"Eliminate voter ID requirements nationwide, effectively end all registration deadlines." H.R. 1 promotes internet voter registration and requires automatic registration for everyone who provides their information to a state office (e.g. DMV, public assistance, or a state college). Registration becomes an opt-out, rather than an opt-in procedure. The bill further requires all states to offer same day registration to ensure no voter misses out due to any event or phenomenon that might have prevented their early registration.

"Require States to give ballots to felons." That would be felons who have completed any prison sentence. Trump is terrified of this section for one reason: About 55% of the approximately 5 million Americans who can't vote due to a felony history are Black and Latinx.

"Automatically register every welfare recipient to vote." Noted above regarding registration in state programs. Of course people in need should be able to vote. They're Americans.

"Puts unaccountable unelected bureaucrats in charge of drawing congressional districts." Trump talking about accountability? That's rich. Subtitle E will end partisan gerrymandering by establishing uniform rules for all states. Nonpartisan commissions with equal party representation and representation from significant minority communities will be responsible for redrawing districts equitably. Far from being unaccountable, these commissions will face the highest accountability: meetings will be open and voters will judge for themselves whether they have acted fairly.

H.R. 1 will provide voting access to uncounted Americans who have been disenfranchised by reason of race, poverty, disability, criminal history, or shamefully kept from the polls by their own states. Republicans want to count only "legal" votes--i.e. votes for Republicans.

This incredibly important piece of legislation affects us all directly. It has passed the House. The Senate version, called S. 1, is up next. Please contact your senators and urge them to pass it.

Trump tried to wreck democracy and disenfranchise all of us. 

He failed. Our turn.

 

--- Diogenes, 3/9/2021

 

¹ Donald Trump remarks at CPAC, 2/28/21. I have edited for brevity and typos only.

² Link to full text: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1/text    Link to annotated checklist: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/annotated-guide-people-act-2021#t1-top 

 

 

 

 

The Great Enemy Of Democracy, Part 2

Donald Trump is not a competitor. To be a competitor one accepts the rules of the contest, competes fairly, and is prepared to accept defeat. Trump does none of these. The greatest insult he can hurl at someone is "loser." 

In the Trumpverse there are only winners and losers, and he is the champion winner. Winning must be accomplished at any cost. Fairness isn't in Trump's lexicon. It's a word that losers use. True winners fight, cheat, gouge, and bite. Winning is all that matters. For a natural-born winner losing is impossible.

Consider a few statements from his CPAC appearance:*

"No president has ever lost an election after carrying Florida, Ohio, and Iowa. And I won them all. . . . I won 94% of the primary vote, no incumbent president who received more than 75% of the primary vote has ever lost an election.

"So how the hell is it possible that we lost? It’s not possible. I got more votes. I got more, which is me, when I say I, I’m talking about we. We, we got more votes than . . . any incumbent president in the history of our country."

Setting aside the question of veracity, Trump here turns to meaningless historical coincidence to explain away his loss, because in his mind losing is simply impossible. He can't accept that more people voted for someone else than for him.

He attacks the electoral process itself and lays into the Supreme Court; he even blames COVID-19: 

"They [Democrats] used COVID as a way of cheating. That’s what happened, and everybody knows it. Hundreds of thousands and millions of ballots, . . .

"I mean, it’s being studied, and the level of dishonesty is not to be believed. We have a very sick and corrupt electoral process that must be fixed immediately. This election was rigged, and the Supreme Court and other courts didn’t want to do anything about it.

"They didn’t have the courage, the Supreme Court. They didn’t have the courage to act, but instead, used process and lack of standing. I was told the President of the United States has no standing. It’s my election. It’s your election. We have no standing. . . . They didn’t have the guts or the courage to make the right decision."

Trump's inventiveness in slinging blame is astounding. Who else would blame a virus? But he must cast blame, because he can never lose.

He goes on to set out what must be done to ensure a "fair" election, i.e. one in which people who oppose him would face barriers to voting:

"We must have voter ID, voter ID. . . . We need universal signature matching. . . . There should be a 100% requirement to verify the citizenship of every person who votes, and there must be a chain of custody protections for every ballot, every ballot. 

"We need one election day, not 45, 30, one day like it’s been. . . . One day, one day, and the only people that should be allowed to vote by mail are people that can be proven to be either very sick, or out of the country, or military where they can’t do it. One day.

Trump's lack of understanding of the Constitution shows in these statements. Determinations on the method of voting are are the purview of the states.

Trump's ultimate goal is the remolding of the United States of America into his ideal state, which I've been calling Trumptopia. He sees himself as a potentate ruling over a state devoid of minorities, and closed to immigration:

"It’s insane within his first few hours Biden eliminated our national security travel bans on nations plagued by terrorism. His first priority was to open our borders to un-vetted travelers from Libya, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, and many other countries where strict vetting cannot occur.

"Biden’s radical immigration policies aren’t just illegal. They’re immoral. They’re heartless. And they are a betrayal of our nation’s core values. It’s a terrible thing that’s happening. 

"The Biden policy of releasing criminals into the US interior is making America into a sanctuary nation where criminals, illegal immigrants, including gang members and sex offenders are set free into American communities.

"The Biden people are pushing a bill that would grant mass amnesty for millions of illegal aliens while massively expanding chain migration."

Trump's rabid xenophobia paints all foreigners as criminals bent on raping, looting, and destroying America. They seem to be waiting by the millions just on the other side of international borders or in the arrival lounges of airports from where they will pounce on us.

Let's parse just one of the above paragraphs:
"Biden’s radical {?} immigration policies aren’t just illegal. They’re immoral. {How are the policies radical, illegal and immoral? What laws do they violate? What moral code do they insult?} They’re heartless. {Is he now expressing sympathy for the migrants?} And they are a betrayal of our nation’s core values. {Which values? America has always been a refuge for anyone seeking a better life--e.g. Trump's draft-dodging grandfather Friedrich, who immigrated in 1885}. It’s a terrible thing that’s happening." {Note the negative reinforcing language and innuendo.}

Watch and listen. It's painful, but all Americans should be listening to Trump's pronouncements, noting his lies and calling him out. He's no longer news, so the major networks won't be covering him so much. But his cult army is still out there and we need to pay attention to what they're hearing.

To be continued.

--- Diogenes, 3/6/2010

*These quotes are taken directly from the published transcript. I have edited them for length and cleaned up a few typos.

 

The Great Enemy Of Democracy, Part 1

I have a friend who wears a pin with the Union Jack design and the caption "Make America Great Britain Again." Donald Trump would be OK with that if he could emulate King John, who is universally considered the worst English king ever.

Of course it's not the United States of America he wants to reign over. It's his branded autocratic state, Trumptopia, a cloud cuckoo land where being great again means being white and dumb. 

In his appearance at CPAC February 28 Trump rehashed his Big Lie with embellishments, and lashed out fiercely against the Biden administration. In full tyrant mode he predictably blamed the Democrats for all the misdeeds he perpetrated while in office and took credit for their achievements. 

The whining was whinier, the self aggrandizement bigger, the boasts more boastful, the threats against democracy more vile--a clear sign of his desperate need for attention. Only Fox News televised the event, unfiltered and with no fact checking.

Brainwashing is Trump's primary weapon. He wields it like a sledgehammer, but he understands the basic theory, which is really pretty simple.

First you identify the core subjects. Not hard. Trump aimed directly at lower-class, lower-income white Americans who are inherently bigoted through generations of racism. He played on their fear of losing jobs to foreigners, on their anger at the rise of minorities, and on their perception that everybody is against them. And he commiserated with their indignation at having to accept a Black president.

He rolled out the most absurd conspiracy theories, but because it was he, an important white man in the news and on social media, they listened and believed. They were hooked.

Reeling them in: 

You start with the Big Lie, bringing it out early and repeating it as often as possible. Tell your followers the same thing continually and with conviction, and they will come to believe it and repeat it. 

You tell it even when it makes no sense to tell it. Why talk about mail-in voting months before the election? To get it into your subjects' heads. You say forcefully that the upcoming election will be corrupt. How do you know this? Are you a prophet? Doesn't matter. Get it into their heads. You start talking about how there's rampant corruption in the electoral process, especially in areas with high Latino and Black populations. Get it into their heads.

You use negatively reinforcing language: The corruption is terrible, the situation is disgusting, the voting fraud is massive, the opposition's policies are crazy, insane, and the media and anyone else who disagrees is fake--always, always fake.

You plant seeds of insecurity: "Everybody knows this, everybody agrees I'm right." If they don't know what the subject is, they'll scramble to learn. You ask open-ended and leading questions: "What's that all about?" Having opened the door, you tell them what it's all about. Finally you throw a crumb to their knowledge: "You know what went on there, don't you?" Well, yes, they do know, because they've been told by the Leader.

That takes care of the plebes. But you also have to have support from higher-ups, so you go to work on Republican politicians.

Trump is a master at exploiting weaknesses and vulnerabilities. He went straight to every politician's greatest fear: losing elections. With lost elections come reductions in power, visibility, access, influence, respect, and self confidence. 

Trump promised Republican politicians freedom from those fears if only they would fall into line behind him. And he was careful to point out how many conservative Americans he could control. 

He played the upper crust just as he had the commoners, but additionally, by lesson and by example, taught them Doublethink: the ability to hold two conflicting ideas in one's mind simultaneously.¹ Thus they could echo the Leader's practice of saying one thing while meaning the direct opposite--and over time they would come to believe what he and they said.

Having constructed his cult, Donald Trump, the Great Pretender and Liar-in-Chief, launched his campaign to become an autocrat.

To be continued.

 

--- Diogenes, 3/4/2021

 

¹ See my January 13, 2021, post: "2020(21) = 1984"

A Time For Silence

The most obnoxious conservative demagogues, including cult master Trump himself, have spent the weekend at CPAC sniping at and denigrating the president, his administration, and anyone else who doesn't agree with them, reading from the same tired old script and spinning the same old lies. 

I've never known a group of people with less imagination and invention. They can't even make up new untruths.

When he was President Obama's point guard, then-Vice President Biden sparred and traded political jabs with true heavyweights around the world. The small voices at CPAC are like so many gnats.

President Biden should do what he does best: stay cool, focus on genuinely serious matters, and remain calm. He absolutely should not engage that batch of fools.

Trump and his ilk live for attention. Like teenage girls, the worst thing they can suffer is indifference and inattention. Mr. Biden and his staff should provide lots and lots of silence.

--- Diogenes, 2/28/21

 

 

The 24-Karat Turd

Totally bonkers, barking mad, deranged, off their rocker, screwy, batty, nuts, daft, cracked, crazy, unhinged--whatever term you care to use for insanity, it's the new conservative. Or maybe it's just Trumpism, which has redefined madness.

A booth at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando is featuring a larger-than-life gold statue of Donald Trump. 

It's not gold, of course. Like all things Trump, including his presidency, it's a cheap and tawdry simulacrum of the real thing. The material is fiberglass covered in gold-tinted chrome. It is dressed in a suit coat, tie, shorts, and flip-flops, and carries a "fairy princess" magic wand. Were it not for the fact that the artist seems to be a Trump fan, it could taken as contemptuous.

Media platforms have been full of the thing and not a few people have cited biblical passages. The Second Commandment has been popular, but I think Exodus 32:20 is more fitting. After talking God out of destroying the Israelites for disobedience, Moses descends from Mount Sinai. Seeing the people worshiping and cavorting around a golden calf, " . . . he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it upon the water, and made the people of Israel drink it." 

The point of making the Israelites consume the ground calf was to convert it into human excrement, demonstrating the nature and ultimate fate of false gods. I've been having dreams of all the Republican movers and shakers eating ground up chrome-plated fiberglass and shitting out little Trump-shaped turds.

I apologize for the grossness, but their behavior has gone so far beyond reason that I'm sometimes at a loss how to deal with it civilly.

Is there anyone, finally, who can't see the phenomenon for what it is? Trump is a cult leader and his followers are cultists. Not "cult-like" or "quasi-cult" or "resembling a cult," as some apologists have tried to make it. The Trump movement is a full-blown, active cult that is inimical to America's democratic values. The violence of January 6 should be seen as just a precursor for probable future uprisings. 

Major Republican donors are sucking up to Trump this weekend, and they have a lot, make that a LOT, of money. And regardless of where his personal future is headed, he has supporters who will fight for him. We've seen it. Does anyone think January 6 was all they had? A one-shot, flash-in-the-pan kind of misfire? Not at all. Quite a few right-wing militant groups wisely stayed on the sidelines on 6 January. When they decide which battles to fight it will be a new ball game.

And let's not forget the numerous Trump supporters on active military duty. Whether they rise up during or after their service, they will be formidable.

We are still in danger and there does remain the possibility that the Trump faction could capture Congress and even the White House in two or four brief years. We have to remain solid, vigilant, active, and perhaps armed. 

The threat has abated, but it has not been defused.

Wachet auf!

 

--- Diogenes, 2/27/21

 

Cities Of The Dead

Consider three North American cities: Atlanta, Georgia; Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and Matamoros, Mexico. I invite you to look up one or more of them on Google Earth or whatever viewing or mapping program you use. Study the demographics, take a virtual tour, find out how many museums each has, how many churches, how many restaurants, how many theatres--whatever attracts you to cities, and visualize the local population carrying out their lives.

Then imagine them empty: devoid of life and motion, no sound of traffic or bells or whistles or sirens, no children playing, no concerts, no couples laughing, no sports events, no people. Visualize each as a ghost town.

Each of these cities has a population of approximately 500,000--the number of Americans who have now died of COVID-19. That's what we as a nation have lost: the population of a good-sized city. 

As pure numbers go, 500,000 isn't particularly huge, compared, e.g., to astronomical distances. We read about 500,000 widgets being shipped somewhere and don't bat an eye. But the 500,000 we're talking about here aren't widgets, and the distance they're traveling isn't finite. 

These are American lives lost, their souls released. Early in the pandemic the American death toll was compared to 9/11. Now our scope has to expand to the point that the number of American COVID-19 deaths approximately equals the number of Americans killed in both world wars, combined.

Out of respect for those deaths President Biden has ordered flags flown at half-staff on federal buildings. Here in my part of Virginia many private organizations, companies, clubs, and individuals have followed suit. 

The stark exception is the group who consider themselves citizens of Trumptopia. They fly the Trump flag high, and like their leader believe the pandemic to be a hoax and President Biden to be a pretender. They may not be traitors, but they are definitely deserters.

Die Fahne hoch . . . ?

Hell, no!

--- Diogenes, 2/26/2021

Slaying The Lemma

I've slain the multilemma I wrote about a few days ago that was causing such angst about the direction this blog should take. 

I accomplished this thanks to a shocking reminder from CNN's Brianna Keilar who, at the end of a piece about Trump's recent letter retaliating for Archdemon Mitch McConnell's "betrayal," said: "Trump is sending [the letter] from the political graveyard right now, but there's no guarantee he doesn't rise from the grave in four years."

I didn't quite scream, but the hair on the back of my neck stood to attention and my heart thumped a few times. Of course there's no guarantee. I'm hoping he lands up in federal prison for at least one of the myriad crimes he's committed. That in itself wouldn't stop him from running, but it would be damned difficult to run a campaign from a prison cell. Now that the whole world knows about his crimes in detail, there's no reason for any prosecutor to hold back.

So despite the position statement in my previous post that "In the end we decided it was better to move forward than to always be looking backward," we're going to be open to all topics that invite comment under our revised motto, "Veritas Super Omnia," Truth Above All, and Trump, his cult, and the Republican congressional leadership, are still fair game.

When Al Capone was finally convicted and imprisoned, it wasn't for any of his violent and highly visible crimes, but for tax evasion. Remember there's always hope.

--- Diogenes, 2/19/2021 

Quo Vadimus?

I've been silent for a couple of weeks because I've been bouncing around on the horns of a trilemma--or maybe a quadrilemma--how many horns can a lemma have, anyway?

The challenge facing us here at Vox Humana is how, or if, to redefine the blog. We started the project in March 2017 as a means of protesting the Trump presidency. Our original mission statement was to expose and comment on "the lies, malfeasance, and crimes of the Trump administration. We use facts to expose Trump for the fraud he is."

Following the Biden inauguration we began considering a new direction. The publication of "Ignorance Is The Curse Of God" on January 26 was intended as our first effort in a more informational, less adversarial, direction. But while Trump is gone, the Trump cult remains active. The antics and pronouncements of Gaetz, Greene, McCarthy, et al. seemed to call for a return to our anti-Trump stance. But we had already set a foundation for a new direction, which we really didn't want to abandon.

Moreover, as Trump fades away in the nation's rear-view mirror, it is apparent that his cult members are losing focus. The more hard core among them will continue to spout Trumpery and QAnonisms for a longer or shorter time, depending 1) on the depth to which they have been brainwashed and 2) the level of control they are willing to grant to the crazies in their constituency.

Enter the trilemma.

The choices we faced were:

• Move forward in the new direction;
• Re-set our sights on Trump cult members, especially those in Congress;
• Return to our original anti-Trump stance;
• Try to tackle all three, perhaps through a second blog.

This was not an easy decision. Trump and the Trump cult remain a clear and present danger to this country. We are especially alarmed by the number of true believers in Congress. In the end we decided it was better to move forward than to always be looking backward. We'll keep an eye on the Great Pretender, and will maintain a close watch for cultic craziness in Congress and elsewhere.

So with apologies for the long hiatus, we'll resume our series on the Constitution with the next post.

Thanks for your patience.

---Diogenes, 2/10/21

 

Ignorance Is The Curse Of God*

Why is the Constitution important? 

The only answer I have is what Louis Armstrong said when asked to define jazz: "If you have to ask, you'll never know." 

This is the first in an occasional series of essays about the history of American government. If you remember everything from Civics 101 you can skip it, but please read the next paragraph first.

According to some polls, as many as 75% of Americans of voting age have only the vaguest understanding of the Constitution.** That ignorance has brought America to the brink of collapse. It was the primary weakness in a credulous sector of the population that ex-president Trump exploited, making them believe their own government had turned against them. It is an appalling level of ignorance made even worse by the fact that several members of Congress share it.

The soul of the Constitution is in the first three words, which everyone knows but few understand: "We the People," written in script dramatically larger than any other words in the document. That's not a stylistic conceit; it's a statement. 

That donor statement identifies who is making the proclamation and granting the benefit.

Compare the donor identification in any monarchical document, and not just in the past. Here's one from 2018: "Elizabeth the Second by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Our other Realms and Territories Queen Head of the Commonwealth Defender of the Faith . . ." Etc., etc. 

There's no such aggrandizement in the Constitution.

"We the People." With three simple words the American people granted themselves a nation. And yes, it was all the people, not just their representatives to the Congress of Confederation, which approved the Constitution for ratification. Each state called a special election for a popular vote of ratification. By popular vote the Constitution became the foundation of our government in June, 1788.

For the first time in the history of the world, a proclamation granting nationhood did not rely on the largesse of a monarch.

In plain language the Preamble sets out its purpose: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

As big deals go, that's infinitely ginormous. No other people in history have successfully thrown off an oppressor and gone on to establish a successful nation with a brand new, innovative, something-new-under-the-Sun, unique form of government. Nobody. Ever.

That's the first important thing about the Constitution. Stay tuned.

 

---Diogenes, 1/25/2021

*  William Shakespeare, II Henry VI, IV.vii.

** For example: https://woodrow.org/news/how-well-americans-know-constitution/; https://www.heritage.org/the-constitution/commentary/more-americans-need-actually-read-the-constitution; https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/americans-are-poorly-informed-about-basic-constitutional-provisions/

 

Constitution 46, Tyranny 0

There's a great old patriotic song called "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean," that has this line: "Thy banners make tyranny tremble, when borne by the red, white, and blue."

Donald Trump, a would-be tyrant, has learned that the Constitution of these United States of America is more powerful than tyranny. So it will always be.

Trump is now trembling in Florida, and Joe Biden is in the White House.

Barring unforeseen disaster, catastrophe, or tribulation, this will be the last message I post on Vox Populi in its anti-Trump role.

Thanks to all who have read, commented, kept the faith and spread the word. I am sincerely grateful.

--- Diogenes, 1/20/2021