The #1 mandate for 2024 is fighting Authoritarianism
Vote out the GOP to restore a path to sanity
Authoritarianism, fascism, dictatorship: powerful words that have specific, history-laden meanings. I don’t want to argue with you over specific words; if you prefer one over the other that is fine. But I DO want to impress on you the dangerous moment we are in: in the United States, and especially in North Carolina, we are in danger of tipping over into a failed democracy, by which I mean that the citizens can no longer count on the ballot box to vote leaders in or out of office who represent their needs and interests.
Republicans have worked for decades to give themselves undemocratic power. These anti-majoritarian features are now coming together into an interlocking knot that is hard to defeat, but we can’t give up!
I am going to list many anti-democratic features that make up this knot, but first I want to quote How to Stop Fascism: History, Ideology, Resistance author Paul Mason, from his October 6th interview on “Behind the Lines with Arthur Snell” podcast (around the 53 minute mark):
However attached you are to the individual project that you are obsessed with, whether it is gay rights, human rights, refugee rights, whehter it is simply building an energy co-op in your local community--all these things are brilliant--none of them can survive under fascism.
Fighting fascism is the #1 thing, and the front-line fight against fascism is the American election and the war in Ukraine.
Some of the anti-majoritarian obstacles we face include:
Donald Trump telling us that he wants to be an unconstitutional dictator. He is TELLING US!!!! We need to take him seriously. He is totally unfit for office and we cannot ever give him the levers of power again. That would be an exponentially worse disaster than 2016-2020 because he would START OUT with loyalists and dictatorial moves. If Trump were to return to power, he could establish an “elective dictatorship.” See also: right-wing calls for an anti-constitutional “red Caesar.” They have a plan, all ready to execute. We need to work as hard as we can to stop them.
Donald Trump trying to overturn the results of the free and fair 2020 election: everything leading up to January 6, the Insurrection, and the Big Lie which he still maintains to this day.
Unfair appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States; Trump took 2 appointments that should have been President Obama’s. Appointing less qualified, young, Federalist Society-approved Justices and judges throughout the land. Overall corruption in SCOTUS: Clarence Thomas accepting bribes. Other justices failing to recuse with conflicts of interest.
Gerrymandered voting districts. North Carolina is a closely-divided purple state, but instead currently has veto-proof Republican majorities in the NC House and Senate.
Voter discouragement via specificic photo ID requirements; shortening Early Voting time period; discouraging on-campus voting; other shenanigans related to managing elections.
Republicans have specifically takesn away powers from the Governor and Attorney General now that those roles are filled by Democrats, Roy Cooper and Josh Stein.
Weaponization of legislative committees to give Republicans the power of a “secret police” group.
Using the State Budget process to pass new laws, under pressure, with little to no public hearings/committee hearings. Our state budget was 3 months overdue and HAD to be passed. The Republicans twisted this high-pressure situation to grant themselves new powers without oversight.
Passing strict abortion bans against the will of the people. They don’t care what we think; they just want to get their way. Reproductive rights are POPULAR! It really burns me that the people passing these laws are usually past childbearing age, and male; literally people who will never have to face a difficult pregnancy themselves at this point in their lives. (Or they are turncoat/GOP plant Tricia Cotham.) Reproductive rights will galvanize young people in 2024. Millennials and Gen Z’s time to lead is coming, and can’t come soon enough. They are going to be the ones to face future issues such as climate change and should have a huge voice in the decisions being made now that will shape the future.
There’s more, but that’s a lot and you get the idea!
We have a little over a year until the 2024 election. Right now you can set out to encourage & help the people in your personal & professional networks to register to vote. Your vote is your voice—we face an uphill battle but voting is the civic power we have left, and we need to turn out in overwhelming numbers.
I agree with David Pepper that it is really important to run Democrat candidates in every district, whether or not they are likely to. Doing so at least makes it a contest where candidates will have to court the votes of Democrats and Independents, rather than just win over ever-more-right-wing Republican primary voters.
I agree with former Republicans like Stuart Stevens, author of It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump, and the brand-new book, The Conspiracy to End America: Five Ways My Old Party Is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy. Stevens says that there is nothing left worth saving in the GOP. This is a sorry state of affairs because the USA is built on haing a robust two-party system where parties disagree on policy, but agree on democracy and having a strong country. The Republican Party is not a good-faith governing party now.
President Joe Biden is a good man who loves America. I have not always agreed with him (far from it!) but I respect that he has served his country with honor since 1973 and knows how to be a good President.
Donald Trump is a very dangerous narcissistic, Machiavellian psychopath. Trump is a career criminal with decades-long ties to organized crime, as well as his rampant business & tax cheating. He is an extremely dangerous person surrounded by power-hungry enablers and he must never be allowed to take the reins of power again.
Those are our choices. Choose wisely.
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For a comprehensive analysis of what is happening now in North Carolina, please read this new op-ed by NC State Senators Graig Meyer and Julie Mayfield, “Two NC senators: Our legislature is shifting toward authoritarian rule | Opinion”