President Biden's "Tennessee Burning" Moment--
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This article was my response to the daily letter written by Professor Heather Cox Richardson today. As always, Professor presents a thorough picture of the recent developments and background which adds to our persepective. (link to FB here)
My response is below. And you'll see that my orientation is not "informational" in the same sense. It is vital to be informed, but in general there is a lack of combativeness in the Democratic leadership nationally. And that is a charitable description. They say all the right things, then continue in their routinized pragmatic way. That has to change.
So, my two cents--
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["President Biden's "Tennessee Burning" Moment--
Someone must ask the question, "what will the White House and DOJ do in response to yesterday's events in Tennessee besides issuing strongly worded press statements condemning it?"
On matters domestic, the administration is effectively under the control of the 2024 re-election team, which means that corrupt corporate "centrist" Anita Dunn and her allies in the West Wing are calling the shots. They are trying to avoid head to head conflict with MAGA red state leaders because they believe they can split the GOP between moderates and extremists, and capture the mythical white suburbanite anti-Trump GOP vote.
(for background on Anita Dunn, centrism, link here, included are source links. lfr)
https://therosenreport.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-big-story-is-bidens-attack-on-maga.html
For example, we here are more than aware that Ginni Thomas should be indicted for her role in January 6, but are resigned to the fact that she won't be. For all those who wonder why, ask the great heroic Liz Cheney and those who went along with her specifically on that question in the J6 Committee. Also, Clarence Thomas should be impeached for his conflict of interest and corruption. You'll not hear one leading Democrat except for possibly Sanders and his group that will call for it.
So yes, the Tennessee Democrats and youthful protesters are correct, it is fascism. Unfortunately the last time something like this happened, the Social Democrats of Germany failed to stop it for the same reasons as the Democratic leadership is refusing to fight effectively now. Myopia, pragmatism, centrism, election related rivalries with their own left wing and Labor, fear of retaliation, and worst of all, a universe of delusion about the depths of malignancy of their adversary
There is a certain point where the continuing narrative of trying to win over moderate Republicans with bipartisan appeals to reason and pumping out happy economic numbers are futile and counterproductive. This is not to denigrate or ignore the positive accomplishments thus far of the administration under extreme circumstances. However, we are in an obvious "sea change" which should be the occasion for a "hard reset" of our political strategy going forward.
The Red States are gradually seceding from the Union and reconstituting a new Confederacy. Every issue they choose, all of their policies and so-called culture war issues are actions of anti-government terrorists in business suits. They are political versions of Timothy McVeigh and the Idaho militia Bundys, who deploy Governors mansions and State Houses as their weaponry. They are lawless men and women without honor who rule with the power of gavels, while wearing AR-15s on their lapels.
We are mistaken if we believe that prosecutors will save our Union and stop fascism in America. More of what got those Tennessee legislators expelled to begin with is what is needed, on large scale. In short, WE the People are "the rule of law" in a democracy, and the prosecutors and judges merely our representatives.
President Biden must do what Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy did reluctantly, when forced by the Civil Rights movement to go against their own campaign advisers, (who like Anita Dunn today were "triangulating" with the Jim Crow Democrats) and use the full powers of the Presidency to force these renegade states to follow the law of the land. In both cases they used the DOJ and deployed the National guard to force desegregation and defend voting rights, but only after years of escalating protests and demonstrations. In fact, maybe President Biden should "weaponize" the DOJ and other agencies as needed, as did President Kennedy and his Attorney General brother Robert to insure that the reign of terror of the KKK in those States was broken by the power of federal law enforcement.
What the Tennessee GOP did is in every respect illegal. When you look at it, it is yet another outrageous provocation in a growing list of acts of gradual secession. Where is Merrick Garland? What will President Biden actually do, as opposed to what his spokespersons merely "say?" Without White House leadership and backup, all of these protests by youth and their parents, concerned citizens and others active on other issues will be disrupted, the people arrested, jailed, scattered, their local elected officials purged, expelled, or stripped of any authority, their voting rights crushed, and dictatorship consolidated. Not just in Tennessee but elsewhere in those other states run by MAGA.
The White House unfortunately has been "late to the game" on multiple fronts in confronting the MAGA Insurrection because of their misplaced desire for bipartisanship and unity with an entity which is openly at war with both ideas.
We need more than White House press statements about how the CHIPS Act is creating jobs. We need Presidential power of the sort we have gotten on previous occasions when rebellion, secession, nullification, and separatism have threatened our nation.
Everyone is so worried about "triggering" MAGA, and everything implied by that. However, history teaches us that they will become far worse and entrench themselves further if we continue to tip toe around them. We need a course correction from the White House, and it has to happen soon.
Someone, including us here, must get through to them to force the issue. It is urgent they stop positioning for the votes of non-existent moderate suburban Republicans in 2024, and take the needed actions to defend the General Welfare while there is still time. They must throw out Anita Dunn's centrist playbook, and use the powers which they have to address this full scale rebellion against our Constitutional system.
The Biden administration is not there yet. It is up to us to push them."]
Addendum--
In response to a reply (with edits) -- The Fraud Of "GOP Moderates"
Too many people are deluded about "GOP moderates," who today comprise the most popular group of mythological persons since King Arthur and his Court at Camelot. These Republicans, because they are not solely self-defined as Trump loyalty cult zombies, are erroneously thought to be reasonable people who can be worked with. Eventually, some of them will need to bend and work with us, but no one should be fooled. They voted for Trump twice, despite his regime of unbridled criminal conspiracies, treason on behalf of Russia, and track record of financial crimes throughout his family's grip on the presidency. He tried to overthrow the election, and their reaction was to foam at the mouth about Hillary's emails and Hunter Biden's everything. One might say that they are moderately sick, and and only moderately human.
They are universally up in arms against the NY indictment as well as those forthcoming. They are with the GOP program from top to bottom despite its predictable mass murderous outcome. And their ideological hatred of multi-racial liberal democracy is literally rabid. They are as "moderate" in political terms as King Arthur was the inventor of Bread Flour.
If they are not fully committed to fascism, they are sympathetic with aspects of it which they believe will make their lives better, knowing their benefit will come at the expense of the health and welfare of millions of innocents. Any government whose policies are equitable and protects the General Welfare, they will see as oppressive and evil, a threat to their "way of life."
A Democratic Party electoral or political strategy geared to appealing to them is gamesmanship, worse than bankrupt. It is tragedy. We need to overwhelm, outflank and defeat the GOP, not "triangulate" with them. When an entire part of our nation goes rogue, that is why we have elections. And when they descend to the level of sedition, nullification and rebellion, as we learned from President Lincoln, that is why we have a President, a federal government, and an army.
