I’m always stunned when people confess they don’t plan to vote in the upcoming 2024 election because neither presidential candidate inspires them–as if the event was a beauty contest and the fate of the nation wasn’t at stake.
Joe Biden’s poor debate performance recently added to their excuse. It also sent Democrats into a panic. Unlike Republicans, they’ve never learned to stand unflinchingly behind their leaders. This year, their dithering could cost them the Presidency.
Meanwhile, conservatives are in rapture over Project 2025, a 920-page manifesto published by the Heritage Foundation and its partners. The document says it aims to restore “traditional American values.” Anyone familiar with its content might ask to which era of American history they refer.
Are today’s women expected to be complacent about a plan that returns them to the status of chattels? (Ibid, pg. 562) Should people dance in the streets to see LGBTQ rights erased? (Ibid, pg. 566). Must pizza be barred from restaurant menus because we fear foreigners? (Ibid, pg. 567)
My questions are rhetorical because I doubt a majority of Americans will accept these proposals, especially when they are supported by technical inexactitudes–Winston Churchill’s term for lies. Says one analyst about Project 2025, if it was taken seriously, it would drag us into the ‘phantom nightmare’ of a totalitarian cult. (”The Plot Against America,” by Robert L. Borage, The Nation, 2024, pg. 26)
Having read its Introduction, Conclusion, and chapter on Justice, I agree with that assessment. Nothing in this manifesto resembles what I learned about democracy in high school Civics. My texts defined government as a servant of the people, not the arbiter of social mores.
Its primary role was to manage the nation’s money to discourage oligarchy and redistribute wealth for the benefit of all. In the 1950s when I was a teenager, the wealthiest among us were in the 91% tax bracket. High as that may seem, in the spring, newsreels showed mink-coated mavens leaping into their swimming pools for a jaunty celebration of conspicuous consumption.
Not all of their money went to purchase new minks in the fall. Much of it went to pay lobbyists whose job it was to urge Congress to lower taxes further. Over the years, the strategy succeeded. Today, those in the highest bracket pay 37%. Some pay less because of loopholes in the code. Donald Trump escaped taxes altogether.
In 2009, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United that money was protected speech. That meant those with wealth had more speech than others, and they poured it into the political campaigns of candidates who promised more tax reductions. Even corporations could jump into the politicking because the High Court also decided they had the same rights as people.
Soon the halls of Congress reverberated with the demands of corporate America and the super-rich. Laws against monopolies fell to the jackhammer of money and silenced the voices of the people. Anyone wondering why teachers are poorly paid should reflect on the indulgence of monied mavens as they float in their pools cocooned in mink coats.
If we the people allow Project 2025 to be enacted, we will seal the fate of our egalitarian government and have only ourselves to blame. As it stands, seven hundred and fifty billionaires control most of the wealth that 333 million Americans created. Do we want these oligarchs to have more?
America is at a crossroads. “We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few … but we can’t have both.” (J.P. Morgan.)
Each day of our complacency weakens our democracy. Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court issued the Chevron ruling. Instead of deferring to the expertise of agencies on how to interpret ambiguous language in laws pertaining to their work, federal judges now have the power to decide what a law means for themselves.
If the situation weren’t so dire, it would be laughable. Think of it! A nation roiled by forest fires, extreme heat, and tropical storms, will have its climate policies determined by 9 unelected jurists, at least one of whom doesn’t know the difference between nitrogen oxides and laughing gas.
The unkindest cut of all falls from that same court. They have concluded their 2024 calendar with a decision on presidential immunity that opens the door to imperial rule.
Democracy has always been in danger because it has always been in flux. When our forefathers championed equality, they weren’t referring to slaves. Today, democracy aims to be inclusive. That is the value at stake and those who believe otherwise are sleepwalking.
The issue before us in the 2024 Presidential election isn’t Joe Biden’s age. We are about to lose our most cherished liberties to a Republican party that has been overtaken by ultra-conservatives and white Christian nationalists. Make no mistake, Trump isn’t their pied piper. He’s a flawed vessel chosen precisely because he is ignorant, vain, and unscrupulous. Of the two candidates before us, he is the one unfit for office.
To those tempted to stay home on November 5, I beg you to reconsider. If you see our form of government as imperfect, remember this. …the cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy. (H. L Menken)
