Hello From Washington D.C.
And an invitation to Office Hours
WASHINGTON D.C.— I’m on my way home from the January 6 hearings after working for my boss Triumph The Insult Comic Dog. He’s tough, but fair.
That means I will be showing up for Office Hours tonight starting at 8:00 PM Eastern. I hope to see you. Here’s the link:
Let’s talk about the end of Democracy!
The hearings…
Demonstrated clearly that Donald Trump, knowing he was unelectable, hatched a criminal conspiracy way before the 2020 convention to convince supporters Biden stole the presidency.
Demonstrated clearly Trump conspired with dirty lawyers like John Eastman, even senior lawyers within his own Justice Department like Jeffrey Clark, and thugs, like the Proud Boys, to intimidate local election officials and members of his own party to push the Big Lie.
Demonstrated clearly that truth for Trump is a minor annoyance.
Demonstrated clearly that despite Bill Barr and Ivanka telling him Biden won, Trump staged a coup that failed only because there are still a handful of Republicans who believe in the rule of law.
Demonstrated clearly that there were Republicans who not just supported but helped organize the raid on the capitol. Many of these Republicans include sitting members of Congress like Barry Loudermilk, Andy Biggs and Lauren Boebert as well as Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Clarence Thomas’ unhinged wife Ginni.
Demonstrated clearly that Trump ignored repeated warnings from his own lawyers before, during and after January 6 that he was engaging in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the American people by repeating his bogus claims of voter fraud.
Demonstrated clearly that Trump saw The Big Lie as an opportunity to raise hundreds of millions of dollars not for legal fees, as he claimed, but for himself.
Demonstrated clearly that Trump rooted his supporters on as they scoured the Capitol looking to hang Mike Pence.
Demonstrated clearly that Donald J. Trump belongs behind bars.
Demonstrated clearly that this Biden Justice Department has zero appetite for applying the rule of law to the rich and powerful. How is it even remotely conceivable that Merrick Garland refuses to prosecute Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino for contempt of Congress?
And so…
Trump roams free because our criminal justice system isn’t designed to lock up people who can afford lawyers.
Trump roams free because for years our Justice Department has been internalizing the same exact authoritarian impulses Trump possesses. The best we can hope for are moderates who foolishly believe we must move slowly and reason with Fascists.
Trump roams free because millions of Americans are glad January 6 happened.
And that’s the gigantic Republican elephant in the room nobody is willing to discuss…
Trump roams free because Biden and Garland know full well the political will simply isn’t there to lock Trump up. Seventy five million people voted for him.
Begging the questions…
Why do millions of Americans make excuses for and or celebrate January 6?
What did our government do to make so many people hate it?
The answer is… nothing. The government did nothing. It did nothing for the millions of Americans who lost their homes, their jobs and their dream for a better life. They have no quarrel with the people of January 6, because they are the people of January 6.
Medicare For All prevents Fascism
History reveals the only thing that stops a bad guy with our government is a good guy with our government. The Democrats have the House, Senate and the White House. But like the Uvalde, Texas police they’re way too overfed and frightened to save us.
Pelosi, Schumer and Biden lack the vocabulary to make a case for government, a government worth defending. Because they’re too busy driving from corporate fundraiser to corporate fundraiser running on the fumes of FDR and LBJ.
The Democrats don’t see us. They only believe in satiating their wealthy anti-democratic donors. Matthew Cunningham-Cook writes over at The Lever:
Last week, the Biden administration quietly reaffirmed its decision to enact the highest Medicare premium hikes in history right before this year’s midterm elections. At the same time, President Joe Biden is endorsing a plan to funnel significantly more Medicare money to insurance companies and further privatize the government insurance program for older Americans and those with disabilities.
And so, despite what these hearings reveal, millions of Americans won’t shed a tear for a government that doesn’t shed a tear for us.
We are told that this is a fight against Fascism, and it is. But Democrats were never taught at their elite private schools that Fascism starts from the ground up.
Fascism can’t rise without the phony populism that speaks bogusly to the forgotten man.
Fascism comes from the bottom up, which means…
You don’t prevent Fascism by cutting off the head. The heads are interchangeable. Trump is DeSantis is Cruz is Cotton is Romney.
You prevent Fascism by providing financial security to the body politic.
We are losing our Republic.
And it’s not because of…
The Senate or the Electoral College providing a disproportionate number of votes to rural America
Citizens United blasting a fire hose of dirty money into our elections
Voter suppression keeping the Democrats’ presumably natural customer from going to the polls
It’s because Democrats…
Refuse to be the party of rural America
Work for the banks and Big Ag instead of the family farmer
Refuse to fight for factory workers, unions and the 100 million Americans who don’t vote but would if Democrats gave them a reason.
And so…
Congressman Bennie Thompson told the truth when he said these hearings were never about sending Merrick Garland a criminal referral to convict Trump and his supporters.
In the end these hearing are a mediocre Power Point for the rule of law.
These hearings will never move the needle because right now there are millions of Americans, the 75 million who voted for Trump, who believe Washington is not worth saving. They’re wrong. But there are still 75 million of them.
These are the 75 million Americans who stopped believing in the rule of law.
They realized that just like Biden’s promise to raise the minimum wage… the rule of law never existed.
I’m worried that the most vile Americans are winning and we are incapable of protecting ourselves from these virulent right-wing authoritarians.
Perhaps we’re defenseless against these murderous thugs because in the final analysis that’s who the American government always answered to.
Our Founding Fathers instilled a “healthy mistrust of the mob.” But not the mob who stormed the capitol. They left for us a “healthy mistrust of the mob” who didn’t own property, especially when that property was slaves.
I am far from hopeful…
Our entire system, from the president to the media all lack the vocabulary to fight authoritarian rule.
Because right now way too many low level apparatcheks have far too much to gain from the early stages of Fascism.
Sadly America’s one economic hiccup or major terrorist attack away from doing what we always do: surrender gladly more of our freedom to the false promise of security.
I worry that next time we will surrender our final freedom, democracy.
You fight Fascists when you Stay Strong and Protect The Weak!
David Feldman
David, thank you for the wonderful summary of these issues explained in layman's terms that I wish every American, regardless of where they fall on the political ideology spectrum, would read. BTW, I started watching your podcast sometime after the 2020 presidential election and enjoy it immensely. I look forward to it every week!
Nicely written, David