What Would Nellis Say?

Hope for Freedom?

 

Did the American People just vote for hope?

 

An extraordinary percentage of eligible voters turned out for the midterm elections to speak with one voice condemning the violence and hate, vilification and demonization promoted by far too many candidates for offices from your school board to the vacancies in Congress and the Senate.

 

Most of Trump’s hand-picked vote-denying candidates, supported by the brazen lies and completely unsupported conspiracy theories regurgitated by Rupert Murdock’s Hate Network and transmitted through far-right internet channels, lost their elections to moderates.

 

Despite the Supreme Court rescinding Roe v Wade, every Evangelical Christian state initiative to outlaw abortion failed and Constitutional amendments to enshrine a woman’s right to make her own decisions passed in California, Vermont, and Michigan.

 

The recently elected radical members of the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives, spent months screaming and yelling about immigration, inflation, and violent crime (which is going up in the red states that repealed their gun laws and down in major cities) but they never offered a solution to any for those crucial challenges and they never will. They crave power but have no intention of accepting the responsibility of working for the American people.

 

They were quick to promote their diminutive second-string wrestling coach, Jimmy Jordan, to head up the judiciary committee and he has stated that his first order of business will be to initiate an investigation into Hunter Biden, who has absolutely nothing to do with solving the challenges that were so vitally important during the campaign.

 

Representative Taylor-Green (who was banished from committee assignments for endorsing the execution of fellow Congressmen) is being promoted to chair the Oversight Committee, which monitors and supervises federal agencies and programs as a check against the executive branch. She has proposed the impeachment of the president, vice-president, and several Secretaries, purely for political revenge and without any evidence of crimes or maleficence. That is akin to handing the keys to the chicken coup to a hungry coyote, except a coyote is far more intelligent.

 

The current Republican powerbrokers evolved from the Tea Party, a gang of completely unqualified extremists, who were selected and sponsored by the Koch Brothers, David Mercer, the Adelsons, et al, to accomplish a single goal…blocking any legislation that might benefit the American people or impede the amassing of wealth and power by their super-rich cartel. Their caucus has not proposed or passed any real legislation since 2010, with the exception of the $2Trillion (unfunded) giveaway to the patrons of Republican PAC’s and corporations who paid dearly for their influence.

 

These “leaders” are too empowered by their smokescreen of hate and lies to recognize that a rapidly expanding majority of American voters is sick and tired of the rhetoric, intimidation, and fear that has become an anthem for the extremists, who are quick to complain but never quite get to actually proposing solutions. They provide preposterous political theater without a script for the path forward. 

 

The recent election seems to have provided a glimpse of hope for our democracy. The two Houses of Congress are almost evenly divided, most of Trump’s clan-of-hate candidates were defeated, women reinforced their demand to remove government from their personal decisions, and there were no claims of voter fraud anywhere in the land (despite armed militiamen attempting to impede minority voting).

 

The downside is that more than thirty radical representatives and another dozen in the Senate hold power over Republican leadership to determine the agenda and tenor of the next Congress. These officials are sworn to prevent progress or cooperation on Democratic proposals or major legislation but, more than that, they are committed to defunding and dismantling government agencies including the FBI, the IRS, the EPA, Health and Human Services, and the CDC, to name a few.

 

Ron Johnson, Rick Scott, and Kevin McCarthy have recently made public statements that they intend to pass legislation to make Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid subject to “review” by the legislature on a yearly basis with the option to defund, privatize, or just eliminate these programs by majority vote…and we have yet to hear the horrors of the proposals they aren’t talking about.

 

The upside of this draw is that the center, whether Democrat or Republican, wants the unruly delinquents removed from office in favor of candidates who are committed to solving the enormous problems facing our nation. They want an end to the rancor and hate, the vitriol and fury, the demonization of anyone who isn’t a straight white Christian male, and a return to civility and empathy, reason and decency.

 

The voters in the middle are the only hope for the future of our democracy and this nation. The chaos that is about to consume the House of Representatives and State Houses across the country will offer a continuing reminder of why the extremists must be removed, why the white-nationalist bigots must be disarmed, and why we, as a people, must come together to reclaim our country before the ignorant and hateful take control.

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