It appears that democracy in the United States may have survived the 2022 election. Perhaps even more important than the Democrats keeping control of the Senate is the fact that all 13 election-denying Republican candidates, in 6 battleground states, for governor, secretaries of state, and attorneys general, lost their races. (The Arizona Attorney General race, with only a 510 vote margin, will be going to an automatic recount).
The losing Republican candidates in these races, had all intended to help the next Republican presidential candidate steal the 2024 race by corrupting the Electoral College vote from their states. If elected, they would literally have been traitors to the Constitution. The voters rejected these radical and dangerous candidates — but the vote was close.
In a reasonable society, the Republican Party would have been utterly vanquished or driven to the political margins, but instead it retains its cult-like hold on tens of millions of white Americans. The midterms represented a welcome setback for their movement, but have not altered that fundamental fact.
Chauncey DeVega
Will the Republican Party reset?
The 2022 election, like Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, has given the Republican party, once again, an opportunity to repudiate authoritarian fascism and to reject racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, and pro-Putinism. Republican party leaders especially need to take a strong stand against political violence (like that on January 6, 2021).
But repentance requires work. It requires honest self-examination and humility. Donald J. Trump taught the Republican Party that hard work and selfless public service are not necessary to obtain political power. He insisted that self-examination is unnecessary and that humility is weakness. He showed them that a large cult-like following can be built based on nothing more than an inflated ego, endless lies, and bullying your opponents.
Trump’s extreme narcissism, outrageous lies, and constant bullying worked to first make him wealthy and then to put him in the White House. Many Republicans not only forgive him for this — they consider him to be a role model for success. The autocratic governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) has already out-Trumped Trump in Florida (I call the state “New Gilead“) and now wants his turn in the White House.
Trumpism and the Republican fascist movement will not be deterred by the results of the midterms. They will retreat and reconsider and then renew their attacks, continuing to gnaw at the vulnerable spots in America’s political and social institutions with the eventual goal of overthrowing democracy.
Chauncey DeVega
What will happen in a Republican-controlled House?
Potential Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), has already vowed to “investigate” the work of the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. (Committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) pointed out that, as Minority Leader, McCarthy had had a chance to put more Republicans on the committee when it was first created.)
McCarthy’s announcement is a clear sign that, instead of working on policies to help the American people, the incoming Republican House majority will be wasting its time on politically-motivated nonsense. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) wants her party to impeach President Biden. There are, of course, no grounds for this other than political revenge, but McCarthy, who is not known for his strong leadership, may be unable to resist the demands of the lunatics in his party.
With Fox, OAN, Newsmax, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and other right-wing media continuing their non-stop efforts to propagandize and radicalize the Republican base, the constant pressure on Republican politicians to abandon the work of governing in favor of presenting a continuous stream of phony political theater will not abate. The disgruntled masses are now in charge of the party and their resentment and outrage must be regularly fed lest the monster turn on its creator.
The fight must continue
[Democrats] must be willing to attack Republicans with the truth, and point out that the Republican Party, with or without Donald Trump, stands for values and policies that will cause great pain and damage to the vast majority of Americans, whatever their skin color and wherever they live.
Chauncey DeVega
As long as the leaders and candidates of the Republican Party believe their only road to political success is to pander to the lowest common denominator of the American id, there will be no fundamental reform of their party. They will continue to lie and cheat to win elections, and then refuse to govern responsibly once in office. They will increasingly nominate unprepared, unqualified, wacky, and even criminal, candidates for public office. If the voters, or the courts, or law enforcement, continue to frustrate them, history indicates they will increasingly incite their followers to violence. (See “Nazi Party,” Wikipedia).
Stay alert. The struggle for the survival of American democracy is far from over.
Sources:
Brian Klass, “The Trump Apocalypse Has Not Been Canceled,” The Atlantic, November 10, 2022.
Chauncey DeVega, “A big win for democracy? Not so fast: This was a welcome reprieve — but that’s all,” Salon, November 13, 2022.
Chauncey DeVega, “Former Obama lawyer Ian Bassin: The coming indictment of Donald Trump will break his power,” Salon, November 28, 2022.
Adam Edelman, “Election deniers overwhelmingly lost in battleground states,” NBC News, November 16, 2022.
Tara Kavaler, “Attorney general candidate Abe Hamadah contests election results, asks judge to weigh in on winner,” AZ Central, November 22, 2022.
Amy B. Wang, “McCarthy says Republicans will investigate Jan. 6 committee’s work,” The Washington Post, December 1, 2022.
Barton Gellman, “The Impeachment of Joe Biden,” The Atlantic, October 26, 2022.
Hitler took power in Germany with support from “just” 30% of the population. Trump and his followers are preparing to do the same thing. It’s important for our own Deseret News to identify what Trump is. It’s apparently not going to happen.
In the meantime Democrats, including Davis Democrats, including LDS Democrats, have got to become a lot more mean, attacking Republicans – hard! There’s more to politics than just winning elections. That could come later.