A year and a half after the attempted coup by confederate flag-waving neo-Nazis, white supremacists and ultra-conservative evangelical Christians, incited by Donald Trump, what has changed in the intervening period. The answer is not a terrible lot, in that Trump continues to have a stranglehold on the GOP and any historical link to Lincoln is well and truly severed. The virus called “The Big Lie” (for which there is no vaccine) has damaged the frontal cortex of a significant segment of the American electorate.
Biden who originally got off to a good start with executive orders on student loans, ending reliance on privately run prisons, reinforcing the Affordable Care Act, rolled back Trump-era hire and fire policies and revoked the controversial keystone pipeline project. Biden has recommitted the US to the Paris Climate Accords and overseen a successful vaccine rollout. In addition, he steered through Congress the Covid Relief Package of $1.9T and an Infrastructure Bill of $1.2T and has seen the creation of 6.5 million jobs in the first year. All of this was a sigh of relief for those of us who follow US politics and hoping (though nervously) that this was the start of “Making America Sane Again”. However, things have changed. The prevarication and mixed messaging over Covid, the lack of political and moral courage shown by the pseudo–Democrats, Manchin and Sinema to support Biden’s ongoing investment plans around the climate emergency and Build Back Better. His administration’s failure to anticipate the post covid inflationary pressures have led to a cost-of-living crisis with inflation running close to 10%. Oil and gas prices were already moving to an all-time high and that is even before the Ukrainian crisis. As the incumbent, Joe Biden will continue to take the flack for all these economic woes and that does not factor in the possibility of a recession.
Biden’s failure to make addressing the attack on voting rights, voter suppression and police reform a priority, has affected his support amongst African Americans. It was this community that put him over the top and his failure to deal with these important issues may negatively impact Democrat turnout in the midterms. The consequence of this mixture of successes and failures, some of which are outside Biden’s control, has seen his approval rating fall to below 40%, for now.
So, where does the US go from here?
There is still no acknowledgment from sycophants such as McCarthy, McConnell, Grassley, Gatz and many others, that Trump is a demagogue and devoid of any redeeming human qualities. Today the US does not look, feel, sound and act like a unitary state and that must be terrifying to those of us who observe the American political landscape.
In respect of the upcoming midterms, Murdoch’s Fox News/ Disinformation network and self-serving politicians such as Cruz, Holley, Rubio, Jordan and Governors such as Florida’s Ron DeSantis, Texas Governor Greg Abbot and others in red states are electioneering largely on one front, that is culture wars. However, there are still Trump anointed republicans standing in primaries continue to push that the 2020 election was stolen.
These culture wars include don’t say, gay, critical race theory, a woman’s right to choose, unsubstantiated voter fraud, identity, race, religion, America’s place in the world and democracy itself. On the issue of religion, a recent Pew report shows that in a rapidly secularising America, 71% of right-wing conservative republicans believe religion should play a larger role in society against 29% of those on the left.
On the issue of race relations and racial justice, there is a similar divide as witnessed by the Black Lives Matter protests resulting from the murder of George Floyd.
So, let us talk about race in America. The murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many others by the police, highlighted the institutionalised racism embedded within the criminal justice system, from the police to the courts, sentencing and incarceration. A criminal justice system where African American males account for 34% of the male prison population, while in total, African Americans account for 13% of the entire US population. If anyone believes this is all about crime and a community’s propensity to crime, this is simply bullshit. As Tony Blair, who I quote tentatively said “tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime.” The causes will include education, poverty, income and wealth inequality, institutionalised racism and finally, not to forget the B.S. of the American Dream and its meritocratic foundation. Just one stat which goes to the heart of the matter, the Federal Reserve reported that white families have a median and average family wealth of $188000 and $983000 and Black families have the equivalent of 15% of this, at $24000 and $142000. Then there is redlining, which was a way of isolating black communities into areas defined by a red line. These areas have the lowest investment and poorest infrastructure and that gave mortgage providers the nod to ensure black families could not move up into “white designated areas”. Though this practice has been banned, many fair housing advocates say that the practice still exists but without the redline. These stark differences between African Americans and their white counterparts are not about ability, desire, or ambition but it is about equality of opportunity, equity and America’s original sin.
The evangelicals including “The Handmaid’s Tale” Christian right and ultra-conservative Catholics have achieved their goal with the overturning of Roe v Wade which was the precedent that underpinned a woman’s right to choose. This retrograde step lays bare the crisis within America. This was achieved by the packing of the Supreme Court with politically appointed originalists, backward-looking conservative Catholic judges, such as Gorsuch Cavanagh and Barrett. These jurists lied at their confirmation hearing, saying that Roe was settled law. This retrograde step will now allow red states to ban abortions in any circumstances, including rape and incest and others will go as far as to ban the abortion pill. This will be enforced by draconian criminal legislation, welcome to Gilead. As Clarence Thomas intimated, now on to same-sex marriage, contraception, I now wonder when he will get around to the issue of stoning women.
This Bible-thumping community continues to endorse a person seen by many as a misogynist, a compulsive liar, a snake oil salesman, a sexual predator, a racist, and someone more familiar with the Kentucky Fried Chicken menu than the Bible. I am sure Jesus is proud of you all.
As it stands it is the Supreme Court that is undermining democracy. It was the Supreme Court’s controversial decision in the case of Citizens United V Federal Election Commission, that reversed century-old campaign finance restrictions. It has now enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited funds on elections. This saw the creation of super PACs funded by the likes of the ultra-conservative republican supporting Koch Brothers and the NRA. The decision of the court has allowed money to be the most useful and important instrument in the election toolbox. This has had the effect of corrupting the election process by endorsing that a politician can be bought and amplifying even further, the voice of the rich and powerful. Money spent on the 2020 Presidential election and down-ballot elections totalled north of $14B, by comparison, in the UK parliamentary election of 2019 the spend was under £50m. If Americans cannot see this as a problem, not even God can help them. They also tore the heart out of the Voting Rights Act in 2013 by allowing States to change election laws without the approval of the Federal Election Commission, in effect making voter suppression legal and upholding even further the dreaded principle of state rights. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for his Court opinion that “The ‘pervasive,’ ‘flagrant,’ ‘widespread,’ and ‘rampant’” racial voter discrimination that Congress addressed in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 no longer existed. What a f’ing plonker. This aspect of the Voting Rights Act ensured that states and localities with a history of discrimination against minority voters, namely African Americans had to get changes cleared by the federal government before they went into effect. You can now add the Supreme Court to the cabal that includes Trump Republicans, fundamentalist evangelicals, ultra-conservative Catholics, white nationalists, the far-right and NRA, that are collectively undermining the republic.
The US constitution adopted 250 years ago seems past its sell-by date and now needs to reflect the challenges of the 21st century not the concerns of the 18th century. We will not mention the absurd second amendment which is the right to bear arms. However, state rights that are enshrined in the constitution in effect have allowed voter suppression, gerrymandering, partisan redistricting and 50 states with 50 different electoral systems, all of which undermine the very principle that every vote counts.
A governing system that was set up to restrain the tyranny of the majority has now delivered the undemocratic tyranny of the minority. Let me explain, in the current senate, Democrats after winning the two Georgia seats in 2020 will represent 41 million more people than Trump’s Republican Party, yet both parties will have 50 senate seats each. Now, do you get what I mean by the tyranny of the minority? Each senator has a term of seven years, and the House of Representatives is worse in that it is a two-year term so, just as your ass hits the seat you are out with the begging bowl for funds to partake in the next election. Democracies need to be refreshed by new voices and if the president can only stand for two terms, it seems logical that every other politician should be subject to term limits that should include the politically appointed Supreme Court Justices.
The President needs an LBJ moment but in this toxic and divisive political environment, this is not likely, particularly since the peaceful transfer of power was almost undermined and where the word bipartisanship is no longer a sign of political maturity but profanity.
What we can say is that the two-party system is failing before the eyes of the American people and in the polarisation that this has caused, we can see two Americas; one is urban, secular, pro-choice, educated, who embrace multiculturalism, diversity and change and who are generally left of centre; the other being rural, less educated( though that cannot be said about McConnell, Hawley, Cruz, Rubio, etc) largely white, pro-life, religious, socially conservative, who embrace tradition and fear demographic change.
In 1861 a civil war was fought to keep America united, but there is a cold civil war going on, propagated by right-wing white nationalists, ultra-conservative Christian evangelicals, conspiracy-orientated Trump-supporting republicans and amplified by Fox News through Carlson, Hannity, Ingrams and their likes on News Max and America On-Line.
One conclusion you can draw from all of this is that the two-party system is failing the American people and the time for the evolution of a third party, is now.
I write this after the tragic mass shooting in Uvalde and Buffalo and the dysfunctional response of Republicans (the NRA drag). These tragedies alone go to the heart of what is insane about America.
I am watching the start of a process where the January 6th Committee has revealed to the American public the harrowing facts that led up to Jan 6th, 2021. What I have watched to date is revealing and shocking in equal measures. It revealed how close the US was to a successful coup. It has highlighted former President Trump’s complicity and the complicity of his allies in weaponising the “Big Lie”. It also revealed how a hand full of Republicans in the DOJ and state officials, some of who voted for Trump, ( that is difficult to get your head around) chose the constitution over a trainee Stalin. I am sure even John le Carre would have difficulties getting his head around this.
So, Making America Great Again is not the issue, it is MAKE AMERICA SANE AGAIN, or is this democratic republic slowly moving towards its own two-state solution, the consequences of which are unthinkable for all liberal democracies.
Let us know what you think in the comments section below 👇
Suneil Sharma
The Gob 
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