President Bush’s first term was an undemocratically illegitimate presidency. It brought us an illegal war. The Bush administration instituted the policies that almost destroyed the world’s economy. To be fair, President Clinton, G.H.W. Bush, and Reagan played their part with irresponsible deregulation in the financial sector.
America awoke to another undemocratically illegitimate president on November 9th, President-Elect Trump. Two in five defective elections give little confidence in the American electoral scheme.
In both instances, external forces seemed to manipulate the outcome that most affected the electoral college. Bush had the butterfly ballot and the Supreme Court. Donald Trump had GOP-led voter suppression and Russian assistance.
Many claim the electoral college is the constitutional out for an electorate gone awry. Some say it ensures states that would otherwise get little attention get noticed appropriately. Hogwash. In these last two undemocratically illegitimate presidencies, the American people got it right. The electoral college failed.
America is a connected country in real time, and state delineation means very little with relatively inexpensive mobility. The electoral college is an undemocratic aberration that makes individuals in particular states more influential than others as they wield more power than others. To be clear, it is not only the electoral college but the makeup of the Senate that is undemocratic. That both California, the most populous state with north of 38 million people has equal representation to Wyoming, the least populous state with less than one million people is indeed an aberration with no present-day justification. Worse is Washington DC, a place with a population larger than Wyoming; it gets no Senate representation and no voting member in the House of Representatives.
For too long millions of underrepresented Americans continued to live their lives with these injustices exploited to maintain an unjustified hierarchy. We must arrest this aberration. And that stop must begin with the objection of all social safety net policy changes that the undemocratically illegitimate presidency of Donald Trump attempts to make.
Many will claim that it is best to compromise, get the best deal attainable as Trump and the Republicans attempt to destroy the New Deal, the Great Society, and Obamanomics. Many Americans made choices that will negatively affect their economics, social, and health well-being. The gullibility of many Americans is ever present because, at every turn, there are those who attempt to make the best of the situation that came about from an inappropriate vote.
Progressive and Conservative rags alike excoriated DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas for a harsh post pretty much scolding the gullible voter. Many reported it as a glee for those who will see the wrath from their vote almost immediately. Many of us who are out there fighting for poor and middle-class policies feel the exasperation in those words as many hoodwinked by the smoke and mirrors and lies by the guardians of the plutocracy continue to achieve electoral results.
Sometimes good cop, bad cop is a necessary tactic. Progressives know that many of these voters screwed themselves. Muti-tactical approaches to attempt to get these voters attention is warranted. What is unwarranted is something progressives are excellent at doing to themselves, the circular firing squad that forgets who the enemy is. Let’s all remember that eradicating many ills are attained by attacking from various directions in different forms, using different techniques.
Here is the deal. President-Elect Donald Trump is an illegitimate president, and it is imperative that all Americans treat him as such. This stance isn’t sour grapes. Let me explain.
- It is clear that Trump both encouraged the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton’s campaign and that the Russians fed information to WikiLeaks to aid the Donald.
- It is clear that Putin was involved in directing the Russian hack and that Trump was aware, in fact, encouraged the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails.
- Hillary Clinton won 3 million more votes than Trump did and as such he has no mandate for the destruction of our social safety net. Most people voted for the policies supported by Hillary Clinton.
- We cannot allow Trump to govern without a vigorous opposition lest it encourages future candidates to use the evilest seeds still residing in many to attain a hollow victory. Trump used racism, misogyny, xenophobia, sexism, and all the negative isms in between to eke out an electoral majority.
Donald Trump and his allies continue to lie when they claim that Trump won by an electoral landslide let alone won the election fairly. Any statements that claim Trump had a landslide win is patently false. They need that narrative because they want to justify the massive changes to policy. Otherwise, there is no legitimacy for privatizing and cutting Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
It is time for the Democratic Party to evolve. It is time for Americans to see them as fighters. Americans do not like Republican policies, but they sure do like to see someone they think is fighting for them. Democrats all over the country must see that. Democrats need leadership that is willing to get dirty. The best defense for the poor and the middle-class is a potent offense, a strong promotion, and defense of poor and middle-class centric policies. That is why one hopes Democrats elect a fighter like Keith Ellison to run the Democratic National Committee instead of another weak, complacent actor schooled in platitudes.
The undemocratically illegitimate President must be Trump’s moniker to stop his and the Republicans’ poor and middle-class centric destructive agenda.