By Ruth A. Sheets
Robert Reich is in my not so humble opinion, a critically important voice for democracy in America today, and for the last few decades too. He was the Secretary of Labor in Bill Clinton’s cabinet and taught at The University of California, Berkeley. A few mornings ago on his Substack thread, the discussion was about Donald Trump the mob boss. The discussion included some of the ”don’t” henchmen, in particular, an extremist MAGA election denier, our new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson of Louisiana. For 3 weeks we all watched the chaos of Republicans trying to decide on a new Speaker after ditching Kevin McCarthy, a nonentity who had the respect of almost no one (but I understand he was a great fundraiser). The new guy, while a mystery as to how he will serve as the Speaker, has no mystery concerning his positions on nearly everything, supposedly guided only by the Bible. Of course that means the parts he likes permit his racism, misogyny, homo/transphobia, xenophobia, and general dislike of humanity, well, those who are not like him. Johnson may be Speaker now, but it is clear who is really in charge, and it ain’t Johnson.
As often happens in this particular thread, the discussion moved to Democrats in relation to Trump’s role as don, Teflon Don as some have referred to him. Someone commented that Democrats have been on the defensive for ages. Republicans jump in with their wild accusations, rights-limiting legislation, accompanied by a vast number of lies which Democrats have been left to try to oppose then present and effective defense. Republicans toss out wild accusations like that Democrats approve of abortion until birth (coming out the birth canal). They spew a raft of conspiracy theories with absolutely no evidence but “professionals” who know someone who knows someone who . . . . Republicans work creatively to suppress votes even though the Constitution gives every citizen the right to vote upon reaching age 18 with no upper age limit. Dems are forced to try to provide fact-checking for the myriad of Republican lies as soon as humanly possible, before they can solidify in people’s minds, a near impossible task.
The problem with constantly taking the defense, the ordinary people get to hear the Republican positions and lies first and often that is what sticks with them, particularly with the overworked underpaid, overwhelmed white voter.
A Substack commenter’s response was that Democrats need to move to the offense for a change. That will be hard as the media is primed to hear the Republican input while ignoring the Democratic responses. This means Democrats will face a serious challenge. Some commented that our democracy depends on it, and I agree.
The contributor to the discussion, Susan, suggested that Democrats have a significant number of people who could take leadership roles in the new effort to get the message out first and force Republicans to try to defend their “policy ideas, their anti-Constitution/anti-democratic stances, and disregard of the needs and desires of the American people. From paying attention to hearings and interviews, Susan suggested a few who could do the job: Jamie Raskin, AOC, Katie Porter, and Maxwell Frost as excellent defenders who could also take the offense. I would add: the other members of the Squad, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, John Fetterman, Kamala Harris, Sherod Brown, and Jeff Merkley, and on the state level, Govs. Shapiro, Whitmer, and Newsome.
For some reason, and it is not clear why, Democrats have permitted Republicans to define the issues and take their positions so Dems have to defend even the status quo, as with Social Security and Medicare which should be off the table altogether. That constant defensive posture does not allow our society to progress into the modern world where global warming and scared men in power present hazards we must confront as a nation not as individuals.
President Biden is, in my view, an excellent executive but he is not the one to lead the charge. He needs to be running and steering the ship of democracy while others plan and with his help carry out the moves needed to get people to pay attention, to want to help, and to feel needed as efforts are made to improve life for all here and possibly throughout the world. Democrats must be able to distract the American people from petty whining, turning on neighbors they neither know or understand, and give folks a realistic positive mission that matters and can be accomplished.
The mission should include, but not be limited to getting huge corporations under control: paying their fair share of taxes, breaking up monopolies and trusts to make a more fair playing field, looking at copywrite and patent laws to see what is actually fair and what is cheating to keep more money in the corporate coffers, even after the American people have already paid much of the cost of product development (as with drugs and vaccines for example). We could also push for innovation and have more monetary awards to encourage innovation, particularly related to global warming, developing new manufacturing techniques and materials, and helping all people to be able to take advantage of modern technology.
Another issue to target is health care for all, a bit at a time perhaps, making sure there are proper staffing to patient ratios. ending insurance cheating, keeping rural hospitals and hospitals in mid-sized urban areas open and well-staffed. This could include paying for medical and nursing school for people willing to work in challenging areas of medicine like geriatrics, general medicine, rural patient care, online medicine, and vaccine research. Getting universities and colleges on board would be huge, providing a certain number of full scholarships for medical and nursing students from low income families, say 12 of every 100 students to start with until a full program can be in place to cover the costs for all students in training for medical careers (that could work for educators too). Democrats on the offensive line could demand necessary staff to patient/resident ratios in hospitals, nursing homes, and other care facilities by graphically describing the results of such understaffing on patients and residents.
Then there's immigration. We need to hear and read more stories about the ways immigrants have made and are making a positive difference in communities all across this country. The border needs to be staffed with people who actually care about the immigrants, the challenges they have faced trying to get here, and ways they will need help to complete the process to remain in the US. The immigration staff as well as the immigrants need sufficient resources to accomplish this successfully and as painlessly as possible. Democrats need to loudly call for expedited paths to citizenship for those who want to pursue that route: DACA young people, immigrants who have lived in this country at least 5 years for whatever reason, and asylum-seekers and refugees who simply can't return to their homelands due to fear for their lives. There should be a small fee involved so the immigrant can feel that they have paid some dues and fully belong. These reforms would stop some of the fear and blackmail that has stalked immigrants for decades. Dumping ICE would be a good move too and Dems can explain why in normal people language.
Right now we have a thriving economy, yet somehow people don't realize it, mostly because the media mentions it only in passing or with surprise each month when they don't get to tell everyone how bad things are. The economy's success could be the spark that can move the offense down the field if Democratic leaders step forward and run with the ball (OK, a football metaphor, I’m sure you get the idea).
Dems need a strong message with a snappy phrase or statement that is shared among all the players so people will get the fact that something positive is happening. Republicans have used phrases like “Morning in America” for Reagan, but there wasn’t much of a morning for working people, unions, or struggling Americans. George H.W. Bush used “a thousand points of light” but those lights were not for people of color or for working families either. Trump’s slogan was and is “Make America Great Again (MAGA) which tells us all exactly what is meant (rich, white, straight, pseudo-Christian men should rule and the rest of us are just here to be used and abused by that particular type of men, the way Republicans imagine it used to be. Democrats can do better: more inclusive, upbeat, a phrase that is the cue that everyone is on the offense for a change. Alas, I don’t have the gift of coming up with such a phrase, but I know there are folks out there who can.
It might be entertaining to watch Republicans trying to defend their appalling positions on all kinds of issues, none of which help anyone but themselves and their rich white donors when they have to defend them at every turn. Republicans have not really been expected to seriously defend anything for years, maybe decades (“I’m pro-life” or “I’m a Bible man” or “I like guns”). They just act and We the People have to clean up the inevitable messes. Democrats have been forced to get around abortion bans of all kinds, even illegal state laws, before Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Trump Supreme Court. Fighting book bans is wasteful in addition to being against the 1st Amendment, but beginning over a century ago, conservatives and now Republicans in particular, have tried to dictate what people can read, send through the mail, even at times purchase in stores, all based on their own biases and all against free speech, but Republicans can lie, insult, threaten, and don’t want anyone criticizing them because what they are saying/texting is free speech, right? Nonsense!
OK Dems, you know who and what the opposition is and the task ahead. Let's do it! Let’s win one for the nation!
