The GOP's End To Democracy

by muon

The word “coup” is defined as a seizure of power from the government, usually sudden and violent, usually having to do with military activity. But there’s another kind of subtle political coup that’s oh so much more diabolical because it happens slowly.

The government of the United States, as set down in our Constitution, is supposed to be a government of, by, and for the people. It’s a democracy in which its citizens ought to have the ultimate power by the use of their vote. And it was constructed with three branches ~ executive, legislative, and judiciary ~ which are supposed to remain independent of each other, so that no one man nor one group would be able to seize absolute power and destroy our democracy.

The Republican Party has been trying to do just that ~ stage a political coup at the Federal level of the government, and through non-democratic means. In order to maintain a majority in Congress, the GOP has developed gerrymandering and voter suppression to an art form. Because of Citizen’s United, they’ve been able to shift power from ordinary citizens to corporations and the very wealthy. Power has even been given to foreign interests who seek to fund candidates and influence elections.

In the past 2 years, the line between executive branch and the Republicans in the legislative branch has completely disappeared. Most GOP congressmen support Trump without question, giving him the confidence to act like a dictator, while they turn a deaf ear to the vast majority of voters. Laws these days aren’t legislated, but come down from the White House as executive orders, or as Trump probably thinks of them, empirical edicts.

Still, we used to be able to rely most of the time on the Supreme Court to be the fair and impartial conscience of the country (albeit, not always ~ Dred Scott, for instance). Now, beginning with the Merrick Garland fiasco, the GOP has repeatedly ignored procedures set down centuries before, in order to manipulate the judiciary to their own will instead of the will of the people.  The Kavanaugh nomination is only the latest symptom. Legal minds and institutions from all over the country say Kavanaugh doesn’t have the temperament for the Supreme Court. Even former Justice Stevens believes Kavanaugh shouldn’t be appointed. Yet, the GOP is plowing forward, ignoring prudence and precedence from the beginning. Nothing about this confirmation process has had anything to do with true democracy. It’s all about illegal seizure of power from the voters of the United States.

This is why the 2018 general election is so important. Voters on both sides of the political divide need to take their power back from congressmen who’ve been in office so long, they think somehow that it’s their birthright. We need to remove people from office who have no respect for the separation of the three branches of government, who think our government is about their own power and wealth.

Only one political party is seeking to merge the 3 branches of government into one. The Republicans are staging a coup, pure and simple. You need to vote this November before that right is taken from you as well.