Un-Trumping America: A Plan to Make America a Democracy Again

Trump’s election didn’t turn the Republican Party into a nihilistic, win-at-all-costs, political-racketeering scheme. The fact that the Republican Party is a nihilistic, win-at-all-costs, political-racketeering scheme is what led to the election of Trump.

The best summary of Trumpism is “billionaire-funded racial grievance politics.” It’s plutocracy in populist clothing.

in the Trump era, Fox has become state television akin to something you would see in North Korea or Russia.

America is a “democracy” governed by antidemocratic institutions, a country where a growing progressive diverse majority is being governed by a shrinking conservative white minority.

We have to match the Republicans not in cynicism, but in strategy and toughness. Like John F. Kennedy, Democrats need to become “idealists without illusions.

McConnell made a decision to make the economy worse to improve his political prospects. People lost their jobs, their homes, and their retirement savings because McConnell opposed any action that would help the economy if he thought it would also help Obama.

Fighting and losing is sometimes politically preferable to surrendering in silence.

Facebook is doing more than letting politicians say what they want. Facebook is allowing politicians to pay them to target lies at the voters that Facebook’s data says are most susceptible to believing those lies. It’s disinformation for profit.

If Mitch McConnell had been the leader of the Senate during Watergate, Nixon would have finished out his term, and the Republican Party would have named several airports after him.

Trumpism is a somewhat ambiguous concept. Trump is not a philosopher. He doesn’t have a political theory or any underlying beliefs. The only -isms that he has ever been associated with are racism and narcissism. The best summary of Trumpism is “billionaire-funded racial grievance politics.

California, which has 40 million people, has the same number of senators as North Dakota, which has fewer than 1 million people. To put it another way, the vote of North Dakota is worth 40 times more than the vote of a Californian. The Republican majority in the Senate that confirms Trump’s right-wing judges and blocks progress on popular policies like gun control and a higher minimum wage is represented by a distinct minority of Americans.

Getting more people to vote more often is the most simple cure for the complex set of problems that plague America. A significant majority of Americans agree more with Democrats than Republicans, but they don’t vote, because their vote is suppressed by law or indifference.

Thanks in part to Trump's plan, many huge multi-national corporations pay zero dollars in federal taxes. Americans pay more for their Amazon prime subscription and Amazon pays in federal taxes. If you think that is right, vote for Trump. If you think corporations should pay their fair share, vote for a Democrat. Trump promised to protect Medicare, but he wants to pay for his corporate tax cut with hundreds of billions of dollars in custom Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

His supporters are not dumb. They voted for Trump with eyes wide open to his flaws and the risks involved. Some were, of course, racist and appreciated Trump’s racism. Others were partisan Republicans who would vote for a mayonnaise sandwich if it had an R next to it. And finally, a lot of voters decided that their frustration with politics as usual was sufficient to justify a big gamble.

Trump talks tough on China, but much of the Trump-branded products including his hideous ties are made there. President Trump has launched an incompetent trade war with China that cost American farmers and consumers billions. When he started losing, he tried to help farmers. But he screwed that up, too. Most of the money went to big corporations instead of family farms. The money for Trump’s corporate farm bailout was borrowed from— yes, you guessed it— China.

The goal of gerrymandering to this degree is not just to make your vote count less; it’s to make you know your vote doesn’t count in the hope that you won’t vote again. Because why put in the effort if it doesn’t matter anyway? Cynicism is the ally of conservatism.

The state of Texas, which generally has the same affection for democracy as North Korea, accepts concealed carry permits for voting, but not student IDs. Hmm, I wonder which party that policy helps? If the Republicans can’t win your vote, they will take your vote. This effort followed in the tradition of the Jim Crow policies put in place after Reconstruction to prevent newly freed slaves from having any political power. These laws are costing Democrats elections and helping Republicans maintain power despite appealing to fewer and fewer voters. According to one study, Wisconsin’s voter ID law potentially suppressed 200,000 votes. Donald Trump won that state by 22,700 votes.

Every year, the American electorate is getting more diverse, which means that Republicans need to get more and more votes from a dwindling white base. This means the rhetoric is going to get more inflammatory. The appeals are going to be more explicit. This will threaten to tear apart the moral fabric of the country, ripping American democracy apart at the seams.

The electorate is getting less white every year, which means that the Republican Party’s success depends on getting a higher and higher percentage of the white vote— specifically white men without a college degree. And those white voters are getting more conservative— driven by the fear of a “changing” America that barely resembles the country they grew up in. This fear has been fueled by the racism-for-profit operation at Fox News.

The great asymmetry in American politics is that Democrats view political power as a means to an end, and Republicans view political power as an end in and of itself. In other words, Democrats want to do the right thing and Republicans want to win. Modern politics is a contest between two different philosophies. It’s "Yes We Can" versus "Because We Can.

Politics is not that complicated, and it's in the economic interest of the pundits and consultants to make you believe you need a guru on an expensive retainer to understand it.

Whenever Trump did something that hurt someone or said something that offended everyone, there was something we could do. It was possible to turn the anger into activism, to undo the damage and right the wrong. Marching, donating, canvassing, and ultimately voting was a solution.

are not trapped by the mistakes of history; that we are masters of our fate,” Obama said. “That’s the lesson of our past. That’s the promise of tomorrow—that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.

if you don’t like what’s going on right now—and you shouldn’t—do not complain. Don’t hashtag. Don’t get anxious. Don’t retreat. Don’t binge on whatever it is you’re bingeing on. Don’t lose yourself in ironic detachment. Don’t put your head in the sand. Don’t boo. Vote.

First, understanding who the Republicans are and what their strategy is. Second, winning in 2020. And finally, using our newfound political power to fix American politics to ensure we never have to deal with someone like Donald Trump ever again.

the “perfect call,” but it was an imperfect crime.

lines between his criminality and his incompetence were blurred.