democracy

The Party of Trump is unworthy of winning

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“The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning. ” – Adlai E. Stevenson

The white identity, white grievance, white nationalist Party of Trump fka the Republican Party is built upon four pillars: ignorance, fear, hatred of others, and an unrelenting stream of pathological lies. President Trump has made 6,420 false or misleading claims over 649 days.

The Party of Trump is unworthy of winning.

It is a political party which has forfeited any claim to legitimacy in the American tradition and within acceptable norms. It has become the crypto-fascist authoritarian wet dream of Stephen Bannon and Stephen Miller and their useful idiot, Donald Trump.

As conservative commentator Max Boot warns, “[T]he Republican Party must be destroyed before it can be rebuilt.” Vote against all Republicans. Every single one.

I’m sick and tired of a president who pretends that a caravan of impoverished refugees is an “invasion” by “unknown Middle Easterners” and “bad thugs” — and whose [propagandists] on Fox News aka Trump TV pretend the refugees are bringing leprosy and smallpox to the United States. (Smallpox was eliminated about 40 years ago.)

Mike Allen of Axios adds, “In one of the most blatant and misleading attempts ever to scare American voters days before an election, President Trump is warning in speeches, tweets, interviews and ads that scary, deadly migrants are about to storm our southern border. Almost none of what he warns is demonstrably true, at least in terms of scale and scope of threat.” Reality check: Trump is pushing fake news on the migrant caravan. New York Times fact check of the day, Trump’s Falsehood-Laden Speech on Immigration.

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The survival of democracy is on the ballot in November – repudiate ‘Trumpism’, the new American fascism

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The malignant cancer of Trumpism, the new American fascism, has now fully emaciated the decaying dead carcass of the Republican Party. The Republican Party is no more, it is history.

The former Party of Lincoln is now the Party of Trump, the party of white identity and white grievance and white nationalism.

At last night’s rally in Texas for “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz, Russian asset Donald Trump formally embraced fascism:

Donald Trump: You know, they have a word. It sort of became old-fashioned. It’s called a nationalist. And I say really, we’re not supposed to use that word. You know what I am? I am a nationalist. Use that word.

In response, the Houston crowd roared back with a defiant chant of “USA! USA!” They fully understood Trump’s dog whistle of “white nationalism.”

This is the result of the conservative movement’s decades-long embrace of Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America that professor Bertram Gross presciently warned us of in 1980.

Fascism doesn’t descend on a nation overnight. A nation has to be prepared for it first. Doctor Steven Jonas correctly noted in his 2015 essay, Fascism in the 21st Century:

When we are looking at 21st century fascism, in the context of what is happening in certain of the capitalist states, at the present particularly in the United States, it should be noted that it is entirely possible that wholesale violence will not be required for its introduction.  Nor will a maximum leader necessarily be required.  Like the fog in the famous, ultra-short poem by the U.S. person Carl Sandburg, it may well come in “on little cat feet.”

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A constitution designed to preserve slavery now undermines our democracy

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America’s original sin, slavery, continues to define our society and political institutions to this day. This is because the U.S. Constitution, which was designed to preserve slavery, now undermines our democracy.

If Americans believe in democracy — and one of our two major political parties, the Party of Trump fka the Republican Party, decidedly does not — we must move to amend the Constitution to remove the lingering vestiges of slavery and usher in a revival of American democracy.

Voting is a privilege of citizenship under the Constitution. There is no express guarantee in the Constitution that the franchise to vote is a fundamental constitutional right. This has allowed the states to disenfranchise and to discriminate against its citizens denying them their vote in a myriad of creative ways. An amendment guaranteeing the franchise to vote is a fundamental constitutional right is necessary to fight GOP voter suppression efforts.

The electoral college is a lingering vestige of slavery. There is no direct popular vote election of the president and vice president, as in every other modern democracy in the world. Americans vote for electors who then vote to elect the president and vice president. There have been five United States presidential elections in which the electoral college winner lost the popular vote, twice since 2000, favoring Republicans. It is long past time to amend the Constitution to repeal the electoral college and adopt the direct popular vote election of president and vice president as in every other modern democracy in the world. Republicans are likely to oppose repeal of the electoral college because they have lost the popular vote in six of the last seven elections.

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Kavanaugh confirmation advances to a final vote

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Senators voted 51-49 to end debate on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination, setting up a final vote to confirm Kavanaugh for Saturday afternoon. Kavanaugh advances in key Senate vote:

Kavanaugh’s nomination got a last-minute boost when Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Susan Collins (R-ME) voted to end debate on Kavanaugh’s nomination. Manchin was the only Democrat to vote yes.

Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), however, voted against advancing the nomination, the only Republican to do so.

Senate Republicans acknowledged ahead of time that they might not know the outcome of the vote by the time it started — an unusual move for a leadership team that likes to keep a tight grip on floor action.

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This doesn’t guarantee they will each vote to confirm him. Collins (Maine) voted to end debate but isn’t expected to make an announcement on if she will vote to confirm him until 3 p.m., setting up a must-watch moment on the Senate floor.

Republicans hold a slim 51-seat majority in the Senate, which allows them to lose one vote from their conference and still confirm Kavanaugh without Democratic help.

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Despite massive opposition, Republicans are set to confirm the most unpopular judicial nominee in American history

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More than 2,400 law professors sign letter opposing Kavanaugh’s confirmation:

Signatories included Martha Minow — the former dean of Harvard Law School, where Kavanaugh taught a popular course — other law school deans and former deans, and some scholars who previously supported Kavanaugh.

“As someone who knew and liked Brett Kavanaugh when we clerked together, I have tried very hard to stay out of this process and to give him the benefit of the doubt,” said Mark Lemley, a professor at Stanford Law School. But Kavanaugh’s behavior at the hearing last week “was not what we should expect of a Supreme Court Justice. Telling obvious lies about his background, yelling at senators, refusing to answer questions, and blaming his troubles on others is not appropriate behavior.”

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Another letter, signed by about 900 female law professors, asked the Senate to reject Kavanaugh’s appointment. As a law professor, “it is my responsibility to teach my students the highest standards of professionalism and decorum,” Karla McKanders, a professor of law at Vanderbilt University Law School, said in an email. “Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony undermines the legal profession and would undermine the authority of the Supreme Court.”

In an unprecedented move, life-long Republican and Former Justice John Paul Stevens said Judge Kavanaugh is not qualified to sit on the court:

Justice Stevens said he came to the conclusion reluctantly, changing his mind about Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination after the second round of the judge’s confirmation hearings last week. Judge Kavanaugh’s statements at those hearings, Justice Stevens said, revealed prejudices that would make it impossible for him to do the court’s work, a point he said had been made by prominent commentators.

“They suggest that he has demonstrated a potential bias involving enough potential litigants before the court that he would not be able to perform his full responsibilities,” Justice Stevens said in remarks to retirees in Boca Raton, Fla. “And I think there is merit in that criticism and that the senators should really pay attention to it.”

“For the good of the court,” he said, “it’s not healthy to get a new justice that can only do a part-time job.”

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