Keep Hope Alive

It’s the only option we have

If you had hopes for a quick fix, the past four days should have shattered them. President Biden’s shocking debate performance, Dismal polling - more than 70 percent said he’s unfit. And now the Supreme Court’s decision expanding presidential immunity have brought into focus the size of the challenge we face as we defend our democracy from Donald Trump and his fascist movement.

The court’s decision greatly expanded the notion that a president cannot be prosecuted for  “official acts” even if they break the law. In the hearing the court conducted Trump’s attorneys said that in theory a president could order a rival killed and enjoy immunity from prosecution. In her dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted, that the decision opens up the possibility for unthinkable abuses. She wrote:

 “Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.”

After Biden’s debate disaster and the public’s turn against him, the Supreme Court decision was enough to temporarily knock the wind out of me. Then I  began to think about our cause and felt a little steadier. Then a seven-word phrase came to mind – “This is a marathon, not a sprint.”

I confess that in my dreams Donald Trump’s defeat, and our country’s salvation, would come on Election Day. However, this was never a reasonable assumption. Setting aside the obvious fact that no one can predict an election’s outcome, I knew that the Trump movement’s army would remain strong no matter what happened and that both the hyper-activist courts, and a Congress that the GOP could control, would limit a Democrat president. The bottom line? No one election will solve things.

So what do we do? I would say we can:

·         Join organizations like Country First,, which I founded to promote democracy, or another of the half-dozen other anti-authoritarian organizations that have sprouted in recent years. Don’t just join these organizations. Give your time and money.

·        Pressure the Democratic Party to take the threats seriously. For too long the opposition party has treated Donald Trump as a buffoon. He is not. He is a cold, calculating “feral genius” as David Axelrod puts it, who has won the hearts of tens of millions of voters

·         Demand the Democrats descend from their ivory tower and abandon their focus on identity politics to offer middle-class, heartland Americans concrete hope that their problems will be addressed. These Americans feel the economic squeeze in ways that coastal elites cannot imagine. They have embraced Trump because he sees them. He doesn’t do anything for them. But he recognizes them and that’s enough..

·         Vote. This is a no-brainer.

·         Protest. Demonstrations in favor of democracy and against the hard Right’s authoritarianism must be organized and deployed across the country, again and again.

·         Seize the flag, and patriotic terms like freedom and liberty. For too long our side has ceded these potent symbols to the increasingly radical Right. Consider the way the very idea of America is under threat, and you will agree that we are the true patriots. (That word – patriot – is another one we must use.)

·          Commit to the long haul and push our leaders to emulate the decades-long campaign the extreme Right waged to gain the power it has now.  How did they do it? They created and funded institutions that devised strategy, tactics, and action plans. They executed these plans with coordination and consistency. (Remember the Tea Party?) And they disciplined themselves to deliver messages with precise language that was repeated so often they changed the way their followers thought. And they did it all with real passion.

My bullet points are the product of a few hours of thought, so imagine what could happen if we gather together, plan the path we should take, and commit ourselves to the cause. Yes, these are hard times. The future we want will not be easy to achieve. However, democracy is in our national DNA. Nothing that happens will change this. And so we must, in the words of Jesse Jackson — someone I never thought I’d reference — “Keep hope alive.”