The Witness Chronicles, July 5, 2024
The existential threat to Democracy
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Dazed and Confused in DC: Stop With the Excuses
This crap is not going to save Democracy
He had a cold. He was tired from traveling, even though it had been twelve days since he got home. He needs to go to bed at eight PM.
The Biden camp is playing directly into Trump’s game plan and it is painful to watch. But what is beyond painful are the stakes involved. The right is now openly calling for assassinations, following the corrupt right wing of the Supreme Court ruling that a sitting President is totally immune from prosecution for anything he declares an official act.
This is just the beginning of a nightmare that should terrify all Americans, regardless of political preferences. You won’t get to have political preferences if we let Trump steal power. Instead we will get loyalty oaths, vengeance, and violence, all at the bidding of a man who cannot be trusted by anyone.
He demands loyalty but is not loyal in return, something his inner circle is blind to, despite watching colleague after colleague leave, get fired, or get destroyed for any petty thing that sets off this overgrown child.
I’ve already ranted about the need for Joe Biden to leave the race in the interest of the country he has loyally served for his entire long life. I question the advice and counsel he is getting from supporters, including his wife. It seems to me that the greatest final service he can do for his country is to step aside. And he needs to hear this, over and over.
I don’t care about his age- we all age and our capacity changes. It’s natural, but it is also unrealistic to pretend it is not happening. There is evidence that Joe is realizing this. He did state that he needs to work less and get more rest. But there is a problem with this.
The world and the country are in turmoil. Wars in Ukraine and Israel threaten to blow up into a Great War between autocracy and democracy. Powerful countries run by dictators like Xi Jinping of China, Putin, Kim Il Jong of North Korea, and Victor Orban of Hungary are being joined by Iran and others to form a bloc united against Democracy.
They are feeling their power and ready to test it. Fortunately we have a NATO that is stronger than ever and an economy that demonstrates that democracy is by far the better system. Both of those accomplishments can be claimed legitimately by Joe Biden’s leadership.
They should be the career defining peak of his long service, justifiably so.
But the allies of those autocracies in America are laying the groundwork for turning our country away from those successes and towards a dictatorship under Donald Trump. The powerful Heritage Foundation, which appears to be funded by Hungary’s Orban, has a 1000 page plan for engineering that plan overnight.
1000 pages means they have very specific targets all across America, including virtually any Democrat, the majority of the two million government workers and anyone who is not white, straight, Christian, and willing to swear an oath of loyalty to Donald Trump.
History, if there is one, will record how this happened so fast, but right now is the moment where we can turn this around. If we don’t, it will become nearly impossible to get back to the ideals that have driven our democracy for 248 years.
There will be no recourse to the courts and the law because we know they will be the first targets of a Trump regime. With unbridled immunity he will declare martial law, censor the media who he openly hates, put immigrants in concentration camps, and destroy the government’s ability to govern.
These are not conspiracy theories, they are the stated goals of a Trump Presidency, repeated over and over again on the record, even proudly.
The moment to stop this disaster is here and now. Not weeks from now, right now. And the only way we ensure this happens is to elect a President who is vital, energetic, and experienced enough to take on this historical task. And who is younger, because we know with certainty that even Biden’s supporters are very worried about his age.
Right now he can’t win and we need someone who can. Someone who strikes fear into Trump because they are competent, intelligent, and who has loyalty to the Constitution and the law, above all. A fighter.
Otherwise be prepared for something we have never experienced on a scale never seen in this country. We have come close before but democracy prevailed. This time it might not.
Those are the stakes. Joe, you know it. Do the right thing.
~ I write The Grasshopper, an occasional letter on the creative life and it’s sister, mostly daily publication The Witness Chronicles, a place for my articles on politics and climate. They share a free and paid subscription. I also write The Remarkable, a recovery letter, about my addiction and reentry experience. I don’t paywall any content in these, however this is how I live and I strongly believe all writers and creatives should get paid, if we provide value. Your support with a paid subscription helps make that happen.
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Thanks as always for another great piece, Martin. I also believe Joe has got to go. I do appreciate his service to our country.
In 2020, when a few Dems started rallying around him, I was NOT happy (thinking: just what we need, another old white guy). But Joe rallied the troops and got the job done.
When he said he'd only serve for 1 term, I thought: How's that going to work? (I think Joe thought if he beat Orange PoS, that said PoS would go away. Of course, we now know otherwise. )
When he decidd to run for a second term, I was weary. As you pointed out many times, he got a lot of good things accomplished, but he's 4 years older, and we know that the president you ages you faster than. "normal" life.
His debate performance was the final straw. If he were 20 years younger, we could say. "It was one bad night." But at his age, we know better.
I do believe Joe still has the COMPETENCE to be a good president. If he remains the Democratic candidate, I will vote for him.
But his PERFORMANCE--especially as a candidate--is suffering and poor. And there are a whole bunch of undecided voters who are only looking at his performance as a candidate. I'm afraid he can't win, and there's too much at stake for Joe to fail.