Dear Democrats: WTF Are You Waiting For?

I was talking the other day with someone who’s active in the Congressional midterm elections. A Democrat. I asked her how she thinks it looks for the party on Election Day.

“Feeling good,” she sheepishly said. “But it really all depends if our people get out and vote.”

Yes. The concern is always about turnout. But it shouldn’t be now. Given all that’s at stake, you’d think Democrats would be so fired up that they’d camp out at the polls the night before as if Led Zeppelin reunion tickets were going on sale at 6am. Because the truth is, if they’re not fired up enough to vote now, what…the…fuck…are…they…waiting…for?

Let me be perfectly clear: America is on the verge of autocracy. We are led by a sociopath. A malignant narcissist. A dangerous demagogue. A rabble-rousing, race-baiting dictator-wannabe bully who’s shattered all norms, boundaries and any sense of decorum and decency in his rapacious quest to consolidate power and self-enrich. A sick, twisted, reincarnated Morton Downey Jr who derives a creepy masturbatory thrill from instigating and dividing people.

Which is why the upcoming midterm elections are everything. Everything.

Does your vote matter? Yes.

Can you change the course of history with your vote? Yes.

Election Day is the one day in the year when the billionaire and the janitor have the exact same power. That any democrat wouldn’t exercise this power during Trump’s reign of terror is mind-numbing.

Do democrats really need a reason to vote? Consider how Trump and the Republican Party have turned America into a rancid cesspool:

*Neo-Nazis marching in the streets, and in at least one case, murdering liberal protestors

*Sexism and racism blatantly promoted and enabled

*Disabled people mocked

*War heroes, POW’s and Gold Star families attacked

*White House/administration choked by daily chaos and rampant corruption

*Sexual-abusers, rapists and pedophiles protected and defended

*Supreme Court seats stolen, with accused sexual-predators on the bench

*Gerrymandering and voter-suppression

*EPA gutted

*Climate-change denied; TPP and Paris Climate Accord abandoned

*Healthcare attacked

*Social-Security threatened

*Public education deteriorating

*Children caged / family-separation

*Muslims banned

*DACA attacked

*Increased gun violence

*Tax cuts for the rich and corporations

*Unions and workers’ rights under attack

*Women’s reproductive rights attacked

*Same-sex marriage attacked

*Religious fanaticism

*FBI/Justice Department assailed and undermined

*Media attacked as “the enemy of the people”

*Constitution and the rule of law disregarded

*Enemies emboldened, allies alienated

*Sycophantish sucking up to brutal dictators

*Treason accepted

For the first time in our nation’s 242-year history our democracy is having an existential crisis. Checks and balances only works if the checks do their job. So what happens when Congress is complicit and allows a kleptocrat despotic traitor to consolidate power? What happens when the Supreme Court has a tie-breaking justice who believes the president is above the law and should be insulated from subpoena and indictment? Tyranny happens, that’s what.

Is Trump a tyrant? Yes. Is Mitch McConnell a tyrant? Yes. Has the GOP-led Congress cravenly abdicated its oversight role in exchange for tax cuts, deregulation and a conservative judiciary? Yes.

The only way to stop this terrifying spiral into fascism is for democrats to vote. And vote en masse. To break records. To win the House with a huge enough margin to scare the shit out of Republicans that 2020 will be an even bigger bloodbath…where both the Senate and White House will be in major play.

But make no mistake: the main reason to take back the House is to thwart Trump’s self-serving, draconian agenda. To give Democrats the ability to conduct investigations into his corruption and treason. To have subpoena power. To protect special counsel Robert Mueller and his RussiaGate investigation. To return law and order back into the political landscape. To protect democracy. To impeach if necessary. And to provide the check that’s so desperately missing right now.

Because the alternative is chillingly unthinkable…