By Corey Hill |
Trump is taking a beating in the court of public opinion. Polls predict a near certain electoral wipeout at the Presidential level, and a probable corollary of GOP loss of the Senate. Nobody much cares for the disastrous COVID pandemic non-response, his full-throated defense of Confederate monuments, lying, cheating, general incompetence and negligence. And with each day comes revelation of some new scandal peeling away his support.
Though everyone has been rightly traumatized by his narrow win in 2016, let’s be clear: it’s pretty unlikely Trump will win a free and fair election in 2020.
Trumpism is a dead-end, spent force. That’s the good news. The bad news is that a hardened core of fascists is working double time to consolidate their power before they lose their chance. In the face of this, a significant portion of the country squarely appreciates the danger of the present moment, and uhh…doesn’t really want to do anything about it.
To go back to my preferred metaphor, wherein the house represents the body politic of the United States of America: it’s as if the place is engulfed in flames, we can see the arsonist on the property, gasoline in one hand, match in the other, we’ve already watched people we care about suffer in the conflagration, we can see that the fire is only going to get bigger — and rather than remove the dude right now and put out the fire, we say: let’s get to this a few months from now.
Donald J. Trump should not remain in office for another six months. Hell, he shouldn’t remain in office for another six days, another six minutes. Six seconds is six seconds too long for the threat represented by the fascist in chief.
First, for the make our voices heard in November crowd: We might not have free and fair elections. The blatant criminality of this administration means many high-level players, up to and including Trump himself, could be facing serious legal liability if they no longer control the levers of power. Bill Barr sees himself as Trump’s shield. The Supreme Court is nakedly partisan.
Trump and his enablers have shown a willingness time and again to favor maintenance of power over democratic norms. Look at the 2016 electoral interference. Look at the shut-down polling stations in 2020. Look at the claims that mail in voting is fraudulent. Trump and his goons are laying the groundwork to stay in power, no matter what happens in November. Why would they stop the criminality and consolidation of power now, when the cost of losing is so high?
And perhaps more importantly, January 2021 is a long way away. Six months is far too long to ignore the suffering and death of people and planet. Every single day the failures of this administration are measured in human lives, in the cries of children locked in cages and the last words of loved ones, carried over conference calls because the COVID-19 pandemic means the people we care about die alone, deprived even of the in-person touch of a family member.
COVID-19 is raging out of control, and the Trump administration has stopped even pretending to care.
We simply cannot afford to wait until November. We don’t have to. We can’t. We have every reason and every right to demand Trump and Pence’s immediate removal from office.
Societies are built on a compact. Trump and Pence have broken that compact. So they have to get the hell out. NOW.
It’s not all that likely they’re going to leave without a little reminder from the rest of us. The criminal cabal occupying the White House is afraid of real people power. It’s what sent Trump scrambling to the bunker, and why he’s afraid to show his face anywhere other than a tightly controlled crowd of sycophants.
On July 4, people across the country took to the streets to make a different kind of declaration. These fascists are no longer welcome in these United States.
Let’s keep repeating the message until it can no longer be ignored. Let’s shout this shit from every city street from Los Angeles to Bangor.
Trump Pence, Out Now!