From the Battlefield of Gettysburg to the Storming of U.S. Capitol: Will American Democracy Survive?

A year ago today, America faced an existential crisis similar to the Civil War that raged from 1861-1865. But in a sense, the insurrection of January 6, 2021, in which ex-president Donald Trump tried to orchestrate a violent takeover of the country, was a greater threat to America than the Civil War because of its intent and purpose. The Republican Party, in thrall to a morally bankrupt psychopathic demagogue, went along with Trump’s incitement to the rioters to “fight like hell” to overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate victory in the 2020 presidential election. The live-streamed attack on the U.S. Capitol, the bastion of our democracy, by the murderous mob known as Trump fanatics, aided and abetted by the conspirator-in-chief and by Republican sycophants, brought America to the brink. 

It may sound like a cliché, but Providence saved America from ruin on January 6, 2021, a day that, like December 7^th, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, will also live in infamy.

So, what now? What can we ordinary Americans do to ensure that January 6, 2021, never repeats, that the rule of law will still prevail in a viciously polarized country, that the tradition of peaceful transfer of power will continue to endure as the hallmark of our democracy?

Not much, really, unless the midterm elections this year propels Democrats to significant majorities in both Congress and Senate. How likely is that to happen? Not very.

The immediate issue at hand is applying the rule of law to the Trumpers who scaled the walls and smashed the partitions in the Capitol on this day last year.

 

Over 725 people have been arrested but only 71 – about one-tenth - have been sentenced so far. They include a company CEO, an architect, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, a gym owner, a former Houston police officer, a wealthy Texan realtor who flew her private jet with friends to join the insurrection, and a University of Kentucky student. One of the most notorious, Florida businessman Robert Palmer, was sentenced to 63 months in prison. Palmer’s tears of repentance did not sway the judge. “It has to be made clear that trying to stop the peaceful transition of power and assaulting law enforcement officers is going to be met with certain punishment,” said the judge.

 

The elephant in the room, of course, is the ringleader and his acolytes. Unless Donald Trump and Republicans like Josh Hawley, Ron Johnson, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and others pay the price for their mendacity, instigation and active support of the insurrection, merely sentencing the fanatics and the foot soldiers will make a mockery of the law.

 

So far, not only has nothing happened to Trump, his star seems to be rising even higher among Republicans since his defeat. That is the reason why America’s experiment with democracy and the rule of law continues to be under assault, with no assurance that democracy will hold the fort.

 

From Lincoln’s Gettysburg exhortations to Martin Luther King’s march from Selma to Montgomery and beyond, America has faced one crisis after another with courage, resilience and fierce loyalty to the foundational values of our nation. 

When historians peel away the layers leading up to the insurrection of January 6, 2021, they will find at its core one dominant idea: The fear of white supremacists, overwhelmingly Republican, that America is slipping away from their grasp. The original sin of America is not slavery but white supremacy. This supremacy monster has now bared its fangs in its possibly final attempt to put all non-whites in their places and reinstall white supremacy back to the throne.

 

Will this work? The tragic truth, given how hyperpolarized America is now, is that we don’t know. 

Yet, if Providence has been kind to America whenever it faced an existential crisis, perhaps Providence will be kind to America this time too. But, as the saying goes, God helps those who help themselves. It is up to us ordinary Americans who, despite our differences, still believe in our country as a shining city upon a hill, to make sure that government “of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Building A Multiracial Democracy in America

On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln became the 16^th president of the United States, succeeding James Buchanan. Buchanan is generally ranked as the worst president in U.S. history for his tacit support of slavery and for allowing Southern states to secede, and Lincoln the greatest for abolishing slavery and preserving the Union.

One hundred and sixty years later, with Joe Biden succeeding Donald Trump as the 46^th president of the United States, we are witnessing history repeating itself. Biden may not dislodge Lincoln from his perch but it seems certain that the doubly-impeached Trump will displace Buchanan as the worst U.S. president ever.

More serious than ranking is the ominous parallel between the America that Lincoln inherited and the America that Biden has. The Civil War over slavery in 19^th-Century America has transformed itself into a Civil War over white supremacy in the 21^st.

America, and the world, breathed a sigh of relief when Biden won the presidency in a free and fair election. His immediate $1.9 trillion stimulus to vaccinate Americans and put sufficient money into the pockets of despairing millions unable to think beyond milk for their babies, bread for their sustenance and rent for the current month is already making a difference. Biden has picked seasoned professionals, not partisan hacks, to oversee his American “Marshall Plan.” Restoring decency and normalcy will take time after four years of indecency and autocracy but there is guarded optimism that good governance, accountability and morality will return under Biden’s administration.

But addressing such urgent issues as safely opening schools, climate crisis, immigration reform, wealth inequality and a global reset will falter if the administration and the American people do not confront the existential threat of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The armed mob that assaulted the foundation of our democracy on January 6^th was only a preview of what might recur if we do not confront this threat with the power of justice and the force of law.

Some myths, however, must be dispelled before domestic terrorism can be banished. First, that the “white” in white supremacy refers to all white Americans. That’s bigotry. Majority of whites reject the toxic ideology of racial superiority and do not subscribe to unhinged conspiracy theories. Second, that it’s the uneducated poor of rural America who form the bulk of white supremacists. Far from it. The January 6^th insurgents included lawmakers, police and military officers, middle-class urbanites, the wealthy and the privileged. Finally, that it’s an unchanging truth that Blacks do not vote even when the stakes are high. Despite Republican voter suppression and gerrymandering, it was American Blacks who were instrumental in delivering the presidency and vice-presidency to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It was also mostly Blacks who flipped the Senate for Democrats in Georgia, thanks to the massive voter enfranchisement effort by Stacey Abrams, continuing the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr, who led voter-registration drives in the South in the ‘60s.

So, how can we help the Biden administration defeat white nationalism that is tragically present in every community in America?

By mobilizing, protesting and convincing our representatives to act. After Trump became president in 2016, a national organization called “Indivisible” with local chapters in thousands of cities inspired millions of us to march against Trump’s xenophobic and demagogic transgressions in favor of a more humane America. We connected, created communities and compelled changes.

Such mobilization and activism must continue if we want to legally defeat white supremacy and right-wing extremism before national healing can begin. As historian Will Durant reminded us, “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within.”

Another December Day that Will Live in Infamy

On Monday, December 8, 1941, President Roosevelt addressed the nation after Japan launched an unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7. The United States entered World War II by declaring war on Japan on that fateful day but what we most remember from that famous address is how the president labeled December 7: “A date which will live in infamy.”

Seventy-nine years later, in a traumatic twist of history, we experienced yet another December Day which will live in infamy in our nation's history.

On December 8, 2020, the state of Texas filed a lawsuit directly with the U.S. Supreme Court to bar the battleground states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin from casting their electoral voted for Joe Biden. Biden had won these states in the November presidential election. The Texas lawsuit essentially asked the Supreme Court to declare Trump the winner in those four states and hand over the presidency to him for a second term.

That the Supreme Court threw out the absurd lawsuit three days later is not the point. It was expected and was obviously the right thing to do, even though Trump had packed the court with his hand-picked nominees.

No, the reason why this date will live in infamy, 79 years after the first one, is because 126 Republican Members of Congress (more than 60 percent) and 17 Republican Attorneys General signed the lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Think about that for a moment! People who swore to uphold the law and the constitution chose instead to support the baseless claims of a demagogue that the election was stolen from him, even though more than 7 million Americans voted for Biden than Trump, the largest difference in U.S. history.

For four years, Trump had assaulted the foundational values of America, aided and abetted by his sycophants, Republican Congressmen, Senators, Attorneys Generals and white supremacists. Trump’s criminal negligence in combating the lethal coronavirus has so far resulted in the deaths of over 300,000 Americans, more than the number of Americans who lost their lives - 291,557 - fighting in the four years of WWII after Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan following its deadly attack on Pearl harbor.

The difference between the two infamous dates couldn’t be starker. A foreign nation attacked America in December, 1941, forcing America to declare war. The cause was just, the right to defend the country moral and the nation united.

Seventy-nine years later, majority of the Republican Members of Congress and Attorneys General of 17 states declared war on America from within, threatening secession and evoking the specter of a Civil War.

These “By Hook or by Crook” Americans who so brazenly betrayed our democracy must not be forgotten for their treachery. We the people have the power to vote them out of office when it is their time for reelection.

Here are the names of the traitors, the quislings, the domestic terrorists, who have betrayed their oaths by supporting the unholy and undemocratic demands of a rogue president:

First, the attorneys general, supposedly the chief law enforcement officers of their states, who joined Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in their treacherous lawsuit:

Eric Schmitt, Missouri; Steve Marshall, Alabama; Leslie Rutledge, Arkansas; Ashley Moody, Florida; Curtis Hill, Indiana; Derek Schmidt, Kansas; Jeff Landry, Louisiana; Lynn Fitch, Mississippi; Tim Fox, Montana; Doug Peterson, Nebraska; Wayne Stenehjem, North Dakota; Mike Hunter, Oklahoma; Alan Wilson, South Carolina; Jason Ravnsborg, South Dakota; Herbert H. Slatery III, Tennessee; Sean Reyes, Utah; Patrick Morrisey, West Virginia.

 

Second, the House members, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Whip Steve Scalise (La.); Jim Jordan (Ohio), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee; Kevin Brady (Tex.), ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee; Rep. Gary Palmer (Ala.), head of the Republican Policy Committee; and Mike Johnson (La.), who organized this betrayal of the U.S. Constitution.

 

The rest, in alphabetical order of their home state, are:

Alabama (Robert B. Aderholt, Mo Brooks, Bradley Byrne), Arizona (Andy Biggs, Debbie Lesko), Arkansas (Eric A. “Rick” Crawford, Bruce Westerman), California (Ken Calvert, Doug LaMalfa, Tom McClintock), Colorado (Ken Buck, Doug Lamborn), Florida (Gus M. Bilirakis, Mario Diaz-Balart, Neal Dunn, Matt Gaetz, Bill Posey, John Rutherford, Ross Spano, Michael Waltz, Daniel Webster, Ted Yoho), Georgia (Rick Allen, Earl L. “Buddy” Carter, Douglas A. Collins, Drew Ferguson, Jody Hice, Barry Loudermilk, Austin Scott), Idaho (Russ Fulcher, Mike Simpson), Illinois (Mike Bost, Darin LaHood), Indiana (Jim Baird, Jim Banks, Trey Hollingsworth, Greg Pence, Jackie Walorski), Iowa (Steve King), Kansas (Ron Estes, Roger Marshall), Louisiana (Ralph Abraham, Clay Higgins), Maryland (Andy Harris), Michigan (Jack Bergman, Bill Huizenga, John Moolenaar, Tim Walberg), Minnesota (Tom Emmer, Jim Hagedorn, Pete Stauber), Mississippi (Michael Guest, Trent Kelly, Steven M. Palazzo), Missouri (Sam Graves, Billy Long, Vicky Hartzler, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Jason T. Smith, Ann Wagner), Montana (Greg Gianforte), Nebraska (Jeff Fortenberry, Adrian Smith), New Jersey (Gregory Steube, Jeff Van Drew), New York (Elise Stefanik, Lee Zeldin), North Carolina (Dan Bishop, Ted Budd, Virginia Foxx, Richard Hudson, Greg Murphy, David Rouzer, Mark Walker), Ohio (Bob Gibbs, Bill Johnson, Robert E. Latta, Brad Wenstrup), Oklahoma (Kevin Hern, Markwayne Mullin), Pennsylvania (John Joyce, Frederick B. Keller, Mike Kelly, Dan Meuser, Scott Perry, Guy Reschenthaler, Glenn Thompson), South Carolina (Jeff Duncan, Ralph Norman, Tom Rice, William Timmons, Joe Wilson), Tennessee (Tim Burchett, Scott DesJarlais, Charles J. “Chuck” Fleischmann, Mark Green, David Kustoff, John Rose), Texas (Jodey Arrington, Brian Babin, Michael C. Burgess, Michael Cloud, K. Michael Conaway, Dan Crenshaw, Bill Flores, Louie Gohmert, Lance Gooden, Kenny Marchant, Randy Weber, Roger Williams, Ron Wright), Virginia (Ben Cline, H. Morgan Griffith, Rob Wittman, Ron Wright), Washington (Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Dan Newhouse), West Virginia (Carol Miller, Alex Mooney), Wisconsin (Tom Tiffany).

Don’t forget these traitors who put politics and party above country. We have the power to give them the boot through our voting power.

We are counting on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to restore decency, civility, Rule of Law, justice and democracy to a traumatized nation after four years of nonstop misrule by Donald Trump. It won’t be easy, and it certainly will not be accomplished overnight. But given their experience, expertise and sincerity of intention, we know that Joe and Kamal can accomplish these goals with our continued support and activism.

Biden's Victory Brings Our National Nightmare to an End

I spent four of my happiest years as a graduate student at Temple University in Philadelphia in the early ‘70s. One source of inspiration for me on that urban campus was an engraving on the ivy-covered walls of Sullivan Hall that housed the counseling services of the university. It was a quote from Russell H. Conwell (1843-1925), the founder of Temple University: “Greatness really consists in doing some great deed with little means.”

That Joe Biden has become the 46^th President of the United States, bringing an end to four years of national nightmare under the venal, vile and vindictive Trump, is in no small measure due to hundreds of thousands of Philadelphians, particularly African-American women and men, who came together to do a great deed with little means. Many of the Philadelphians whose votes carried Biden across the finish line were Americans with little material means, some at risk of not being able to even breathe from systemic racism, but their sense of justice and fair play and decency and empathy was bigger than the wide-open sky shining down on America today.

Philadelphia, you have made us all proud. I live in Northern California now, happily I may add, but in a very real sense, I left my heart in Philadelphia - Fairmount Park, Robinhood Dell, Philadelphia Orchestra, steps leading up to the Art Museum, and so much more - four decades ago.

A Quaker named William Penn founded the “City of Brotherly Love” in 1682, a place where anyone could worship freely. Three hundred and thirty-eight years later, this cosmopolitan and resilient city of almost 2 million people have given us a gift, a gift that rescued us from the most severe existential danger our nation faced since the American Civil War. That War lasted 4 years too, from 1861 to 1865. And now, after 4 years of Trump, from 2016-2020, the most ignoble years in American History will slide into the dustbin of history.

Yet let us not forget that over 70 million Americans voted for Trump. Will Trumpism, aka white nationalism, slide into the dustbin of history as well?

No, it will not. White Nationalism is here to stay. Even though they see the handwriting on the faux golden façade of their hero, they will not go gently into the night. Trump was their last best hope on earth to save the supposed superiority of their race. To give up on that will be to give up on life.

They will organize and prepare and agitate and threaten and commit violence. Joe Biden has said that he will govern as an American president, not as a Democratic president. It’s a noble sentiment and it is surely the moral high ground to take. But the 46^th president will be living in a fool’s paradise if he thinks he can placate Trump supporters and convince them of the possibilities of a united country, at least anytime soon.

Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” But the house will be divided for the foreseeable future. That’s the reality. So, while Biden seeks compromise and consensus, he must also steel himself to fight for his principles and priorities. If Trump supporters and spineless Republicans stand in the way of his priorities, he must use the power of his presidency to achieve his major goals – defeat the pandemic, restore the economy, confront the climate crisis - that he promised during his campaign. Compromise and consensus can go only so far in these difficult times. Timidity must never become a substitute for bold action.

Joe Biden is a man of abiding faith. It is his faith that saw him through the darkest days of his life when he lost his wife, daughter and son.

Mr. President-elect, here’s praying for you to heal and unite America to the best of your ability. At the same time, do not allow anything to get in the way of achieving the goals you so eloquently and powerfully articulated during your campaign. Your faith in God and in the basic goodness of the American people will see you through as certainly as it saw you through your incalculable personal losses.

We are Counting on You, Kamala

Unsolicited advice is a bane of life. Still, as a Californian and a concerned American, I take the liberty of giving some advice to the democratic VP nominee Kamala Harris, born in Oakland 55 years ago to biracial parents.

The first concerns the presidential campaign.

Go for broke, Kamala. Take the gloves off because Trump sure as hell will. You must be proactive, not reactive. Take the fight to him by anticipating his foul tweets, his misogynistic and racist remarks, his attempts to suppress the vote and confiscate mail-in ballots. But complement that by invoking the better angels of our nature, by convincing Americans that we are that “shining city upon a hill” and not the dystopia Trump has wrought. You nailed it when you said this election is a battle for the soul of our nation. Bring your prosecutorial chops to expose the existential threat Trump poses for America.

Trump will likely contest the election if defeated but ultimately the law of the land will prevail, and he will have to leave if Biden wins.

What then?

Your priority should be to help President Biden rebuild America from within. To that end, your first task should be to restore normalcy to our lives. Four years of nonstop hysteria and hypocrisy, of magical thinking and mendacity by the President have left us dazed and depressed. We crave a return to decency and decorum. We want to breathe the fresh air of democracy, not the fetid air of authoritarianism.

Next, help President Biden treat the Covid-19 catastrophe with the seriousness it deserves, with doctors and scientists dictating policies. Despite the economic hardship and the horrifying death toll, Americans will make the necessary sacrifices if convinced that the administration is using dependable data and sound science to stop the killer pathogen. You persuasive powers will be instrumental in making this happen.

Finally, help the more than 160 million Americans out of work with meaningful financial assistance. I teach at a community college and have observed firsthand how students, some of them first in their family to attend college and some who are essential workers, are struggling to survive the health care, economic and educational crises brought on by the abject failure of Trump to contain the coronavirus. While a few students had to drop out to care for loved ones or take on risky jobs, most forged on. As one student wrote in a chat during a Zoom session: “Soon I hope to see light at the end of the tunnel.”

There are many, many more urgent issues that need to be addressed but for now, and for the first 100 days of the Joe Biden Presidency, these will do.

When you were campaigning for the Senate, Kamala, your motto was, “Fearless for the People.” Your scope has now widened but your motto should remain the same. As attorney general of California, you showed your mettle taking on big banks, pharmaceutical companies and transnational criminal organizations preying on vulnerable Americans. That battle must continue.

It’s time to clean house, the White House, through the agency of truth, accountability, justice and the rule of law. You have it what it takes to get the job done. Two literary figures who grew up in Oakland in early 20^th century – Gertrude Stein and Jack London - were also known for their feistiness, organization skills and social activism. Knowingly or unknowingly, you are continuing that legacy, honed by your grandmother, a skilled organizer, and your grandfather, an active member of the movement to win India’s independence from the British in the 1940s.

As a woman of color, born of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, you represent the cosmopolitan interracial democracy of America. Your story, as Joe Biden said, is America’s story. If elected, we are counting on you, Kamala, to take us from four years of darkness to the light of grace and good governance.

Biden Nails Ryan and Republicans with One Word: Malarkey

Joe Biden regained the momentum for his boss and the Democrats with his energetic performance against Paul Ryan tonight. The one word that can now be used to describe Republicans is "malarkey." These R guys are full of hot air; worse, their talk is foolish. In other words, every time a Republican opens his or her mouth, all you can expect is malarkey.

Besides expanding the vocabulary of Americans, Biden scored on all fronts against the smooth-talking, empty-vessel Ryan. The bluster on Syria, Libya and Iran, the shameless spin on taxes and medicare, the disdain for the 47%, the vagueness about pulling out of Afghanistan - the more Ryan tried to make his "points", the more desperate he looked.

It has become common for Romney and Ryan to try to "humanize" their views with touching personal stories. Biden would not fall for it. To be compassionate at a personal level does not mean its author is compassionate when it comes to defining policies that affect millions of Americans. Biden took the wind out of Ryan's sails when the Congressman tried to elicit sympathy from viewers with his personal stories. "Stop talking about how you care about people," Biden said. "Show me something. Show me a policy. Show me a policy where you take responsibility."

As I have observed before, these debates are not about substance but style. He who radiates more confidence, more wit and more authority wins. Ryan started out strong but halfway through the debate was reduced to a schoolboy being reprimanded by the school principal for, well, malarkey. When he suggested that American troops should not be withdrawn from the most dangerous regions of Afghanistan, an incredulous Biden asked (I am paraphrasing here): "So you would want to put American troops in danger so directly?" A single query unmasked the bluster of the armchair-general from Wisconsin.

When Ryan tried to ridicule Obama's stimulus plan, Biden revealed that the Congressman had personally written two letters asking for stimulus money for his district, available for viewing on the government's website. Talk about the height of hypocrisy!

The million-dollar question is: Can president Obama run with this? Can he emulate Biden's performance tonight and rejuvenate Democrats and his supporters with solid performances in the remaining two debates after his demoralizing and inexplicable meltdown in the first?

He better, if he wants to be reelected.

My guess is that he can and he will.