A reflection on last week.
April 10, 2023
Hi, Friends. I am still under the weather (as is my Managing Editor). We are under the care of a doctor, on medications, and following orders. We have not yet turned the corner on a nasty virus but are hopeful that tomorrow will bring relief. I plan to return to the regular newsletter format tomorrow, including a guest narrator for the audio version.
Tonight, I offer a reflection on last week—and a suggestion about how we must respond. We went into last week expecting the news to be dominated by Trump's arraignment. It was—until the GOP-controlled legislature in Tennessee expelled two young Black Representatives for protesting briefly in the well of the assembly. We then received the report of Pro Publica outlining the manifest corruption of Justice Thomas by Texas millionaire and Hitler memorabilia collector Harlan Crow. And then Judge Kacsmaryk issued a thinly disguised religious fiat banning mifepristone for women across America.
Each of the above events demonstrates the GOP’s efforts to achieve its goals by breaking the democracy that guarantees their liberties in the first instance. But we must now add to the sad litany a new item—Governor Greg Abbott’s pre-emptive announcement that he will pardon a Texas man convicted of murder after a jury trial. At trial, the defendant was able to present his argument that he acted in self-defense. The jury rejected that claim and voted unanimously to convict him of murder.
Why does Abbott believe that he is justified in pardoning the murderer even before appeals have been heard? Abbott is, after all, substituting his judgment for that of the jurors who heard the evidence first-hand. Abbot believes the defendant is innocent of murder because he killed a “BLM” protester.
That’s right: Governor Abbott has established a new rule that laws do not apply equally to people protesting police killings and right-wing extremists who are upset by the protests. In a single act, Abbott has altered the law in Texas, demoted protestors demanding justice to second-class status, and told Texas jurors that their voices do not matter when MAGA extremists are on trial. In short, “self-defense” is a MAGA “get out of jail free” card under Greg Abbott’s reign in Texas.
Together, these four instances illustrate a strategy the GOP learned from Trump: If the democratic system does not produce the result you want, then break democracy to obtain a different result. That is what the Tennessee legislators did to Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, that is what religious zealots did to all Americans, that is what monied interests did in bending the Supreme Court to do the bidding of the privileged and elite, and that is what Greg Abbott has done in summarily overturning a jury verdict that flies in the face of the facts.
We have been confronting this asymmetry from the very moment Trump announced his bid in 2016, and it has worsened over time. As Democrats toil within the system to forge compromises over competing policies, Republicans break the system to get their way. They simply ignore it (McConnell on Merrick Garland’s nomination), they deny it (outcomes of elections), they falsify it (fake electors), they rig the judicial system to guarantee assignment of cases to a sympathetic federal judge (Kacsmaryk), and they attempt to stop its operation through violence (J6).
There have been scattered calls for Democrats to employ similar tactics. Indeed, some are calling for the federal government to ignore Judge Kacsmaryk’s order if it is not stayed by the 5th Circuit or the Supreme Court. To state the obvious, to do so would amount to “breaking democracy” simply because we don’t like the result. We must not give in to the temptation to adopt the GOP’s anti-democratic tactics. We must fight our battle of resistance from within the walls and ramparts of democracy if we have any hope of saving it.
The truth is that the rule of law continues to exist in America today because one of America’s major political parties remains committed to upholding that rule—despite the efforts of the other party to destroy it. If both parties feel emboldened to ignore the rule of law, our democracy will be gone. All that will be left is a contest of brute force in which dark money will substitute for violence.
I do not believe we will reach that point. I have faith that Democrats will do the right thing despite legitimate feelings of anger, hurt, and despair. In each of the four situations described above, there is a democratic path forward to correct the result. It will not be easy, and we may not succeed entirely. But so long as we have a path forward, we should not set aside our great charter and the laws that give it life. It has endured for more than two centuries during equally trying times; we can make it through the present challenges, as well.
Talk to you tomorrow!
This is a very fine column for someone who is still under the weather. Overall, MAGA Republicans are revealing who and what they are. During the mid-terms, Democrats pushed back against an anticipated red tsunami and vastly outperformed expectations. Perhaps the ongoing MAGA performances will convince even more voters to shut them down.
Jessica Craven's latest post in "Chop Wood, Carry Water," celebrates many recent victories. She also writes that the two Tennessee lawmakers who were expelled can run in the special elections for their seats, and if they win, they cannot be expelled again. As for the other ugly instances cited here, I can sympathize with the anguished plea, "what does it take?" that most of us uttered during the long years of the Trump regime. Read Jessica Craven's post from today to understand that there are reasons for optimism.
https://open.substack.com/pub/chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions/p/extra-extra-april-9th
We are being forged by fire to get as tough as our opponents and as clever. We already outnumber them. We are inspired by the courage of Ukrainians in their fight for their democracy and their lives. We are inspired by the heroes of our own Civil Rights movement that is ongoing. We are inspired by the turnout of the Israeli populace and even its military members that caused the Netanyahu regime to blink. We are being called upon to dig deep, stay tough and committed and resist even though we are tired.
Tomorrow is another day. Let's get on with the work.
I am reluctant to suggest that the superb and highly nuanced mind of Robert Hubbell may have missed a critical aspect of the terrible descent into anti-democracy by one of our two major parties. Reluctant perhaps but willing to venture such a thought. There is indeed a litany of despicable actions taken in just the past week by the Republican Party since it fell under the suzerainty of one Donald J. Trump.
But we on the progressive side need to reflect on the damage the GOP has done and is doing to its electoral prospects by its radical attempts to thwart the will of the voters. We can and should take unalloyed joy in the huge margin achieved by the Judge Protasiewicz in Wisconsin this week. But we should also find it more comforting than alarming when the near-instantaneous response of Wisconsin Republicans is to suggest they can use their bloated and gerrymandered super-majorities in the state Legislature to immediately impeach a judge who was elected by a thumping majority, presumably over the veto of Gov. Evers, in the absence of even a hint of an impeachable action by the not-yet installed Judge. If they undertake such a ludicrously anti-democratic maneuver, they will suffer still more lopsided defeats come the next election.
Similarly, as shocking as the actions of a similar super-majority to expel two members of the Tennessee Legislature may be, that flagrantly undemocratic behavior will almost surely have negative consequences for the GOP even in deep Red Tennessee. And we can rightly decry the actions of a Trump-appointed Federal District Court Judge in Texas to impose his religion-based views on abortion on everyone in America, not just Texas. While his action may not survive judicial review, even by this ideologically unbalanced Supreme Court, we would see by November 2024 just how much damage GOP candidates all over the country will suffer from his attempts to impose on the entire nation a policy opposed by roughly 75% of voters. Yes, these actions are deeply disturbing. But the fact that these right-wing ideologues are driven to such extremes will prove the foundation for a strong and perhaps even permanent progressive majority in America.