“If Republicans take the House and the Senate in 2022, they will reinstall Trump in 2024.“
– Terrance Woodbury
Democrats need to understand that 2022 is, just like 2018 and 2020, not a normal election year.
If we treat it like a normal year, talking only about the latest poll issue, we will lose.
If we shy away from the danger posed to our democracy by the authoritarian party on the other side because we think people are fatigued by 1/6 and all things Trump, we will lose.
Trump is on the ballot this Fall. Let’s admit that and fight the battle. This is the only way to unite the party’s factions and win.
If the Trump party wins 2022,
Trump wins 2024.
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I agree with everything you say except for one key aspect — your omission of the main focus of today’s GOP.
The prime directive for today’s GOP is to take over state election boards so that GOP partisans are empowered to overturn any election result they dislike.
Today’s GOP is a seditionist and insurrectionist conspiracy dedicated to replacing representative democracy with Fascist Authoritarian tyranny.
I think that the decisions and actions of Merrick Garland and the DoJ regarding this conspiracy — one way or another – have a great deal more influence over our future than the 2022 or 2024 elections.
Garland has been an anemic disappointment as AG. I wish Biden had picked Doug Jones who was a very aggressive prosecutor or brought back Eric Holder. I also wish Obama had put KBJ on the court instead of Garland.
The McClellan/Grant dichotomy continues to hit me whenever I contemplate Mr. Garland. I think Merrick Garland is a great legal mind and perhaps even a great prosecutor. I agree that he is operating within constraints that make it extraordinarily difficult for him to move faster than he is. I’m willing to stipulate that it isn’t possible for the DoJ to move any faster — that is why I’ve been saying for so long that the underlying political system is broken.
THAT is, in fact, the problem and the Achilles Heel of our current system of government.
The incoming torpedo is moving faster than the ship is able to maneuver. That means that either the torpedo is destroyed or the ship takes the hit. There is a very good chance that a hit will sink the ship.
The torpedo MUST be destroyed — by any means necessary.
I strongly suspect that the needed evidence is already in the hands of the NSA, CIA, and similar security agencies. The NSA has the largest data storage facilities in the world, dwarfing the combined assets of Google and Amazon.
The idea that the president or anybody close to the president could evade security procedures by using a burner phone is laughable nonsense out of a badly-written TV show. I’m quite certain that every electronic communication into and out of the White House and into and out of every person close to the President is recorded and archived.
The government already has enough evidence to prove the guilt of these thugs. I think the government doesn’t want to admit that it has that evidence. I think the government is fearful of what happens when the true extent of the conspiracy is revealed.
I think Vladimir Putin successfully attacked the US in 2016 and installed a puppet government. I think our government and media remains unwilling to face the consequences — political, social, economic, and even militaristic — that follow.
I suspect Garland is doing things every day we have no idea about. This tricky balance about being a presidential appointee, but not one who should just do the President’s bidding is why so many states including ours elect the AG directly and separately from the Governor.
Let’s stipulate that Mr. Garland is doing things every day that we have no idea about.
I invite you to share your view of how the result of that activity stops my metaphorical torpedo or turns the ship aside in time for my metaphorical torpedo to miss.
With the stipulation that Mr. Garland is doing all those things, what can we expect from the DoJ by the mid-term elections this fall?
What might be we expect by early 2024 when the next presidential campaign primary season kicks off?
The DOJ doesn’t turn into a pumpkin this fall; they get the full four-year term. Having no inside knowledge I can’t say what will happen before either election, but I do know that those milestones are still eons away in political life.
You’re answer isn’t responsive to my question. I am well aware the Mr. Garland serves until at least 2025 in the absence of action from Congress, the White House, or both.
Can I assume from your silence that you don’t expect the DoJ to do anything before this fall?
For those of us who lack your blind faith in the current process, have you not any speculation yourself about what might happen and when?
I’m not trying be argumentative, I’m looking for something beyond a polite dismissal of my concerns.
I don’t know what I don’t know. I’m just more willing than you are to be patient.
Do we have any empirical data to back up these claims that focusing on Trump will help Democrats? He’s not president anymore, it’s Biden’s record that voters will judge and his 40% approval rating that will likely cost Democrats the House and quite possibly the Senate.
I do not disagree with the real risk of danger that a Republican House and Senate will bring, our best hope is that Biden can right the ship before November. Cut a deal with Manchin to save BBB and pass it, work like hell to get swing districts infrastructure and BBB funding and brag about it, fix the border crisis, and rein in the left wing of the party. Failure to do that could be catastrophic which is exactly why Democrats should recognize the danger and do all that they can to win this election.
That also would have been a good job for Deval Patrick. Hopefully Garland can have a fire lit under his ass, when even Cheney and Kinzinger recognize the danger and the need for direct AG involvement, he has to move.
Mona Charen has a good op Ed about the failure of Democrats to go after Rick Scott’s plan to increase taxes on working families, brag about cutting child poverty in half and fixing the roads, bridges, and removing lead pipes across the country. Not to mention the record low unemployment rate, steady management of the Ukraine crisis, and steady management of Covid. Contrast any of that to the Trump years or what the GOP explicitly says it will do if given charge of Congress (go after Disney, trans Americans, womens rights, and undermine Biden’s ability to fight Putin).
https://www.mainstreet-nashville.com/opinion/charen-democrats-need-to-be-better-at-politics-fast/article_a2b7c3da-bb3f-11ec-b088-47b238ed8a50.html
I think we should be beating Republicans over the head on Disney. If the shoe were on the other foot they would shame us night and day for attacking something as American as Mickey Mouse.