GOP ignores democracy, encourages violence

Dana Milbank says it’s time to drop the lectures about how “coastal elites” don’t understand real Americans.

It has been four years since Republican elites sanctimoniously derided the liberal “coastal elites,” the “libtards” in pink hats, the media and urban dwellers generally for failing to “listen” to the “real Americans” in “flyover country” who voted for Donald Trump.

Well, I’ve been listening.

I’ve heard about the net loss of 3 million American jobs — the worst economic record in modern American history — as stock markets deliver greater riches to billionaires and ordinary Americans go hungry.

I’ve heard about a record-shattering $7 trillion added to our national debt and the three largest trade deficits in U.S. history.

I’ve heard about thousands of Americans dying every day in a pandemic, nearly 400,000 in all — by far the world’s worst death toll, in the world’s richest country.

I’ve heard about the abject cruelty of the administration gratuitously (and often permanently) tearing migrant children from their parent’s arms and warehousing them in cages.

I’ve heard about wanton government violence against peaceful citizens in Lafayette Square, and about support from the president for violent white supremacists in Charlottesville and Kenosha.

I’ve heard about Iran and North Korea advancing their nuclear weapons programs and Russia executing a galling cyberattack on the United States, while our president withheld U.S. military support from Ukraine to extort political benefit.

I’ve heard about a self-dealing president using his office to try to overturn a free and fair election, and then inciting a mob of QAnon followers and white supremacists to launch a deadly insurrection at the Capitol against the people’s representatives.

And I’ve heard that, at this very moment, 20,000 troops have been positioned in the national capital, and countless more in state capitols, to defend democracy against violent totalitarian thugs loyal to Trump.

I’d like to think this is not what all of the “forgotten men and women” had in mind when they voted for Trump in 2016. But this is what Republican elites did in their name.

Now, fully 84,172,012 Americans have voted against Trump in the highest-turnout election in more than a century. Presidentelect Joe Biden received more votes than any candidate in U.S. history. Democrats held the House and took control of the Senate. For his abuses of power, Trump has been impeached — twice. He departs office as one of the more unpopular leaders in our nation’s recent history.

So, Republican elites, please: Spare us your lectures about how the liberal coastal elites don’t understand real Americans. It’s time for you to listen.

You have manipulated millions into believing that their problems are caused by Black people, brown people, immigrants, college-educated women, Muslims and Jews.

You have condoned and normalized racism and vulgarity in the highest office in the land, allowing both to move from the fringes to the mainstream.

You have disabled the federal government, and state and local governments, to the point that they lack the capacity to deliver the vaccine science has heroically produced.

You have fueled the violent, paranoid fantasies of QAnon, you have weaponized social media to spread falsehoods, and you have attacked the free press in Stalin-esque terms as the “enemy of the people.”

You have empowered propaganda outlets such as Fox News to build an echo chamber that misinforms millions.

You have fought to allow unlimited, unregulated, anonymous campaign spending by billionaires and corporations, which have hijacked your primaries so the most extreme candidates win nomination.

You have established purity police in your ranks, such as the Freedom Caucus, that coerce lawmakers to shun compromise.

You sacrificed long-standing principles to co-opt the anti-government passions of the tea party and Trump’s anti-immigrant nationalism.

You employed deceit and hypocrisy to stack the Supreme Court with a majority that endorses voter suppression, partisan gerrymandering and the erosion of minority voting rights.

Fully 139 of you in the House and eight in the Senate voted to overturn the votes of the American people.

You have, in sum, discredited American democracy and encouraged political violence and authoritarianism.

And now, as a freshman “QAnon congresswoman” plans to introduce impeachment articles against Biden on his first full day in office, you say it’s time for “healing.”

After Trump, in his final days, incited a bloody coup attempt, Republican elites could, at long last, do the right thing, as 10 House Republicans did.

But House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California, while declaring that censuring Trump would be “prudent,” offered up no censure resolution and opposed impeachment.

And Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, while claiming he might vote for removal, blocked a Senate trial from occurring before Trump leaves office — likely killing prospects for conviction.

We hear you loud and clear, Republican elites. Now, how about you listen to the American people?