No time to relax before 2020
Now that the 2018 midterms are over with substantial Democratic gains in the House and governorships across the nation, the 2020 elections are beginning to loom large. Here’s what we know. Donald Trump is a problem, but the system that put him there is the problem, and it’s still there. And in 2020, Trumpists may fight back with a vengeance.
Republicans have sold their soul to “his crassness” out of fear that his wrath will come down upon them and prevent them from being re-elected. Why do they need him to get reelected? Largely because he lies and relishes in character assassination, but also because running a campaign is expensive and they need his moneyed friends to underwrite the costs.
The Trumpist Republican Party wants two things — an essentially white-male ruling class to stay in power, regardless of changing demographics, and to make money for themselves and their friends in the process. Forget social justice, immigration reform and human rights. Try Googling Republicans for human rights: There’s no one there!
There is no depth to which Trumpists will not stoop to accomplish these goals. Not only have they gerrymandered districts and suppressed votes, they have made false accusations of voter fraud and invited foreign actors to interfere in our elections. They are buying federal judges, state legislatures and the Supreme Court, and are embracing white supremacy and nationalism.
Trump denigrates immigrants and the handicapped, and Trumpists turn their backs on the poor and disadvantaged, claiming they are lazy. They are creaming off riches from every social service, from schools, to prisons to health care. Trumpists’ transgressions are endless, allowing fascism to gain a foothold. On this past Veterans Day, we remembered what it took to defeat fascism with the countless lives and vast human suffering in World War II.
This is a moral issue, not a political one. We must recognize that as a society, these practices and philosophies are intolerable and a curse on our culture and American values.
Write to your paper and demand it uphold the principles of human rights in its journalism; engage your faith-based institution to take up the cause for social justice; lobby your legislators to take a stand; support a nonprofit for social justice. Because if you don’t, be very afraid of the 2020 elections, very afraid.