There is just one way to control this lunatic administration: Vote

WASHINGTON >> Last week it was Russia. This week a bombastic, all-caps screed about Iran. President Trump is wagging the dog so hard, I fear he will injure himself.

Through it all, we must keep our eyes on the prize. There is just one realistic way to constrain this lunatic administration and hold it accountable: Vote in November to snatch control of Congress away from the quisling Republicans and hand it to the Democrats.

If I sound like a broken record on this subject, shut me up with a gigantic midterm turnout and flipping at least the House. Otherwise, prepare to be reminded, perhaps obnoxiously, that I told you so. When Trump boasted during the campaign about being able to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and still not lose support, he likely meant the GOP majorities in Congress.

We know the drill. Trump says or does something so far beyond the pale any other president would have been investigated, censured or even impeached. A few Republican members of Congress go public with measured words of criticism; many more acknowledge privately that the president is dangerously out of control. Trump changes the subject via Twitter, and the complaints abruptly stop. Nothing happens. Nothing at all.

It is possible Mueller will reveal something so shocking even House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will choose country over party. But it is not likely.

In our history, only two presidents have been impeached; neither was convicted and removed from office. Only one president has resigned before the end of his term. Wildly improbable things do sometimes happen — Trump becoming president, for one — but odds are we will have to endure this madness until January 2021.

Presciently, the framers of the Constitution gave Congress the power to check an erratic or power-mad president. But Republicans seem afraid to use that power. We can only hope Democrats will.

We also must hope the Democratic Party wins in November. This is not a trivial question.

Democrats occupy the mayor’s offices in two-thirds of the nation’s 50 biggest cities, but that is the zenith of their power. Republicans live in the governor’s mansions in two-thirds of the states and enjoy a similar dominance in control of state legislatures. On the federal level, the GOP has a large — but not unassailable — majority in the House and a narrow two-vote edge in the Senate.

Republicans have been shameless in perpetuating their hegemony through gerrymandering and voter suppression, but Democrats can systematically level the playing field — once they achieve power. To do so, they need to win elections.

And to win elections, they need new faces, new ideas and a new attitude.

This is an emergency, and while the party should be true to its values, if a candidate in, say, West Virginia or Montana isn’t as fervently pro-choice as the party’s mainstream, or doesn’t make gun control a marquee issue, then so be it. If a candidate in an immigrant-rich district in California, Texas, Florida or New York favors reorganizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement in light of its excesses, that’s fine as well.

Right now, the Democratic Party’s exclusive focus should be on registering new voters and ensuring that those who often vote only in presidential years — especially minorities and young people — vote in November.

Are you registered? Do you swear you will vote? Do you know where your polling place is? If not, you’re part of the problem.