It has been a long time since I stopped respecting anyone who told me they were a card-carrying Republican, a few decades at least. I just didn’t share their enthusiasm for free markets, limited governance and corporate excess. More importantly, I suspected quite some time ago that the Republican Party had become a kind of closet coven where racists, Christian nationalists, gun nuts and a sordid variety of other social misfits found a political home.

However, it has taken Trump and his band of incompetent, dangerous and venal acolytes to finally expose publicly what I and others have suspected for years about the Republican Party. This is not to say that the Democratic Party has bathed itself in glory nor waives now a much better banner. However, in a two-party system, the Democrats at least give voters some measure of fealty to better governance, the rule of law, a regulated marketplace, and an embrace of diversity, labor unions and a measure of freedom from religion.

Midterm elections and voter suppression

So come on into the big tent and let’s celebrate a better future before it happens. That should allow all of us on the Democratic Party team to avoid messy confrontation, actual resistance and overwrought angst. We can still do a big national rally every few months with goofy posters, Trump balloons, aged folk music and some good food trucks. It is even OK to go to college and continue to not give much of a shit about anything other than yourself because everything will be OK.

It is also getting easier to watch some of the news. Bold predictions about a coming Democratic Party control of the House of Representatives, and maybe even the Senate, now make the daily news cycle on many media outlets. All “we” have to do is vote on election day in November, if not before, and talk our unenlightened friends into sitting this one out. Then, get the beer chilled and the barbecue warmed up; happy days are here again.

My problem is that I can’t seem to work up much enthusiasm for what lies ahead, even if the Democrats win the November midterm elections. For the record, I am still not ready to accept that they will. It is worth remembering that most Republicans seem to love each other enough to vote and to happily encourage the more reluctant members of their White Christian nationalist club to get out and vote as well. 

Meanwhile, many progressive Democrats would at least like to see a cohesive message that addresses difficult issues with concrete solutions before the party spends too much time getting ready to celebrate. For my part, I want the party leaders from the Democratic Party to step up, be focused and passionate, and be ready to fully confront the governmental disaster unfolding before our eyes every single day. That is what I believe will eventually lead to electoral victory in November. What we are getting instead may be easier to swallow for some, but enormously unsatisfying for many in the Democratic Party.

There is also the small matter that the Republican Party political apparatus is dedicating much of its resources to impede Democratic Party voter access to the polls, aided and abetted by the US Supreme Court. This battle of who is eligible to vote and how they can vote has been an issue since the founding of the republic, but it usually has been a stalking horse for racism and immigrant bashing. Now it is a weapon aimed at Democrats regardless of race or national origin. And it is likely to work, since America’s self-touted elections are independently run by each of the 50 states, applying 50 different sets of rules. Maybe this was a good idea before there was electricity, television and the internet, but it is a really bad idea now.

The Democratic Party’s need for a clear vision

So, with a reminder or two above about the perils of celebrating before you actually win, let’s try to take a sober look at today’s Democratic Party, starting with a simple question. Who, among the current Democratic Party leaders, would you follow anywhere? This question alone raises the more critical question of who among them has articulated a vision of good governance and the policy and program objectives required to make that vision a reality.

Just exactly what is the plan to provide for universal healthcare, for reversing the retreat from environmentally-responsible public policy, for meaningful gun control, for decoupling of US foreign policy objectives from those of Israel, for a welcoming immigration policy and for confronting the plague of corporate money polluting the nation’s political system? And this is just to name a few of the things that I have not heard much about from those Democrats who seek to lead the nation to some new promised land.

I fear that it is because Democratic leaders are cowed by confrontation and unwilling to define a clear morality at the foundation of that to which they want the rest of us to respond. It should not be hard to clearly and unequivocally state that racism is wrong and racists have no place in our society or political party, corporations are not people and corporate greed is not a virtue, access to meaningful healthcare is a human right, immigrants strengthen our nation both economically and culturally, and armaments made in America are shamefully the weapons of choice at home and abroad for mindless killing and maiming, generally in the name of some cause that none of us should applaud.

The reality beyond electoral wins

As for what lies ahead, even if the Democrats actually triumph in the midterm elections, Donald Trump will still be President. He will be no smarter, no better informed, no less dangerous, no less corrupt and certainly no less connected to the truth. Worse yet, he will still have the unfettered executive authority to wreak havoc on our political, social and economic institutions, and to continue his dismantling of the governmental institutions he was elected to lead. He will still be able to command instant “media” attention, even though so much of what he says is unhinged and untrue.

For me, it is time to stop celebrating Trump’s failures and start addressing their consequences.  But for those of you still whining about America First solutions, remember that that is what got us here in the first place. It has to be Humanity First if we are ever going to confront the rot that is so deeply embedded in our country and our culture. 

Yet, the daily news cycles that center on Trump only seem to reinforce the national delusions so often at the heart of public discourse. I have always loved the phrases “this is not who we are” and “we are better than this” when mindlessly applied to the general citizenry in the aftermath of preventable tragedy. These comforting sentiments are the fertilizer for so much of America’s collective delusion. Together, they offer an escape valve that absolves each of us of civic responsibility.

It is this singular notion that provides the distance from reality required to absorb the cruelty, corruption and immorality in our midst, and that moves Americans ever closer to seeing new norms as acceptable. Every time Trump is normalized and his lies endlessly repeated, it should be a reminder to those who still care that this is who Americans actually elected to lead the nation to “glory,” and whose dangerous American fantasy way too many Americans continue to support. 

Sadly, for others both at home and abroad, Trump is seen as vividly representing what America has already become.

[Hard Left Turn first published this piece.]

[Kaitlyn Diana edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.