Holding Out for a Hero, Democrats need bold, fearless, risk-taking leadership now

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2025/02/holding-out-for-hero-democrats-need.html

The Trump administration is slowly dismantling the government, based on populist premises that government is overly wasteful, not only spending too much money but that the treasury is just paying out without accountability, every potential government program for the benefit of people, from social security and medicare to USAID is rife with fraud and Trump is going to save the taxpayers trillions by letting Elon Musk turn off the tap, because he supposedly knows how.

This is all one big lie. It appeals to what people believe, coming out of all of the conspiracy theory talk that flourishes on the political right, among people who tend to be less educated, more ignorant and easily gullible. Some people tend to believe ridiculous things, like we spent $50 million on condoms for people in Gaza, which is another big lie that they directly spread, or that there are literally millions of social security checks going to people who are over 100 years old, yet another lie. Conservatives must have a straw-man to knock down, an obscure, nebulous "enemy" to fight against, one that is conspiring to remake the world on their own terms and has the tech savvy, know how and support to drive this worldwide conspiracy against the "regular white guy."

It's not like we didn't know this was coming. He told us. Democratic party leadership labelled him an existential threat to democracy years ago. But I question, really, whether they took that as seriously as those of us who observed, who saw what he did and intended to do on January 6th, what he said and how he said it. If they did, then more effort would have been put into getting him to trial for insurrection against the United States, which is the crime he committed. Some risks would have been taken. It would have been worth it to break the filibuster, and it would have been worth it to pack the court. Those would have been big risks, but looking at what we're facing now, finding solutions to live with the consequences would have been a lot better than having to endure the damage to the country of a second Trump Presidency, including some real doubts about whether the Constitution and democracy will surivive.

And here, on this side of where we are, what have we got? Nothing, that I see. If we didn't have leaders who were willing to risk a few things to make it happen when we had the power to do it, we aren't going to have any now who will risk it. Right now, protecting their own interests is the priority.

The first thing that is on the agenda is to win three Congressional seats that will give Democrats a razor thin majority in the House, where most of this can be stopped. Maybe I need to look in a different place, but I don't seem to be seeing a concerted effort to make this happen. These are special elections, and turnout will determine the outcomes. What is the Democratic party doing to ensure that its voters turn out in record numbers in these three very winnable districts?

I still see appeals for money coming from the Harris campaign, from other Democrats who are almost two years away from the next election, and all kinds of cross purposes and self interest. Apparently, Democrats running for election in those districts are on their own to win. And if they're not, then show me the evidence that sets this straight. The Republicans are so afraid of what could happen, they're slow-walking the appointment of Elise Stefanik, in the hopes of delaying a special election there. The 2024 election is over, we have three more seats in Congress opening up, and that's where our money and attention should be going.

I might be willing to provide a few campaign contributions in the direction of Harris if she had taken up the mantle of party leadership in the wake of this razor thin election, but she went home to California, Tim Walz went back to Minnesota, and we haven't heard much from either of them lately. He wants to run for Senate. Well, then, get out in front of this and provide us with some leadership. My Governor sure is taking steps to resist this.

I'd like to send my contributions where it will do the most good.