A Defense of Democracy is Beginning in Congress

Hitler, Franco, Stalin

President Trump’s affinity for various authoritarians is well-known. He praises them for their dictatorial savagery and pines for their unfettered kleptocratic way of life. Along the way, as we all know, congressional republicans have been actively (or by their silence) aiding and abetting Trump’s moves toward some form of an anti-democratic, white Christian authoritarian, kleptocratic government. He holds truth in utter contempt, and constantly attacks and undermines anti-authoritarian democratic institutions including the professional press and news outlets, the rule of law, independent courts and independent law enforcement.

By now, none of this is new to anyone. And as we all know, Trump and his supporters completely reject all of it as a pack of lies by a vast deep state conspiracy running false flag operations to try to accomplish what it is that Trump is actually trying to do himself. The gulf in perceptions of reality between the two sides is vast and now hardened to a point such that bridging it is impossible. There is no basis for a meeting of the minds or compromise.

Americans may be unhappy about the situation, but is it certain that America’s enemies, especially Russia and China, are loving this all-American hate-fest. Especially the fact that America is under attack from within. For the last two years, neither congressional republicans nor Trump have been standing in defense of America, but instead are attacking it, either directly or by silent complicity. At present, America's enemies are winning and America is losing.

A nascent defense begins to take shape: House democrats are beginning to mount a defense. H.R. 1, the first major piece of legislation is designed to shore up democratic defenses by elevating what had been norms before Trump to the level of the rule of law. Advice from ethics officers in government were a joke and of almost no influence. Trump easily destroyed toothless norms and ethics concerns by simply ignoring them, showing just how weak and fragile our defenses of democracy really are. That failure has been massive and bipartisan, but that is a different topic.

H.R. 1 contains really interesting provisions. Vox reports:

House Democrats will unveil full details of their first bill in the new Congress on Friday — sweeping anti-corruption measures aimed at stamping out the influence of money in politics and expanding voting rights.

This is HR 1, the first thing House Democrats will tackle now that a new Congress has been sworn in. To be clear, this legislation has little to no chance of passing the Republican-controlled Senate or being signed by President Donald Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell already bluntly stated, “That’s not going to go anywhere.”

But by making anti-corruption their No. 1 priority, House Democrats are throwing down the gauntlet for Republicans. A vast majority of Americans want to get the influence of money out of politics, and want Congress to pass laws to do so. New polling from the PAC End Citizens United found 82 percent of all voters and 84 percent of independents said they support a bill of reforms to tackle corruption.

Given how popular the issue is, and Trump’s multitude of scandals, it looks bad for Republicans to be the party opposing campaign finance reform — especially going into 2020.

In the area of campaign finance alone, these logical measures are included:

Public financing of campaigns, powered by small donations. Under Sarbanes’s vision, the federal government would provide a voluntary 6-1 match for candidates for president and Congress, which means for every dollar a candidate raises from small donations, the federal government would match it six times over. The maximum small donation that could be matched would be capped at $200. “If you give $100 to a candidate that’s meeting those requirements, then that candidate would get another $600 coming in behind them,” Sarbanes told Vox this summer. “The evidence and the modeling is that most candidates can do as well or better in terms of the dollars they raise if they step into this new system.”

Support for a constitutional amendment to end Citizens United.

Passing the DISCLOSE Act, pushed by Rep. David Cicilline and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, both Democrats from Rhode Island. This would require Super PACs and “dark money” political organizations to make their donors public.

Passing the Honest Ads Act, championed by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (MN) and Mark Warner (VA) and introduced by Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) in the House, which would require Facebook and Twitter to disclose the source of money for political ads on their platforms and share how much money was spent.

Changes to ethics rules are part of H.R. 1, including (1) requiring disclosure of 10 years of tax returns for president, vice president and candidates for president and vice president, and (2) creating a new ethical code for the US Supreme Court, ensuring all branches of government are impacted by the new law.

Changes to voting rights laws are also included, such as (1) creating a national automatic voter registration that asks voters to opt out, rather than opt in, and (2) ending partisan gerrymandering for federal elections and prohibiting voter roll purging, e.g., by ending use of non-forwardable mail to remove people from voter rolls.

For Trump and congressional republicans, this kind of legislation is dead on arrival. Senate majority leader McConnell calls it a power grab, which it is. It is just a power grab for voters, not his corrupt party and its corrupt, failed ideology. H.R. 1 will never pass the Senate, and probably never even be brought to the floor for a vote. And, if he had the chance, Trump would veto it without second thought. There is no way that Trump would ever willingly let his tax returns be seen.

Despite its zero chance of passage into law, H.R. 1 sets up the fight for the 2020 elections. It will be clear to everyone, and deniable by no one, where people stand in defense of America. Passage of the bill forces the republicans to let it die as quietly and opaquely as they can. For that reason, the House could pass it periodically to keep attention on the issues it addresses. That would be the same tactic the House used by passing bills to repeal Obamacare 60 or 70 times with no chance of becoming law. They made their point repeatedly. Now, it is time for democrats to make their points repeatedly.

Vox writes:

Democrats know they don’t actually have a shot of passing HR 1 through the Senate, or getting it past the president’s desk. But they recognize they need to get serious about the issue, even if Republicans won’t.

“To say to the public, from this point forward, if you give the gavel to lawmakers who are interested in being accountable to you, this is the kind of change you can expect to see,” Sarbanes said. “If you like this, give us a gavel in the Senate and give us a pen in the White House.”

The battle lines could not be clearer and the stakes probably cannot be much higher.

Mussolini

B&B orig: 2/4/19