Let's face it: the news since about early November here in the United States has pretty much consistently not been good. We have a transparently power hungry man in office who has repeatedly made it clear that he does not respect or value democracy. To that end, he instigated the January 6th insurrection - which I still feel was pretty much an attempted coup - and two years later, suggested on his Truth Social that parts of the Constitution might need to be suspended.
That is bad enough. However, the entire Republican party has, for all intents and purposes, ceased to exist as an independent and respected political party. Instead, it has become the de facto Donald Trump party. Whatever he wants, they bend over backwards to try and provide for him, to lick his boots and ask if they are shiny enough yet.
Sometimes, however, what feels worse to me is the complete lack of meaningful political opposition. If at least the Democrats would fight and provide some actual resistance that we could all see, that would be encouraging. But the fact that the Democrats - as they pretty much always have done - seem to wet their fingers and then put their fingers up to the wind and wait to see which way the political winds are blowing before committing to doing anything. That was what they did for almost as long as I can remember. It was what they did during the long Reagan-Bush years, when they went with what was politically expedient and lurched the party to the right with Clinton. But Clinton felt like he more or less just proceeded with caution and did what was politically profitable, rather than having an actual agenda. Reagan and Bush Jr. and now Trump all come into power with a definite agenda and then set about to implement it fully, like it or not. The Democrats, meanwhile, adjust and go where the political winds take them. That was in evidence a few years after Clinton, when the Democrats showed that same trademark wishy-washiness and empowered Bush Jr. to pursue his illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq. It was this same inability that sat by and allowed the rise of the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, and now Trump and his MAGA Cult following.
Now, they are sitting back and allowing (really empowering) Trump's attempts to grab more power and become an actual dictator. Most of the nation, at least allegedly, wants some meaningful opposition to all of this. Certainly, there have been calls for some strong response and political opposition.
The Democrats, however, are too comfortable themselves. There they are, enjoying the power of the marbled halls of Washington, with the vast majority of them having taken their share of the corporate lobbying pie, and they really do not mind the status quo, even if they pay lip service to opposing it. When you see a weak man like Chuck Schumer claiming one day that we need to stand up to Trump, and then almost literally the next day bending the knee and claiming that we need to wait until Trump's popularity goes down just a bit...well, it's sickening. Truly.
Jon Stewart examining this unfortunate trend in his show yesterday, and it felt well worth sharing here. Take a look and enjoy:
Jon Stewart Knocks Dems' Lack of Vision In Countering The Trump Agenda | The Daily Show
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