It's called a slow-moving coup. The term seems to have now entered the political lexicon. TV comedian and political commentator Bill Mahr seems to have been the one who coined the term, but it has now entered the discussions over network and cable news stations. Of course, this new phenomenon refers to the handiwork of one Donald J. Trump in his one-man mission to dismantle the U.S. Constitution and regain the White House. Slow-moving because it trudges alone here in 2021 and will gain momentum until the next presidential election in 2024. By that time the coup will have in place all the necessaries to question the results, sue the appropriate public servants, deny the vote to as many non-followers as possible, and gin up the troops for another go at storming the Capital.
It would be laughable if it weren't so right on the money. This is really happening to us...in real-time. The trouble is, that most folks in this pandemic-ridden, consumer culture don't care. Instead of marching in the street and hollering, "this is what democracy looks like" we're confronted with "this is how democracy looked. Past tense. Finis.
And if I survive to a hundred and five, as the song goes it thing most notable will be how the leadership in the Republican party caved in. How not only were they complacent, but they continue to display a complete lack of ethics. Power not only corrupts, but it also intoxicates.
Our Congress has become the perfect example of an institution that perpetuates itself. It perpetuates its ineffectiveness with leadership (and I use the term loosely) structure that is both feckless and paralyzed.
So the coup plods on. The Nazi-like rallies continue and the Republican party continues to drool over their self-appointed leader. They have lifted the art of hypocrisy to new heights.
To be fair, the Democratic party has its own leadership gap to overcome as well. As one pundit recently observed, "Democrats don't know what to do when they have power; they don't know how to handle power when they have it."
Here's what we know for sure: in order to stop the slow-moving coup, the Biden Administration has to get a few things done. Bills passed, lives impacted, actual legislation on the books. Given how and where most folks in this country get their news...their version of the news, the coup has a reasonable chance of engulfing this democracy and replacing it with a true American dictator. Dictatorships, I would remind you, accomplish things quickly because they destroy all opposition. They move quickly.
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