They’ve Already Lost

I’ve been observing the tumultuous final stages of this 2020 Presidential campaign through my pandemic-imposed lockdown. From my vantage point the evolving trends of the campaign form a pattern rising into view through the mists of chaos.

And the patterns tell me that no matter what happens on Tuesday, trump and his power-drunk brownnosing groupies have already lost.

No, I’m not calling it for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. A lot can happen over the next three days. Republicans are pulling out all the stops in their attempt to derail voting, steal or suppress ballots, and intimidate voters. Which is exactly my point; they know they’ve lost and are doing everything possible to deny the inevitable. Even if they do steal, suppress, and intimidate enough Democratic voters to steal yet another election, Republicans have still lost.

They’ve lost more than just this election.

These power-hungry sycophants who crawled up trump’s butt these past four years are on the verge of loosing their power. They’re terrified because that power is all they have left. Their path to becoming masters of the universe has left them without souls, without dignity, and without credibility. They’ve become empty shells emulating functioning human beings, Ringwraiths to their trump master.

In the past, Republicans have been able to hide in the shadows, manipulating and conniving under a cloak of legitimacy. But like melting lake ice, each election cycle their ice has gotten thinner, eroded from underneath while seemingly undisturbed from on top. This cycle, their ice has broken through and their actions are out in the open for all to see.

After the last census in 2010 Republicans controlled a majority of state legislatures and were able to gerrymander redistricting to their liking. State-by-state republicans used sophisticated mathematical models to jam Democratic voters into the fewest number of districts and republican voters in the greatest number. At the time I likened this to citadelsCitadelA fortress that commands a city and is used in the control of the inhabitants and in defense during attack or siege. any strongly fortified place; stronghold., a way for republicans to pull back in a defended retreat.

It worked, for the short term.

Over these past ten years republicans made life a living hell for anyone with a conscious. Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell made life hell for President Obama. With control of both the house and senate, republicans did everything possible to block a decent man who was a good president, as means of discrediting a president who happened to be Black.

In the short term they did block initiatives that could have made life better for the Americans who voted those republicans into office.

Over these past four years of trump, republicans have controlled all the levers of power and used everything they had. With all their institutional power, they did nothing for the average Americans who voted them into office. All McConnell’s focus was on installing puppet judges into life-time appointments as means of preserving republican’s power.

Another way of describing this, is to say McConnell was creating pockets of resistance intended to cover republicans retreat into obscurity, leaving behind the illusion of strength.

In the bigger picture, what has emerged from the mist is a clear picture of Republicans in full retreat, defending an ever-shrinking power base using short-term tactics without an overarching strategy for long-term victory. Trump’s presidential “victory” four years ago and full republican control of the federal government wasn’t the pinnacle of success they made it out to be. It was their last stand, their last chance to make their mark on our nation before a final slide into obscurity.

They still in fact could have done good things for the American voters who put them into power. But, like the scorpion who stings the frog halfway across a stream, it was the nature of these miscreants to destroy everything on their way out the door. Over these past four years they’ve done exactly that – slashed and burned through our government, our culture, and through the very lives of people they are supposed to care for.

So today, I stand on a pile of rubble surveying the damage. Yesterday, our country recorded nearly 100,000 new cases in one day of Covid-19 infections; making us a global leader. Our economy is in shambles, with an official unemployment rate of 6.7 percent. Millions of people are facing eviction from their homes, living off donated food through charity-run food banks. Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell blocked passing financial relief while blatantly ramming though an unqualified supreme court nominee.

We’ve had near continuous riots in our cities since June over police routinely murdering unarmed Black people with impunity. Meanwhile, armed militia roam the streets and invade state legislature building while cops standby watching. Today, a bus in Texas carrying campaigners for Joe Biden was run off the highway by vehicles displaying trump flags while cops stood by and did nothing. In North Carolina, cops pepper-sprayed and arrested a group of Democratic voters peacefully marching to the polls to vote early.

These aren’t the actions of a political party that has the power of the people behind them. These are the actions of a political party that know they’re out of touch with the majority of voters, and is desperately grasping at anything possible to remain relevant. Everything, that is, besides actually doing things the majority of people need and would support.

So here we are today, three days out from the next presidential election. It doesn’t matter what the election results show. Every thinking human being already knows trump has lost the country. The people who scurried in trump’s shadow these long four years are now cornered and looking for a way out, knowing what happens when trump is gone. This is their last gasp of power, and they’re not going down quietly.

The Republicans, and trump, have already lost.

Cross-posted at Daily Kos “They’ve Already Lost.”