11/03/2016

Republicans Love Power But Not Democracy

Barring some event that causes mass brain damage and brings about the Even Greater Stupiding of voters, Hillary Clinton is going to be elected president next Tuesday. That will make the third election in a row where the Democrat won the presidency. That's three times that the citizens of the United States were asked whether they would prefer the Republican and they responded, "Uh, no. In fact, fuck no." For the most part, those voters are pretty clear about what they voted for: among other things, they trust the Democrat to set the foreign policy of the nation, to use the military wisely, to work with Congress to pass legislation, and to appoint judges, including Supreme Court justices. We don't expect the president to get everything she wants. But there is an expectation that the Congress would recognize that they have to be partners with the co-equal executive branch in order to simply get shit done.

The whole fuckin' thing breaks down if the legislative branch just says, "Fuck off, executive branch. The door is slammed shut."

So when you read that more and more Republicans in the Senate, who are currently crossing their pudgy arms and stomping their widdle feet and saying, "Ain't no-way, no-how will we consider an Obama Supreme Court pick," have vowed to not consider any nominations from a President Hillary Clinton, well, that shit is about as dangerous as it gets to democracy. It's one thing to filibuster a nominee, as 25 Democrats voted to do (unsuccessfully) for Samuel Alito in 2006. But in that case, it was after confirmation hearings had taken place. And those supporting the filibuster weren't saying that any nomination from George W. Bush was dead on arrival. No, they were saying that even a disastrous fucknut like Bush would have his Supreme Court nominations considered. Republicans won't even allow for Merrick Garland to be heard from in a committee room.

We've got scumfeeder Senator Richard Burr of the desperately-trying-to-unfuck-itself state of North Carolina saying in a private meeting, "If Hillary Clinton becomes president, I am going to do everything I can do to make sure four years from now, we still got an opening on the Supreme Court." You got that? Another way to put that is that the majority of voters in North Carolina get to overthrow the will of the people of the entire nation when it comes to the Supreme Court. Burr has been joined by unprincipled motherfuckers Ted "I Love the Smell of Trump Ass in the Morning" Cruz and John "Clawing at the Edge of the Cliffs of Relevancy" McCain in saying fuck any Democratic president when it comes to the justices. McCain walked it back a bit, but that's the kind of weaseling we expect from that asshole.

This shit makes no sense at all. If Republicans refuse to allow a vote on Supreme Court justices from a Democratic president, why wouldn't Democrats do the same to a Republican president?

Republicans are scared shitless of the realities of democracy. We see that in their almost comically racist attempts at suppressing voter turnout through bullshit i.d. laws. We see that when they make the filibuster a regular part of legislative action so that they have eliminated the ability of a simple majority to pass anything in the Senate. We saw it back in the Bill Clinton presidency when they sought to eject him from office for the limpest of reasons. We saw it in the constant attempts to strip Barack Obama of legitimacy.

What all this has done is make the nutzoids and dumbshits that make up the GOP voter coalition completely mistrust that democracy works. If everything the opposition does is a cataclysmic event ready to bring on an apocalyptic nightmare of zombies, terrorists, and government health care, then obviously you'd believe that elections are rigged and evil agents are trying to steal your lovely country from your innocent hands. Donald Trump has succeeded in working his followers into a fever pitch by promising them shit that he couldn't do even if he was elected and telling them that if he loses, it's only because bankers or someone are working against him. What the fuck are they gonna think about democracy if their Trump godhead doesn't ascend to his White House iron throne?

And the other obvious outcome here is to say that the only way government can function is if one party completely controls it. That's cool when your party is in power. But it ain't very cool when your party is in the minority and out of the presidency. Then we get to widespread suppression of dissent and other nasty things.

Democracy is supposed to ensure that people have to compromise. Once that ends, once even the chance of that ends, which is what Republicans are doing, then democracy is fuckin' doomed, man.