The Silent Majority Finally Speaks Up
That's what President Nixon used to call them. And the God-fearing, law-abiding good Americans WERE the majority back then -- at least of the electorate, which overwhelmingly reelected Nixon in 1972 over his liberal, antiwar opponent George McGovern. But today's majority is a very different story. We are pro-gun control, pro-reproductive choice, pro-climate crisis measures, pro=taxing billionaires, pro-labor unions, pro-racial diversity, pro-democracy. In other words, the majority is progressive, even if we don't call it that.
And we're finally speaking up. That's what worries our Republican minority rulers.
Tennessee legislator Justin Jones was returned to the state Capitol by the Nashville City Council without missing a vote. In Memphis, county commissioners will also soon reinstate Justin Pearson, the other young, black representative thrown out of office by their white Republican colleagues in the Tennessee legislature. Jones's and Pearson's offense? Protesting the legislature's outrageous refusal to pass gun control measures after the latest deadly mass assault, a bloodbath at a Tennessee Christian school.
The Republicans who rule the state legislature in Tennessee accomplished only one thing with their act of overt racism. They turned Jones and Pearson into national heroes. "Power to the people!" Jones exulted when the Nashville City Council voted unanimously to return him to the state Capitol.
Meanwhile, a Texas bro named Matthew Kacsmaryk who was appointed to the federal bench by Trump blocked the FDA from authorizing the abortion pill -- which the federal agency has done for the past 23 years. The ruling not only infuriated most women (and men) as well as the medical establishment and the powerful pharmaceutical industry, it cost the Republican Party another wave of future elections. (Just ask Wisconsin voters, who last week elected an outspoken pro-choice Supreme Court candidate by a landslide margin.)
The smart leaders of the Republican Party know that they're fucked. Not only are they saddled with unpopular policies like their rigid stand on abortion, they still have to deal with criminal leadership. (I'm not talking about Supreme Court "Justice" Clarence Thomas here -- but Trump.) Trump is the demon who won't go away, the psychopath who oddly commands the fervent allegiance of the GOP's base.
As long as Trump is the face of the Republican Party -- and the party embraces policies that repel the majority of Americans -- their electoral prospects wIll continue to decline.
The face of the Republican P{arty. (The other one is Trump’s.)