It's Jan 20, 2024. Peaceful or no, what will we transition to a year from today?

We cannot count on anyone but ourselves to make sure we inaugurate a new day for democracy rather than its no-longer-unthinkable demise

One year from today on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, we will either inaugurate a new era in our democracy or we will ratify its demise. Too bad the press isn’t interested.

Hours of airtime and barrels of ink later, this week’s political coverage amounted to no news at all. As a reminder, the Republicans think they have an incumbent President, so there’s really no primary on their side, just as there’s really no challenger to Joe Biden. The free coverage given to wing nuts by the media in Iowa is — if I am charitable — a habit left over from normal times. If I’m more honest than charitable, it’s just self-serving click bait. So instead of talking about the week’s so-called news, let’s spend our time on more important and more interesting topics.

A could of days ago, in response to the Davos crowd’s comfort with the idea of another Trump presidency, I wrote about what a whopper of a bad idea that is. The truth is, these great men believe they are above the consequences of elections. And since the Supreme Court unleashed unlimited dark money into politics with its abominable Citizens United decision, that isn’t totally wrong. But to us mortals (you know, the folks who don’t go to Davos) the idea that the most powerful corporate leaders can buy what they want from presidents or congressional leaders is more obscene than comforting. Meanwhile, the bulk of the political press thought it was more important to tell us the weather in Iowa.

Then there’s Texas. Earlier, I told you about Governor Abbot’s outrageous move to use the Texas National Guard to keep the US Border Patrol away from the border. This past week, Abbot used his troops to prevent the Border patrol from saving a family who then drowned in the Rio Grand as they tried to cross. They would have been apprehended if they were saved, but that’s not the Texas way. Abbot just wants to shoot migrants at the border. He even complained that the Biden Administration would not turn a blind eye if they did. This week, the state’s Attorney General — the indicted and impeached Ken Paxton — argued the Border Patrol is only allowed access to the border to capture migrants and since he claims the Biden Administration doesn’t do that, they have no right of access. Paxton can claim this kind of nonsense because of the media’s failure to report on reality. Here in the real world, in FY 2023 the Biden Administration denied admission or expelled more than 2 million people at border stations and another 600,000 encountered between stations. That’s what patrolling the border is, Ken.

We learned two other things related to immigration this week. First, a leaked memo among House Republicans indicates that they have a timetable for impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas even though they have not yet taken his testimony. Second, House Speaker Johnson has been in regular communication with Donald Trump to strategize about how to avoid passing what is expected to be a strong immigration reform bill coming from the Senate.  Paxton’s deadly lies, the GOP’s fake impeachment, and the transparent effort to keep immigration as a top problem rather than to fix it, make this clear: today’s GOP does not care a bit about making America great, not again, not ever. They only care about taking and keeping power.

So much for business tycoons and today’s Republicans. You won’t hear this on the news, because it doesn’t grab an audience like Mr. Trump does. You also won’t hear examples of thousands of government workers doing their jobs.

Photo credit: AP/ Andrew Harnik

For example, just this week President Biden announced that as part of the implementation of the American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Act, North Carolina is getting investments that will provide high speed internet to every businesses and household in that state, along with support that will reduce internet bills for families.  These kinds of investments are being planned and executed all over the country. Nor will you hear that the National Security leaders from the US, Japan, and South Korea met at Camp David this part week to celebrate a new partnership between the University of Chicago, Seoul National University, and the University of Tokyo to train a future quantum workforce. This is a partnership aimed at extending our leadership in critical technologies well into the future. It is a collaboration that will strengthen the collective competitiveness of our democracies, and, not incidentally will provide cutting edge tech and talent for those folks the drinking kool aid from crystal goblets in Davos.

We won’t be hearing much about these things in the media. And the wealthiest and most powerful amongst us think they are safe. So, once again, when it comes to saving the democracy, we are on our own. But, here’s the thing, everyone who has underestimated the extraordinary American people end up in history’s ash bin.