America has seven months until the midterm elections. Seven months until Democrats slowly walk toward certain electoral annihilation at the hands of Republicans who want to upend abortion rights, addressing climate change, sensible gun regulations, LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, voting rights, etc.
And if the recent rumblings from the Jan. 6 Select House Committee are an indication, Democrats are completely out of touch with the urgency of this moment. By signaling that it may not refer the twice-impeached former President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice for blatant criminal interference with the 2020 election, the committee is close to declaring itself obsolete.
There is, in fact, a mountain of evidence that points to criminal activity by not just Trump, but his entire flock of sycophants. Why have a Jan. 6 committee at all, if it’s not prepared to go the whole way?
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In 2020 the American people powered through a global health pandemic, an economic downturn, and collective emotional trauma to cast a ballot in which said they were done with Trump. So, how after all the pain, fear, and anxiety that the Trump administration caused until the very end—including attempting a coup from inside the Oval Office—do Democrats think that doing nothing is somehow the best option?
President Joe Biden is no doubt in a precarious position as the leader of the party and the free-ish world. He has the arduous task of both having to shepherd the American people through a health pandemic that persists, inflation that is eating away at the little resources people have, and other everyday crises—such as persistent mass shootings, among normalized nightmares of American life.
While I feel for the president at this moment, the fact remains his poll numbers are tanking and faith in the perseverance of our republic is in steady decline. The American people cannot continue to subsist on platitudes and speeches alone. If the Democrats don’t get a hold of their messaging, and the president doesn’t take immediate steps to assuage the frustration of the people and remind us why we voted for him in the first place, they may not get a second chance.
All doesn’t have to be lost, but it will be if Democrats fail to utilize the next seven months with the urgency that these perilous times demand.
While we all want to believe that bipartisanship is a thing, it’s not. Not when one of the two major political parties has decided that the Constitution is a mere suggestion and openly embraces QAnon-inflected language to demonize gays and trans people.
Grassroots organizations continue to battle on the frontlines, but they can’t do it alone. The Democrats actually in power in this country (hard to believe, but it’s true) must help.
President Biden must use the power of his pen and the bullhorn of his bully pulpit to at least buy some time to fight against the forces determined to upend American democracy. Democrats can begin with one powerful move to shift the playing field, and that’s to go after Trump and all of the architects of the insurrection.
The myriad of anti-abortion and anti-trans bills running amok through GOP-led state legislatures are designed to make us believe losing is inevitable in November. But Democrats can choose to operate from a place of fear, or they can take advantage of the powerful advantages they already hold.
The evidence is on our side. The public is on our side. We can fight back, and we must.
First, most obviously, the Jan. 6 Committee needs to refer Trump to the Department of Justice.
Then, the committee needs to bring Ginni Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, in for a public hearing. Republicans need a taste of their own medicine. Do you remember the Benghazi hearings, an interminable circus performance that was nothing more than a failed attempt to smear Hillary Clinton before her presidential run? Democrats don’t need to make stuff up, as Republicans did, but they should take a page out of the GOP playbook and place Ginni Thomas in front of the world and ask her point blank to what extent was she willing to go to with her repeated calls to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who she begged to help keep Trump in office. And they should try to get to the bottom of just how compromised her husband, a sitting justice, might actually be.
While the House hauls in the architects of the attempted insurrection, making a televised display of their treasonous actions, the president can make moves of his own.
President Biden has taken to our screens multiple times since the fighting began in Ukraine. He has forcefully denounced Putin and hailed the bravery of the Ukrainian people fighting desperately to save their country from Russian aggression.
Imagine if the president did the same to discuss the perils that we are facing at home? Clearly identifying who the enemies of democracy are?
What Democrats fail to comprehend is that America is locked in a messaging war, and has been for some time. While we want to come to this duel armed with statistics and facts, we must begin to understand that we are dealing with a group that has created their own, and purposefully so. The biggest megaphone is the one that comes from the White House, and yet it isn’t being utilized to paint the picture of who we are fighting against and why.
Instead, you have the president and Democrats still referring to Republicans as “their friends from across the aisle.” We must force Republicans to explain their inhumane bills, which are working against the very freedoms and liberties they profess to care about.
Would the president face opposition and the chiding of “playing politics”? Of course. But the reality is Republicans are going to throw everything at Democrats in order to seize power, so working from a place of “what ifs” does nothing for us. We continue to rely on America’s better angels—Biden said so in his campaign announcement video—but angels only exist in scripture, real people need to be led. Even if we lose, wouldn’t you rather lose knowing you left everything on the field instead of being too afraid to enter the arena?
But Democrats can’t just define themselves in opposition to Republicans. The people in this country need relief, and they need it now.
President Biden has to stop kicking the can down the road and erase student loan debt for good, not just place it on pause. To be sure, an executive action such as this could land in the courts, pending legal interpretation of the president's authority to make such a bold move; but in the meantime the people would see a president fighting for their financial relief and upholding one of his biggest campaign promises.
The same bodes true for abortion rights. In June, the conservative-leaning Supreme Court will almost certainly dismantle Roe v. Wade, turning back the clock 50 years into the dark ages of back alley abortions, and grim, unnecessary deaths. Here, abortion advocates have said that there are indeed paths to fighting against anti-abortion legislation.
The Biden administration could rely on the Food and Drug Administration to provide access to medicated abortions, which has precedent, given that this very move was made at the beginning of the pandemic when the world shutdown.
As the 19th News reported, the pills are “prescribed virtually and sent to patients through the mail, eliminating numerous barriers for patients who do not have the time or resources to travel to a licensed clinic or health care facility.” It’s a very easy two-pill process that allows pregnant people to safely end a pregnancy at home, for up to 10 weeks. It’s not everything, but it’s a start.
While the administration made this move permanent, there are several states that are requiring physician assistance even though the medical professionals have said it is safe for home usage. To fight in these states, the administration must take the issue to the courts to have the outstanding states adhere to FDA guidance.
The reality is we are at war. We are at war against a party and an ideology that doesn’t see all people as equal, and without steadfast leadership and action taken by Democrats, these midterm elections may indeed be our last.
