READING TIME: 6 minutes
SUMMARY: We once had great pride in our country. It’s accomplishments like the Apollo 11 moon mission, but now it feels like we have lost our hope in the future. The SCOTUS VRA decision that has outlawed gerrymandering seems to be the final nail in the coffin of our democracy. The momentum we had in opposing ICE, the Epstein files, winning by elections, counter-gerrymandering, and the Iran War has evaporated with the ability of Republicans to flip nineteen districts before the mid-terms. The Democratic Party seems to offer little other than not being Trump. We lack a political vision that can lead us back to being the world’s leader politically, economically, and technologically. We need to restore our belief in democracy.
KEY WORDS: Hope, Corruption, Trump, Apollo 11, Taikonauts, Artemis, SCOTUS, the Voting Rights Act, Gerrymandering, Restoration of Democracy
COMMENT: What do we need in order to put Trump and the authoritarianism of the Republican Party behind us?
A Tale of Two Space Programs
The Apollo Moon Landing
On 16 July 1969, I begged my grandmother to watch the first crewed moon landing blastoff from Cape Canaveral. The idea of putting people on the moon was electrifying. It fired my imagination like nothing else did. I was so proud to be an American, to have won the space race. I didn’t get all of the economic and political points, but I understood it was momentous. That summer morning in Appalachia, Kennedy’s proclomation on 1962, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard” — unknown to me at the time — rang true and seemed to animate the country in one of our darkest moments.
And dark it was. In 1968, everything seemed to come to a head: student protests against Vietnam spurred by the Tet Offensive, the riots after MLK’s assassination, the murder of RFK filling the country with hopelessness and despair. But behind it all was the Apollo program, a slow drumbeat of we can do this against the chaos. By 1969, the Apollo 9 through 12 missions went off in rapid succession, two of them landing on the moon. Even the near-disaster of Apollo 13 couldn’t fully dim the glow. We were tearing ourselves apart over the war and civil rights, but we were also doing the impossible. That pride — that belief in ourselves as a nation — was not incidental to surviving the chaos. It was essential to it.
The Taikonauts on the Tianhe Space Station
On 18 September 2021, I wrote to some of my friends in China congratulating them on the successful mission of taikonauts to the Tianhe core module. I had seen the video of the crew’s activities — the weightlessness demonstrations, the cute personal items they’d brought, the sweet messages they sent back to earth. It recalled for me the immense pride I’d taken in America’s space accomplishments. I thought of my Chinese friends and the joy they must be feeling.
Much to my surprise, their response was a shrug in email form. “Yeah, that happened.” They seemed to take no joy or pride in the accomplishment whatsoever. I couldn’t help but wonder why.
The answer arrived quickly and uncomfortably. We could only communicate via email and Chinese social media apps, which I knew were monitored for keywords and phrases used to root out dissent. Suddenly, I feared that I had put them in danger by carelessly asking them to comment on a government accomplishment. While I had felt genuinely part of the Apollo missions — a citizen of a democracy that voted for the people who chose to fund them — my friends had no such connection to their space program. The Chinese space program was something the government did for the government’s reasons. It did not reflect the will of the people, and the people knew it. There was a huge, chilling disconnect between citizens and state.
This was even more telling because it came in the middle of #COVID-19 pandemic, which China struggled mightily with. A prolonged period of hardship and turmoil — exactly when a population should be hungry for a feel-good, rally-around-the-flag, unifying moment. Instead: had a cautious, muted meh.
In many ways this is the difference between a democratic nation expressing our policy priorities through our votes, our collective decision making about what the nation would do and authoritarianism in which the government is something that is done to its citizenry, should be avoided and contact with minimized, and, otherwise, is wholly unaffected by the desires and priorities of its citizens. They aren’t participants. They’re subjects.
The Artemis Moon Missions
The Artemis mission rekindled some of that same excitement that the Apollo missions had, only it was much more muted. We seemed more to be going through the motions rather than feel some genuine pride of accomplishment. I was struck by how much of a sideshow the entire mission was until it was underway, but even then it all seemed performative. Then, there was that infamous Oval Office meeting with Astronaut Bone Spurs braying loudly and annoyingly at the crew, “To get in there, you have to be very smart, have to do a lot of things physically good. So I would have had no trouble making it, I’m physically very, very good.” The glum, visibly pained expressions of the crew told us everything we needed about that particular meeting of great mind.
I began to wonder how far down the slippery slope to authoritarianism we had slid. Did that moment represent the transition from this is something hard we did together because it was necessary to something that the government did over there, without us, even in spite of us?
Trump is Stealing our Hope
When Kennedy spoke about our space program and going to the moon, it was always in the collective we. It was inclusive. It took all of us. It used resources that we provided if only through taxes and good will. But, Trump makes everything about him. “I did it.” “I could doi t better.” And, by making it about him, it diminishes the rest of us, dividing us into performer and audience, star and fans. The space program gave us hope in our future. Now, it is hope in his future. He’s stolen our hope and made it his.
This is not just about NASA. This theft of hope has metastasized into every corner of civic life.
The Firehose of Explosive Diarrhea
Earlier this year, we had real momentum. Millions showed up for the No Kings rallies. Thousands rallied against the ICE deportation atrocities. Democrats were over-performing by double digits in special elections and had won nearly all of them. Democratic states were out-gerrymandering Republican ones with voter approval, and only temporarily. There was genuine, grounded reason to believe the midterms would be a corrective.
Now that focus has diffused. Because Trump floods the zone with his explosive diarrhea of frenetic chaos, and it does more than obfuscate and distract — it demoralizes. When we contemplate a task, we size it up first. If it seems too large, too rigged, too impossible, we disengage. We stop before we start, or we start and don’t finish. That is precisely what he is manufacturing.
SCOTUS Aiding and Abetting the Theft of Hope
The SCOTUS decision gutting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act — released, not coincidentally, well before the end of the term so states would have maximum time to gerrymander — has blunted the hope we had for the midterms. The governor of Louisiana literally paused an election that had already begun early voting so districts could be further carved up. Projections suggest every minority-majority district in the Deep South could be eliminated, turning over nineteen seats and producing the whitest Congress since 1964. The Supreme Court has revealed itself as a nakedly political institution. The system seems well and truly rigged. Our hope for our future has been stolen.
The psychological calculus of resistance seems to have been turned on its head. It no longer seems a winnable fight, but one that no matter what we do, we cannot win. It isn’t true, but it doesn’t matter. It seems true hollow out the will to fight, to vote, by enough of us to throw the election.
We Lack Political Vision
The opposition, the Democratic Party, seems always to be playing catch up and reacting to the latest offense committed by the Republicans and Trump. When once the mid-terms could’ve been won by the prices are too high, so Republican voters will stay home and we’re not Trump strategy, that now seems like unworkable solution — if it were every one to begin with.
What we are missing — what someone needs to provide, urgently — is not just opposition to Trump but a vision. FDR didn’t rally the country by listing Republican failures; he gave people specific things their hands would build. Obama didn’t inspire a historic turnout by promising to be less bad; he gave people a specific, achievable, historic thing to do. The task has to be hard enough to matter and achievable enough to attempt.
Right now, nobody is offering that. The Democratic Party is playing permanent catch-up, reacting to the latest Republican atrocity, running a we’re not Trump and prices are too high strategy that was always thin and is now threadbare. We need a reason to vote for something, not just against everything. We need a New Deal for Democracy. A Marshall Plan for a More Perfect Union. A reason to believe that hope and change are still possible.
It cannot be the small ball of policy checklists — Medicare for All, universal pre-K, the rest. Those are the tools that get us there. What we need is the soaring rhetoric of why — the audacious claim that we are still capable of doing hard things together because they are necessary, and because they are ours.
Trump has stolen our hope in the future and lined his pockets with it. The worst crime isn’t the corruption or gutting our institutions — it’s the theft of the belief that we can attain our democratic ideals. It’s the slow conversion of American citizens into what my Chinese friends are: cautious, muted, careful, with no real stake in what the government does and no real power to change it.
Reclaiming our Hope by Renewing our Democracy
Until someone gives us a Kennedy moment — a credible, full-throated “we choose to do this hard thing, not because it is easy, but because it is hard, and because it is ours” — we are going to keep feeling exactly like my friends in China felt that September afternoon.
What we need is a reason to vote Democratic. We need a reason to hope again. Trump has stolen our hope for the future to line his pockets, we need a way to claw it back. We need a message of belief in a positive vision of America. The vision that the Apollo missions gave us and that the Artemis mission could be. We need New Deal for Democracy. A Marshall Plan for creating a More Perfect Union. A reason to believe that Hope and Change are possible again.
We need a bold vision not just of vanquishing the corruption and sadism of Trumpism, but of building a future that all of us have a stake in. It cannot be the small ball of Medicare for All and universal preschool. Those are the tools that will get us there, it has to be the soaring rhetoric of doing the hard things because they are necessary to improve the lives of us all.
Image Attribution
The image was found on Needpix.com and has a Creative Commons license.
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So many of us who worked for equal rights, voting rights, etc. have aged out of the actual running for office, or been beaten down so completely with grief and despair over our country’s failure to protect their constituency, that it feels as if there is no longer any hope of maintaining a democratic republic. I, for one, am now too ill to drag out of bed most days and have now not even the right to mail in a ballot so I can vote. I fear for my children and their children. No one seems safe here anymore.
Howdy Suze!
The thing that got me with this post that crystalized it all for me was comparing the way I experienced the Artemis mission with the Apollo missions or even the Apollo-Soyuz, the space shuttle, or the ISS. With all of those space missions, I was so proud. It symbolized the America that could rise to any challenge. Artemis was just a pale shadow of that feeling. We were going through the motions of oh wow this is so fantastic and amazing, and it should’ve been so organic.
None of us are safe. Not from ICE. Not from the DoJ. Not from the courts. Not from the healthcare system. And, they want us feeling that way. We need to rise. I firmly believe we will rise. But, we need the leadership to get us there.
Huzzah!
Jack
PS So, good to hear from you. It shows how potent this situation is that it got you out of bedo or at least onto the Internet to comment.
” doing the hard things because they are necessary to improve the lives of us all.”
I read that and think that this is the core of what has been stolen, stolen by the long running Republican strategy of divide and conquer, the setting “Us”, whoever that “us” may be, against the “others”, the ones to be hurt first and worst. In the world according to Trump, there is no “us all”, no sum greater than the parts, across differences of race, status, etc. Where is there a vision and rhetoric that can overcome the primacy of the question, “Who are the REAL Americans, and who are not?”
Can we define that vision, or recognize it if we see it, while engaged in the daily battle of trying not to drown in the flood of crap?
Howdy Bob!
We need something that will cut through all the crap. It seems to me that the focus of the midterms needs to be rein in Trump and the 2028 election is restore the democracy. By releasing their decision now rather than in June at the end of the session, we know that the entity of our federal government has gone all in on authoritarianism. Every branch is stacked against our democracy. It makes a pretty steep hill to climb.
I do think that appealing to our democratic instincts honed over the past 250 years can work. I don’t think anyone likes the blatant corruption that we’re seeing coming out of all of the government branches. Democrats have to make the Republicans own that. They’ll try to both sides it, but it really is just one side.
Blog On, Sibling!
Jack
One of the difficulties in doing either racial or partisan redistricting (or racial redistricting pretending to be partisan) is that by spreading the opposition core voters out in formerly safe districts to create one new safe one, the formerly safe ones become some degree more swing-able. Those doing it also tend to forget that the real deciders are the persuadeables in purple, light blue, and light red districts, not the hard core base. Then, there is the problem with the “they’ll stay home if we make their vote not count” strategy. It pisses people off and they show up anyway. That probably applies to Black voters most. Enough of them are still alive who remember the bad old days and the struggle for the VRA in the first place, and the ones too young to remember have been raised on the history and the stories of the heroes and martyrs.
The racism, corruption, cruelty, incompetence, indifference to real pain. and fear of the GOP and Trump now are so blatant, and getting worse, that the “Throw the bums out” mood may just carry the day.
Howdy Bob!
That is the one saving grace of gerrymandering. It can be overwhelmed by numbers, and it is motivating to have your vote diluted.Anger is motivational. The anger of the racist to see a Black president carried Trump to office. The anger of the American democrats after Trump’s insurrection. And, the anger of Americans at the corruption and diminishment of our country and democracy will carry the day.
We’ve got people who are willing to work to get the vote out and to get organized. We do need the leadership and vision to pull it together.
Blog On, Sibling!
Jack
In a way, I think that the Democratic Party has gotten caught in the same trap that afflicted the GOP for so long, and still warps the minds of their rank and file legislators, the mind set of the Permanent Opposition. It shows most in the behavior of the Republicans in the House, their several factions always focusing on what they are against, much of which is neither factual or relevant to anyone outside their core base. If they were not terrified of Trump and his flying monkeys so that they vote as told, they might not be able to pass anything without Democrats’ help. On the Democrat side, especially in the Senate, it is the leadership stuck in the permanent opposition role, lost in the details of particular bills and appointments without a grand unifying vision.
A unifying vision of “America is all of us.” necessarily includes ideas of Equality, Inclusion, Diversity, Fairness, Empathy, Tolerance, Cooperation, and Neighborliness. The very ideas that Trump and the GOP propaganda machine have worked to demonize as DEI and “Woke”, because that set of ideas and practice is fundamental to a real, functioning democracy. Grim opposition to and complaint about the attacks on these ideas isn’t enough. We need leaders proud of advocating DEI, joyful to be called “woke”. We need leaders who refuse to let the enemies of democracy define the terms and the words. Once you let your adversary frame the debate, you have lost. We have to be the ones framing the debate and defining the terms.
Howdy Bob!
It seems like for my entire politically conscious life the Democrats have been reacting to the Republicans and ceding the terms of the debate to them. Crime, budget, patriotism, military. All of the issues. I never understood it, especially the patriotism. My high school arguments with my conservative friends always featured me asserting my patriotism because I thought we should more evenly divide the wealth of the country, which is what tax and social welfare policy is.
Anywho. Republicans want to play small ball and word games. They want to focus on issues that are small and usually not real. They want to accuse Democrats and smear, anything but talk about the big issues that are facing the country. Democrats have to focus on the economy, democracy, and America’s standing in the world. They have to paint a picture of what could be under their leadership of America leading the way to the new economy free of fossil fuels and building a carbon neutral economy. They have to defend our democracy, talk about our history, and promote that we are all created equal by god, that we are building a more perfect union, that the fear and gloom we all feel is because we are turning our backs on the principles that made this country great. They have to stand against corruption and cronyism. They have to take the fight to Republicans everywhere at once. But, I fear that we just don’t have the party infrastructure for it much less the vision.
Too many Democrats are defending turf and their position in the party. Their focus is too narrow to see what needs to be done.
Blog On, Sibling!
Jack
And, every Democrat President we’ve had since FDR who has had his party in control of the House for at least 2 years has tried to do Big Things and address Big Issues and define the terms, and scared the crap out of Republicans in doing it because it was too real. A major catch has been that Big Things take time an are not completed and taking full effect by the end of a 4 year term, and some take that long just to get started and the legislation written.
Anyway, one myth that has to be once and for all consigned to the trash bin of history is the notion that the Republicans are the party of fiscal responsibility. They have managed to insist of that title while at every opportunity driving us deeper and deeper in debt, now at the cliff edge of bankruptcy if any of the major buyers of our T-bonds stop letting them rollover. (You know the list.) It really may be their biggest lie, and they have to be called on it.
We need a new crop of young, ambitious, smart, charismatic rank and file Democrat candidates at every level. The Old Guard ain’t cutting it.
Howdy Bob!
I really like your Big Things argument, and I think it is right. The impactful Democratic presidents’ Big Things all centered around redistributing wealth through tax policy and social welfare programs. They helped close the wealth and racial gaps in the country. Of course that scared Republicans. Since the 1920’s — probably the 1880’s, but I can’t be sure — they have been the party of oligarchy.
The Republicans have brewed up an intoxicating combination of racism, misogyny, and greed to appeal to the white voter. That is an addiction that has been hard to break. The “worse” things get for white voters, the harder they cling to authoritarianism. Democracy is too much of a risk when it is possible for Communities of Color to become the policy and lawmakers.
I think it is possible to say that the Big Things presidents occur after crises in the country, the Great Depression, the Cold War, Civil Rights, the Great Recession. The slowness with which these Big Things can be felt in society probably combined with our instant gratisfaction memed social media culture to doom Biden to one term. It just didn’t happen fast enough for most people.
I really like the younger Democratic candidates that I know about. The problem is that it is hard to learn about them because they are usually running for local and state offices. However, James Talarico, Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, is fairly accessible because of the high profile nature of his race. He combines the conservative religiosity and liberal social values that can appeal to a wide segment of the centrist voters. He is very likely to beat either Ken Paxton or John Cornyn. I doubt he could be the next Obama, but maybe, right?
Blog On, Sibling!
Jack
Talarico is an interesting one, in part because his conservative religiosity is oriented to the pro-social teachings recorded in the Gospels rather than the End Times, Warrior Jesus of later authors.
I’ve long thought that the deep core of American racism is in fear of the vengeance of those we know we have abused for so long. It showed in the conspiracy theory that, “Obama is going to take all your guns and give them to you know who.”. I suspect that the only cure may be through integration (social, schools, and residential) and several generations of a lot more mixed race babies. That, of course is exactly what the racists fear will happen. The good news is that the proportion of our younger generations who have no problem with mixing is increasing. But it is a Very Big Thing, and at a multi generational rate of change.
Howdy Bob!
Talarico reminds me of the Liberation Theology that was popular in Central and South American Catholicism when I was growing up. I know He’s Presbyterian, but the way he uses his faith to justify his more progressive policies. He can also go toe-to-toe with anyone who wants to discuss specific scripture. For a lot of Catholics and Baptists in Central and South Texas that is meaningful and will get their attention. That he is respectful of their religion is also helpful.
That fear of vengeance is the lack of theory of mind. White racists can’t imagine that anyone could react to their racism against the Other in any other way than they would. It is why all the white supremacist mass shooters think they are setting off the race war. I think we got a foundation built from the Civil Rights era will hold. I”m hoping that the open naked racism of mass detention and imprisonment will sicken them and reject it now that it is here.
Huzzah!
Jack
My daughter is so worried about the future that she cries when she thinks of the damage Donny is doing…I hate that for there is nothing I can say that will help her. Everything Donny has done to this country is a crime….he should be punished for each act action separately. chuq
Howdy Chuq!
When I saw that SCOTUS decision, it was a real gut punch. I knew they would destroy the VRA that is Roberts entire raison de être, but I thought they wouldn’t release the decision until the end of the term to prevent the gerrymandering before the mid-terms. Now, we know — like we didn’t already — that SCOTUS is anti-democratic and pro authoritarian. It makes reining Trump’s corruption in — and that’s all being pro authoritarian is is being pro corruption — that much harder to do.
Never before have we had such a complete take over of the government by the authoritarian forces of America.
Huzzah!
Jack
So very true…..and it is hard to break the choke hold these slugs have on the country. chuq
Howdy Chuq!
I firmly believe that we will rise to the occasion, but we need the leadership to get there. I’m really hoping and looking for that leadership to be there.
Blog On, Sibling
Jack
Jack I agree with you my problem is who will be that leader? I am not really impressed w2ith too many on the political scene these days. chuq
I keep running through the contenders for the presidential nomination and come up short. JB Pritzker? Gavin Newsom? Wes Moore? Are you kidding me? We don’t need more cautious self-aggrandizing Machiavellianism.
But, an AOC and Kamala Harris candidacy scares me even worse given the countries record of coming up short with female candidates. Harris I don’t think has the mettle or vision for the job. I think she wants to be the boss because she likes being the boss — a disease many bosses have. AOC has the vision and I would be an enthusiastic supporter, but our track record.
I don’t see anyone on the horizon that I really feel great about.
Huzzah!
Jack
I agree with you on Harris….she needs to try for Governor of Calif….I also see no one right now that I would run out and vote for. chuq
As impolitic as this opinion is, I think Harris just needs to return to the Senate if she can. That was the right offic for her. It is where her cross examination skills and detailed understanding of the law are best used. Being a good legislator does not necessarily make you a good executive. My feeling is that she is not a good executive.
My understanding is that Obama preferred Clinton as a candidate in 2016 and discouraged Biden from running. I think that there was significant affection between Obama and Biden, but that Obama didn’t have confidence in Biden’s ability to lead and continue his agenda. Biden proved him wrong by having one of the most successful one-term presidencies in the history of the country. I think there was a similar dynamic between Harris and Biden in 2024. I still maintain that if Biden had thought of her as being presidential caliber, he would not have run for reelection.
Biden didn’t have President’s disease — the desire to be president. He ran in 2020 being a bridge to the future with the understanding that he would be a one-term president. Just as he was thrilled to be the VP of the first Black president, I think the idea of having handed it off to the first Black woman president was important to him.
I’m afraid that a Harris candidacy in 2028 will take too much oxygen out of the room, as they say, especially from other women who might be tempted to run. Two strong candidates from California — Newsom and Harris — will work against them, also.
Thankfully, the California governor’s race is sorting itself out. At least, the electorate in California seems to get it even if the candidates don’t. If the candidates cannot take one for the team and withdraw from the race, then the electorate has to back one candidate and that seems to be what is happening.
And, that’s what the midterms are down to. How savvy is the American electorate? Has the naked racism and authoritarianism of the Trump admin been too much for the casual racists that live among us? Or, will it appeal to them and turn them out to vote Republican?
Huzzah!
Jack
Jack….a lot to unpack….but you are right Harris needs to go where she is needed…..the Senate….That is a great question….down here I do not see anything changing with the MAGA….chuq
If your neighbors were anything like my uncles and cousins, then the naked racism is very much appealing. And that is the problem with our democracy. Many of us prefer authoritarianism because democracy feels like too much of a risk. Ris of letting lessers make decisions that will hurt us and help them.
Jack