Ex-Lax for Republicans
Like many, I spent the winter frustrated and furious that what David Axe of Forbes routinely refers to as “Russia-friendly Republicans” had effectively turned off the spigot of U.S. aid to Ukraine.
I found it extremely irksome that some commentators insisted on describing the logjam caused exclusively by MAGA/Freedom Caucus wingnuts as “congressional constipation,” a bothsiderist locution that persists even now. This often went hand in hand with laments that, in some vague and unspecified way, Democrats had failed to do whatever hypothetical something would have supposedly resolved the crisis. That effectively shifted the blame for this literally lethal inaction from the Putinist wing of the GOP to “the Dems.”
•
The flow of U.S. aid to Ukraine has now resumed. The first donated F-16 fighter jets have gone airborne over that country. New supplies of munitions and weaponry and transport have begun to reach segments of the front. Ukraine, having survived the drought, has dug in and held firm against logistically superior forces. And, it turns out, President Biden recently (and, initially, secretly) gave Ukraine permission to strike inside Russia with US-provided arms. The battle may have begun to turn.
But the “Russia-friendly Republican” obstructionists remain in office, and in the (slim) majority in Congress. Based on past history, they will do everything in their power to stand in the way of whatever the next tranche of support for our Ukrainian ally includes. The Republican-friendly mainstream media will continue to paint this as a deadlock for which Democrats share responsibility. And Russian asset Donald J. Trump, though now a convicted felon, remains in the running for the White House. So it’s important to keep the following in mind:
“The Dems” have done and are doing just about everything possible to get aid to Ukraine. Their efforts appear in the headlines daily.
U.S. Pres. Joe Biden and Ukraine Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kiev, 2/21/23. Official White House photo.
•
What did the Dems in Congress do to make possible the most recent $60 billion aid package for Ukraine? They did exactly what they’ve done since the criminal Russian invasion began in early 2022.
- Dems provided their full, unqualified, coordinated backing of and approval for the actions of Pres. Joe Biden, who publicly predicted the invasion before it happened, then rallied NATO in an unprecedented way that actually led to its enlargement and reinforcement and general reinvigoration.
- With the exception of now-departing DINO renegades Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, Dems voted as one for every single aid package to date, every single bill authorizing and announcing U.S. support of Ukraine, and every single condemnation of Russia and Putin put forward by the administration.
- Dems supported Biden when he named Putin as a war criminal and Russia as guilty of war crimes.
- Numerous Dems actually visited Ukraine and met with Zelenskyy to show unequivocal support for Ukraine — Biden, Harris, Blinken, Shumer, Pelosi, and many Congresspeople. Some have gone repeatedly.
- Biden invited Zelenskyy to the White House, and to address Congress and, through that, to address the American people.
- Dems supported all the sanctions imposed on Russia since the invasion began.
- Dems made their collective and individual condemnation of Putin and Russia, and their collective and individual support of Zelenskyy and Ukraine, clear in position papers, speeches, conferences, press releases, media appearances, and other platforms and formats.
- Etc.
Had that $60 billion aid package failed to pass, the congressional Dems would still have done all of the above.
•
We can and should castigate the Russophile extremists in Congress, and the right-wing media/social media system, for treasonously giving aid and comfort to our sworn enemies. At the same time, we need to acknowledge the root of the problem: We don’t have enough liberals in Congress to ensure passage of bills supporting aid to Ukraine and dozens more bills furthering the Democratic agenda.
Lauren Boebert on “wonton killing,” screenshot
More such bills are currently in the pipeline and/or on the table, with yet more to come. Safe to assume that we can’t consider future aid to Ukraine a done deal. To the contrary, we should expect the same Russia-friendly players to force Democrats to play the same game every time Ukraine comes up — if they can.
And if they can, the fault will lie not in the stars, and not with the congressional Dems, but with those Dem-aligned “voters” who decline to vote and thereby refuse to give the Dems the majority they need to get things done in Congress.
Verifiably, when voter turnouts run high Democrats win. Here’s what “the Dems” can’t do: They can’t force the hundreds of thousands of other “Dems” to vote who can’t be bothered to do so because Hillary, or because Bernie, or because Jill Stein, or because Cornel West, or because Israel/Palestine, or because Biden’s age, or because menthol cigarettes, or because Charlamagne Tha God is bored, or because some principle, or because politics doesn’t interest them, or because the Democratic candidates don’t excite them, or because whatever other excuse they have.
It’s as a result of their decisions — and inaction is a well-established moral and political choice — that the congressional Dems (along with Biden) have no majority and can’t get done what they strive so hard to get done.
•
The collective position of these recalcitrants, in a nutshell: they won’t vote for Dems until Dems deliver on the issues they care about the most, which Dems can’t do until these passive-aggressive Dems vote and create a Dem majority. So there — that’ll teach those “congressional Dems,” and those who actually voted for them, a lesson.
The right questions to ask are these:
What are these passive-aggressive oh-so-principled non-Dem-voting Dems and Dem-adjacent liberals actually doing to get aid delivered to Ukraine? (Or to get anything on their presumed agendas enacted?)
What should we ordinary citizens and constituents ask, expect, and demand that these passive-aggressive oh-so-principled non-Dem-voting Dems actually do?
The obvious answer: At a bare minimum, they should vote for Democrats up and down the ticket, at every election, even if unenthusiastically. And, unless they’ve done so for at least three (3) consecutive elections, to ensure that Democratic majorities are locked in, they should STFU.
Because, as it stands, there’s no daylight between them and the people who complain that Ukraine hasn’t defeated Russia yet while withholding the support Ukraine needs for a definitive victory and restricting their usage of the weapons we do supply, thus tying one arm behind their back. And not nearly as much daylight as they think between both of these demographics and those who actively oppose U.S. support of Ukraine and — by extension — democracy in Europe and elsewhere, abroad and at home.
•
The problem is not “congressional constipation.” With Sinema and Manchin going/gone, the Dems are as unified as they’ve ever been.
To repeat: “Congress” isn’t constipated. That’s bothsiderist misdirection, and gets frequently pointed out as such when the MSM peddles that nonsense. Congress is controlled by obstructionist, Trumpist, Putinist Republicans, who have the majority (a slim one) and devote their energies to internecine combat and owning the libs.
And they are in control of Congress because a substantial number of voters who claim to be liberal-left and of the broadly Dem persuasion don’t find it in their hearts to actually get out and vote for Democratic candidates for Congress. Which leaves Dems in the minority and disempowered in terms of advancing a progressive agenda.
MT Greene, SOTU, 2-7-23
The way “to resolve congressional constipation” is for everyone who claims to support (at least in large part) the Democratic agenda to actually vote for the Democratic ticket. Anything else is hypocritical lip-flapping.
And for those who believe that the Dems should/must move further to the left on one or another or all issues, the way to achieve that is not to disempower them by withholding votes and then whining that they don’t move left. The smart tactic is voting for them as they are, and then making it clear to them that they have to listen closely to their left wing. That’s how you do politics in a democracy.
As for what rank and file folks should be doing:
- First, stop using misleading bothsiderist misdirection terminology like “congressional constipation.” The obstacle is not “Congress.” The obstacle to Ukraine aid is the Trumpist/MAGA GOP in Congress.
- Second, stop implying and/or asserting outright that there’s something “more” that Congressional Dems should or could be doing, above and beyond the everything they’re already doing in the face of an obdurate, obstructionist, Republican majority run by chaos agents.
- Third, contact every willfully non-voting liberal-left Dem/independent you know and tell them to get over whatever they use to justify their tacit complicity with things as they are. That will not impact anything “now,” because the situation “now” is a direct consequence of those people not voting back “then” (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023) to ensure a solid Dem majority able to push through Ukraine support with ease.
Because that is actually how things work. Perhaps you can help them understand that if, instead of standing on their principles and/or sitting on their hands, they actually vote for Dems in the future — say, for example, the near future, specifically this coming November — they can empower re-elected Dem president Joseph R. Biden and the re-elected/new Dem-majority Congress to get a sh*tload of fantastic stuff done in such record time that it will make their heads spin.
Whereas, even if Mango Mussolini doesn’t get re-elected, liberal-left voter apathy will leave us where we are right now — i.e., effectively deadlocked. Which, I must reemphasize, results from them not voting then.
So helping willful and/or lazy non-voters understand the causal relationships between “then” and “now,” on an ongoing basis, poses a specific set of tasks for rank and file folks. This won’t affect anything immediately, but could certainly affect things going forward.
•
I should add that there are a few special elections coming up before the big one in in November, due to retirements/resignations, where a surge in voting could make a difference. So anything that would get people out in force for those could help.
Getting down to nuts and bolts, here are some specific things that everyday citizens can do:
- Donate to candidates. Every dollar counts. Palmer Report posts links to specific winnable contests. Someone at Daily Kos aggregates small donations and disperses them. Info on such situations is easy to find online.
- Donate to voter registration efforts. Statistics confirm that when more people vote, Dems do better. This is why Dems work to protect the right to vote while Republicans work to prevent them from voting.
- Phone bank work. Pick a race and, from the comfort of your very own home, call strangers in that area and work to persuade them to vote for the candidate of your choice. Any campaign anywhere will happily sign you up for that.
- Postcard work. From home, again, write postcards to voters somewhere urging them to vote. As with phone banking, any campaign anywhere will happily sign you up for that.
- Help people in your area register to vote. As with phone banking, any local voter-registration effort will happily sign you up for that.
- Canvass door-to-door in your area for the candidate(s) of your choice. Any local campaign will happily sign you up for that.
It all adds up to GOTV: Get out the vote.
•
There’s not a single original idea above. Shouldn’t require yet another spelling out. From my standpoint, it’s borderline insulting to the intelligence that any of it needs saying. Outrageous that anybody anywhere feels entitled to demand persuasion, or wheedling, or getting otherwise cozened into voting, as if they’re doing someone a favor thereby.
People are fighting and dying around the world, as we speak, for the right to vote. People have done so for centuries. So long as that’s a fact, I don’t consider myself entitled not to vote. Trumpists are working right now to strip voting rights from millions of American citizens who have already registered to vote, so they can install a Christofascist dictatorship with Diaper Don at the helm. That’s the only motivation any sane person should need for casting a ballot.
Democracy itself is at stake. Not just here but in Ukraine — and, indeed, throughout Europe. The fight against fascism here in the States and the war in Ukraine have a clear connection. Success for either depends on success for both.
•
For an index of links to all posts related to this story, click here.
•
This post sponsored by a donation from Carlyle T.
•
Special offer: If you want me to either continue pursuing a particular subject or give you a break and (for one post) write on a topic — my choice — other than the current main story, make a donation of $50 via the PayPal widget below, indicating your preference in a note accompanying your donation. I’ll credit you as that new post’s sponsor, and link to a website of your choosing.
And, as a bonus, I’ll send you a signed copy of my new book, poetic license / poetic justice — published under my full name, Allan Douglass Coleman, which I use for my creative writing.
SPJ Research Award 2014
Eyes on Ukraine (2)
Ex-Lax for Republicans
Like many, I spent the winter frustrated and furious that what David Axe of Forbes routinely refers to as “Russia-friendly Republicans” had effectively turned off the spigot of U.S. aid to Ukraine.
I found it extremely irksome that some commentators insisted on describing the logjam caused exclusively by MAGA/Freedom Caucus wingnuts as “congressional constipation,” a bothsiderist locution that persists even now. This often went hand in hand with laments that, in some vague and unspecified way, Democrats had failed to do whatever hypothetical something would have supposedly resolved the crisis. That effectively shifted the blame for this literally lethal inaction from the Putinist wing of the GOP to “the Dems.”
•
The flow of U.S. aid to Ukraine has now resumed. The first donated F-16 fighter jets have gone airborne over that country. New supplies of munitions and weaponry and transport have begun to reach segments of the front. Ukraine, having survived the drought, has dug in and held firm against logistically superior forces. And, it turns out, President Biden recently (and, initially, secretly) gave Ukraine permission to strike inside Russia with US-provided arms. The battle may have begun to turn.
But the “Russia-friendly Republican” obstructionists remain in office, and in the (slim) majority in Congress. Based on past history, they will do everything in their power to stand in the way of whatever the next tranche of support for our Ukrainian ally includes. The Republican-friendly mainstream media will continue to paint this as a deadlock for which Democrats share responsibility. And Russian asset Donald J. Trump, though now a convicted felon, remains in the running for the White House. So it’s important to keep the following in mind:
“The Dems” have done and are doing just about everything possible to get aid to Ukraine. Their efforts appear in the headlines daily.
U.S. Pres. Joe Biden and Ukraine Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kiev, 2/21/23. Official White House photo.
•
What did the Dems in Congress do to make possible the most recent $60 billion aid package for Ukraine? They did exactly what they’ve done since the criminal Russian invasion began in early 2022.
Had that $60 billion aid package failed to pass, the congressional Dems would still have done all of the above.
•
We can and should castigate the Russophile extremists in Congress, and the right-wing media/social media system, for treasonously giving aid and comfort to our sworn enemies. At the same time, we need to acknowledge the root of the problem: We don’t have enough liberals in Congress to ensure passage of bills supporting aid to Ukraine and dozens more bills furthering the Democratic agenda.
Lauren Boebert on “wonton killing,” screenshot
More such bills are currently in the pipeline and/or on the table, with yet more to come. Safe to assume that we can’t consider future aid to Ukraine a done deal. To the contrary, we should expect the same Russia-friendly players to force Democrats to play the same game every time Ukraine comes up — if they can.
And if they can, the fault will lie not in the stars, and not with the congressional Dems, but with those Dem-aligned “voters” who decline to vote and thereby refuse to give the Dems the majority they need to get things done in Congress.
Verifiably, when voter turnouts run high Democrats win. Here’s what “the Dems” can’t do: They can’t force the hundreds of thousands of other “Dems” to vote who can’t be bothered to do so because Hillary, or because Bernie, or because Jill Stein, or because Cornel West, or because Israel/Palestine, or because Biden’s age, or because menthol cigarettes, or because Charlamagne Tha God is bored, or because some principle, or because politics doesn’t interest them, or because the Democratic candidates don’t excite them, or because whatever other excuse they have.
It’s as a result of their decisions — and inaction is a well-established moral and political choice — that the congressional Dems (along with Biden) have no majority and can’t get done what they strive so hard to get done.
•
The collective position of these recalcitrants, in a nutshell: they won’t vote for Dems until Dems deliver on the issues they care about the most, which Dems can’t do until these passive-aggressive Dems vote and create a Dem majority. So there — that’ll teach those “congressional Dems,” and those who actually voted for them, a lesson.
The right questions to ask are these:
What are these passive-aggressive oh-so-principled non-Dem-voting Dems and Dem-adjacent liberals actually doing to get aid delivered to Ukraine? (Or to get anything on their presumed agendas enacted?)
What should we ordinary citizens and constituents ask, expect, and demand that these passive-aggressive oh-so-principled non-Dem-voting Dems actually do?
The obvious answer: At a bare minimum, they should vote for Democrats up and down the ticket, at every election, even if unenthusiastically. And, unless they’ve done so for at least three (3) consecutive elections, to ensure that Democratic majorities are locked in, they should STFU.
Because, as it stands, there’s no daylight between them and the people who complain that Ukraine hasn’t defeated Russia yet while withholding the support Ukraine needs for a definitive victory and restricting their usage of the weapons we do supply, thus tying one arm behind their back. And not nearly as much daylight as they think between both of these demographics and those who actively oppose U.S. support of Ukraine and — by extension — democracy in Europe and elsewhere, abroad and at home.
•
The problem is not “congressional constipation.” With Sinema and Manchin going/gone, the Dems are as unified as they’ve ever been.
To repeat: “Congress” isn’t constipated. That’s bothsiderist misdirection, and gets frequently pointed out as such when the MSM peddles that nonsense. Congress is controlled by obstructionist, Trumpist, Putinist Republicans, who have the majority (a slim one) and devote their energies to internecine combat and owning the libs.
And they are in control of Congress because a substantial number of voters who claim to be liberal-left and of the broadly Dem persuasion don’t find it in their hearts to actually get out and vote for Democratic candidates for Congress. Which leaves Dems in the minority and disempowered in terms of advancing a progressive agenda.
MT Greene, SOTU, 2-7-23
The way “to resolve congressional constipation” is for everyone who claims to support (at least in large part) the Democratic agenda to actually vote for the Democratic ticket. Anything else is hypocritical lip-flapping.
And for those who believe that the Dems should/must move further to the left on one or another or all issues, the way to achieve that is not to disempower them by withholding votes and then whining that they don’t move left. The smart tactic is voting for them as they are, and then making it clear to them that they have to listen closely to their left wing. That’s how you do politics in a democracy.
As for what rank and file folks should be doing:
Because that is actually how things work. Perhaps you can help them understand that if, instead of standing on their principles and/or sitting on their hands, they actually vote for Dems in the future — say, for example, the near future, specifically this coming November — they can empower re-elected Dem president Joseph R. Biden and the re-elected/new Dem-majority Congress to get a sh*tload of fantastic stuff done in such record time that it will make their heads spin.
Whereas, even if Mango Mussolini doesn’t get re-elected, liberal-left voter apathy will leave us where we are right now — i.e., effectively deadlocked. Which, I must reemphasize, results from them not voting then.
So helping willful and/or lazy non-voters understand the causal relationships between “then” and “now,” on an ongoing basis, poses a specific set of tasks for rank and file folks. This won’t affect anything immediately, but could certainly affect things going forward.
•
I should add that there are a few special elections coming up before the big one in in November, due to retirements/resignations, where a surge in voting could make a difference. So anything that would get people out in force for those could help.
Getting down to nuts and bolts, here are some specific things that everyday citizens can do:
It all adds up to GOTV: Get out the vote.
•
There’s not a single original idea above. Shouldn’t require yet another spelling out. From my standpoint, it’s borderline insulting to the intelligence that any of it needs saying. Outrageous that anybody anywhere feels entitled to demand persuasion, or wheedling, or getting otherwise cozened into voting, as if they’re doing someone a favor thereby.
People are fighting and dying around the world, as we speak, for the right to vote. People have done so for centuries. So long as that’s a fact, I don’t consider myself entitled not to vote. Trumpists are working right now to strip voting rights from millions of American citizens who have already registered to vote, so they can install a Christofascist dictatorship with Diaper Don at the helm. That’s the only motivation any sane person should need for casting a ballot.
Democracy itself is at stake. Not just here but in Ukraine — and, indeed, throughout Europe. The fight against fascism here in the States and the war in Ukraine have a clear connection. Success for either depends on success for both.
•
For an index of links to all posts related to this story, click here.
•
This post sponsored by a donation from Carlyle T.
•
Special offer: If you want me to either continue pursuing a particular subject or give you a break and (for one post) write on a topic — my choice — other than the current main story, make a donation of $50 via the PayPal widget below, indicating your preference in a note accompanying your donation. I’ll credit you as that new post’s sponsor, and link to a website of your choosing.
And, as a bonus, I’ll send you a signed copy of my new book, poetic license / poetic justice — published under my full name, Allan Douglass Coleman, which I use for my creative writing.