Disturbance in Democracy

(See Part I: For the Disaffected and Dismissed, the Establishment Awakened)

Part II of III

The thwarting of the Trump presidency, as successful as it may or may not have been, is a matter unto itself. In 2020, there is an acceptable, legal means to replace him – the general election. It is not coincidence that the establishment has come together in its support for Joe Biden, as evidenced by the August Democratic National Convention, which included former Democratic leaders, celebrities and Republicans. Few can be said to embody Washington more than Biden.

More specifically, who does this confluence consist of today?

It is the political elite, including lifelong Republican Washington insiders – the Never Trumpers – many whom lost their influence with the election of an ‘America-first’ president.[1] It is intelligence and military leaders who supported sending Americans to die in foreign wars that cost billions of taxpayer dollars, those who disapprove of the Trump Doctrine.[2] It is the self-righteous and entitled urban media[3] that sees itself as the fourth pillar of government,[4] haranguing Trump while refusing to hold Biden accountable to tough questions, and which will inevitably publicly support Biden, as it did Clinton four years earlier.[5] It is the social media platforms like Twitter, which profess to promote free speech, yet appear to be quick to ban information inconvenient to the Democratic narrative.[6]^,[7],[8] It is the billionaire class found on Wall Street, which overwhelmingly supports Biden over Trump.[9] It is the Hollywood personalities that have risen to fame and wealth as entertainers, professional pretenders.[10]

Titans of their respective fields have joined in opposition to Trump, even to the extent that the self-defined nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates consists of Democrats and Never Trumpers[11] who selected Democrats to ‘moderate’ the debates, one of which even interned for the Democratic nominee himself, and was suspended for lying about seeking advice from a former Trump aide.[12]

What’s more, Biden has been further buoyed by disruptive race-first organizations like Black Lives Matter, anti-government advocates of public violence like Antifa,[13] an organization and ideology that has helped wreaked havoc on people and property, leading to curfews[14] while instilling fear and restlessness, a group whose existence he is unwilling to acknowledge.[15] He has been endorsed by media outlets controlled by the Chinese Communist Party,[16] a party that has spent Biden’s years in Washington trying to undermine American business and interests[17] whilst helping to enrich the elites, including his own son.[18]^,[19] He has even received the endorsement of the white supremacist who organized the Charlottesville incident.[20]

All this for a Democratic candidate that has been slow to deliver, portrays different positions depending on the day and audience,[21] requires a “list” to know which people to call on when taking (possibly planted) questions[22] and ignores as many conversations as he can respecting what policies he would support, let alone propose,[23] by consistently calling a lid on his campaign as he heads back to his basement before reporters can reach him.[24]

When confronted with the most profound of questions, whether or not he would fundamentally alter the structure of power in the US, he deflects with unsubstantiated claims that the nomination of Amy Coney Barret is “unconstitutional,”[25] and unprecedent refusals such as “you’ll know my opinion on court packing when the election is over”[26] and “we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”[27] When asked if voters even deserve to know his position on the matter, he replied with the implacable “no, they don’t.”[28] Biden has made it plain that he does not believe voters have a right to know his critical positions and the levers of power he may pull. In other words, ‘vote for me and you will see what you get,’ but by then, might it be too late?

Have we ever witnessed this degree of obfuscation from a presidential candidate?

We have reached Biden’s “bridge” – it is called the election – and Americans clearly deserve to know the extent to which candidates will exercise the power of the federal executive branch before they cast their votes. He will not say. Only a nimble, unsettled, candidate would be able to contain all these forces whilst holding together the progressive and moderate wings of his party. For that, perhaps he should be credited. This strategy and effort has him leading most polls.

But undecided voters will consider what the Democratic nominee means when he refuses to take positions and offers himself as a “transition candidate.”[29] Transition to what? Maybe he is what he says he is – “the Democratic Party” – but what does that mean when the Democratic Party is no longer that of John F. Kennedy,[30] a man whose most inspiring, challenging words might be contorted by today’s top-down progressives, reduced to “ask ~~not~~ what your country can do for you ~~– ask what you can do for your country~~”? It would be an overstatement to say that the Democratic Party of our parents died with the assassination of its past leader, Kennedy, but consider what followed in his wake.

With the nation tossed into a quagmire of a war in Vietnam, the counterculture movement emerged – a movement that rejected traditional American values and truth, leading to the more academic Postmodernism, a study that critically reassessed the nation’s past with a focus on feelings over facts, class struggle over individual rights. For the last quarter-century, that very generation, the children of the counterculture movement, has been leading the US at all levels of society – government, entertainment, media and education. And its students have become its party’s acolytes, whose most influential members, like “the Squad’s” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), are so progressive they would consider themselves a party separate from Biden were they in another country.[31]

In ways that have become increasingly obvious to many, they are a country unto their own. The US today is not the US of yesterday, particularly along the coasts, but what many liberals continue to fail to recognize is that there are still millions of well-meaning Americans that want to hold onto yesterday, not because it is a relic of the past, not because it represents some sort of systemic oppression, but because they believe America was, and remains, good despite its flaws and imperfections. There is plenty of evidence to support their beliefs in the world’s oldest standing democratic republic, a nation that has fought for the expansion of freedom – both home and abroad – for over 200 years while millions have arrived from countless nations in seeking, attaining, that very freedom, better lives.

(See Part III: The Shadow Candidacy)

[1] Tessa Berenson and Alana Abramson, Revenge of the Never Trumpers: Meet the Republican Dissident Fighting to Push Donald Trump Out of Office, (Time, 2020)

[2] Sandra Hutzler, 73 Former Republican National Security Officials Endorse Joe Biden, Say Trump Is Dangerously Unfit to Serve, (Newsweek, 2020)

[3] Jon Stewart, The problem with the liberal media, with or without Jon Stewart: it’s self righteous (sic), (The Guardian, 2015)

[4] Marie Baleo, The Fourth Pillar: the Media and Challenges to Democracy – A Conversation with GGF 2035 Fellow Marie Baleo, (Global Policy Journal, 2020)

[5] Rebecca Harrington and Jeremy Berke, Here are all the major newspapers that have endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, (Business Insider, 2016)

[6] Ryan Moore, Don’t let social media corporations deny free speech to conservatives, (Des Moines Reegister, 2019)

,[7] Aaron Smith, Public Attitudes Toward Technology Companies, (Pew Research Center, 2018)

[8] Lauren Feiner, Facebook and Twitter CEO will have to answer to Senate Republicans after Biden New York Post story controversy, (CNBC, 2020)

[9] Michela Tindera, Biden Now Up to 106 Billionaire Donors; Trump Has 93, (Forbes, 2020)

[10] Ted Johnson, Hollywood Figures Help Raise $7 Million For Joe Biden-Kamala Harris Post-Convention Event: Jeffrey Katzenbeg, George Clooney Among Hosts, (Deadline, 2020)

[11] John L. Dorman, Bob Dole says none of his Republican friends on the presidential debate commission support Trump, (Business Insider, 2020)