Democracy has fallen

By Deauwand Myers

The American midterm elections this year will be the most consequential ones since at least I was born. If Republicans win back the House of Representatives and or the Senate, a white, Christo-fascist, illiberal party with a death cult of personality for Trump or Trumpism will be in power. President Biden could be impeached for no reason, show trials of Cabinet officials will occur, horrific policies like a universal abortion ban, and even worse, will happen.

The Republicans have chosen power over all else, and now they are saying the quiet things out loud. Christian nationalism and attempting to abolish the separation of church and state, along with jokes about slavery are all recent examples of some things elected officials on the right have said or done ― on record.

Republicans are better than Democrats at deploying power and breaking norms to maintain it. But the horror show some members of Congress could unleash on women, Jews, sexual minorities and people of color cannot be understated. Abolishing Roe v. Wade is just the beginning. Biden holds the executive branch, so any such insane legislation would be vetoed. But everything else, including judicial appointments, would be nonstarters.

And the Left, fatalistic and always preoccupied with complaining about all the things Biden hasn't passed ― things he cannot pass constitutionally with a 50/50 Senate ― belies all his accomplishments.

One problem is personality. Democrats famously are bad at touting their accomplishments and even worse at messaging. But if the repeal of abortion rights doesn't motivate enough young women and men to vote, and vote according to their interests, not to mention ameliorate the slow roasting of our planet, nothing will.

And if this is a crisis, Democrats have to start early and often in registering people to vote and organize accordingly.

Midterms are bad for the political party in power, historically speaking. But with one party having given up on a democratic republic altogether, this election season must be seen as a year where voting blue is an act of survival.

Republicans and U.S. conservativism have had a bent towards ethnocentrism and white supremacy for a long time. William F. Buckley had the good sense to purge anti-Semitism from the party ranks decades ago.

This Republican Party ain't your mother's GOP. The decline of it started with Reagan, a racist and oddly homophobic president (odd because so many gay men were in his administration).

Even if Democrats prevail this autumn, cases at the Supreme Court could even upend the electoral process. States run by Republican legislators argue that states should be able to overturn elections, regardless of the count or what the election officials say.

This kind of thing happened after the Reconstruction era to disastrous effects. Native Americans and so-called free Blacks didn't vote in most states for over a hundred years.

In many ways, this current situation is all about the "white fear" ― according to journalist and Black intellectual Roland Martin, which is also the title of his book ― that in a generation, white folks will be a minority. Failed presidential candidate Senator Mitt Romney said as much. "We want our country back" is the same as "Make America Great Again." When was America "great," and for whom? Was it when women couldn't vote? Or Blacks? Was it when women couldn't divorce or use contraception? Was it when wealthy white men ruled with absolute power?

It's all of these and more. The sky is falling, that is for sure. And once you get a fascist state, it is very difficult to supplant. Ask Japan, Germany, Turkey, Russia, China….

Republicans are like North Korea. They only understand power. Only when they are decisively punished at the ballot box and kept in the minority up and down the ballot will this nakedly racist and venal party learn its lesson.

And I am going on to my 40s. I cannot get unexpectedly pregnant. By the time Earth is truly inhospitable, I will be dead. This is one of the many reasons Pax Americana was such a foolish thing for the world to subscribe to. If you put all your security and prestige onto one nation, one with the most powerful military on Earth with the second-largest nuclear arsenal, what happens when it descends into madness? What if a smarter version of a demagogue like Trump ascends to power and his coup succeeds?

This election cannot be all Blacks turning out to vote while no one else does. The midterm election needs all hands on deck. What is at stake is trying to preserve a flawed democracy, and saying that we did our best to preserve it. These are end days. The writing is on the wall. And either we hang together, or we hang apart.

But don't let despair paralyze you. We can all salvage this. Volunteer. Study the candidates. Go on voter drives. I've been to undemocratic countries. It's a hell you wouldn't soon forget.

I hope America can do right and do better and not fall into apathy or say voting is meaningless.

Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside of Seoul.