November 9th, 2024
A troubling pattern of Democratic shortcomings has given me the impression that both major political parties exist together, unified in their support for endless wars, tax cuts for the wealthy, and the unyielding concentration of power within the Executive Branch. Admittedly, most of my focus remains not on the culturally polarizing issues receiving constant media coverage and pundit commentary but on the campaign promises left the victims of legislative inaction. Moreover, it seems to me that Democrats, at times standing defiant against their Republican counterparts, regularly retreat from their moral high ground to the safety of their dens, abandoning their principles and positions of authority in the process. In essence, they are perpetually a Party of Opposition, duty-bound to undo the GOP’s damage to our country’s political institutions and economic well-being, before it is realized their own ideals were pre-negotiable, their taste for power in short supply, and their earlier statements concealing a deep affection for the new status quo.
To illustrate my point, take, for instance, Merrick Garland being kept off the Supreme Court bench in 2016, despite being nominated by President Obama months before his term was set to expire. The GOP invented an argument relying wholly on precedent: because none of the Democratic Senators had ridden a horse to work like the Founding Fathers, they would have to wait until next year to confirm Merrick Garland. (I’m paraphrasing, of course.) However, in 2020, the exact same scenario played out, and surprisingly enough, the GOP successfully confirmed their Supreme Court nominee (without a single Senator arriving on horseback). And so, in the end, it was the Democrats who were taken for a ride, and a clear constitutional prerogative of the President was dashed. What explanation can be given for a party that operates under such guises and is rewarded for its blatant treachery?
Furthermore, the last 25 years in this country have a rich history of Republicans passing tax cuts for the wealthy, appearing at first glance to provoke great ire among Democrats, both “fed up” with ever-growing income inequality and appalled by the burden a ballooning national debt places squarely on the backs of future generations. But when in power, the Democratic caucus seemingly finds no urgency or consensus on the matter. Years go by, and their ire turns to indifference and ultimately, acceptance. Who is to blame for such cowardice? Who can we look to for action?
Finally, what do we make of the greatest Democratic failing of all: the inability to hold Donald Trump accountable for his political pressure campaign of baseless lies and outright criminality, culminating in a mob storming the Capitol Building on January 6th, 2021. Joe Biden began his term with appeals to the nation for unity and healing. We were told the legal process would begin where Trump’s abortive impeachment trial left off (date unknown). Then, in the final months of what became the last Democratic federal trifecta since 2008, House Democrats began their much-anticipated United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. Amazingly, the committee not only failed to bring forth criminal charges for the former President, he simply refused their subpoena to testify without consequence! Thus, the committee’s legacy remains but a tremendous exercise in futility; a fruitless attempt to rehabilitate the GOP’s image with two lone Republican detractors who would later lose their bids for reelection.
In the wake of Donald Trump’s electoral victory in 2024, the stoic admonitions of Trump’s multiple felony convictions by Democrats who declared, “No one is above the law,” are at once cast into doubt. For in their failure to hold Trump accountable for his most egregious crime, it is clear the rule of law extends only as far as those in power are willing to defend it. Now, with the Supreme Court having ruled U.S. Presidents are the sole beneficiaries of absolute immunity for any “official acts” performed while in office, the American people seemingly enjoy no protection from abuse beyond the limits of Donald Trump’s cruel and petty impulses.
Donald Trump’s return signals not just a resurgence of his divisive brand of politics but a validation of the American public’s deep-seated disillusionment with both parties, and as I grapple with this sense of betrayal by the Democratic Party, I too am struggling to find reasons for my continued support. It’s not simply because I believe they no longer represent my interests; my faith in their ability to counterbalance the Republican Party no longer exists. Had I not foreseen Donald Trump’s reelection as a likely outcome, I may have felt differently. As it stands now, however, the Democratic Party is to me … irrelevant.
And so, we must ask ourselves, as freely and openly as possible, what horrors, real or imagined, must the American people be facing to believe that a traitor can best protect their lives, liberty, and property? How is it that a convicted felon can boast of a “law and order” reputation? And, finally, what can be done for the countless struggling Americans and what remains of the middle class, now that both parties seem firmly in the grasp of powerful elites serving only corporate interests?
Jeremy Sarnecky