We Don’t Have a Microwave Democracy

The cacophony of left-leaning media folk calling for and even demanding that President Biden “Do something” to fix every issue affecting the country “right now” while also proposing that he Executive Order…everything, informs so much of what is wrong with popular understanding of how government works.

The “Do something” crowd, insist against law, legal advice, State laws, and voting numbers in the Senate, that the President just isn’t fighting hard enough or even fighting at all.

And with every administration accomplishment, the far left and leftist media combine to whine “So what, not enough” in a joyous circle jerk of self-satisfaction for their perceived damage to the President and the democratic party.

It is no secret the bloviating leftwing wishes for a democratic dictator are loudest as the midterms approach because their noise serves multiple purposes. The targeting and messaging is so thorough as to seem coordinated to do the most damage to the administration.

One purpose is to attempt to threaten and bully the president and party to adhere to their squeaky-wheel nonsense even though their view does not represent the majority view of most of the democratic party. They are not even the base of the party — that distinction belongs to Black women who are also the most loyal democratic voting block. But because many of the voices complaining about President Biden and democrat’s agenda lean white, they are given an outsized platform by their media friends who love the made-up intra-party conflicts that drive viewers and advertisers.

The other purpose is to depress voters so that democrats suffer significant losses during the midterms thus giving leftists their moment to tell party leaders “You didn’t get enough votes so should have listened to us.”

They hope to discourage enough voters to sit out midterms, thus preventing democrats from gaining two or more senate seats and securing a majority that can then pass President Biden’s aggressive second half agenda… that can push him and VP Harris to a second term.

The calls to not vote, the complaints that voting doesn’t work, and the eager attempts to rally democratic voters against their own best interests, also serve the longer term goals of the republican party.

Republicans do not have a majority of voters in the country, but they have, via gerrymandering and voter suppression, enough elected officials to block, stall, and derail the president’s and democrat’s agenda. They also have shared interest with far left democrats in harming the party so they use them for their own interests. And the far left falls right in line ignorantly thinking their shared goal to harm the democrats will somehow end up benefitting them.

It boggles the mind to think people can be so easily fooled. Or so willfully blinded by their own hubris. Republicans have no platform other than to harm the nation so that it turns against democrats and returns the presidency and senate to republican control. If given that control, leading republicans are loudly stating they will continue to tear down institutions, make it harder to vote for many Black and brown voters, and further criminalize women’s health.

The anti-Biden rants grew louder when the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade which again made abortion illegal for much of the country. The fifty year republican fight to undue Roe was realized when six republican justices decided that white women should have more babies, and that the justice’s catholic faith should govern the lives of every girl and woman, no matter their beliefs.

Voters were distraught, mad, angry, and looked for a target to “blame” for the ruling. Did they launch their anger at the justices, Kavanaugh, Barrett, or Gorsuch who each appeared to have artfully lied during their confirmation? Nope.

Did they get angry at Mitch McConnell not giving Merrick Garland an opportunity to join the court? Nope.

Did they get mad that white voters — the only demographic that votes majority republican — had given the republicans this long sought victory? Nope.

Did they even get mad that Hillary, Obama, VP Harris, and others had warned that should Trump be elected he would place up to four justices on the court and then women’s healthcare including abortion would be in danger?

No, they did not.

Did they even recall then candidate Kamala Harris speaking forcefully at the debate about abortion, as the only woman on stage?

Nope.

The facts of how Roe ended tell a tale of democratic voter apathy during decades of midterm elections, shortsighted voting tactics and, most of all, the lack of interest by white voters in protecting everyone else other than themselves.

It doesn’t matter that it took fifty years for republicans and evangelicals to reach their goal, and it doesn’t matter that political progress is naturally by design incremental in a somewhat “representative” democracy. A portion of the electorate believe their political goals can be popped into the democratic microwave and — poof! — 3 minutes later, everything is solved:

Student debt relief — 4 mins on extra high

Fix climate change — defrost first for 12 minutes

Ban guns — 4 minutes first then 7 minutes uncovered

The society of people who want instant voter satisfaction after having voted once, twice, or five times, is appalling and a slap in face of those who consistently vote in every election, win or lose and who have done so for years.

Progress isn’t made by crying the loudest or whining the most, it is only made when voters consistently vote. There are far too many folk used to receiving an orange slice and ribbon just for showing up play soccer or a dance recital who also think voting should provide the same instant reward.

The whining has been extended to the media and far left groups advocating to stop donating to the democratic party and democratic candidates.

That’s right, the far left who for years have screamed into the wind with the rejected slogan “Defund the police” have morphed to “Defund the Democrats.”

Forgetting for a moment that the GOP and their billionaire donors, Big oil, Big Military-industrial donors, and Big Pharma control almost unlimited amounts of donations, the American political system is designed to run on money. Lots and lots of money.

The way to change that? Yep, you guessed it — voting.

But the calls to defund Democrats have crossed over from the fringes of social media to mass media stars such as Trevor Noah, and celebrities, such as Debra Messing and Sarah Silverman, and political news, from Salon to Politico.

The calls are coming from other familiar names who pose as democrats but who use their large platforms to excessively bash democratic accomplishments: Nina Turner, Bernard Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, IIhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, provide their millions of followers a nonstop stream of anti-democratic party invective while rarely calling out the evil done by republicans.

They are also the crowd saying President Biden should “Fight, ignore the supreme court, force recalcitrant democrats to get in line, and bully and threaten GOP members to do what is right” as if any of those empty threats are how government works. Even though they know how government works, what the separation of powers mean, and what limits are placed on any presidency, they count on the fact many of their followers do not, so they offer empty sayings, and sharp tweets and TikToks, as if those things matter in the halls of Congress. Hint: Tweets and Tiktoks do not matter in real life policy circles.

It is no secret that the media got drunk and addicted to the illegal drama of the former clickbait president, and so the crowd who wanted to “Burn it all down” has now pivoted to “Do something” and “Defund democrats” because their goals have never changed: give all power to the GOP and end the current form of democracy practiced in the United States.

Democracy isn’t made in a microwave. Democracy takes time. Democracy requires an investment in process. And Democracy requires sharing across generations to sustain progress and pass along lessons that should not be forgotten.

Democracy provides a window of once was: no child labor laws, unsafe working conditions, no electricity in rural areas, no healthcare, low wages, dangerous cars, dirty water, air, and lead in our paint. Democracy’s window allow us to see deaths when seatbelts and carseats weren’t required, and when smoking was allowed everywhere.

When we open the door of Democracy and look backwards we can see our ancestors marching for the right to vote, our grandparents dressing up to register to vote, and our aunties and uncles reminding us of the importance of every vote in every election.

Democracy reminds us that bad men have been elected President and that our efforts to try harder paid off and broke the racial and gender ceilings of the presidency, Supreme Court, and Vice Presidency.

There are no guarantees in the political process other than this: When you vote, your vote matters whether your candidate wins or loses. When you don’t vote, you are saying you don’t care about… anyone.

If there’s any lesson in all the hubbub about not voting it could be this: Never listen to people who tell you not to take the only action that you can take to change and improve the country.

And never listen to people who were voted into office when they tell you to not vote or to withhold your vote.

Nattering nabobs of negativism will cause us to lose democracy itself if we listen to them.

So to the media darlings, social media influencers, and voters who want instant gratification in a system designed to incrementally improve, vote.

Every vote is your most important vote. You will not always get your way, but you significantly increase your chances of improving our nation and perfecting our democracy when you exercise your inherited civic duty.

If you want your way there’s only one way to get it: Vote and vote every time you have the opportunity to and ensure future Americans have more and better rights, laws, and government.

© by Myron J. Clifton and Dear Dean Publishing. All Rights Reserved.

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Myron J. Clifton is slightly older than fifty, lives in Sacramento, California, and is an avid Bay Area sports fan. He likes comic books, telling stories about his late mom to his beloved daughter Leah, and talking to his friends.  

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