It may be time for the Lincoln Project to become a political party
Now that the Republican Party has demonstrated that it can no longer be trusted to see to the wellbeing of American Democracy; and now that it has become a full-blown autocratic party; now that far-right fringe groups like Qanon and other white supremacist groups like the proud boys and others have taken up residence in the party; and now that the party has all but decided that democracy is antithetical to its goals, there must be a change.
Donald Trump did not create the nastiness that now defines the Republican Party; as a demagogue, he took full advantage of it. Ever since Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil and Voting Rights into law and whites ran away from the Democratic Party and took up residence in the Republican Party, the party has exemplified itself as the political party for white resentment and white grievance.
Despite the hoopla about their goodness, most white Americans have never been comfortable with black Americans enjoying the same rights and privileges they so summarily enjoy.
Doctor King spoke about their shock when they saw people being beaten on the so-called bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus bridge. Still, when it came time to take action against the institutionalized racism that made what the police did possible, they backed away.
Dr. King; “Like the nation, Negro and white, trembled with outrage at police brutality in the South, police misconduct in the North was rationalized, tolerated, and usually denied,” he wrote. Leaders in Northern and Western states “welcomed me to their cities, and showered praise on the heroism of Southern Negroes. Yet when the issues were joined concerning local conditions, only the language was polite; the rejection was firm and unequivocal.”
President Barack Obama spoke to whites’ panic on his ascendency to the presidency of the United States.
Brack Obama; “My very presence in the White House triggered a deep-seated panic.”
At the risk of sounding parochial, they have some nerve, slaves built that damn house, but I digress.
One of the most notable things that Donald Trump banged the drums on as he held his super spreader campaign events across the country with his legions of faithful sheep [flocking] to them adoringly, was highlighting to his racist followers that Kamala Harris should never be the first female President of the United States.
There is a credible argument to be made for America’s inability to reconcile that women are not intellectually inferior to men, and therefore are equipped to take on any task, including being president of the United States.
That aside, Senator Kamala Harris, half black, half Indian heritage, was not the presidential candidate; Joe Biden was. Nevertheless, Trump played up Joe Biden’s age, making the case to his hateful followers that Biden was likely to drop dead at any minute, leaving Kamala to become President of the United States.
The mainstream media refuses to acknowledge these truths, even as they pretend that they have no clue what is behind the lunatic denial of the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris win.
On the same day that the Electoral College confirmed the White House victory of Joe Biden, retiring Rep. Paul Mitchell of Michigan told leading Republicans that he was leaving the GOP and becoming an Independent for the final days of his Congressional career, fed up with President Donald Trump’s never-ending effort to subvert Biden’s victory.
Look, this guy was going to leave anyway, so his decision to become an independent was no profile in courage, neither does it make him a paragon of virtue. Like so many other Republicans who bowed to Trumpism and left the stage out of fear of the wrath of Trump’s legions of racist trolls, Mitchell’s action’s are tantamount to throwing a wild punch at a bully that misses everything, then covering one’s face and cowering in fear waiting for the beatdown that is sure to follow.
He gets no point from me.
Don’t let the door hit you, where the Good Lord — — — . Anyway.
To the extent that Paul Mitchell, Jeff flake, Justin Amash, Will Herd, et al. had some degree of patriotism, and to the extent that leaving the stage was the only option open to them, then I guess their exit from politics is a sign that politics is for the worst actors, at least on the Republican side.
The Republican purge has been a years-long process that has left all but the [dregs], Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordon, Matt Gaetz, Steve Scalise, and others. The kind we witnessed attach their names to a seditious lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of a fair and legitimate Presidential election. One in which Joe Biden and Kamala Harris not only won the popular vote by over seven million votes, but won the electoral college by a landslide, even by their dear leader’s standards, it was the same electoral college win Donald Trump had with the help of the Russians in 2016, minus the validation of a popular vote win.
In 2016 Donald Trump supposedly won 306 electoral votes against 232 for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Back then, Trump claimed that he won a landslide despite losing the popular vote. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by over three million votes but lost the election.
In 2020 Joe Biden won the same 306 electoral votes, but he had to win more than seven (7) million more votes than Donald Trump to win the election.
The time has come, and gone for the electoral college to be done away with.
The American experiment barely withstood the first attempt of this kind to destroy it. Almost half of the elected Republican members of the United States House of Representatives demonstrated that they do not believe in Democracy.
There were no doubt members of the upper chamber who were more than willing to participate in the Coup’ d’etat against America.
Like a servile lapdog, Texas United States Senator Raphael Cruz signaled his willingness to argue the case to overturn the elections before the Supreme Court on behalf of Trump. In a country in which the rule of law is truly sacrosanct, Raphael Cruz would not only be kicked out of the Senate; he would be disbarred from practicing law. One of the first steps about being an officer of the court, which all lawyers are, is that the person has good character. Where is Raphael Cruz’s character?
Raphael Cruz and the minions in the lower house were willing to destroy the American experiment in support of a demagogic despot.
This time it was half of the elected Republicans; the next time, what remains as the Republican party will en masse commit treason against America in deference to the next dictator that comes along.
For those reasons, and the cornucopia of other reasons that this Republican party cannot be trusted to protect the democratic process, then the time has come for an alternative conservative party to emerge. One that is fundamentally focused on the preservation of the democratic process as the Democrats are.
The American experiment has two political parties that the American voters alternate in and out of power at all government levels.
The effective functioning of that process requires that both political parties respect the process, concedes when each loses, recalibrate and come back to the table with better ideas.
The Republican party no longer believes in that process. It has become a schoolyard bully that picks up its ball and goes home, even when it has struck out.
Given an electorate with the appropriate intellectual maturity levels, the Republican party would never again hold power.
The seriousness of the situation merits a new political party to save America from the Republicans, and the uninformed voters who elect them to office.
The Lincoln Project has demonstrated that money and savvy, can effectuate desired outcomes. It may be time for the Lincoln Project to become a political party.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog mikebeckles.com.
He’s contributed to several websites.
You may subscribe to his blogs, or subscribe to his Youtube channel @chatt-a-box, for the latest videos.