Happy New Year! Nothing less than America's reckoning begins in 2022.
What Plato and Aaron Van Langevelde can teach us to keep us strong
The Resistant Grandmother is back from spending the holidays in California with my son, daughter-in-law, three-year-old granddaughter and six-week old grandson. We dodged Covid scares and fought colds packed with symptoms that parroted those of the virus. We couldn’t smell many of the things that make Christmas, Christmas.
But at least our colds weren’t Covid, and Christmas again proved to be the universe’s counterpoint to what we have endured, and must still endure this year as the Republican Party puts on its full court press to change this country completely, irrevocably in 2022.
The worst of times…
Democracy. I have taken that word for granted over this Baby Boomer’s entire lifetime, believing that America would always be one. And yet, now I see it in danger of becoming only a shadowy vestige of a happier time–a specter akin to the Jacob Marley apparition that Ebeneezer Scrooge attributes to an undigested bit of beef, blot of mustard, crumb of cheese, or underdone potato from his Christmas Eve dinner.
And as we return from holidays, we’re hit again with reruns of last year’s Jan. 6 insurrection that attempted, but failed to destroy American voters’ choice for president. Like buckets of cold water, images of rioters violently befouling democracy’s sacred space can still shock me back into a cold cruel world, revealing again the horrors of an event which promises to add a sober post-Christmas coda to our holiday joy for years to come.
The Jan. 6 attack saw hours of hand-to-hand combat during and after which both the police and MAGA rioters lost their lives. It would lead to a year of tracking and prosecuting the lawbreakers as many of them added “domestic terrorist” to their personal resumes.
In the day’s brutal conflict, one Capitol policeman lost his life and 140 others were maimed or wounded. Four officers committed suicide. And according to Capitol police testimony during the opening session of the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, those who have stayed on the job remain traumatized to this day.
Many of the rioters have not been apprehended, such as the slim, androgynous figure seen walking Washington streets on his/her way to plant bombs at the Democratic and Republican headquarters buildings. Had the bombs detonated, that could have provided Trump an excuse to declare martial law, the election results invalid, and to remain in the Oval Office.
Buckling our seatbelts…
But as nightmarish as Jan. 6 was, the ordeal isn’t over. The insurrection where rioters used American flag shafts and dismembered bike racks to stab police must be answered with a passionate commitment of another kind: a fierce and unrelenting promise to fight back against the people who planned, financed, and came within a hair’s breadth of destroying everything. But most of all we must confront the man who pulled the trigger that set it off.
If Trump and GOP schemes to destroy democracy are left unchecked, the United States will continue a backward slide into an authoritarian state not unlike the faux-electoral regimes of Hungary, Poland, Peru, and yes, even Russia that holds elections, but ones for which the outcomes are predetermined by the country's ruling class.
Texas, again…
It’s already happening here. Take the State of Texas. Now frequently the leader among the 50 states in codifying the nullification of rights and the means to commit cruelty, last year Texas passed new election laws that do away with democracy as we know it, disproportionately burdening Latino, Black, and Asian voters in casting their ballots and passing a new gerrymandering scheme based on new population totals from the 2020 census, which makes it virtually impossible to get elected as a Democrat in much of the state. Legal challenges are making their way through the courts.
Importantly, the state’s provisions also legalize harassment of election workers and officials, allowing donor-funded hired guns to enter each aspect of the vote counting process and challenge methods and decisions. If election officials object, job status may be in jeopardy as “loyalty” to Trump and the Republican Party will always take priority.
Traditionally, election workers tend to come back year after year–taking pride in their roles in the democratic process. But the hostile environments such sanctioned, aggressive second-guessing creates–and which the new laws discourage workers from challenging–threaten to change jobs that once offered poll-workers pride in doing important work for their communities and country into hassles. Seasoned workers may choose not to subject themselves to needless pressures. And every worker who chooses not to work under such conditions gives the GOP the opportunity to supplant them with compliant replacements.
Given Governor Greg Abbott’s press-conference produced excitement for the new laws, Texas appears to be one of the most gung-ho among the red and swing states changing their election procedures, but it’s not alone in its enthusiasm. No fewer than 20 others have passed or are passing laws that restrict voting in a variety of ways as shown in the list of items featured from the bills in the list below as laid out by the Brennan Center for Justice. However the states may combine and configure their voting mechanisms, suppression tactics threaten to become the new normal in state-run elections in just under half of the 50 states.
The list of provisions taken from the laws already passed or up for consideration throughout the 20 states includes:
*shortening the window to apply for a mail-in ballot
*shortening deadlines to deliver ballots
*making it harder to remain on absentee voting lists
*eliminating sending mail-in ballots to voters who do not request them
*restricting assisting in returning mail-in ballots–such as picking them up
from boxes on Native American reservation sites
*limiting down to one or two mail ballot drop boxes in urban areas, such as
Houston’s Harris County with its more than two and a half million
registered voters
*imposing harsher voter ID requirements
*eliminating election day registration
*increasing the number of voters per precinct, guaranteeing long lines at
the polls
*limiting early voting days or hours
Among the most important changes, many new state laws are designed to eliminate state officials who have been most protective of the voting process–namely, secretaries of state elected by voters whose job descriptions require they bear responsibility for conducting free and fair elections. Instead, in many cases, party officials working with state legislatures will oversee elections, thus diffusing responsibility to an amorphous group of people tailor-made to be unaccountable for voting irregularities and, in fact, to
cause them.
Secretaries of State like Brad Raffensperger of Georgia who famously refused to accede to Trump’s request to find “just enough votes” to overturn Biden’s win in Georgia have been replaced by such a scheme. Raffensperge’s job stays on the books, at least, although his responsibilities vis a vis the legislature’s are muddy to say the least. And Raffensperger must run for re-election, first facing primary challenges from hand-picked Trump-friendly candidates selected for their compliance and willingness to do whatever it takes to ensure the outcomes of elections for Trump and his followers.
No country for principled men…
This new America will also have no room for principled election officials willing to stand up and do the right thing. One such person was Aaron Van Langevelde, an otherwise unknown Michigan election canvasser who was caught up in the GOP’s efforts to steal the 2020 presidential vote in that important swing state.
A report by Tim Alberta in Politico chronicled Langevelde’s story as he served on a panel of Republicans and Democrats to certify 2020 Michigan election results. But at the last minute in January 2021, Van Langevelde was told by his state party chair that his mandate had changed, at Trump’s direction. Instead of certifying the vote, Trump demanded they throw it into question–and, thus, prevent the certification of Michigan’s 16 electoral votes.
Alberta writes:
“ …his (Van Langevelde’s) mandate for Monday’s hearing—handed down from the state party chair, the national party chair and the president himself–was straightforward. They wanted Michigan’s board of canvassers to delay certification of Biden’s victory. Never mind that Trump lost by more than 154,000 votes, or that results were already certified in all 83 counties. The plan was to drag things out, to further muddy the election waters and delegitimize the process, to force the courts to take unprecedented actions that would forever taint Michigan’s process of certifying elections.”
But Van Langevelde refused, and Alberta writes:
“…looking over his glasses on a grainy Zoom feed on a gloomy Monday afternoon, reading from a statement that reflected a courage and moral clarity that has gone AWOL from his party, pleading with the tens of thousands of people watching online to understand that some lines can never be uncrossed (Van Langevelde said):
‘We must not attempt to exercise power we simply don’t have…As John Adams once said, we are a government of laws, not men. This board needs to adhere to that principle here today. This board must do its part to uphold the rule of law and comply with our legal duty to certify this election.’”
Van Langevelde was the last line of defense for ensuring Michigan votes were certified honestly and correctly. The only other Republican on the four-person board, Norman Shinkle, abstained out of fear or from bowing to pressure, thus, according to Alberta, “abdicating his duty to…the 40-year-old Michigan Republican (who) delivered the verdict on his own.” And thus, “an obscure lawyer from West Michigan etched his name into history by standing on principle.”
In another place and time, Van Langevelde might have been rewarded for doing his duty. But in the time of Trump, Van Langevelde was not asked to serve another four-years when his term expires on Jan. 31 this month. Replacing Van Langevelde is Tony Daunt, a Republican fundraiser, former aide to former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and friend of the billionaire DeVos family, Trump donors and allies. Betsy DeVos served as Trump’s Secretary of Education from 2017-21.
According to Michigan law, each party delivers a slate of three choices to the current governor, now Democrat Gretchen Whitmer. From that three-person slate provided to her by Republicans, Whitmer chose Daunt, a man who did not refrain from applauding his own appointment when it was announced in a meeting in Lansing on Jan. 19 of last year.
“Stop the Steal” recruitment candidates
Just as the GOP is shunning heroes like Van Langevelde, they’re replacing them with extreme Trump loyalists, and from what better recruiting stockpile than the ranks of Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” insurrectionists themselves?
One of the Jan. 6 rioters at the Capitol, Stephen Lindemuth, won a “judge of elections” position in rural Pennsylvania that administers polling on Election day in his small community, thus becoming one of the first rioters “galvanized by Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election in 2020,” according to a Dec. 11 article by Charles Homaans in the New York Times.
The Times article reported, “In races for state and county-level offices with direct oversight of elections, Republican candidates coming out of the Stop the Steal movement are enjoying an (early) advantage in electoral contests that few partisans from either party thought much about before
last November.”
Now on the B team
While the current election-rigging putsch is helping Trump and his loyal Republicans, it’s also at the core of America’s slipping reputation as a bastion of democracy. In a recent report issued by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, which charts the progress of democracies around the globe, election-rigging was a key reason for describing the United States as seeing a dissolution of its democracy. And America has now joined the ranks of such B and C- level countries as India, Brazil, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia on the “backsliding democracies” list.
Issued in November, the report analyzed trends from 2020 to 2021, during Donald Trump’s last year in office and the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency, marred throughout by both Trump’s claim the presidential election was stolen and the willingness of the Republican Party to support Trump’s
“Big Lie.”
In spite of its overall sober assessment, the report saw some glimmers of hope for America as observed during that two-year timeframe:
a seven percent increase in voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election, marking the highest voter participation rate of any presidential election since 1980.
a 50 percent increase in women’s representation in government compared to 10 years ago. Although U.S. women make up only about 37 percent of elected federal positions, this is still higher than the worldwide average of about 26 percent female office-holders.
And I like the report’s description of the U.S. as a “high-performing democracy” in terms of lack of official corruption and our country’s “predictable enforcement,” which The Resistant Grandmother sees as a nod to the overall quality of our federal courts system. (I’ve chosen not to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court in this posting.)
But it was the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol that dealt the gravest blow to the American democratic experiment, along with the complicity of one of the U.S.’s two national parties in turning a blind eye to condemning the attack and a cold shoulder to the investigation looking into its causes and effects.
What’s ahead and at stake
At the beginning of this post, The Resistant Grandmother referenced the 2022 mid terms as a turning point for our democracy, suggesting that a Republicans win of one or two houses in Congress could bolster Republican attempts to redo democracy in Trump’s image and lay the groundwork for an “assured” Trump 2024 presidential win by rigging, changing, or manipulating the Electoral College vote, as they tried to do on Jan. 6 of last year.
Unstated earlier, but now germane to the conversation are several uncomfortable but critical questions:
Can American democracy survive?
Are there enough of us to fight for its survival?
Is American democracy worth fighting for?
The second question may be answered affirmatively as polls consistently show the majority of Americans reject Trump, the Big Lie, and Trump’s attempts to destroy the country. The question remains, however, can the majority make its voices heard loudly enough within our current electoral system, especially if Republicans figure out enough ways to rig the vote?
As to the third question, The Resistant Grandmother answers “Yes.” And it's the question everyone must ask and respond to his- or herself. My response, for example, is based on personal experiences which may not be relevant to others. Nonetheless, I will share the story that leads me to answer yes to question three.
Falling in love—with America, when and how
Now an aging Baby Boomer, I remember falling in love with America in 1963 watching a grainy black and white television image of a tall, balding man standing in the doorway of a college somewhere in the South. His arms were folded like a bulwark in front of him as he confronted a dark-eyed, beetle-browed man looking angry and mean.
As the report went on, I learned the mean man was trying to stop black students from entering the University of Alabama. He stood there for a couple of hours until a man in an army uniform (later identified as National Guard General Henry Graham) ordered him to leave the doorway, and he did.
The mean man was George Wallace, the Alabama Governor known as the country’s staunchest and/or loudest segregationist. The tall, balding man was Nicholas Katzenbach, Deputy Attorney General of the United States.
The reason for the standoff remained a bit abstract to a girl growing up in a small Midwest town, living a life absent of any black neighbors, acquaintances, or friends. But I did experience it in the context of the religious principles I learned in my local Catholic grade school: good versus evil. The tall bald man and his purpose for being there was good; the dark-browed man standing in the doorway keeping black students out of that college was bad.
And then came the comic book analogies. The tall man from the federal government was like Superman, using strength and goodness to help people, freeing them to find a better life. The shorter man in his way was the bad guy, and the good guy would vanquish him that day with his goodness
and strength.
A simplistic interpretation of events, perhaps. But, never mind–I was now very much in love with the country where I lived.
Unrequited?
Over the years, America has changed, and the young girl who fell in love with it so deeply at an impressionable age has too often become disappointed by
her hero.
Shortly after that June 1963 confrontation, the President who sent the tall man to the doorway was assassinated. The country mourned him deeply. But no laws were passed that would prevent then a series of subsequent assassinations–of the man’s brother, Robert; of a black man who himself was a champion of black people, Martin Luther King; and of countless schoolchildren, since then denied by gun violence of the chance to live their lives. And I saw boys my age die during a senseless war.
I also saw the country I love give way to an unbounded pursuit of greed in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. The Republican Party became ascendant somehow, even after Watergate, and led that pursuit, enabling rich people to get what they could at other people’s expense.
The country’s willingness to make a clear stand for good over evil seemed to be losing its way, as was I along with it. As a middle-class, college-educated person, I still found it increasingly difficult to make ends meet and accumulate wealth for the future. Why, when the greediest ones among us were doing just fine?
Eventually this writer-come-Public Relations specialist became a teacher. The high school English Literature curriculum I taught refreshed my understanding of what a good society should be like. Part of that curriculum required me to teach (and learn about, so that I could teach…) the
Greek myths.
What is honored in a country will be cultivated there.
I learned that the myths gave Greeks the standards for greatness, honor, and accomplishment. Their gods were idealized versions of humans, so humans were inspired to strive for excellence in every aspect of life–from science to weaving, from mathematics to poetry–everything important to getting along in life their gods excelled at…and likewise inspired the Greek people to succeed. Sure, being human-like, the gods were far from perfect, but that only made humans feel better about themselves since neither were they.
As part of my self-teaching, I also read The Geography of Genius, a book by Eric Weiner that explored how the time and place of Ancient Greece became the provenance of western civilization, the birthplace of democracy, and the only placeholder for a country enjoying the magic of democracy until the United States of America would come along.
Common values helped Greeks–and Americans–achieve greatness, supporting the belief of 19th century Russian biologist Nikolay Danilevsky that “People are more likely to reach their highest potential if they belong to a nation.” Especially, by extension, if that nation inspired and gave its people reason to achieve.
Fifteen hundred years prior to Danilevsky the Greek philosopher Plato appeared to be on the same wavelength when he declared, “What is honored in a country will be cultivated there.”
Over time, a shift in what we honor
I still love America. But over the course of time since Katzenbach’s standoff with Wallace, the Resistant Grandmother has witnessed a shift in what America honors. The simple elegance of the country’s bold defense of personal freedom, equality for all its citizens as symbolized by the confrontation at the schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama and followed up by the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has not been equalled, to this long-time America lover, that I can remember.
The Obama effect
That’s until the magnificent election of Barack Obama as president.
Just after Obama took office, I traveled to Europe with a group of students from the high school where I taught, accompanied by a black male teacher who looked and spoke very much like Obama. The reaction to him was magical. Children especially around the age of 11 or younger flocked to him, asking questions about America, as if he were Obama himself and they could learn about our country through him. America became more exciting, glitzier, and interesting in their eyes–a charming black man as president! How cool was that, was the vibe. You could see in those glowing young Europeans’ eyes a respect and love for America, from the person we chose to lead us and what it meant.
But Obama’s election also launched a new, more focused wave of Republican obstruction that only metastasized over his term as president. The Tea Party movement presaged Trumpism and launched a 24/7 industry of disrespect and falsehoods aimed at the country’s young black president. And it gave the GOP new life—criticizing him and what he was doing distracted the country from what the GOP wouldn’t or couldn’t do.
Whipsaws and buzzsaws
So decades of being jack-sawed between Republican presidents with no material plans to help average Americans followed by competent Democratic presidents coming in, passing needed new policies like the Affordable Care Act, all while facing a buzzsaw of dishonest media-intense Republican opposition, it’s not surprising many Americans have turned sour on America.
Protracted periods of getting poorer or and/or not getting ahead and not understanding why has led to the kind of unfocused rage that wants to tear down everything. Many of these disaffected Americans have turned to Trump and showed up for him on Jan. 6.
But the sad part is the Trump rioters are backing the wrong horse(s) in their fight–the head of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, a man with no real interest in Americans or what they need–and the Republican Party, an organization primarily responsible for stoking America’s unbridled greed and teeing up benefits for the very rich.
So now it’s up to the Democrats (again) to save America as the only national party left that believes in democracy. Can Democratic leaders and policies rekindle an enthusiasm and respect for democracy that again inspires people both here and around the world?
Except for Obama, since John Kennedy, the president who sent Katzenbach to Alabama to defend equality, and hope for the future; Robert Kennedy, the Attorney general who sent Katzenbach; and Martin Luther King, the man who inspired the Kennedys to do the right thing, the Party has been short on leaders who can articulate what’s at stake and worth fighting for. But Biden, Harris, Pelosi, Klobuchar, etc. can and must find the words, provide the leadership, and set bold plans in motion to save the country we love.
The biggest challenge now is getting the 50/50 Democratically-controlled U.S. Senate to change its rules to allow legislation to move forward–legislation like the John Lewis Voting Rights Act that would make what 20 states are doing to destroy the election process illegal. But Republican use of the filibuster, an arcane Senate tool requiring 60 votes to bring a bill up for voting, could doom that bill.
To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, you’d think the urgency and wisdom of taking that action would be self-evident. But two senators with an inadequate sense of history and their role in it, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, so far choose Team Filibuster over protecting democracy and the right to vote.
Readers of this posting may be willing to call Sinema and Manchin’s offices in the next 10 days prior to Democrats bringing the voting rights act to the floor and, by extension, forcing a filibuster showdown.
Here are their phone numbers:
Sinema: 202/ 224-4521
Manchin: 202/224-3954
For those who believe senators aren’t interested in hearing from non-constituents, an “I am one of your constituents because you are one of two Senators with the power to change my life for better or worse with your vote” is not a bad retort. And you have every right–and obligation–to reach out to them directly.
Beyond that, calls like these usually benefit from from a list of prepared talking points, so a short list might include:
* The life of our democracy depends on your vote.
* Your legacy depends on this vote. No one will respect your protecting the filibuster. But they do care if you are among one or two Democrats to abet the death of democracy by allowing the filibuster to prevent a vote on saving elections in the U.S.
* For Sinema, latest poll numbers currently put her well below other Democrats in her state who are gearing up to primary her in 2024 over this issue. By wide margins most Arizona Democrats and Independents favor any of her three major opponents over Sinema. And polls show Sinema’s stand on the filibuster is the overwhelming reason they want her out.
* For 74-year-old Joe Manchin, whether or not he runs again in 2024, his legacy completely depends on his vote to get rid of the filibuster. If he does run again, he’ll face tepid if not openly hostile response from his home state Democratic base and party. West Virginians admit they won’t reveal this to his face, but a no vote on the filibuster will cause many of them to slow walk and sit out supporting him were he to run for reelection. As a consequence, a Trump-picked candidate in West Virginia would find an unsupported Joe Manchin and easy opponent to beat.
Give time and money
Since the Democratic Party is the only one that supports democracy, consider the importance of your supporting it with time and money.
Click on any or all of the links below to get involved:
DNC
Act blue–find a candidate or cause
https://secure.actblue.com/
https://secure.actblue.com/donate
https://swingleft.org/p/funds
I have been an ongoing donor and helped out in the 2020 election. I will focus my efforts on candidates outside my Blue State of Illinois by making calls and writing letters. Also, I’ll continue to write about the campaign on my blog.
Finally, with a nod to Plato, The Resistant Grandmother urges all of us to do our part to regenerate America’s potency by cultivating characteristics that have made America a beacon of hope and source of pride throughout our history–what we honor. For example, aside from writing, The Resistant Grandmother will do everything I can to help my son and daughter-in-law encourage habits of honesty, empathy, and respect for equality in their children by reading stories about and discussing great Americans who have contributed to our heritage and made us a better country. As they get older, I will help my grandchildren identify ways they can make a difference in
their world.
And at some point, I will tell them the bedtime story of Aaron Van Langevelde, the lone Republican canvasser in my home state of Michigan who bravely stood up for his country. When the nation’s future was on the line, in spite of facing the greatest personal and political pressures against him, Aaron Van Langevelde did the right thing. As we must, too.