What Progressives Are Saying About This Dangerous Moment in American History – As The Insurrection Continues

Many progressive pundits, politicians, civil rights advocates and observers are calling this moment America finds itself in, a very dangerous one.

For instance, Robert Reich says:

The greatest danger to American democracy right now is not coming from Russia, China, or North Korea. It is coming from the Republican Party.  … American democracy is at an inflection point.

Then there is this statement from over 100 scholars who express their deep concern regarding the assault on democracy:

A Statement of Concern Regarding the Assault on Democracy
By 100 Scholars, New America / 02 June 21

We, the undersigned, are scholars of democracy who have watched the recent deterioration of U.S. elections and liberal democracy with growing alarm. Specifically, we have watched with deep concern as Republican-led state legislatures across the country have in recent months proposed or implemented what we consider radical changes to core electoral procedures in response to unproven and intentionally destructive allegations of a stolen election. Collectively, these initiatives are transforming several states into political systems that no longer meet the minimum conditions for free and fair elections. Hence, our entire democracy is now at risk.

Columnist Joan Walsh at The Nation thinks we are should be worried about things like the recent statements by Michael Flynn advocating a military coup:

This weekend he might have taken his most dangerous turn yet, advocating a military coup similar to the one in Myanmar. “It should happen here,” he told an audience of the faithful at the “For God and Country” rally in Dallas. He later denied he said it, but there’s video.

Today comes news from New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, so far only on Twitter, that “Trump has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August.” It’s not clear how he believes that “reinstatement” would work, but she says he’s “laser-focused” on the baseless GOP “audits” of votes in large Democratic counties in Arizona and Georgia.

Conservative Byron York likewise reported that Trump believes the theory floated by crackpot lawyer Sidney Powell at the same event where Flynn endorsed a coup: “It should be that he can simply be reinstated, that a new inauguration day is set,” she said to cheers. “And Biden is told to move out of the White House. And President Trump should be moved back in.” That can’t and won’t happen, of course—but should we be worrying about all of this anyway?

A Republican Congressman from Michigan, Rep. Pete Meijer – a U.S. Army veteran- called pro-Trump conservative Republicans “treacherous snakes,” and criticized them for “salivating for civil war.” Meijer added:

“Claiming they need to destroy the Republic in order to save it in the ultimate betrayal of oaths sworn. Those treacherous snakes can go straight to hell.”

Meanwhile, after major corporations were given props not long after the January 6 Capital insurrection for their expressions of support for voting rights and promises to suspend political action committee donations to Republican lawmakers who tried to overturn the election, there is other troubling facts:

Left largely unmentioned: brand-name corporations and corporate lobbying groups still funneled $15 million last year to two major GOP groups — the Republican Attorneys General Association and the Republican State Leadership Committee — after the organizations and their officials pushed to curtail voting rights and overturn the 2020 election, according to IRS records we reviewed.

Meanwhile, many major companies continue to support the US Chamber of Commerce — even as the powerful lobby group has been leading the fight against federal legislation protecting voting rights.

After Senate Republicans used the filibuster late last week to torpedo a bill that sought to establish an independent commission to probe the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, there are intensifying calls from progressives to get rid of the archaic legislative tool. Following the vote, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) tweeted the following:

“If Senate Republicans can block an independent commission investigating a deadly armed attack on the Capitol because it might hurt their poll numbers with insurrectionists, then something is badly wrong with the Senate. We must get rid of the filibuster to protect our democracy.”

Buzzflash asks: “Isn’t It Already a De Facto Insurrection When Senators Representing a White Minority Prevail?”

Then there’s this from The Nation: The Party of White Grievance Has Never Cared About Democracy – From the Democrats of the Civil War era to the Republicans of the Trump years, the white party has always posed the greatest threat to our political system.

A coalition of nearly 60 progressive advocacy organizations led by Indivisible echoed that message in a joint statement released Friday, noting that “this is no longer a debate about hypotheticals.”

“Senate Republicans have filibustered a bipartisan bill to form a bipartisan commission investigating an attack on their workplace and the seat of our democracy,” the groups said. “Despite Senate Democrats ‘imploring’ Republicans to work with them to get this done, [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell and his caucus swatted away every attempt at good faith bipartisan work and committed themselves to partisan obstruction.”

“Now the path forward is clear: The filibuster must be eliminated as a weapon that a minority of senators can wield to veto popular democracy-protecting bills,” the coalition added.

Here is more of what Robert Reich wrote very recently:

Only 25 percent of voters self-identify as Republican, the GOP’s worst showing against Democrats since 2012 and sharply down since last November. But those who remain in the Party are far angrier, more ideological, more truth-denying, and more racist than Republicans who preceded them. And so are the lawmakers who represent them.

Today’s Republican Party increasingly is defined not by its shared beliefs but by its shared delusions.

Last Friday, 54 U.S. senators voted in favor of proceeding to debate a House-passed bill to establish a commission to investigate the causes and events of the January 6th insurrection. This was 6 votes short of the number of votes needed for “cloture,” or stopping debate – meaning any further consideration of the bill would have been filibustered by Republicans indefinitely.

So there will be no investigation.

The 54 Senators who voted yes to cloture – in favor of the commission – represent 189 million Americans, or 58% of the American population. The 35 who voted no represent 104 million Americans, or 32% of the population.

In other words, 32% of American voters got to decide that the nation would not know about what happened to American democracy on January 6.

Furthermore, the 35 who voted against the commission were all Republicans. They did not want such an inquiry because it might jeopardize their chances of gaining a majority of the House or Senate in the 2022 midterm elections. They also wanted to stay in the good graces of Donald Trump, whose participation in that insurrection might have been more fully revealed.

Eight of these Republicans voted against certifying Joe Biden as president on January 6. Some of their constituents were responsible for the insurrection in the first place.

The Republican Party is also pursuing new laws in many states making it harder for likely Democrats to vote and opposing voting reforms in Congress.

It is actively purging any Republican who has temerity to criticize Trump. They have removed from her leadership position Liz Cheney, who called Trump’s efforts to overturn the election and his role in inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot the greatest “betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”

Local Republicans leaders have either stepped down or been forced out of their party positions for not supporting Trump’s baseless election claims or for criticizing the former president’s role in inciting the deadly Capitol riot.

American democracy is at an inflection point.