Stand Up to the BullyIt's Donald Trump versus the United States, and it's up to us to make sure he doesn't win.Today, Donald Trump has been on a tirade, multiple tirades actually, unbefitting the president of the United States. You know that, and there is nothing good to be gained by focusing on the people he has singled out. It’s part of his ongoing pattern of abusing the powers of the presidency to publicly seek retribution or punish people he considers to be his enemies. Trump doesn’t make us guess about this. He’s said the quiet part out loud on multiple occasions, like these:
All told, during campaign season, Trump made over 100 threats to prosecute or punish people he perceived as enemies. We’ve seen him make good on that in a series of executive orders, some cloaked in the pretense of concern over anti-Semitism or discrimination (which now means failing to protect white Christians), that target individuals or institutions he thinks have done him wrong. His public directions, presumably to Attorney General Bondi, to investigate people or entities are part and parcel of it. As are the social media posts attacking people, often just for doing their jobs. It’s no way for the president to run the White House. But elections have consequences, and this is among them following 2024, when just enough Americans stayed home, or bought fake concerns about Biden’s economy, or wanted a change. Some people are so inured to Trump’s bad behavior that they shrug their shoulders and pass it off as “just Trump.” When you hear people doing that, stop and remind them that this isn’t normal or innocent. He is literally on a revenge tour and abusing the powers of the presidency. As for us, we have the opportunity to put a stop to this because we still have the right to vote—we need to prepare to exercise it while we can and take steps to protect free and fair elections ahead of 2026, which will be upon us sooner than you might think. Our tradition of democracy is what makes us different. It’s instilled in us from a young age through classroom elections and developed in democratically elected city and county governments and with the opportunity to vote for our state and federal officials. Even if we take it for granted, democracy is the structure we build our lives upon, and that’s an advantage in a time like ours. It is much easier to insist upon maintenance of something you are used to having than to demand something you’ve never had. In the Philippines, under Ferdinand Marcos, what became an increasingly repressive environment and authoritarian rule finally led millions of people to take to the streets in protest after two decades, when he tried to engage in election fraud. That provoked a military defection that led Marcos to flee the country. We don’t have to wait 20 years to protest. We have the right to do it and are already doing it. We need to make sure we understand the power we have as voters and fully exercise it to keep our country from becoming a lapsed democracy. The Soviet-backed Communist regime in Poland fell to the Solidarity trade union, led by Lech Wałęsa. The labor movement began as a demand for workers’ rights and evolved into a call for freedom from the Communist government’s control. Despite government crackdowns and the imposition of martial law, the movement grew, leading to semi-free elections and the fall of Communism in Poland, which opened the door for the rest of Eastern Europe. We don’t have to go through a struggle of that length and magnitude. But we do have to insist upon our right to vote and, most importantly, bring more of our fellow citizens along with us in 2026. During the Civil Rights Movement, governors like Alabama’s George Wallace tried to maintain systemic racism. But Americans used boycotts, marches, and civil disobedience to challenge racist Jim Crow laws and defy bullies, like governors and police officials that stood with those who would deny Black people’s equality. It was everyday citizens and the leaders who emerged from the movement who succeeded. Americans know how to do that. There is enormous power in nonviolent resistance and collective outrage when it is sustained. It educates and motivates. Americans have that innate ability in their bloodstream. From 1773 and the Boston Tea Party to modern-day protests against an American president who wants to usurp the power that the Constitution assigns to Congress and the Judiciary, we know how to protest efforts to degrade our democracy. Standing up to the bully works—in fact, it’s the only option. Ignoring it won’t make it go away. But our history is full of evidence that we know how to turn the tide. By 1971, Vietnam veterans who were against the war had had enough. Led by future Senator John Kerry, they gathered in D.C. for weeklong protests called Dewey Canyon III in April of that year. The protest started with under a thousand veterans and Gold Star parents who marched, camped on the National Mall, and famously threw their medals on the steps of the Capitol in protest of the war. Their actions brought national attention to the moral and human costs of the war, helping shift public opinion and apply pressure on policymakers. Courage is contagious, and knowledge is power—no matter how many times you hear those sayings, they remain true. In the 1950s, under McCarthyism and the “Red Scare,” people were afraid to push back against the bully, Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose aggressive and frequently baseless accusations against people he didn’t like in government, entertainment, and academia ruined lives. He called people communist traitors despite the absence of any evidence of it. He used public hearings and fear to consolidate power. People didn’t stand up because they were afraid of being labeled Communists themselves. The media, for the most part, repeated his claims until very late stages, and very few politicians of the day were willing to challenge his tactics, thinking only of self-preservation. Even President Eisenhower avoided confrontation with him until the end. McCarthy destroyed careers. People’s exercise of First Amendment rights was chilled. An atmosphere of fear prevailed. McCarthy’s power grew because of silence and self-preservation. It only came to an end when others finally said “enough.” It didn’t take an army or a rebellion. It took American common sense and persistence. Early in 1954, McCarthy, who had asked for preferential treatment for an aide on his subcommittee who was drafted and apparently not received full satisfaction, decided to go after the Army, with an allegation that security at a top secret facility was inadequate. There were three months of nationally televised hearings. Senate records tell the story of how it all ended like this: “The army hired Boston lawyer Joseph Welch to make its case. At a session on June 9, 1954, McCarthy charged that one of Welch’s attorneys had ties to a Communist organization. As an amazed television audience looked on, Welch responded with the immortal lines that ultimately ended McCarthy's career: ‘Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.’ When McCarthy tried to continue his attack, Welch angrily interrupted, ‘Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?’” It was suddenly over, and seemingly overnight, McCarthy’s hold on the country disappeared. His Senate colleagues and his party abandoned him; the media stopped parroting his accusations. Three years later, he was dead. Challenge the bully. Don’t let him have his way. As with McCarthy, sometimes it just takes one courageous moment to puncture the balloon. Maybe we will have a moment like that. But even if we don’t, the way to challenge the bully is by voting. In 2026, every seat in the House of Representatives will be on the ballot as will 33 seats in the Senate. If you want to ask Trump, “Have you no sense of decency?” make him face Democratic majorities in both bodies of Congress. Members of the military fought and lost their lives to protect our country. All we have to do is vote. We’re in this together, Joyce |
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Stand Up to the Bully
Saturday, February 12, 2022
Top News: Economists Warn Against the Fed Raising Rates at Worst Possible Time
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Wednesday, February 2, 2022
RSN: FOCUS: Robert Reich | Midterm Watch: Why Trump and Gingrich Offer the Best Hope for Democrats
01 February 22
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Reader Supported News
They'll keep the public's attention on the attempted coup
One hint came at a Houston-area Trump rally Saturday night. “If I run and if I win,” the former guy said, referring to 2024, “we will treat those people from January 6th fairly.” He then added, “and if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly.” Trump went on to demand "the biggest protest we have ever had" if federal prosecutors in Washington or in New York and Atlanta, where cases against him are moving forward, "do anything wrong or illegal." He then called the federal prosecutors “vicious, horrible people” who are “not after me, they're after you."
Trump’s hint of pardons for those who attacked the Capitol could affect the criminal prosecution of hundreds now facing conspiracy, obstruction and assault charges, which carry sentences that could put them away for years. If they think Trump will pardon them, they might be less willing to negotiate with prosecutors and accept plea deals.
His comments could also be interpreted as a call for violence if various legal cases against him lead to indictments.
But if Trump keeps at it — and of course he will —he’ll help the Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections by reminding the public of the attempted coup he and his Republican co-conspirators tried to pull off between the 2020 election and January 6. That would make the midterm election less of a referendum on Biden than on the Republican Party. (Don’t get me wrong. I think Biden is doing a good job, given the hand he was dealt. But Republicans are doing an even better job battering him — as his sinking poll numbers show.)
Last week, Newt Gingrich, who served as House Speaker from 1995 to 1999, suggested that members of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol should face jail time if the GOP returns to power. "The wolves are gonna find out that they're now sheep, and they're the ones who—in fact, I think—face a real risk of jail for the kind of laws they're breaking," Gingrich said on Fox News.
Gingrich’s remark prompted Representative Liz Cheney, Wyoming Republican and vice-chair of the select committee, to respond: "A former Speaker of the House is threatening jail time for members of Congress who are investigating the violent January 6 attack on our Capitol and our Constitution. This is what it looks like when the rule of law unravels."
Trump and Gingrich are complicating the midterm elections prospects for all Republicans running or seeking reelection nine months from now.
Many Republican leaders believe they don’t need to offer the public any agenda for the midterms because of widespread frustration with Biden and the Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, recently asked what the Republican party’s agenda would be if it recaptured Congress, quipped “I’ll let you know when we take it back.”
But if Republicans fail to offer an agenda, the Republican party’s midterm message is even more likely to be defined by Trump and Trumpers like Gingrich: the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen along with promises to pardon the January 6 defendants, jail members of the select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol, and other bonkers claims and promises.
This would spell trouble for the GOP because most Americans don’t believe the big lie and remain appalled by the attack on the Capitol.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (who phoned Trump during the attack on the Capitol but refuses to cooperate with the House’s January 6 committee investigation) will have a major role in defining the Republican message for the midterms. And whom has McCarthy been consulting with? None other than Newt Gingrich. The two have been friends for years and McCarthy's current chief of staff in his leadership office, Dan Meyer, served in the same role for Gingrich when he was the speaker.
McCarthy knows Gingrich is a master huckster. After all, in 1994 Gingrich delivered a House majority for the Republicans for the first time in 40 years by promising a “contract with America” that amounted to little more than trickle-down economics and state’s rights.
But like most hucksters, Gingrich suffered a spectacular fall. In 1997 House members overwhelmingly voted to reprimand him for flouting federal tax laws and misleading congressional investigators about it — making him the first speaker panned for unethical behavior. The disgraced leader, who admitted to the ethical lapse as part of a deal to quash inquiries into other suspect activities, also had to pay a historic $300,000 penalty. Then, following a surprise loss of Republican House seats in the 1998 midterm election, Gingrich stepped down as speaker. He resigned from Congress in January 1999 and hasn't held elected office since.
I’ve talked with Gingrich several times since then. I always come away with the impression of a military general in an age where bombast and explosive ideas are more potent than bombs. Since he lost the House, Gingrich has spent most of his time and energy trying to persuade other Republicans that he alone possesses the strategy and the ideas entitling him to be the new general of the Republican right.
Gingrich has no scruples, which is why he has allied himself with Trump and Trump’s big lie — appearing regularly on Fox News to say the 2020 election was rigged and mouth off other Trumpish absurdities (such as last week’s claim that members of the House select committee should be jailed).
Gingrich likes to think of himself as a revolutionary force, but he behaves more like a naughty boy. When he was Speaker, his House office was adorned with figurines of dinosaurs, as you might find in the bedrooms of little boys who dream of becoming huge and powerful. Gingrich can be mean, but his meanness is that of a nasty kid rather than a tyrant. And like all nasty kids, inside is an insecure little fellow who desperately wants attention.
Still, as of now, the best hope for Democrats in the midterms lies with Trump, Gingrich, and others who loudly and repeatedly remind the public how utterly contemptible the Republican Party has become.
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