The New York Times has reported that Democrats are using the January 6 special committee hearings to drum up Democratic votes in the 2022 midterm elections. The Washington Post has added that the goal of the committee is to tell a gripping story which will energize Democratic midterm voters. This is small minded and pathetic.
Our core problem as a country is not what Donald Trump said or did on January 6, or who said what in a text message to Mark Meadows on that day. Our problem is that millions of Americans hold these three convictions: (1) the 2020 presidential election was stolen, (2) violence is justified in order to rectify it, and (3) the rules and norms that hold our society together no longer matter. These people are today spread throughout our country, and some of them are serving in congress. We need a committee which recognizes this threat, helps us understand it, and offers solutions to pull the country back together or, at a minimum, curtails our slide into Christian nationalist autocracy. We need a committee that illuminates the broad social conditions that threaten to bring down our country — not a committee focused on Mark Meadow’s text messages.
But the Democrats and the January 6 committee care nothing about the future – if there is one – of our democracy. Like the Times and the Post have written, they care only about raising money and getting themselves reelected.
This same pattern repeated when the Supreme Court issued its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s decision ending the constitutionally-protected right to an abortion which women in this country had enjoyed for the 49 years since the court’s decision in Roe v. Wade. This decision devastated and frightened millions of women. In response, the Democratic Party – Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer – have offered no plan – none – to restore what once was a constitutional right to seek an abortion. They don’t care about protecting women or abortion access. Instead, they have asked for money and asked to be reelected. “Abortion is on the ballot,” they proclaim. No, it’s not. They are on the ballot and they want to be returned to office so that they can continue to do nothing to restore the federal protection of abortion rights. Oh, and they also want you to send them money.
Nancy Pelosi just took a 19-hour trip to Taiwan which served no substantive purpose. The cost of this jaunt to taxpayers ran into the millions of dollars (we can all think of better ways to have spent that money) and the visit achieved nothing for the taxpayers who paid for it. The trip did escalate tensions between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, and increased the likelihood that the Chinese government will take military action against Taiwan, the United States, and/or Japan. It also resulted in a cutoff of all official communications between the U.S. and China, and made future negotiations and trade talks between the two countries much more difficult. It was a dangerous, stupid, counterproductive, and wasteful stunt. So why did the speaker engage in this behavior? To raise money, of course. Her Taiwan trip will enable her to raise money from the Chinese community in San Francisco.
If you have a question about the Democratic Party or Nancy Pelosi, the answer is money.
