Requiem for a Fascist Clown

In a fitting end to four years of chaos, bigotry, and wilful aversion to the truth, Donald Trump is refusing to accept the results of the election that he lost, surprising no one. His campaign has filed lawsuits in multiple states, seeking to overturn, or at least forestall, Joe Biden’s victory. His surrogates proclaim massive voter fraud without offering any evidence. His supporters, some carrying assault rifles, flood the streets parroting his deluded talking points.

But despite the sound and the fury that accompany the soon-to-be-ex-president everywhere he goes, Biden’s victory is decisive. He is on track to win an absolute majority of ballots cast and appears to have flipped some once-reliably red states.

Democrats are flying high, having now won the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections. Indeed, from some vantage points, Republicans seem poised to enter a new age of darkness, left behind by an America that is becoming younger, more urban, more educated, and less white than ever. As I argued four years ago, the antiquated Electoral College might just be the Republican Party’s only remaining chance to game the system going forward. Yet even that funhouse mirror of an institution could start giving Democrats the edge if current demographic trends continue.

But while Democrats might be tempted to rest on their laurels, that would be a mistake. The “emerging Democratic majority” may yet prove to be a mirage. Biden is unlikely to make the country deliberately worse — a refreshing change of pace in today’s politics — but it is an open question whether things will get better under his leadership. He represents the kind of placid neoliberal centrism that has failed to deliver the goods for millions of Americans.

The status quo ante of 2016 was not some golden age. It was an era of unfettered capitalism and growing inequality, the instability of which threw a wrench in the works, disrupting “politics as usual” in the most malignant way possible. It is in this context that the ascendance of a buffoonish demagogue like Trump, skilled at manipulating populist anger, must be understood. To prevent the reemergence of Trumpism in its next more refined avatar, Democrats must move in a bolder direction, embracing egalitarian policies that benefit the population — like progressive taxation, Medicare for All, and a Green New Deal.

So yes, celebrate Trump’s loss, celebrate the repudiation of authoritarianism, celebrate Kamala Harris’s historic rise to the vice presidency. But do not grow complacent. In the current political climate, the threat of fascism is never far away.

This post appears on rabble.ca.

An Open Letter to Justin Trudeau on Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau,

In the wake of Sunday’s horrendous terrorist attack on Quebec’s Muslim community, I am writing to ask that you forcefully condemn not just the shooting itself, but the rising tide of Islamophobia that appears to have prompted it.

On January 27, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning the entry of citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries and suspending America’s refugee program. It is not enough that you meekly defend the ability of Canadian dual citizens to cross the border. You must join with other members of the international community in denouncing Trump’s racist policy in the strongest terms possible.

Furthermore, Canada must put its money where its mouth is by significantly increasing its intake of refugees over and above the current target for 2017, prioritizing those who have been left stranded by Trump’s Muslim ban. We must also rescind our “Safe Third Country Agreement” with the United States.

Finally, in the event that the Trump administration continues to escalate its policies of bigotry and exclusion in the months and years to come, Canada must be willing to seriously consider measures such as expelling the American ambassador or withdrawing from practices of military cooperation. I realize this is not something to take lightly — the United States being our closest neighbour and ally — but some values must take precedence over friendship and loyalty, such as the fundamental equality of all human beings regardless of race, religion, or nationality.

A light touch is not what is currently needed. (Much less a “pivot.”) The desperate circumstances unleashed by Trump’s hateful actions require that Canada’s government be more steadfast than ever in declaring the universality of human rights.

Thank you for considering my thoughts.

Sincerely,

David Taub Bancroft

Vancouver, BC

cc: Harjit Sajjan, MP for Vancouver South

The Travesty of the Electoral College

Of the myriad outrages that define last week’s United States presidential election — namely, the elevation of scandal over policy, of demagoguery over competence, of unabashed sexism and racism and conspiratorial paranoia over reasoned debate — perhaps the most egregious is the fact that the winner of the popular vote will not be the one occupying the Oval Office.

Votes are still being counted. As of this writing, however, Hillary Clinton appears set to win approximately two million votes more than President-elect Donald Trump, which gives lie to the all-too-common characterization of Trump supporters as a “silent majority” — a blatant numerical (not to mention auditory) falsehood if ever there was one.

The culprit responsible for this anti-democratic upset is an arcane body known as the Electoral College, which owing to Clinton’s landslide victories in California and New York and her razor-thin losses in Rust Belt swing states, cooked the books in favour of Trump. Historically speaking, Republicans do not have anything like a permanent Electoral College advantage, but given the still painful memory of Bush v. Gore in 2000, as well as other splits between the electoral and popular votes that benefited the GOP in 1876 and 1888, don’t expect the party of Trump to see the light and embrace reform anytime soon.

The rules for changing the Constitution are practically insurmountable. To formally abolish the Electoral College, proponents would need the support of two-thirds of the members of each house of Congress plus three-quarters of the states. Only slightly less improbable is the workaround known as the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which would have signatory states pledge their electors to whichever presidential candidate wins the national popular vote.

The compact has so far been signed by ten states and the District of Columbia, which together represent 61 per cent of the 270 electoral votes needed for it to come into effect. The only problem is that all the states to have officially signed on are blue ones. The agreement will never reach the requisite 270 without swing states, which are understandably reluctant to give up their disproportionate power, or red states, which must be blisteringly aware, even after this month’s election, of the Republican Party’s growing popularity problem.

From 1992 onwards, there have been seven presidential elections. A Republican candidate has won the popular vote only once in those 24 years. As the GOP continues to alienate women, people of colour, Millennials, and those with higher educations, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Electoral College represents their only shot at victory. Far from negating this trend, last week’s results further corroborate it.

So get used to hearing Republican operatives sing the praises of a system that distorts election results and subverts the will of the people. Get used to hearing them profess their solidarity with smaller, more rural states — currently over-represented in the Electoral College — against the large urban centres that threaten to overpower them come election time. As if people aren’t just people no matter where they live. As if voters should not all be counted equally.

Meanwhile, the rest of the country, which according to one recent survey wants to eliminate this 18th century anomaly by a margin of 55 per cent to 27 per cent, will go on echoing the luminary who famously described the Electoral College as “a disaster for a democracy.”

That luminary? Donald J. Trump.

This post appears on rabble.ca.