Retribution against Trump's enablers is the only way to fix this mess

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested this week that the Republicans are a bunch of crybabies who hate it when the Democrats fight back. When asked about the GOP’s reaction to a successful gerrymandering effort in Virginia, which threaten to give the Democrats an edge in the coming midterm elections, the New York congresswoman responded:“Wah wah wah.”She continued:“Democrats have … asked Republicans for 10 years to ban partisan gerrymandering, and for 10 years, Republicans have said no. … These are the rules that they have set. … They have been accustomed to a Democratic Party that rolls over, doesn’t fight and takes everything sitting down. What they’re mad at is that we are here in a new day. “We have been asking the Democratic Party to stand up and fight, and now they have, the Republican Party doesn’t like [it]. If Republicans decide they would like to revisit a ban on partisan gerrymandering, I welcome them. We have the bill right here. We can end this all today. But they don’t want to, because they like continuing to enact an unfair electoral landscape. We have an obligation to defend ourselves.”The decade has been educational. By the time of Donald Trump’s second inauguration, I think most members of the Democratic Party learned that there are no punishments for treachery. A criminal can mount an insurrection and still be president. Democrats learned that the inherent goodness of the American people is greatly exaggerated. But what about the other side of that? As there are no punishments for vice, there are also no rewards for virtue. I’m not sure Democrats have learned that. Many are still holding on to the terms of the old deal. Some, like Ocasio-Cortez, seem to get it, though. They understand that they, and only they, can prevent the country from completely tipping into tyranny. The Democrats can’t stand above politics and expect the American people’s blessing. They must fight Donald Trump’s crimes against democracy. They must be his consequences.Only then can there be a new deal.For more, I bring you this second part of my interview with someone who goes by “The Angry Black Woman.” In the first part of our conversation, we focused on hope and the challenge of holding on to it. In today’s post, we focus on the Democrats and whether they have the guts to pursue retribution in the name of freedom and democracy.“I want the US to do what Germany did after World War II. If you were part of the Nazi party, SS, or an enabler, you were banned from running for, or holding, public office. There should not be a single Republican that has supported what has been happening for the past 10 years that should be allowed to prosper in any way. No television panels, no talk shows, no podcasts, no books. They should be shunned from society, because they are complicit in everything that has happened. Part of the ‘new New Deal’ should include these things.”What have the Democrats learned since last year and have they learned the right lesson? Chuck Schumer seems to have learned how to fight. Others have endorsed a Senate candidate with a Nazi tattoo?Not a damn thing. They haven’t learned that “traditional” politics no longer exists. You have to meet the moment. The current leadership is not up to the task. Schumer learned how to fight on the issue of ICE funding? That was an easy battle to win. People have seen what ICE has been doing so the public sentiment was there for the Democrats to hold the line. But I don’t think it was just them holding the line. Brian Baez (@MentallyDivine on TikTok) laid out that the Republicans voted with the Democrats because they were being personally affected (eg, Delta taking away their special status). It was impacting them and they didn’t want the public to know. I don’t know if that is what made them vote the funding bill through, but it is on-brand for the Republicans. That said, I agree with what you wrote: “But if there’s newfound strength in the Democrats, it’s because there’s newfound weakness in the Republicans, especially the president.” The fact that the GOP is so incompetent at governing, coupled with having a maniacal man-child as their dear leader, made it easier for the Democrats to hold the line. Either way, it was a low bar and we shouldn’t be giving cookies for doing the bare minimum. So only time will tell if they are truly up for the task. We have to look at the totality of how the Democrats move. Praising them for holding the line while people are being murdered is one thing. Supporting a man [Graham Platner] who bears a Nazi symbol on his chest is a whole other issue. It’s emblematic of the party as a whole. When I read your article on Platner, I started screaming! I had to read it a few times – still screaming! – before I could think about the implications. I posed a hypothetical to my husband: “I am thinking about getting a tattoo on my chest and I chose a design. It’s a Totenkopf.