It's way past time for Democratic Party leaders to step up

I am not here to hold your hand and beg you to vote in November. I reckon you wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t going to do at least that much.

I am here to tell it to you straight: The past week has been a complete disaster for Democracy in America. If it somehow was not crystal clear before, then it better be now that the bought-off, radical right members of our U.S. Supreme Court mean to do whatever they can to both protect their boss, the traitor, Donald Trump, and to throw out our vote if the election is at all close in November.

Most of us have known this was a possibility for the past three, long years, and have watched helplessly as nothing was done to prevent it.

These past six days have been every bit as bad as I thought they could be. Today, I am giving way to my petty side and dearly hope they were even worse for the deniers in the Democratic Party, who have stubbornly hitched their creaky wagons to our incapable Attorney General Merrick Garland, and refused to budge.

READ: The Supreme Court just turned us all into vigilantes

Garland has proven time and again to be a complete failure, who was not at all equipped to handle the most brazen attack on our country since the Civil War. Lately, I am also beginning to wonder how much of this has been intentional, but more on that in a minute.

This we know for sure: When our country needed a big-hearted, smart, law-and-order crusader to protect her, she got a disinterested security guard at some supermarket checkout line instead.

I am here to tell you today that because of Garland's gross inaction these past three years, we are at a place right now where the 6-3 Supreme Court is literally telling us that if the election is at all close in November, they will throw it back to the Republican Congress to decide who “really” won.

In their ruling Monday that mandated Trump be allowed on the ballot in Colorado, they essentially told us that individual states are completely free to enforce abortion bans and prevent in vitro fertilization, sure, but better not dare try to stand up for the Constitution when insurrection is involved.

In the wake of this gross decision, the state of Maine grudgingly announced that they, too, would allow Trump back on their ballot. I want to applaud both of these states for doing what was right and following the Constitution’s guidance that prohibits insurrectionists from running for office. If only my home state of Wisconsin had the guts to do the same.

Monday’s ruling was not only completely consistent with other ridiculous decisions by this rogue court, it also emphatically exposed them for who they are: insurrectionists in their own right.

The decision to keep Trump on the ballot, followed perhaps an ever more egregious ruling last Wednesday, when John Roberts’ court told us loud and clear that they were in no hurry to decide whether or not Trump is above the law for his attack on America on January 6, 2021.

Again, there is no ambiguity here. By kicking this rusty can down the road, they are telling us they want Trump back in office, and will do everything in their seemingly unlimited powers to make sure he gets there.

Can we PLEASE all acknowledge at least this much, Democrats?

Can the leaders of the Democratic Party acknowledge this, take to the high ground and speak loudly and forcefully and LEAD on this issue, or will they just be passing the basket for more donations, while relentlessly telling us we just need to fight harder at the polls?

I’m starting to get mighty sick of them. We need fighters and leaders in our party, who inspire, not mealy-mouthed, Inside-the-Beltway weaklings who get shoved all over Capitol Hill and then politely say, “excuse me.”

The leaders of the Democratic Party need to know that the people in the field are weary of carrying their water. We fight our asses off, while complete failures like Garland keep their jobs.

They need to start seeing what the majority of us see in the field but quick, and start acting with some accountability and urgency.

There was NOTHING more important than ensuring the people who attacked our country were held accountable, yet not ONE complicit lawmaker has been tried or jailed yet.

Right before our eyes, the Republicans and their Supreme Court are doing the bidding of a monster who already tried to burn our Democracy to the ground. My God, Clarence Thomas’s own disgusting wife rooted on and helped with the insurrection. He hasn’t even given a single thought about recusing himself in these cases.

What is the Democratic majority in the Senate doing about this? Or are Thomas and his wife also above the law?

I am way, way, way past sick and tired of being played by these rightwing, radical Christian Nationalists like Speaker “Moses” Mike Johnson who will stop at nothing to completely tear this country down, stand up for Putin and dismantle voting rights, a woman's right to choose, vaccines, environmental protections, and books -- BOOKS.

I am not here today to tell you not to vote, but I am here to tell you that it has been the decades-long aim of these radical Republicans to ensure that your vote DOES-NOT-MATTER.

Today, they are THIS close to accomplishing this. It was the only play they had as the minority in this country with zero ideas for improving our lives.

So did the DOJ miss all these completely obvious threats (not likely), or were they in on it. Too crazy, you say? Then answer me this: Just how in the hell did Republican Special Counsel Robert Hur's report three weeks ago that cleared Joe Biden of mishandling classified documents, but also needlessly and recklessly slammed him as on old, doddering fool ever see the light of day in Garland’s DOJ?

This was so completely out of line, that even the Biden Administration was incensed by it. The only good I can see out of Garland’s dereliction of duty here is that it might have finally signaled that even Biden has had enough of his appalling attorney general.

We can only hope so.

WE ARE THE MAJORITY IN THIS COUNTRY and have allowed Merrick Garland to help the most extreme Supreme Court in American history back us into a corner, and that, my friends, is an epic disgrace.

The traitor, Trump, should have been in jail by now, along with any number of GOP lawmakers, fake electors, etc., who were involved in the most brazen attack on our Capitol since 1812.

They aren’t, so now our party is once again telling us it is on us to rally the vote.

Well, I’m not here to hold your hand and tell you not to, but I am here to tell you that if you are as mad as I am, you have every right to be.

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D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. Follow @EarlofEnough and on his website.