Democrat Cowards Jared Golden, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez Welcome Their New MAGA Overlords
No JFK awards for these two.
Democracy itself might very well rest on the upcoming election, so it’s less than encouraging when members of the democracy-defending party seem to have resigned themselves to their fate.
Monday, the Supreme Court gave Donald Trump absolute immunity from prosecution for any acts he committed as president, almost all of which were criminal. This would allow him to rule as a lawless despot if he wins the presidency again. Democrats are known for their internal squabbles but you’d think they could all unite around “The One Ring Trump Is Bad.” Alas, Rep. Jared Golden — a moderate Democrat from Maine — published an op-ed in The Bangor Daily News Tuesday, declaring “Donald Trump is going to win the election and democracy will be just fine.” Golden apparently didn’t grasp the irony of that famous R.E.M. song.
“[President Joe] Biden’s poor performance in the debate was not a surprise,” Golden writes. “It also didn’t rattle me as it has others, because the outcome of this election has been clear to me for months: While I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win. And I’m OK with that.”
Democrats have spent the past year arguing that Trump, a convicted felon (at least for the moment), is an existential threat, and they don’t even have full alignment on this point from Democratic members of Congress.
He goes on: “Unlike Biden and many others, I refuse to participate in a campaign to scare voters with the idea that Trump will end our democratic system.” Trump’s campaign slogan might as well read “Trump 2024: I Will End Our Democratic System. Seriously. For Real.” But that’s a lot to get on a bumper sticker.
“This Independence Day marks our nation’s 248th birthday,” Golden acutely observes. “In that time, American democracy has withstood civil war, world wars, acts of terrorism and technological and societal changes that would make the Founders’ head spin.”
American democracy withstood civil war and world wars because the pro-democracy side prevailed. It would’ve mattered if the Confederacy and the Nazis won.
“This election is about the economy, not democracy,” Golden claims, while boasting about his opposition to Biden’s Build Back Better legislation. “And when it comes to our economy, our Congress matters far more than who occupies the White House.” Trump literally sicced a mob on Congress when he didn’t get his way and the Supreme Court seems OK with him doing this every Tuesday.
“In 2025, I believe Trump is going to be in the White House,” says the feckless coward. “Maine’s representatives will need to work with him when it benefits Mainers, hold him accountable when it does not and work independently across the aisle no matter what.”
The centrists and self-proclaimed “problem solvers” at least waited until after Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 before promising to work with Trump to “get stuff done.” It’s both early and eight years late for such sentiments, which feel like more like proactive surrender: “One thing is for certain: There is no stopping Trump. He’s coming back to the White House, and I, for one, welcome our new MAGA overlords. I’d like to remind them as a trusted member of Congress, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.”
Monday, Politico ran an article about Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez from Washington called “She’s A Blue-Collar, Bible-Quoting, Israel-Supporting, Pro-Choice, Millennial Latina. Is She the Future of Democratic Progressivism?” Her voting record would make that a fairly easy “no,” but on Tuesday, the red district Democrat also abandoned Biden like a desperate Al Bundy jumping out of an airplane without a parachute.
When a local reporter asked Gluesenkamp Perez if Biden should remain in the race, she didn’t respond with the classic evasive line, “That’s the president’s choice.” Instead, she said, “About 50 million Americans tuned in and watched that debate. I was one of them for about five very painful minutes. We all saw what we saw, you can’t undo that, and the truth I think, is that Biden is going to lose to Trump. I know that’s difficult, but I think the damage has been done by that debate.”
If she’s gonna call Biden’s candidacy dead at the scene, she could have at least watched the entire debate. It’s not literally painful to endure, like waterboarding or a baby shower. No, five minutes is all it took for Gluesenkamp Perez to give up on Biden. You’d assume she immediately called for Biden to step down and let President Kamala Harris run instead, as Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett did on Tuesday. However, Gluesenkamp Perez points out that we already had that rigorous primary race with Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson.
“Well, a core tenet of democracy is that you accept the results of an election,” she said. “And the reality is primary voting has already happened to a degree, that Biden is the nominee.”
Biden is not yet the nominee, and even if he were, Gluesenkamp Perez clearly doesn’t think he’s fit to serve. She’s going to let democracy fall because she’s a stickler for the “you broke it, you bought it” principle.
Last week, Gluesenkamp Perez released an ad stating that she’s “taking on the Biden administration and working with Republicans to secure the Southern border,” which is nowhere near Washington. Like Golden, she seems more interested in keeping her seat and collaborating with fascists than preserving democracy. Let’s hope America endures long enough for them both to feel the shame they deserve.
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Clearly their thinking goes like this: "I need the votes of people who will also be voting for Trump, so I should say something about how their vote for Trump is okay, actually, even if this pisses off the many more Democratic voters I will need, because what are those Democrats going to do? Not vote? Impossible, everyone votes! This is a smart strategy."
It is of course possible to not comment on everything, or if you must comment, say "if Trump wins, I plan to be an independent voice for our district and I will vote accordingly. If Trump does something good for our district, I'll support that, if he doesn't, I will oppose him, because my duty to my constituents comes first." Apparently, that's too hard, so I guess we have to undermine our own ticket (whether it's Biden or someone else) pre-emptively, and make a total hash of the party's message.
We have our first Quislings, our "Democrats for Vichy".