If you’re having trouble keeping up with all the actions being taken by this Administration to destroy this country’s institutions, and that’s just the known public actions, you’re not alone.
This massive rush to gut everything feels like Trump’s first days in office for 2.0, but this has a different feel, and it’s more. I think they’re afraid of losing power at the midterms, so it all has to be done before November 3rd. Make no mistake, the damage they have already done will not easily be stopped nor corrected. Certainly a change in the composition of Congress will help, but do not expect miracles overnight.
Let us hope the states, which constitutionally control elections, and the officials who manage them on the local level are able to stand up to the Trumpian bullying to corrupt their systems. Each state manages their elections differently on the local level, thus our election system is very decentralized, which makes it more difficult to damage or disrupt. The independent, bipartisan Election Assistance Commission (EAC) was created in 2002 “to help election officials improve the administration of elections and help Americans participate in the voting process.” https://www.eac.gov It was these commissioners that Trump just fired, thus, for all intents and purposes, dismantling and obliterating the work of the EAC. Nevertheless, each state’s election officials know their responsibilities and, hopefully, take those as if our democratic Republic depended on them, because it does.
In a separate post, I will describe my experience as a nonpartisan Election Observer in Chaffee County, Colorado under the aegis of the Alliance for Competitive Elections (ACE) and the League of Women Voters (LWV), of which I’m a member. Colorado has the Gold Standard of election systems, as stated by a Republican Election Judge at one of the voting sites where I was observing. I can assure you that it can absolutely be relied on. It’s only necessary for you to VOTE.
The speed of these attacks feels intentionally overwhelming, so people get too exhausted to push back.
At its core, this isn’t just political noise; it’s a blatant power grab designed to hand the keys over to ultra-wealthy donors & big corporations while gutting the guardrails that keep our democracy fair, secular, and accountable to “We the People.” Sacking the EAC commissioners is a terrifying preview of what happens when independent oversight gets in their way…
They’re counting on us to tune out, but we can’t afford to give in to cynicism. Reclaiming Congress in November is critical, but part of me believes any democratic in in Nov. will be questioned and declared invalid because it “fraud” or they (the republicans in power) will just simply ignore election results that don’t favor them…it starts with protecting our local systems and showing up to vote.
You’re so right, Pete! “They’re counting on us to tune out…”