Swamp Things

Artwork by Michael DiMilo

By Geoff Carter

Politically, the past five years have been—to say the least—turbulent. An ruthless grifter was somehow elected to the highest office in the land; he brazenly tried to steal us blind (and was more than a little successful). He was also sublimely incompetent. His administration either badly bungled and/or negligently ignored COVID 19, the worst pandemic in three generations, indirectly causing the deaths of over 600,000 Americans. After he lost the 2020 elected, he tried to steal it back. When that failed, he called on his followers to attack the American Capitol. To the horror of most Americans—and the world, they did. Now, like a wounded reptile, he has retreated with his Republican minions into his Florida swamp to lick his wounds and plot his next move. 

As much as most Americans would like to believe that this pathetic and horrific chapter of our history is ended, the truth is that the ruthless forces that brought this man to power are still as powerful as ever. As much as we’d like to think of it as an aberration, Donald Trump’s election was no accident. The far-right conservative voters that vaulted him into power have been indoctrinated for decades by the propagandists at Fox News and talk radio. Special interest lobby groups like the Heritage Foundation, the Koch Brothers, ALEC, the Tea Party Express, and dozens of others (including dark money sources) have poured millions of dollars into Republican coffers to help the party fashion a voting base of flag-waving, racist, jingoistic fanatics. 

This small group of wealthy power brokers and lobbyists has been seeking to subvert the will of the American people for at least forty years. Starting with the election of Ronald Reagan, these groups have pursued legislation to shrink government services, empower the wealthy, and to prioritize big business. ALEC, a conservative group funded by far-right donors, has provided states with templates for conservative legislation covering everything from reproductive rights to voter ID laws to concealed carry legislation. These groups have encouraged Republicans to also slash funding for social programs like Social Security and Medicare; in fact, to finance his first tax cut to the wealthy, Reagan’s Greenspan committee recommended taxing Social Security payments as income, which they did.

In 1980, a member of the middle class could send a child to a public university and pay about five hundred dollars per semester for tuition. Today that price is close to ten thousand—for tuition alone. According to CNBC, Americans now pay twice as much in health care today as they did in the 1980s. Yet, according to the Pew Research Center, (Aug. 7, 2018) purchasing power of the average American is the same as it was in 1978. In other words, the middle class is paying significantly more for necessities like health and education than we did forty years ago—we’re paying significantly more for the same product. 

This slow erosion of middle-class buying power is the direct result of conservative policies of trickle-down economics, which—of course—privileged business (and the wealthy). Coupled with Reagan’s revocation of the Fairness Doctrine that required broadcasters to cover new stories in a manner that was “honest, equitable, and balanced” (which makes sense because, according to law, the airwaves are owned by the people). After the Doctrine was revoked in 1987, media outlets were not bound by the same strictures as before, giving rise to radicalized personalities like Rush Limbaugh, Ed McLaughlin, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and others. Their brand of vicious name-calling, thinly veiled racism, and boldly partisan favoritism has led to the growth of a zealous and sometimes rabid fan base. Trump’s campaign rhetoric echoed many of the hardcore Republican ideals originally heard on Fox and Radio Limbaugh. 

The growth of these institutions, like the election of Donald Trump, was no accident. The conservative machine has engineered the present state of American politics. The legislative logjams in Congress, the stonewalling—especially as it pertained to Obama’s court nominees—and out and out lying are direct results of Republicans protecting their power base. 

Why else would thirty-five Republican Senators vote against establishing a commission to investigate the January 6^th invasion of the Capitol Building? These people were there at the riot. They had to hide out while the insurrectionists—excuse me, terrorists—were subdued by police. They were fully aware of what was happening. And yet, GOP Congressman Andrew Clyde compared the insurrectionists, those who broke into offices, assaulted officers, and smeared feces on the walls of the Capitol Building, to tourists. 

Why else would, prior to the riot—and as a prelude to it, did Sens. Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Ron Johnson, and one hundred and forty-four others refused to certify the 2020 presidential election results? Why would they acknowledge and perpetuate Trump’s blatant lie? Why is the Arizona Republican party, to the embarrassment of many, conducting yet another specious recount—conducted, no less, by a privatized firm linked to Republican donors? No conflict there. 

As much as thinking Americans would like to believe that the Trump years were a brief and embarrassing aberration in the democratic process, the truth is that his term as president was the result of decades of conservative manipulation through ALEC, dark money, and out and out propaganda. The privileging of the wealthy, industry deregulation, privatization of schools and prisons, and the takedown of labor unions have all been the direct results of years of conservative scheming. 

And now, today, Republican statehouses across the country have either passed or are proposing legislation to restrict voting access. Georgia recently passed a law making it illegal to give water to anyone standing in polling lines, lines which in the past have resulted in three-hour waits. In Wisconsin, at the height of the Covid pandemic, the Republican legislature refused to delay their primary or to allow extended mail-in voting, instead forcing its citizens to stand in line for hours at risk of infection, just to vote. And they came. There was a record turnout that day. 

We can’t sit back and heave a sigh of relief with the defeat of Donald Trump. Not yet. Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, and the rest of them aren’t done. They still have their eyes on preserving their power, consolidating it, and perverting their own Constitution in the process. We can’t shrug and say “Trump’s gone. Thank God.” He might be in the swamp, but he’s not alone. The rest of these Republicans are with him, floating just beneath the surface. They want our government. All of it. They’ve been planning on getting it for a long time. 

These reptiles have been around a long time; they know how to wait. They know how to survive. They know they’re safe, that the swamp will never be drained.