The Progressive Kevin Speaks

I'll warn you right now, dear reader, this is going to be very political in nature. If you want to continue reading, please do. If not, that's fine but I would ask you to reconsider your decision.

At 2 a.m. today, the Senate passed its tax bill by a vote of 51-49. The only Republican to vote against it was Senator Bob Corker. The final draft of the bill was finished just a few hours before the vote was taken; no one had time to read all 479 pages of it.

The bill literally has dozens of hand-written notes on it, some of which are almost impossible to make sense of. The Democrats proposed a delay on the vote, asking for it to take place on Monday, so they could have time to read it. All fifty-two Republicans voted "Nay" on that proposal.

This bill is a dream come true for conservatives. It allows churches to engage in political activism while maintaining their tax-exempt status. It eliminates the deduction for state and local taxes. It's loaded up with so many gifts to the right wing I can't even begin to list them all.

Of course, the tax bill is just one piece of the right wing agenda, an agenda which is being carried out at a sickening pace.

This year of 2017 has seen, I believe, an unprecedented attack on the very core of our democracy. It's an attack that is being carried out quickly and efficiently in fear of the day that the tide turns and we, the people, take our country back. 

The question is, will the tide ever turn? Will we one day finally see a day in which the progressive agenda starts to be put in place, and we start to repair the damage? Or have we reached a point where so much of what makes our democracy work  has been abandoned, perverted or just plain ignored, that we can't ever make things right again?

I hope for the former but deeply fear the latter may be true.

We need to make it so damn uncomfortable for those who abuse power that they find themselves
with a very simple choice. Start a very painful process of undoing the worst of the damage they've so willingly inflicted, or resign their positions and give someone else a chance at making things better.

The passage of the tax bill is yet another reminder that on-line activism has very real limits as to what it can accomplish. It also reminds us, yet again, that we can send as many letters as we like and make so many phone calls that it ties up the entire system, only to find that our will, the will of the people, has been blatantly ignored.

We need to go old-school, people. We need to stage general strikes anywhere and anytime we can. We need to shut the system down and force those in power to do as we demand. We need to march in the streets, on a scale never seen before in America.

Until those who rule over us as dictators are thrown out of office, imprisoned where justified and shamed whenever possible, things will only get worse.