We need truth and total honesty

Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa recorded another episode of Gaslit Nation midday on November 4th, the day after the election. It’s titled The Final Countdown. Though ballots were still being counted there were enough that were to allow Kendzior and Chalupa to discuss some results. Chalupa said that people are hurting and desperate for strong leadership. The nasty guy was not that. But neither was Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Several Democrats aligned with Pelosi, some who voted against impeachment, lost. That prompted some to claim people voted against Democrats because they were afraid of socialism. Except… it was The Squad, the progressives, that did well and added members. They didn’t gaslight their voters, they participated in tough conversations, and set aggressive goals in climate change and income inequality. They also explained how supremacy gave us the nasty guy. The big blue wave in 2018 was because people showed up to impeach the nasty guy. That’s what they wanted Democrats to do. For a long time Pelosi shrugged it off, then when she had to hobbled the process by limiting the scope. And this was taken as a betrayal. Pelosi could have had a stunning lineup of witnesses at congressional hearings that would have broken through conservative media. Kendzior pointed out that before Pelosi reclaimed the Speaker job in 2019 the Democrats were holding aggressive hearings. It doesn’t make sense, when people like DeStroy were destroying the election, to say, as Pelosi did, “Vote them out.” People wanted accountability and to know Democrats had their back. Pelosi wasn’t providing that. The Squad, which includes AOC, and other progressives, such as Katie Porter, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren, remained popular. Alas, another person who makes people feel like they are not abandoned, that he’s got their back, is the nasty guy. Though he doesn’t at all – just see what he’s done with the virus. Kendzior said that it was Pelosi, seen as out of touch, that caused the Democrats to lose seats in the House. Chalupa suggests that one reason why Michigan and Minnesota went for Biden is Squad member Rashida Tlaib is from Michigan and Squad member Ilan Omar is from Minnesota. The progressives prevented Pelosi from losing the House. Yet The Squad has to work hard against the corporate control of the Democratic Party. Why, with election hacking as a possible tool for stealing the election, did the nasty guy feel he need to destroy the Postal Service as well? The first could be done in secret, the second was out in public. That question wasn’t answered. Was there hacking in 2016? Probably. But Dems are still arguing over that. Because of that argument and the mocking that went with it election security was an issue no one wanted to touch. But they also refused a full investigation into what did happen. So, by 2022 we need to get election security, including handmarked ballots, in place. In this election there were strange things. There were dramatic changes in votes from groups in southern Texas. Lindsey Graham’s win in South Carolina seems questionable. We need a full audit of this election and do what we refused to do in 2016. There’s a lot of evidence of rigging. That doesn’t negate that millions of Americans voted for the nasty guy a second time knowing full well he’s a supremacist, is letting the pandemic spread, and is a pathological liar. There’s another round of people wondering why the polls were off in a few places. Chalupa said that pollsters, instead of trying to figure out why their algorithms got it wrong, should become election security advocates. That your numbers didn’t accurately predict the outcome is likely a sign of vote theft. They mentioned a few wins by progressive issues. One of those is Oregon that decriminalized drug possession (drug dealing is still a crime). Chalupa made the point that these “progressive” issues really aren’t progressive. That includes universal health care. Leaders should be talking about such things so they are seen as ordinary and no longer as progressive. Doing so is called leadership. Kendzior thinks Biden is more receptive to accountability, to investigating and punishing the nasty guy for his crimes. Even so, there are Republicans, and even some Democrats, who think it is common sense to sweep all that away and focus on the future. But we need truth and total honesty. We need to name the flaws in our institutions. And we need to bring to justice all who have harmed human rights. Yes, all, as in the pandemic prince, Stephen Miller, Stephen Mnuchin, and others considered untouchable. But we – the ones who have suffered – are owed the justice of investigating and prosecuting those who have caused that suffering. We will need to continue to badger Democrats to make it happen. Kendzior said:

I hope people get their values straight, because there's so much that's depressing about this election. It's depressing that so many people voted for Trump. It's depressing that our election security is still in tatters, even though it's never been more overt what the threat is. And it's depressing that the Democratic Party itself wouldn't stand up for the American people, even in the midst of a pandemic. But I am encouraged, somewhat, by Biden, by the Squad, by the more outspoken and activist members of this party, by all those people who aren't holding a particular office right now like Beto O’Rourke or honestly, even Pete Buttigieg, who's been very good on Fox News at countering this disinformation campaign. That might sound like a small thing but it's actually very important and it's difficult to do. There are a lot of good people out there and it's just a matter of those good people getting into positions of power, getting into positions of influence, and never bowing down to this corrupt corporate machine that has subsumed our politics and abandoned our people. There is a possibility for a better future–for a better country–but you're going to have to fight very hard and be vigilant not just against the obvious enemy, but against the enemies within.

Chalupa said:

Please understand, for a post Civil War country that had rampant Nazi ideology, that created a holocaust against countless people–Black and brown people–and created generations of trauma, America, given that we're born out of fascism and genocide, we're doing really damn well, okay? If you accept the fact that America is a far-right country, and that we're coming out of that–that we're trying to evolve away from that for the sake of ourselves and also the rest of the world–we have a lot to be grateful for in terms of what went on last night. So, please, maintain the long view.