Fuck the 2020 Presidential race.
That’s right. You heard me. I said fuck the 2020 Presidential campaign.
It may feel good to post countdowns to the next Inauguration on your Twitter or Facebook page, and while I get the value of feeling good, what good does it actually do? Maybe it makes someone else feel good briefly. But here’s the truth about 2020:
It’s fucking distraction.
Take a good hard look at the last four years. What did the Obama Administration actually accomplish?
Between 2009 and 2016, President Obama signed 1,340 bills. A significant number of those were things like this gem “To provide for the award of a gold medal on behalf of Congress to Arnold Palmer in recognition of his service to the Nation in promoting excellence and good sportsmanship in golf,” which he signed on September 30, 2009.
Granted, he did a couple of amazing things, like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (January 29, 2009) and the Library of Congress Sound Recording and Film Preservation Programs Reauthorization Act of 2016 (July 29, 2016).
But the truth is, a lot of the good stuff Obama did – like expanding the marine sanctuary in Hawaii – he did by executive order. It wasn’t legislation passed by Congress. And you know why?
Because Congress was too busy trying to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to create any really meaningful legislation.
Congress was too busy trying to make Obama look bad to do its fucking job, which is, to refresh, send the President legislation to either sign or veto.
That is Congress’ job: to make legislation.
And this is why the 2020 Presidential race is the dove flying out of your pocket.
You need to ignore the 2020 Presidential race because without a cooperative Congress, the President only has so much power.
You need to ignore the 2020 Presidential race because 2018 is right around the fucking corner time-wise. In fact, if we didn’t start working on 2018 on say, oh, November 15, 2016 we’re already behind.
And here’s another reason why you need to ignore the 2020 Presidential race: there is a Census happening in 2020.
Half the states in this country are trifecta – Governor, State House, and State Senate – controlled by Republicans. Thirty-two states in all have Republican controlled legislatures, and another six have split legislatures.
You know what that means if we focus on getting a Democrat in the White House in 2020 and continue to let state governments run like this?
It means the Republican party controls redistricting after the 2020 census.
That means more voter suppression, more disenfranchisement, and an ever deepening hole for us to climb out of. It also means an increasing reliance on the Electoral College.
How well did that work for us last time?
We need to focus on getting more people into Congress who see this country as being for all of us not just for the 1%, the white, the heterosexual, the able-bodied, and the church-going.
And just as importantly, we need to focus on our state legislatures before they stab us in the back again and gain the right to shape politics well into third decade of the 21st century.
There’s this great scene from the pilot episode of Magnum P.I.. Magnum is trying to steal his benefactor’s Ferrari as part of a series of security checks on the man’s estate in Hawaii.
After getting through the lock on the security fence, luring and trapping the dogs outside, Magnum goes to work on the car itself even as the “major domo” of the estate has let the dogs back in and sent them to find the intruder.
https://youtu.be/TjuQX2g8uNo
Fuck the 2020 Presidential race.
It’s the dogs. Congress and the state legislatures and ensuring everyone gets to vote…that’s the Ferrari.
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