The great hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, once said: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it’s been.” This differentiated him from all other hockey players of his time.
Let’s apply this aphorism to what it will take to save our country from losing our democracy and core values; the things that differentiate us from all other countries in the world.
From the beginning of Trump’s presidency many people who opposed him said, while it was bad, we shouldn’t worry too much because there are checks and balances in our democratic system of government, and worse case he can be voted out in four years.
Well, so much for checks and balances. The Legislative Branch of government that has oversight responsibility of the Executive Branch has been all but ignored as it attempts to better understand how Russia attacked our voting process and how to prevent it from happening in the future. Congress also wants to understand why Trump is so secretive about his finances, and if it’s possible that he might be compromised by the Russians. As an American citizen, I sure want to know!
But Trump has made it clear that former and current members of his administration being asked to testify before Congress, even those being subpoenaed, will NOT be allowed to comply with the requests. So, the checks and balances safety net appears to have huge tears in it.
Now, the majority of Americans are saying we need to do everything possible to get a Democrat elected in 2020. This is what makes a great democracy, an opportunity for its citizens to vote for who they want. The majority rules.
WRONG! First, our electoral college allows people to win elections while not getting the majority of the votes. As a reminder, Hillary Clinton got over 3 million more votes than Donald Trump in 2016, but he is now President, not her.
Our elections are free and safe for all eligible citizens to vote.
Again, this is WRONG.
Not only did the Russians interfere with our election process, they may have helped tilt the election to Donald Trump, since it’s become clear he was Putin’s choice.
And, we would like to believe that if a Democrat wins the 2020 presidential election, they will be our new President.
Once again, WRONG.
This is where the Gretzky quote comes into play. Thinking that a person who wins the most Electoral College votes becomes president is like skating to where the puck is. When you get there it will be gone. If we skate to where the puck will be we will see that Donald Trump will most likely not leave office, even if he loses.
One of the many reasons Trump does not want to recognize what the Russians did in the 2016 election is because he wants them to do it again. If he should get fewer Electoral College votes than his Democratic opponent he will call it a “rigged election” and he will insist that the election was interfered with by a foreign power. He will say that you can’t put a new person in office until we understand what happened. So, he will remain President until this can be sorted out – maybe until he dies…
With balance of power and oversight gone, he can rely on his newly created Justice Department to support his wishes and create a legal scenario to support it.
What can the U.S. Congress do?
If the Democrats can take control of the Senate, this would be a game changer. But I’m not going to bet on that happening. Odds are, control of the Senate will remain with Republicans.
My request to our Democrats in the House and Senate is to skate to where the puck is going to be, and do it now. If you wait it will be too late.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a quick answer for how to get to the puck, but I know we have a lot of very smart people in Congress who do truly care about our democracy and our core values and I beg them to step up to the task and find a way.
As a start, the U.S. House of Representatives can demand that Mueller, McGahn, Barr, Don, Jr, etc. testify in public hearings before the appropriate House Committees. And, as authorized under Section 1 of our Constitution, Congress controls appropriations for executive actions. It’s time for the Democratic House of Representatives to stop talking about impeachment and start focusing on the power they have to stop Trump and his cronies through the power of the purse.
Remember, voters gave Democrats control of the House of Representatives in the 2018 mid-term elections because people wanted OVERSIGHT!
My hope is for the Democrats in Congress to become great legislators, and elevate themselves to the same class as Wayne Gretzky.