Frank Capra's America on Backward Day

Yesterday, January 31st was Backward Day (look it up) and it couldn't have come at a more appropriate time. For those unfamiliar with this, on Backward Day we're supposed to do the opposite of what's normally done. Since everything this country has ever maintained to be good, honorable or noble is being undone in favor of blind fealty to an American fuehrer, the timing is poetic.

Like Frank Capra movies, we used to be the country that celebrated the triumph of what's right over the forces of corrupt and powerful bullies thanks to the courage of underdogs and society's belief in the dignity of the common man. Sadly, thanks to the cowardice of the entire Republican Party, we have officially abandoned everything admirable about our system of government. Nearly every Republican we elected to provide a check on a would-be autocrat has chosen instead to be an accomplice in the systematic dismantling of every single thing we once stood for, leaving in their place an indelible stain on our history.

Every day seems to bring a new example of things happening that I once thought would never happen here. One small example is Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) trying repeatedly to illegally expose the "whistleblower" in the Ukraine scandal. There are several reasons why this is so indicative of moral rot and bankruptcy of the Republican Party in the age of Trump: 1) We passed laws protecting whistleblowers so that someone who stood up for what was right could be shielded from retaliation from the criminals they exposed. 2) Rand Paul is philosophically a libertarian, meaning he is in the vanguard of those who would support rooting out and stopping the corruption of an overreaching government official. 3) There is no probative or other value in naming this person, so 4) The real and bone-chilling reason Paul is doing this is pure thuggery. He is counting on intimidation of those who would do the right thing. He is like someone in the early 60s sharing the names of people in Mississippi who were helping blacks register to vote.

We used to stand for the rule of law and while there was the sort of partisan wrangling one might expect in a system such as ours, what we're now seeing is so far beyond the pale on a continual basis that things that would have been front page scandals just a few years ago now provoke a collective yawn. It was like a bad dream yesterday to see headlines that Republicans had managed to block any witnesses from testifying in the impeachment trial. That is to say, they managed to stop facts from coming to light. To put it another way, they succeeded in obstructing justice and helping to create a post-truth world.

The worst part of all is that elected Republicans still know right from wrong but they refuse to do what's right. There is virtually nothing and no one they will defend against Trump's wrath. The free press, the military, our intelligence agencies, war heroes, gold star families, Navy SEALs...are all examples of those Trump has gone after if they differ with Dear Leader. In the last example on that list, Navy SEALs, they have been lumped in with the "deep state"...Navy SEALs!! Trump undid the punishment for the SEAL who by all accounts did what was wrong, then went on to punish those who dared to stand up and do what was right.

If this actually were a Frank Capra movie, Donald Trump would have succeeded in turning Bedford Falls in to Pottersville and the MAGA hat wearing faithful would worship at the altar of Mr. Potter and call George Bailey a "libtard". As proud as I once was of this country is how ashamed of it I am now. Happy Backward Day indeed.