Now that the Blue Wave actually crashed on the political shores of Washington, D.C., it’s time to think about what happens now. My hope is that the Democrats who won will set an agenda not of retribution but of reconstruction.
Dismantling the damage done by the GOP and Trump will take time, but it can helix results beyond mere “feel good” measures.
On a state level, Texas would do well to look at what our state really needs. That most likely includes a few data centers, but more importantly, medical centers, especially in rural areas.
Some 71 counties in our state do not have a single hospital in them. This means rural Texans often have to drive one or two counties away for medical care.
I would lay odds that those poorly served counties were also MAGA strongholds. Serving the needs of rural Texans will go a long way toward winning over their hearts and minds.
Back in Washington, legislators need to look at ways to make goods and services more affordable for all Americans. Part of that will be to reverse some of the capricious tariffs imposed by Trump. Another big part will be healing the animosities between the U.S. and its neighbors.
Additionally, the folks in Congress can clip the wings of the administration’s current hawkish stance by actually enforcing the War Powers Act. Insist any wars or escalations of war be approved by Congress, instead of allowing the president to continue making random attacks on anyone who displeases him.
For the past couple of years we have lived in an Alice in Wonderland country where the mad queen beheads who ever she wants with impunity — no offense to any of my friends who are actually queens!
Congress should also look at possible ways to get big money out of politics. The Citizens United decision has had deleterious consequences on our democracy and needs some guardrails to prevent billionaires from being the loudest voice in the room. Free speech is far from free since that Supreme Court ruling, and a skilled legislator could find a work ar-ound.
One of the brighter spots in the election results was the abject failure of Elon Musk’s flood of cash to influence the voting. Apparently, the deep-rooted dissatisfaction with Trump ran deeper than even his billions could influence.
Rebuilding the CDC should be a major effort, and it might take legislation to keep political meddling from warping the scientific work that agency has done so well in the past. To win back some of the major players Robert F. Kennedy Jr. chased away might take some reshuffling, but we have to give it back its independence. In an era of emerging biological threats, we cannot afford to have a weakened national immune system because of the whimsical theories of an idiot in charge.
And then there is the problem of outrageous gas prices. Were it up to me, I would clamp down on petroleum exports in the name of national security, but that would most likely bring a lot of hand-wringing about socialism and other bugaboos. The truth is, we produce enough petroleum internally that we are a net exporting country. The limited international supplies driven by the war on Iran have driven prices up to the point that American companies can sell their oil for far higher prices overseas.
Perhaps we could put a temporary price cap on domestic petroleum, but in the past that has proven to be of little good. Lowering gas taxes might be a short-term fix, but the long-term fix is extricating ourselves from the war with Iran.
Meanwhile on the reconstruction front: Maybe Congress could look at programs that fix national problems rather than cosmetic issues in D.C. A whole lot of people could have been fed and housed for the millions of dollars being wasted to build triumphant arches and golden ballrooms, and I suspect most Americans would like to see some kind of national push to reduce poverty and homelessness no matter what their political allegiance.
Now, as to the retribution issue: I think we need to look at things through the lens of justice and begin prosecuting the people in this administration who have clearly encouraged corruption and unconstitutional personal enrichment at the expense of all Americans. That means taking action against the Trump administration — not as an act of revenge, but as a move toward resetting the balance of the scales of justice.
If done from a perspective of doing what is right for democracy and the citizenry of our country, it would be difficult to object to such actions. Yes, there isn’t a veto-proof majority in the Senate, but that doesn’t mean coalitions can’t be built to achieve the goal of pulling democracy back from the brink of fascism.
Perhaps it is the altruistic voice in me that believes that most of our elected representatives want to do what is best for the country and their constituents, and, if properly framed, such a movement could succeed.
It may be time for a rebirth of the New Deal, albeit in a much reimagined form. It is definitely time the cards are reshuffled and the odds are rebalanced. We need to transform the momentum of this election into not just a blue wave but into a blue tide that can sustain us going forward and into the 2028 elections.
Hardy Haberman is a longtime local LGBTQ+ activist and a board member of the Woodhull Freedom Alliance. His blog is at DungeonDiary.blogspot.com.