A republic, madam, if you can keep it

A spectacularly malevolent botching of a pandemic; a horrific economic collapse; and, now, a months-long effort to subvert the verdict of the majority of Americans who chose a new direction of robust government action to deal with these challenges, which Trump, backed by Republicans, did so much to inflict upon us.

In short, the Republican Party will do all it can to grind the Biden agenda to a halt, crippling our ability to act in the face of these major crises, not to mention other longer-term ones, such as stagnant wages, skyrocketing inequality and our warming planet.

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Now that the vast majority of Senate Republicans voted to acquit former president Donald Trump of inciting violent insurrection, as we all knew they would, Democrats should immediately respond as follows:

1. Pass H.R.1 and S.1 with all deliberate speed.

2. Be prepared to nuke the legislative filibuster if and when Republicans obstruct it in the Senate.

3. Get the package into law as quickly as possible.

Here’s what the moment requires, above all: Democrats must accept the full implications of the GOP’s ongoing and intensifying radicalization. And they must be prepared to act upon them.

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Even relatively “responsible” Republicans displayed this ongoing radicalization. GOP congressional leaders — such as Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) — refused to recognize Biden’s win for weeks. Then, after mouthing noises of disapproval about Trump’s election lies, they meekly backed off, all to keep Trump voters in the GOP coalition.

Trump’s acquittal only confirms what many observers had long pointed out: In some fundamental sense, much of the GOP is no longer functioning as an actor in a democracy.

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[T]o remain competitive in national elections, Republicans will redouble their commitment to making it harder to vote and to rigging electoral maps to maximize their share of power relative to the proportion of actual votes they win.

This means being willing to exercise power while they have it to go big on covid relief and the economy — and mercifully, Democrats don’t appear to be chasing bipartisan support for its own sake. But it also means being willing to deploy power to prevent a quick return to national power for Republicans via minority rule, and the dysfunction, disillusionment and resurgence of authoritarianism that this would bring.

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For Democrats to act boldly out of a forthright appreciation of these circumstances does not rule out all bipartisan cooperation. One can see Democrats working with a handful of GOP senators on things such as an expanded child tax credit or infrastructure repair. But it does mean accepting the need to act forcefully to neutralize the GOP’s reliance on anti-democratic tactics, which will only get worse.

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It’s [...] inspiring that the election went relatively smoothly, due to the heroic diligence of countless election workers across the country — including many Republicans who bucked their party’s lurch into authoritarianism — amid brutal and unpredictable pandemic conditions and a hyper-charged atmosphere of violent civil conflict.

But Trump’s acquittal by so many Republicans after an unprecedented effort to overthrow U.S. democracy also hints at the fragility of those gains. Fully realizing the potential of civic renewal embedded in this moment will require Democrats to accept the full implications of this ongoing radicalization — and to act upon them.

  WaPo