The master plan doesn’t exist. There is a theory that pretends to explain why exactly seven democrats voted yes on the government funding bill that includes more money for ICE: it states that ICE is already funded “for years to come” by the so called “big beautiful bill” and the negative impact of a shut down would deny Democrats the ability to win the midterms. It also states that there are provisions for ICE accountability and oversight, negotiated into the bill passed yesterday.
According to this theory, Democrats in the House cleverly expressed a large majority of no votes, demanded by the people, and selected the exact number of yes votes from members in red or very purple districts to “take the fall”, ensuring the objectives I mentioned. Sounds like a plan, Stan? Not really. Never mind all the facts that make this “plan” a bad one, the main reason this is hog wash is that if it were true it didn’t need to be a secret. They could have explained it to us.
I believe either there was no such plan or they knew the rationale for it wouldn’t pass the smell test with us. I’m inclined towards the no plan hypothesis. I also believe there was plenty of negotiations to keep ICE active, because that was telegraphed by members of the House and Senate during the past weeks: the body cams, the training, the oversight, all the provisions regarding ICE were put out there by senior Democrats, and each time we told them no.
If indeed there was a plan to sacrifice the exact number of House Democrats on the altar of public opinion, it was not designed to stop ICE but to stop us from going ape shit on all of them and allow the Democratic leadership to save face. Everyone knows the costs of a government shut down but we also know the cost of surrendering to fascism. Each time we miss the opportunity to push for real change, in the current political environment, we’re giving up without a fight.
The idea ICE can be reined in by oversight and body cams is ludicrous. This isn’t political chess; it’s political suicide. If there was indeed a way to achieve positive results without a government shut down there are no reasons to keep it a secret, and to pretend this was some sort of master plan on a chess board is gaslighting. There was no plan. Only the delusional survival game of politicians who put their careers ahead of our needs. They think they can make it to the midterms.
Their position, in real terms, is that there will be an inevitable blue wave in November, caused by the fascist policies and actions of the regime. It feels like every Renee Good, every Liam Conejo Ramos, represent a few more thousand votes for them, which is a terrible thing to say and yet they do nothing but pay lip service to them. The doom sayers will tell you there’s nothing they can do but weather the storm until November. I call bullshit.
More importantly than shutting down the government at every spending bill vote they can slow it down to lethargic levels just by using Congress procedural norms. They can call a quorum for every single vote on every single issue, they can filibuster every single debate, they can delay every single nomination, they can stay in session indefinitely and describe the horrors we are experiencing in excruciating detail every single day. They do none of this consistently. Only occasionally.
The result? If you google “filibuster” you will find out that Cory Booker holds the record for it, a session I remember well as I watched live the senator keeping an eye on the clock as the seconds to said record were running and his colleagues interrupted him to celebrate the achievement. We got a record. Yay, I guess. I hope the few dollars he got from it were worth it: more and more these actions look like fund raising events. Because that’s all they are, in the end.
I am growing old and tired. I have no fucks left to give. I became a citizen of this once great nation knowing it was great because of its promise: the promise to be better, to do better, to evolve. I pledge allegiance to the flag I always revered as a symbol of freedom over Nazism only to see it desecrated by fascists who fly it as their own. This country has not lost all hope because of those who fight for that exact promise and see the flag as I do. But it’s getting harder.
I never imagined I would become citizen and watch my country of choice turn into a dystopian nightmare, where fascists with antisemitic roots become champions in defense against antisemitism at the same time democrats with civil rights roots rally around Islamic fascism and terrorism apologists; a world where victims are only believed if they are the right kind of victims at the same time history is being erased and rewritten before our eyes. Yet here I am. Yet here we are.
At least I can still vote. For now. I can still do everything I can to make a difference. I can still hope we got a shot at this. We can do it together, no matter what we believe in, as long as it’s not fascism - ANY kind of fascism. I never fell for selective outrage and I can see those who practice it in the trenches with the rest of us. We can deal with them later. I don’t expect their help: they are performers in their own fascist play. This is not new. This is exactly the same.
Everything I wrote about during the campaign of 2024 is as valid today as it was then. The people who allowed fascism to take power by clinging to their delusions of political purity will never vote for Democratic candidates. They see Social Democracy as just another form of “capitalist” system. They may vote for some “Socialist Democrats” running as Democratic Party candidates and you know what? That’s fucked up but we can deal with them as we save our democracy. Fuck them.
Their appeal will fade as their true colors are revealed and, right now, every single vote against the regime counts. Think of them as the Soviets in WW2. I hope that, at the very least, they think of us too as the Western Allies of old and don’t fuck this up. I don’t place much trust in that hope, but the fight is on and we HAVE to win. Like in 2024 I place my hope in those who usually don’t vote because the bad is getting terribly worse, but I am not too sure about them either.
In retrospect, however, after the orange turd’s first term it was the decisive factor: a lot of people who didn’t use to vote got off their indifference and voted against the government. That did not happen in 2024, but it can happen now, as it did in 2020. I do hope so. Still, unlike our disappointing Democratic members of Congress, I don’t think victory is assured in November. We must fight.
That fight includes holding their feet to the fire, vote in every primary like our lives depend on it and after that close ranks and put an end to this fascist regime. Like in the fight against Nazi Germany, victory is the goal. We can deal with “the Soviets” later. I know a lot of people suffered after VE Day, and I know we lost Eastern Europe to keep Western Europe free. But it doesn’t have to be like that again. Now we know what happened after, and we are ready to fight it as well.
Keep demanding the impossible. Keep telling our elected officials to fight. Yes, fuck it, shut it down: stop pretending they’re playing a secret game of chess. We see them. Demand they use every tool at their disposal to grind this regime to a halt. Let them know they can try to run from abolishing ICE, but they can’t hide. We know who they are and we will never forget or forgive. But keep your eyes on the fucking ball. And fucking FIGHT.