Jonathan P. Baird

The midterm election is quickly approaching and many observers are predicting a blue wave. While no one knows in advance how the election will turn out there are many reasons to expect a Democratic sweep. A needless and stupid war, an economy that is crushing working people, skyrocketing gas prices and Trump’s boundless corruption: all point toward an across-the-board rejection of the Republican Party.

The Trump presidency has been an unmitigated disaster. It should be clear by now that Trump’s main goal has been enriching himself. Michael Wolff has said Trump hopes to pocket $20 billion from this term. When he asked Trump back in 2016 why he wanted to run for president, Trump answered that he wanted to be the most famous person in the world. This is not a person who has the slightest interest in improving the living standards of the American people.

He has presided over the moral degeneration of the Republican Party. What used to be a conservative political party has become a fascist party fueled by racism, sexism, xenophobia and Islamophobia. MAGA is a cult of personality propped up by tech billionaires and white supremacists. As their electoral prospects have faded, the Republicans go lower and lower thinking that ever more disgusting racism and sexism will advance their cause and save them.

Look at the Republican campaign directed against Michigan senatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed. El-Sayed is a public health doctor but Donald Trump labels him a jihadist and a terrorist. Republicans falsely accuse El-Sayed of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. They brainlessly make fun of his name. The Republican campaign has focused on Islamophobia and presenting El-Sayed as un-American. El-Sayed committed the crime of being Muslim. Republicans’ notion of freedom of religion only extends to right-wing Christians.

Then there is the racist prosecution of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar where federal agents raided her home. They took her phones, computers, notebooks and her passport and this is a member of Congress running for re-election. Trump has long sought her denaturalization and deportation even though she is a citizen. He calls her and all Somalis “garbage”. Talk about explicit racism. Who needs Nazis?

The Department of Justice is violating its long-standing policy of avoiding potentially interfering and influencing an election within 60 days of voting.

Trump has directed hate against Omar for years and she has received a multitude of death threats. Lost is the fact Omar was a child when she came to the U.S. and her deceased father completed her immigration paperwork. Do they plan to blame a child for the actions of a parent? The government had previously looked into the charge of immigration fraud against Omar in Trump’s first term and they stopped the investigation because of insufficient evidence but here we are again.

The Republican congressional candidacy of Max Miller also deserves mention. Miller is running for re-election to Congress in Ohio even though he has faced accusations of domestic violence. He has been engaged in a divorce and custody battle with his ex-wife Emily Moreno who is the daughter of Ohio’s Republican senator, Bernie Moreno.

Sen. Moreno says he holds his breath when Miller has custody of his granddaughter. He called Miller “a danger to my daughter” and said the domestic violence situation is “our hell”. In legal filings, Emily Moreno said he threw her against a wall, scalded her with boiling water and he held a gun to her head.

Domestic violence is apparently not disqualifying for Republican candidates. Considering the judgment against Trump in the E. Jean Carroll case and the fact that more than 20 women have complained about him, sexism is the norm.

Which leads to the appalling Vivek Ramaswamy ad attacking Amy Acton. Ramaswamy is running against Acton for governor of Ohio. When Acton was 12, she and her brother were removed from their home because her stepfather had sexually assaulted her. A grand jury indicted her stepfather but her mother and stepfather fled the state to avoid prosecution. Acton’s mother did nothing to protect her daughter and abandoned her. The daughter and her mother have had no contact since 1978 when she was 12 years old. The stepfather lived as a fugitive until his death in 2004.

Ramaswamy paid for and ran an ad and has continued to run an ad featuring Acton’s mother in which the mother calls her daughter a liar. The ad offers no context. Both Trump and J.D. Vance have defended this utterly indefensible ad. Raping a child is apparently of no consequence.

This is not the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan or any traditional conservative. The party is racist and sexist to the core. It allows for no deviation from whatever Trump thinks. Witness Thomas Massie or Marjorie Taylor Greene. In New Hampshire we have the candidacies of Kelly Ayotte and John Sununu. Because of Trump’s unpopularty they try to skirt him, remaining silent about his fascist ascendancy. They don’t want to alienate MAGA but their campaigns embody cowardice. They say nothing in the face of fascism and the vicious track record of racism and sexism.

The present incarnation of the Republican Party has earned total repudiation. The party is like a hydra. In this election the people need to be like Hercules. They need to slay the beast. Fascism is not inevitable.