Don't Let Democracy Die on the Couch

It was around this time of year forty years ago. Ronald Reagan had first been elected president in 1980 and was in the thick of running for reelection in the summer of ‘84 when it happened.

The Democrats had just met at the Moscone Center in San Francisco in July to officially christen Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro as the ticket to unseat Reagan and Bush.

Reagan and his wife Nancy were enjoying a few days of downtime at their 700-acre Rancho del Cielo near Santa Barbara prior to the Republican National Convention that was set to convene on August 20 at the Dallas Convention Center in Texas.

A gaggle of reporters had gathered on the ranch for what was supposed to be a picture-taking session only, but one of the reporters questioned Reagan on the new threat of Soviet space weapons.

Reagan, only 73 years old, drew a complete blank — he had no idea what to say.

He didn’t stutter or stammer or trip over his words; he had no words at all.

Nancy dropped her head — so reporters couldn’t see her mouth moving — and muttered, “doing everything we can.”

Reagan dutifully repeated, “doing everything we can.”

Nancy then took him by the arm signaling the session was over.

She later angrily denied that she helped him answer; she ridiculously claimed she was talking to herself softy and was surprised Reagan heard her — “I must have been standing on his good side or he had that gizmo turned up.”

Republicans didn’t panic and insist on replacing Reagan at the convention three weeks later.

In November of that year, Reagan went on to win the presidency by the largest landslide in history…. 525 electoral votes for Reagan compared to 13 electoral votes for the younger more adept Mondale; Reagan carried 49 out of 50 states.

Mondale wasn’t just some “no-name” — he had served as Vice-President under Jimmy Carter only four years earlier, from 1977 to 1981.  

At the Myrtle Hill Cemetery in Rome, Georgia lies the grave of Ellen Axson Wilson, the first wife of President Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States who served two terms from March 4, 1913, to March 4, 1921.

Ellen died in the White House on August 6, 1914 of Bright’s Disease, now known as acute glomerulonephritis, a type of kidney disease.

Woodrow’s first cousin, Helen Woodrow Bones, stepped in to fulfil the hostess duties of the First Lady. Bones introduced President Wilson to Edith Bolling Galt whose husband, Norman Galt, had died in 1908 at the age of 43.

President Wilson took an immediate interest in Edith. His romance of her was so quick that gossip and rumors were soon accusing the couple of conspiring to murder Wilson’s first wife.

The opposition was so strong and swift, President Wilson wanted to call the whole thing off. But Edith prevailed on him to simply wait the “standard” one-year-after-death-of-a-spouse before they got married.

Edith Bolling Galt Wilson became the First Lady on December 18, 1915, two and a half years into Woodrow’s eight years in office.

In 1916, Woodrow Wilson won re-election for his second term in the middle of WWI which had started on July 28, 1914, and continued until November 11, 1918.

In October 1919, after returning home from the Paris Peace Conference, President Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke.

The extent of his disability was not known because First Lady Edith Wilson essentially became acting president.

She kept the bed-ridden president out of sight and all contact with him had to go through her. She looked at all documents and communications and decided — alone — whether she would answer them or whether they were of enough importance for her to supposedly “show to the president.”

This went on for a year and three months until his time in office was finished.

The Executive Office of the President is comprised of The White House Office, The West Wing Office, The East Wing Office, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and the New Executive Office Building.

The White House Office, alone, has over 1,800 civil servant positions.

Altogether, more than FOUR MILLION Americans go to work every day to carry out the business of the “Executive Branch.”

This self-executing, self-perpetuating “Deep State” runs the day-to-day operations of the U.S. government without any input or direction from the president.  

A president could be bedridden for years and except for his absence at the pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey, we would never miss him.

Your Social Security check is going to arrive on time no matter how many times a president stutters and stammers.

The US diplomatic mission in East Bumfuck is going to issue your visa to return home no matter how many times a president stumbles on the steps.

The EPA will continue issuing fines to polluters, the USDA will keep inspecting your steaks, the FDIC will keep protecting your money, all while the president can’t remember what he had for breakfast.

What’s needed behind the Resolute Desk is a person whose heart is in the right place; a person who genuinely wants the best for America; a person who wants to preserve the overall status quo while bringing about incremental change designed to better the lives of ordinary Americans — “the government” will run itself.

What it can’t do is protect itself.

The government cannot protect itself from a rogue president hell-bent on dismantling it.

The government can’t protect itself from a president who hates our country as it is and has designs to destroy it.

The government can’t protect itself from a president with plans rip out democracy and replace it with fascism.

This is the stated goal of Project 2025… Trump plans to destroy the government’s ability to exist on its own; its ability to provide American society with an orderly and predictable form of governing.      

Biden and Trump are both old.

With Biden, the country will continue moving forward on the path he set in his first term; his agenda will continue on auto-pilot — the legislation is already in place… if your goal is order and predictability and positive progress.

But auto-pilot is ill-equipped to protect us from a president whose goal is utter chaos.

Both are old.

They are not the same.

The difference between them is vast and stark.

With Biden, our democracy will survive — and even THRIVE, due to multi-year legislation he banked in his first term.

With Trump, our democracy will die.

Some Democratic voters, frustrated with Biden, have said enduing the short-term pain of another Trump presidency may be worth it to get the long-term gain of teaching Democratic leaders a lesson: “Give us better candidates or we will burn the house down.”

That’s not new thinking — it’s been around for years. It’s why we lost the House in 2012; it’s why we lost the Senate in 2014 — Democrats “punishing” President Obama for not doing enough for them. It’s why Trump won in 2016 — Democrats “punishing” the Democratic Party for not giving us “better choices.”

Politics is cumulative — we don’t start fresh each election. We are still — TODAY — contending with the self-inflicted sabotage brought on by Democrats punishing Democrats in 2012 and 2014 and 2016.

One Democratic voter interviewed on MSNBC this week said, “There are really three choices: 1.) Biden; 2.) Trump; and 3.) the couch, and right now the couch is looking pretty good.”

Democrats never get very far ahead of Republicans because of this “staying on the couch” mentality they have engaged in for years to punish the Democratic party for not giving them “better choices.”

If you stay on the couch this time…

…it will be the last time.