I highly recommend Dana Millbank's The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party.
In 1994, more than 300 Republicans under the command of obstructionist and rabble-rouser Congressman Newt Gingrich stood outside the U.S. Capitol to sign the Contract with America and put bipartisanship on notice. Twenty-five years later, on January 6, 2021, a bloodthirsty mob incited by President Trump invaded the Capitol.
Dana Milbank sees a clear line from the Contract with America to the coup attempt. In the quarter century in between, Americans have witnessed the crackup of the party of Lincoln and Reagan, to its current iteration as a haven for white supremacists, political violence, conspiracy theories and authoritarianism.
What we need is a Joint House/Senate Document -- A Letter to America (or whatever they call it) as described in this excerpt:
There is a desperate need for Democrats in Congress to open a Second Front and pen A Letter to America that borrows from the Declaration of Independence and clearly, simply makes the case for why what Trump and Musk are doing is an unprecedented, illegal attack on our Constitutional order. This has to be job 1. I’ve written extensively about the need for this letter, and the need as our Founders put it to “let Facts be submitted to a candid world.” Here is how I wrote about it recently:
There needs to be a clear statement from half the Congress that they believe that what Trump is doing is unconstitutional, illegal, wrong and an extraordinary betrayal of our Constitutional order and all of us.
This “letter to America” can become the rallying cry for all of our work together. It can become the amicus brief in every court challenge to Trump. It can become a clear statement to the world that American patriots are fighting this historical betrayal of our democracy but also of freedom loving people throughout the world. The people of America and the world need to hear from Democrats and other leaders of this pro-democracy movement that they understand the stakes of the fight we are in and are willing to leave it all on the line for the most important force for freedom humanity has ever seen. The absence of this clear, simple statement from our Congressional leaders is unacceptable and dangerous, and it is why I believe this “Letter to America” remains our very first ask of all of Congressional representatives.
More here:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220146722
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