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Washington is a dead end. Donald Trump and the Republicans would destroy everything to maintain power. But this is America. We rise to the challenge and are reborn in the forge of adversity.
The Dead End
Republicans failed to pass a budget for this fiscal year. That’s why the government shut down. In place of a budget, they want Democrats to bail them out by supporting a continuing resolution.
That sounds like normal politics. It isn’t. Under Donald Trump, Washington has become the dead end of the American experiment.
Republicans say funding levels will remain the same. In fact, extending the old budget means letting health care subsidies expire. Experts agree that the impact will be swift and severe. The GOP budget raises health insurance premiums more than 75 percent for 24 million of us.
Republicans say Democrats can trust that the budget will be honored by the administration. Yet when Democrats suggested language that would require the administration to use the funds as budgeted, the GOP refused. The last time Democrats agreed to support a continuing resolution to keep government open, the Republicans went ahead and rescinded the spending anyway.
Republicans say passing a budget allows the government to function as usual. It does not. The Trump Administration has fully politicized the federal government, so that spending money on things like civil rights now means spending money to deny civil rights. Spending money for the Justice Department now means spending money to prosecute those on Donald Trump’s enemies list. And spending money on defense now means spending money to send troops into American cities.
Instead of forcing a shutdown, Republicans could do their job and pass a budget. But Speaker Mike Johnson keeps extending the House vacation. That’s right, while the government workers are not being paid, Johnson gave the House of Representatives a paid vacation.
Why? Because when they come back, he has to swear in a Democrat who won a house seat a month ago. And when she is sworn in there will be enough signatures on a petition to require a vote on whether to release the Epstein files. Speaker Johnson would rather keep the House from opening during this crisis than permit that vote.
Unlike the House, the Senate is in session. They are working on the budget. This week they passed their version of the Defense Authorization Act. The final bill was amended to repeal the authority to use the military in Iraq, but Republican Senators voted down measures to limit the use of our troops in American cities and to require them to wear ID when deployed domestically. Because of Republican Senators, the residents of Basra in Iraq are now safer from unwanted U.S. military intervention than the residents of Chicago.
Americans Are Fed Up
Across America, people are fed up. We see an out-of-control president who is more concerned with building a gilded ballroom in the White House than with the lives of Americans.
This week, Trump demanded a Nobel Peace Prize. And when he didn’t get it, he caused the stock market to crash by canceling a summit with President Xi and threatening to impose 100 percent tariffs on Chinese imports. Tariffs already caused China to boycott American soybeans, bankrupting American farmers. What does Trump do? He bails out Argentina so they can sell soybeans, you guess it, to China.
Americans are fed up with the unprecedented and heavy-handed propaganda. Earlier this year, taxpayers paid for giant banners of Donald Trump to hang from government buildings. This week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem cut a video and is playing at airport security lines across the country. In it, she blames Democrats for the delays caused by the shutdown.
Americans are fed up with the lawlessness. Pam Bondi, the nation’s highest law enforcement official, testified before Congress that there is no enemies list. In fact, Trump actually posted an enemies list on Truth Social and directed Bondi to go after the people on it. She is now indicting her way down the list. And that video of Noem’s? It is a clear violation of the Hatch Act which prohibits spending government money on politics. No matter, Bondi believes that if the President wants it, it cannot be illegal.
Across the country, Americans are planning to attend No Kings rallies. Literally thousands of these rallies are planned — in big cities and small farming towns, in blue states and in red ones. It looks like Saturday, October 18 will be the single largest protest in American history.
On cue, Speaker Johnson called it a “hate America rally,” and said it was “the pro-Hamas wing … the ANTIFA people.” That would be funny, except that Donald Trump has declared ANTIFA a “domestic terrorist organization,” and promised to crush it. (ANTIFA stands for ant-fascist; it’s not an actual organization; there are no founders; no centralized leadership; no membership.)
Americans are fed up in places like Chicago, where the Presidents’ thugs are the real domestic terrorist organization. Over-armed and under trained, ICE and CBP continue to harass journalists, treat peaceful protesters as enemy combatants, and detain citizens without cause.
This is the dead end offered by the ruling party in Washington. But this is America, and a new beginning can already be seen.
The Rebirth of American Freedom
The rebirth begins right here in Chicago, ground zero in Trump’s assault on the rule of law. Chicagoans have come out to protect one another. We show up at school drop-offs and pick-ups to protect the children. [ [link removed] ] Many adults without children, or those whose own children are now adults, show up. [ [link removed] ] We look out for our neighbors. We protest, and we pray. We bear witness.
Chicagoans are showing the country what they no longer see in Washington: common decency, community, commitment to the rule of law and to each other. Most importantly, right here amidst an armed effort to coerce this great city, Chicagoans are showing the whole world that most American trait — the determination to be free.
There is no force so powerful.
Edwin Eisendrath hosts “It’s the Democracy, Stupid” on Lincoln Square and “The Big Picture” on WCPT820 AM/ Heartland Signal. [ [link removed] ] He’s the former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times, a long-time management consultant, a former Chicago Alderman, HUD Regional Administrator and teacher in Chicago’s public schools. You can follow him on BlueSky at eisendrath.net [ [link removed] ] and Substack at “It’s the Democracy, Stupid.” [ [link removed] ] Read the original column here. [ [link removed] ]

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