Should we do our job, or do our job??
After the midterm election blowout, there was one question floating around the airwaves. Every interview with a Democrat, every talking head on cable news, every youtube commentator—everyone wanted to know whether Democrats will focus on accountability or on policies that will make Americans' lives better.
After the Democrats cleaned up on election day, Jefferies said that Americans wanted them to focus on policy, not to get even. But who said anything about getting even?? No one (that I'm aware of, at least!) said "Let's break the law just like they did! Let's do our own corruption! Let's do OUR part to dismantle democracy in OUR image!" We need to prosecute the lawlessness that the administration has lived for the last two years. That's not getting even. It's a core feature of our government: checks and balances. AND we need to focus on policy at the same time. The two responsibilities can't be separated.
Congress isn't a one-or-the-other entity. Their job is to legislate, AND to perform oversight for the purpose of providing a check on abuses of executive power. It's ridiculous to ask "should we focus on policy or investigations and accountability?" The answer is YES. BOTH. Walk and chew gum. Do your job; the whole job.
We need Congress to tackle affordability (raise the federal minimum wage, strengthen union power, tighten anti-trust legislation to prevent and address existing monopolies, address price gauging, address the housing and homelessness crisis etc). We also need Congress to stand in their existing authority to end the war in Iran. Not another dollar should be allocated to an illegal war. We ALSO need them to provide new supports to our democracy, strengthening the rights this administration has targeted (like voting rights, birthright citizenship, the right to walk freely on the street without the fear of being kidnapped by masked agents who may or may not work for the government). They need to make meaningful changes to the systems that allowed a complicit Congress to let the executive branch run rampant, unchecked. That means taking a policy approach to the accountability side of things—see how things are inextricably intertwined??
We need to address the corruption and the weaponization that has occurred over the last two years. We can't just say "well, that was rough, huh?" and move on! People need to be held accountable AND systems need to change. Our democracy has proven to be perilously fragile. Our information ecosystems have proven to be astonishingly manipulative and vulnerable. We've always had a fascistic streak; it's in our DNA. But things reached new heights over the last two years and we need to make some significant changes to not only make sure that never happens again, but to fix some of what was broken even before Trumpism blew up American politics.
And yes, Trump is going to veto shit. He'll veto policies that aren't favorable to him or his entourage of billionaire cronies just as quickly as he vetos ones that strengthen the checks and balances in our government. But that doesn't mean Congress shouldn't be doing the work Americans elected them to do.
Congress deciding whether they should do accountability or policy would be like a doctor deciding whether they should fix the heart or the lungs of the patient in front of them. Except it's a team of doctors funded by taxpayer dollars to do both and given two years to make it happen.