George Hahn

Last year's government shutdown over health care didn't result in a solution, but the assignment of blame.

Democrats leveraged the recent partial government shutdown to negotiate for guardrails on America's Gestapo.

Good.

But banning federal agents from wearing masks and ordering independent investigations into the murders of American citizens are empty wins if the Trump administration is responsible for enforcing those policies.

In addition, without true structural change, de-gerrymandering, reversing Citizens United, installing term limits, we'll continue to endure a bipolar America.

Democrats, playing by a rulebook that's been incinerated, come across as neutered and voiceless.

Meanwhile, Republicans are Jekyll and Hyde.

In private, they say Trump is a threat to American democracy.

In public, they're sycophants, praising the president no matter what he says or does.

The result?

Congress is America's answer to the Russian Duma, i.e., nominally important but functionally irrelevant.

When I interviewed historian Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny, on my podcast at the end of January, he said the current state of American politics is best understood as a system of competitive authoritarianism.

A democratically elected leader erodes checks and balances, attacks institutions, and weaponizes the justice system against his opponents.

There will still be elections, but you don't wait for the opposition party, Snyder said.

Instead, the people have to push out ahead of the opposition party.

You have to set the moral terms, take risks, and build a coalition of which the opposition party is a part, but isn't necessarily leading.

Pro-democracy movements aren't created by political parties.

They're created by people.

political parties are elected and returned to office for promising and then delivering tangible results to their constituents.

Good jobs, better schools, clean drinking water, etc.