Can Josh Riley Defeat Fascism With Moderate Economic Reforms?
There’s a piece of legislation being rushed to the floor of the House of Representatives this week without the normal process of committee hearings and amendments. That’s because the Republican leadership in Congress doesn’t want a deliberative, democratic process in its passage. They just want to shove it through.
The content of the proposed law is strikingly in accord with that anti-democratic process. It’s called the No Rogue Rulings Act - H.R. 1526. It’s a bill that, if passed, will “limit the authority of US District Court” judges, so that they can no longer stand in the way of illegal, unconstitutional actions by the President of the United States.
I’m thinking about this rapid-action legislative process to pass a new law that smashes an institution of democracy, judicial review, in the context of Josh Riley’s recent heavily-filtered online town hall meeting. 8,000 people attended, but only about ten people were allowed to ask their questions.
Nonetheless, one of the questions asked of Josh Riley was demanding to know what Congressman Riley is doing to stop the fascist attacks by Elon Musk and Donald Trump that are destroying constitutional freedoms and balance of power in the United States, replacing them with an authoritarian regime.
Representative Riley bristled against the suggestion that he should be focused on defending democracy, and said that he prefers to work on small-scale “kitchen table issues” instead. Riley said:
“One of the things that frankly both parties are really missing, and that I’m trying to focus on in this job are kitchen table issues and meeting people where they are, and a lot of people have said, “Josh, you’re focused on these local issues and these kitchen table issues, but we’re dealing with threats to democracy.” And I see those as the same thing, because we cannot have a strong democracy in this country if we do not have a strong middle class, and the middle class in this country has just been completely hollowed out over the last generation. Wages haven’t gone up since we let China into the WTO. Costs are skyrocketing. Families are getting squeezed, and so is it any wonder our democracy is in the state that it’s in? If you care about democracy and want to save democracy, my view is that you have to show that it actually works for people, and that is what I have been focused on and focused on doing. It’s why I would have a bill that would lower utility costs. I have a bill that would hire a whole bunch of people in your neighborhood you can hire to weatherize homes.”
Let’s be frank about the scale of Josh Riley’s proposed weatherization legislation. It would not hire “a whole bunch of people in your neighborhood”. It would, if passed, hire a tiny fraction of the percentage of people who are now already losing their jobs because of the fascist attacks by Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
The plain fact is that all of the bills that Josh Riley has sponsored or co-sponsored put together would have a microscopic economic benefit in comparison to the massive economic devastation that’s being caused by American fascism - and none Riley’s bills have even advanced to the stage of a committee hearing.
Expanding the middle class is a good goal. It’s not something that can be achieved through any of Josh Riley’s legislative actions, though. They’re insufficient.
Furthermore, it took decades for the American middle class to be hollowed out. There’s no way that the middle class is going to be rebuilt in just a couple of years, even if we could start that effort in earnest tomorrow, which we can’t.
Josh Riley’s proposal that we can defeat the fascist takeover of the US federal government by passing legislation to grow the middle class is like sitting down at the kitchen table to discuss the possibility of installing sprinkler systems while your house is already burning down around you. It’s negligent to the point of being suicidal.
In effect, what Josh Riley told his constituents that he doesn’t think the rise of fascism in America is a big deal. The tiny scale of the actions he’s proposed indicate that he doesn’t think that the death of American democracy is worth getting worked up about.
Simply put: You can’t use the democratic process to defend democracy when the democratic process has already been ripped in two.
Josh Riley is not an idiot. He knows what’s going on. He simply lacks the courage to stand up and stick his neck out to meet this cataclysmic historical moment. He’s more concerned about saving his own job than he is with defending democracy.
So, I’m not going to ask Josh Riley to act like a leader. That’s not in his character.
What I am going to ask is for you to call Josh Riley at (202) 225-5441 and ask that he vote against No Rogue Rulings Act - H.R. 1526.
This is not a difficult request. It doesn’t require any leadership from him. All he has to do is cast a vote.
I’m hoping that Josh Riley will be willing to make this small but necessary move to defend democracy in a more meaningful way than house weatherization.
It’s important, because the No Rogue Rulings Act would take away the power of much of the Judiciary Branch to stop Donald Trump from breaking the law. In a time when Donald Trump is already engaged in rampant criminal abuses, the H.R. 1526 would give Trump even more power to wreck the United States of America.
Please, give Josh Riley a call at (202) 225-5441.
