NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE US

LegalDispatch 124

Jan 31, 2025

Growing up, my parents were what I would describe as “closeted Republicans.” Maybe with a lowercase “R” — republicans. At home and around the kitchen table, I would often here variations on “all politicians are bad” or “they’re all bad” or “both parties are bad.”

You get the idea.

Consequently, I’ve always understood this both-sidesism — of which my parents were early practitioners — to be an exclusive rhetorical recourse of Republicans, republicans, and conservatives. Think about it: When was the last time you’ve heard a liberal, progressive, or Democrat make this argument. (And, no, the New York Times — master of “both sides logic” — doesn’t count as it’s willing to say anything to avoid being accused of the dreaded — gasp — liberal bias.)

And because both-sidesism has become so pervasive in our media and our national discourse as a means of propping up right-wing politicians and arguments, we are drowning in false equivalence.

Not helping matters is that, at the same time, we’ve also abandoned any sense of nuance.

As a result, there’s no way to criticize the Democratic Party without playing into pro-Republican hands, further fueling both-sidesism and false equivalency.

But, man, am I feeling the need to criticize the Dems these days. We can start with Joe Biden, whose hubris prevented him from doing what he should have done on January 21, 2020 and announce that he would not, under any circumstances, run for reelection, thus leaving the door wide open for a return of Donald Trump.. We can continue with his appointment of Merrick Garland as Attorney General and the extended foot-dragging that had him appoint a Special Counsel to investigate Trump so late in the game that the horse had not only escaped the barn, but was galloping away two counties over. Chuck Schumer, the ancient Senate minority leader, has been so ineffectual in dealing with Trump 2.0 that six Democratic governors took him to task for his complicity yesterday.

And the problems continue outside the confines of the federal government as well. New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently bent the knee to Trump — lot of that going around these days — in order to quash the federal corruption charges against him. Three-thousand miles away, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass thought it was a good idea to break her campaign promise not to leave California so she could attend a cocktail party oversees despite pervasive warnings of high winds and wildfires. (Spoiler Alert: The towns of the Palisades and Alta Dena burned to the ground while she was partying it up in Africa.)

The list, as they say, goes on. And on. And on.

Meanwhile, the federal courts and the national media have fallen under the sway of Trumpism. All of the bulwarks against fascism — and corruption and incompetence — are crumbling every day. I can’t think of a rampart for democracy that is still standing.

All of which is to say… no one is coming to save us. Yesterday, a writer friend of mine was lamenting the fact that she had reached out to another friend and fellow writer looking for a sympathetic ear, only to get a tone-deaf earful of how absolutely swimingly things are going for him.

I offer this anecdote to make the point that many (so many!) of us have already internalized the new reality that we’re all on our own. It’s every man for himself regardless of gender. It’s dog eat dog.

Is that how things should be? Of course not. But it is, I fear, our present reality at least until such time that enough courageous souls — and I have no idea who they’re going to be — can rise up and start telling truth to power and breaking down the rising towers of fascism.

WORK UPDATE

I am finally — finally! — starting to set pitches on a variety of TV projects, some of which have been on my desk for two years. All told, we’re talking about five Shrödinger’s Cat projects which I hope to remove from their liminal state over the next month or so.

I’ve also been working away on the comic book front, writing issues of PROJECT ODD COUPLE and PROJECT SINISTER, the latter of which I’ll be meeting with some other writers on at Marvel’s offices on Monday.

Finally, I’ve gotten myself back on a thousand-words-a-day pace on my new novel. My original plan was to share the first half with my agent and editor, but I’ve decided to damn the torpedoes and go full speed ahead and finish the whole thing.

CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES RELIEF FUND

I’m thrilled to report that the script auction I ran online to benefit the Red Cross’ Wildfires Relief Fund generated $6,267. Thanks again to all who bid and contributed.

LegalDispatch

NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE US

LegalDispatch 124

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