I heard Joe Scarborough say that the Republican Party is no more than a party of “grievance and gesture” now. It is that, but it is much more too.

Much like the Southern Redeemers in the 1870’s who, with gun cocked and hangman’s noose in hand, imposed a white supremacist minority regime on the South for nearly a century, Trump’s Republican Party has become the enemy of democracy, democratic institutions, and majority rule. By its actions on January 6 – another day that will live in infamy – it has demonstrated that is has absolutely no hesitation to combine the propaganda of the Big Lie (rigged elections) with the propaganda of weapons to overturn a free and fair election and install an unelected, illegitimate government.

Over the full length of the 20th century, the danger of a fascist takeover was never a serious threat. But as we enter the 3rd decade of the 21st century, thanks to the evolution of the Republican Party in an extremist direction, a sharply polarized electorate, a systematic assault on truth and reality, and the formation of a mass base that has drank the Kool Aid of white supremacy and other noxious ideologies, it has become much more palpable, no longer a subject for academic or parlor discussion.

In this hyper charged political environment, the challenge facing the democratic majority isn’t what you might think — the drama of clashes in the street with Trump’s hooligans — but quite the opposite — the seemingly mundane tasks of assisting the Biden administration and Congressional Democrats in their/our efforts to expand voting rights, address (in a big way) the interlocking crises that grip the country, and isolate with compelling arguments Trump and the political bloc who with barely a blink of an eye will lay waste to our democracy and everything we hold dear.

I wasn’t surprised that Chadwick Boseman won the Golden Globe Best Actor. I’m no expert, but his performance in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” was so powerful, so compelling, so authentic. He is (and will be) missed. Too young to die.

It’s never a good year when death commands so much attention in our lives. But here too Boseman gave us a command performance, not on stage, but in life. When diagnosed with cancer, he didn’t retreat or fall into despair, but dove into living and gave us remarkable performances, while fighting a terminal disease.

If every day I can find a little bit of Chadwick Boseman in myself, I have to believe that these challenging times won’t be quite as daunting and soul sapping.

Some on the left believe that they can’t say anything positive about the Biden administration without one or another qualification. An example is the reaction of some to Biden’s statement on twitter where he says that he supports the unionization of Amazon workers and workers generally. They welcome it, but then feel compelled to take Biden down a notch or two. It’s almost as if they think Marx will strike them dead if they allow his statement to stand alone.

That CPAC gathering should give comics a lot of material and the rest of us much cause for concern. So many imposters, all in one room, acting as if they are tribunes of the people and working class heroes. They mocked the Ivy Leagues schools, which they attended, paid homage to their grand leader, and paraded themselves as defenders of the constitution and liberty. Not a word was uttered about the storming of the capital, a storming that they incited and cheered on. The convention was capped off by the appearance and never ending speech of an ex-president, who announced his hit list, castigated the Biden administration, and repeated, despite advice from his aides, that he won the election. It was a toxic brew of unhinged white male, upper crust masculinity. It was at once laughable, frightening, and anti-American.

The House just passed a Covid relief bill and Senate Democrats are about to consider and act on the same legislation. Absent a minimum wage provision, the House bill will likely pass more or less pass in tact in the Senate with no Republican support.

Could the Senate ignore the Senate parliamentarian who declared that the provision wasn’t germane to the covid relief bill? They could, but the fact is that there are not enough votes on the Democratic side – forget about the other side – to get to 50, which would then give VP Kamala Brandon Harris, if disposed, the opportunity to break the tie.

So what to do? Pass the bill without the $15 provision and then low wage workers and their allies in and out of the labor movement can use the defeat of the minimum wage provision (and opposition to the 60 vote rule in the Senate) to take their campaign to a new level. Such a campaign, which should include mass mobilizations in DC as well across the country (forget about a general strike, which is easy to pontificate about, but a monster to do on a mass level) could give Biden and Congressional Democrats a chance to “make them do it,” not to mention favorably position themselves in next year’s elections.

If we learned anything from the Obama years, it is that observers of the legislative process are almost inevitably going to be disappointed by that process. But who’s fault is that? Biden? Pelosi? I don’t think so!