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Friends,

Today is Independence Day, so let's talk about the United States. I have a feeling that if we wait a week to talk about Israel, we'll still have something to talk about.

Less than six months ago, our nation's capitol was violently attacked for the first time since the War of 1812. But on January 6 we faced no foreign adversary--it was a domestic insurrection, aided and abetted by the President of the United States and his party, the Republican Party.

As Ben Franklin was leaving the Constitutional Convention, he was asked "what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?” Franklin replied, "a republic--if you can keep it." This July 4, enjoy your hot dogs, enjoy your friends and family, enjoy your good health if you have it, but resolve to keep our republic.

As Kevin Bardella writes, "in this case, partisan isn’t a bad word. Only one political party was agitating for the violent overthrow of our democracy, and it was the Republican Party." On Wednesday, all but two Republicans voted against investigating the insurrection. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) threatened to strip any Republican of their committee assignments if they accept an offer from Speaker Pelosi to serve on the January 6 commission.

McCarthy is the leader of the House GOP, not some first or second term member. McCarthy is not threatening action against Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Rep. Matt Goetz (R-FL), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), or Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL), let alone Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) or Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), but serving on a commission to investigate an insurrection that threatened the lives of hundreds of members of Congress and took the lives of Capitol police? That's where McCarthy and the GOP draw the line.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), one of the two Republicans who supported the investigation (the other was Liz Cheney, who was named by Pelosi to the panel), noted the irony not going "after the space lasers and white supremacist people but those who tell the truth.”

Gosar, Goetz, Jordan, Miller, Cawthorn, Boebert, and Greene (I could mention more, but I try to keep these to 1,000 words) don't run the Republican Party, but they are not atypical within the party, and they illustrate the hypocrisy and misplaced priorities of the GOP.

The problem with the Republican Party is its leadership and the deviation of the vast majority of Republicans, not a few outliers, from American ideals and values. The problem in the GOP goes straight up to Donald Trump.

The outliers in the Republican Party are Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, not because their policies differ from Republican orthodoxy, but because they are fundamentally committed to basic principles of democracy.

In January, 120 Republicans joined a baseless lawsuit to invalidate millions of votes in four states, and 120 House GOP members shared incendiary social media content leading up to the Capitol attack on January 6. That's not a small fringe. After Trump's January 6 insurrection, 147 Republicans voted to overturn the election and validate the rioters. All but ten House Republicans (out of 211) voted against impeaching Trump for his role in inciting the insurrection. All but seven Republican Senators voted against convicting him.

Last week, Republicans voted against removing Confederate statues from the Capitol by a 2-1 margin. Statues of traitors and white supremacists have no place on government property--if you disagree, then yes, vote Republican.

On Independence Day, of all days, we cannot let ourselves fall for the "both sides" game. Some organizations and individuals, including some we respect, play the false equivalency game and call out "both sides" because their brand (and in some cases, their legal status) depends on the appearance of nonpartisanship or bipartisanship.

The stakes are too high for us to play games like that, which play into the hands of those who want us to believe that both parties are the same, giving us permission to vote Republican and keep taxes lower for the wealthy, because hey, why not? (Well, aside from the obvious, let's not forget that our country was founded on the principle of no taxation without representation, not no taxation.)

The Republican Party is the only party whose leader traffics in antisemitism. The next time you read a lengthy piece condemning a Democrat for alleged antisemitism, google the author/organization and see if you can find a similar piece condemning Donald Trump, who called marchers chanting "Jews will not replace us" "very fine people," who refused to condemn white supremacy during the first presidential debate, and whose rhetoric featured many antisemitic tropes.

If words matter, the words of the President of the United States matter more than anyone's, and if you can't find that piece condemning Trump from the person/organization condemning another politician, then you know the author is using antisemitism to score partisan points or for donor development. But that's the GOP game--distraction--and it doesn't matter if the players are witting or unwitting participants. Instead of creating false equivalencies, let's unite in opposition to the greatest threat to our democracy and the only political party permeated with antisemitism: The Republican Party.

What can we do about it? If we accept the GOP as normal, we will lose our democracy. Across the country, the GOP is waging massive voter suppression campaigns. We cannot count on the Supreme Court, packed with Republican appointees, to protect us.

The Republican base is fine with authoritarianism. We might not like to hear it, but the facts support Paul Krugman's claim that "closed-mindedness and ignorance have become core conservative values."

So it's up to us. We need to support abolishing or reforming the filibuster, which should be obvious to anyone who understands its history. Today's GOP is using the filibuster to defeat the purpose of the Senate and to grind legislation to a halt. The filibuster should go because it has no place in a democracy, and Democrats should not be afraid of what will happen if they eliminate it and subsequently lose power. Instead, Democrats should be scared to death of what will happen if they don't eliminate it.

Passage of HR 1 in the Senate is the key to preventing vote suppression at the state level, and that won't happen unless we first tackle the filibuster. Every Senator needs to understand that this bill must pass. On this July 4, commit to doing something meaningful for our country. The Jewish Democratic Council of America has a Take Action page, and this is at the top of the list. Make your voice heard, and if you know anyone in Arizona or West Virginia, make sure they make their voices heard. Not every member of Congress will always listen to reason, but most will listen to their constituents. We can do this. Happy 4th!

Last week's newsletter.

ICYMI. The Supreme Court abandons voting rights.

Tweets of the Weeks. Matt Negrin and Zack Budryk.

Facebook Post of the Week. Guy Raz.

Audio Clip of the Week. Stan Freberg--the Declaration of Independence.

Video Clip of the Week. Climate Change--an issue in 1969, not much has changed.

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