Congressional Democrats must begin NOW to plan countermeasures, but CAREFULLY

Barring a full-blown dictatorship of the extremist right--not impossible, but they're not ready for a coup d'état just yet--instead of holding "meetings" during an interregnum, our Congresscritters should really be holding their strategy sessions NOW. We need to hit the ground running. Not only will we have a lot of lost time to make up for, but their machinery that was brought to bear after the 2008 election is not only still there, it has been fine-tuned and updated along the way. If you are going to not only terrorize the opposition, but also crap on our own voters and supporters, SOME of them will eventually figure it out and vote for the opposition. That is us.

As for Trump, the rest of the world more or less knows that most of America is against this walking disaster area, but there is no constitutional mechanism in place to recall him rapidly. We can't just call a no-confidence vote, no matter how obvious that no confidence is exactly what most US citizens are feeling right about now. This is not England or Spain. We the People have no way to send him packing tomorrow, even if we hold a national referendum tomorrow, and the results show that a majority of us prefers exactly that he be sent home in a second class UPS freight container.

But we must choose our countermeasures carefully. Under a gerrymandered parliamentary system, the Republican Congress could have just as easily removed Obama from office in 2014, and then Biden two weeks later--and Obama and Biden were actually trying to do GOOD things for the country. They would have been succeeded by Paul Ryan, who clearly was interested in doing no such thing. We must not inadvertently hand the Republicans the tools to wreak even more destruction next time.

If (and I'd like to make that "when" ) we get back into power, some good old-fashioned laws against media monopolies should be brought back into force, so a Sinclair Group can never try to become a monolithic propaganda network again. Truth In Advertising laws should be enforced, too. Fox may enjoy the right to say what they want, but they do not have the right to call themselves a news station when they are no such thing. A Democratic Senate should enact parliamentary rules that forbid a Senate majority leader or Judiciary Committee chairman to hold up a nomination for more than 90 days, whether it be for Ambassador, Cabinet position or judgeship, including the Supreme Court. We need to see the end of deliberate government paralysis occurring merely because the Senate Majority Leader is not pleased with the President's ethnic make-up.

We also need a law saying that citizenship is tantamount to voter registration, and that denying a U.S. citizen the right to vote in the United States is a treasonous action punishable by a mandatory jail sentence. That may make for some crowded prisons at the beginning, but if prison conditions are not to the liking of those who would deny people their right to vote, I'd tell the guilty parties they got off lightly for trying to destroy our country. After all, after having served their time, we'll even let them stay here, and give them another chance.

What we need are countermeasure to the current situation that are so well thought out that they benefit us when we return to power, and cannot hurt us if we should lose it again. We need them because Mitch McTurtle has spent the last ten years working on the exact opposite, and the effects have been rather devastating (in case there is anyone on this board who hasn't noticed).

Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, neither of you are idiots, and certainly know the Congressional ropes better than I ever will. I know you're not listening. But a huge number of your constituents wish you were.