The Ardennes Counter-Offensive

Watching what is playing out in American politics right now, I am thinking about the Ardennes Offensive, also known as the Battle of the Bulge. Stay with me here.

I’ll give you the briefest overview possible. Stacks of books have been written on it, so hit the library if you like. It started on December 16, 1944. The Allies were slowly pushing eastwards through France and Belgium towards the Rhine. The Nazis were losing ground in the east and the west. Even Hitler realized that the best he could do was a negotiated settlement. His strategy was to secretly mass troops opposite a thinly held section in the Ardennes forest and break through with a lightning strike to the coast, taking the deep water port of Antwerp. That would split the allied forces and deprive them of supplies. The plan was to get from the existing lines to the coast in four days.

Of course, it didn’t go to plan. The Germans pushed a westward bulge in the line, but fierce resistance at key points slowed them down enough for the Allies to send in reinforcements and drive them back. There were striking moments of heroism. An 18 man reconnaissance team held off 500 elite German paratroopers for 16 hours until they ran out of ammunition and had to surrender. It was a vital 16 hour delay. The 101^st Airborne and the 969^th Artillery Battalion held the vital road junction village of Bastogne from the 19^th through the 26^th, although surrounded. Eventually the German attack ran out of soldiers, fuel, supplies, and vehicles, and had to turn back. The Allies finally pushed the Germans back to the pre-offensive lines at the end of January.

The key point of this whole ordeal was timing. The Nazis did not have the reserves or supplies for an extended attritional battle. It had to be a sudden victory. Even though the battle lasted a month and a half, a number of German generals later said that they realized they were defeated when the planned four days became eight, and then sixteen. They had known they were losing the war so they rolled the dice on a final blitzkrieg. Delay defeated them.

And here we are. Anti-democratic forces in the U.S. know that they are losing the demographic war. Their base is aging. Young people overwhelmingly reject their worldview. The base of straight, white, Christian conservatives has witnessed their social superiority eroded by a cascade of rights revolutions. People understand that big business has broken the social contract. The opportunity for them to regain former power is slipping away. So, a roll of the dice. A flurry of executive orders. A plan to wreck the functions and credibility of government. An attack on political dissent, starting with the least popular demographics. An attack on voting rights.

But it has to happen quickly to succeed. In my previous essay about Covid I wrote about how people respond in a disaster: Denial, Deliberation, Decision. The anti-democratic plan is to rush through the changes while the country is still in denial and deliberation mode. They also have to get the job done before the economic destruction hits their base of voters.

We are aided in our resistance by the whim, grudge, and bribe solicitation based economic policy of Trump. He is derailing the economy faster than expected. We still need some political heroics, though. That’s why my heart was gladdened by Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) using a Senate procedure to put a hold on 300 Trump nominees, as well as a handful of bills in the foreign relations committee. It would have been better to start on January 21^st, but I’ll take it.

That’s how you do it. Make the Republicans spend time, effort, political capital, and attention on our actions and our priorities rather than their own plans. The Republicans spent years obstructing the efforts of Democratic presidents and majorities. They became the party of no. Since the Republicans have become a racist personality cult serving a rich donor class, it is the responsibility of the Democrats to turn the tables.

Every Democratic senator should put holds on every nominee and bill the Republicans propose. They should filibuster like Cory Booker. They should use every parliamentary rule possible to slow down the process. No unanimous consent. All roll call votes.

They should bill troll, like Bernie Sanders with his $17 minimum wage bill. It has no chance of passing, but it forces the GOP to publicly oppose it and try to explain why. The Democrats should look at polling, select the most popular progressive policies, and start introducing bills. Then publicize it when the GOP leadership won’t let the bills  get anywhere. “We wanted to eliminate credit card late fees, but the Republicans serve the credit card companies, not you.”

Policies themselves are less important than using policies as a wedge to separate the identity of a voter from the identity of the Republican political establishment. People make political judgements based on identity, and we need to make the Trump cult an alien minority in American culture. Bigots and billionaires.

What should you do? Email and telephone your members of Congress. Tell them to gum up the works; obstruct, delay, confuse, distract. Tell them to bill troll the Republicans. Tell them to focus on identity; the GOP as the party of the corporate overlords and  the rich, with racist pawns doing the dirty work. Be polite but insistent. Tell them that time is the most important factor. Most members of Congress are careerist cowards. They will only do something if doing nothing is more unpleasant and risky.

Show up at rallies. It’s just a show, but it builds emotional energy and lets people know they aren’t alone. Humanity is all about belonging, and demonstrating that our group is invigorated, numerous, driven, and even fun, is incentive to belong. Find your local political groups.

Support organizations like Public Citizen that are filing lawsuits against the Trump administration over its multitude of legal and constitutional crimes. Fighting crime is the right thing to do, and it imposes a burden on the criminals.

Timing is key. Today, search for the websites of your members of Congress. Find the contact pages and bookmark them. Put their office numbers on your phone. Contact them today. Make it a weekly or biweekly habit to send them a reminder of their responsibilities.

If we can keep the fascists away from Antwerp for a bit longer we will win.