America has a chance to retreat from madness: Will the midterms save us — or doom democracy?

President Biden, who hasn't been seen much in public lately, spent the last week working on canceling $10,000 in student debt for people making less than $125,000 annually. It was also announced that struggling farmers will get some debt reduction relief via new legislation passed by Congress (that is, by the Democrats) and signed into law by Biden.

These combined efforts will go a long way to helping out many voters who follow Donald Trump and frequently vote Republican. If the Democrats can craft a competent message out of these actions, it could also help their cause in the coming midterm elections. Never fear, they'll find a way to muck it up.

So what did the GOP do to help Americans this week?

Donald Trump spent the last week screaming about the 700 pages of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago, as if he were a toddler in a sandbox.

"Mine," he repeatedly yelled.

The documents included material from the CIA, NSA, FBI and on a "variety of topics of national security interest," it was reported. Trump filed a frivolous lawsuit this week requesting that a special master be assigned to the case and that the documents Trump says are "mine!" be returned. Laughter could be heard across the country as lawyers capable of cogent thought replied with loud guffaws. To them, Trump's lawsuit sounded more like a press release, and a poorly written one, even from a Trump point of view.

Meanwhile, other members of the Trumplican club — who still call themselves Republicans — were busy pulling their hair out while racing to the finish line in the "Who's the Craziest Bastard in Congress" contest. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is apparently in the lead, but her House colleagues Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan are running neck and neck for second, less than a furlong behind. With all of these nuts, you'd think there would be a sundae around here somewhere. 

No one has seen Mark Meadows, Trump's last White House chief of staff, since the last full moon when he sat baying like a coyote on the plains, and Jared Kushner has a fiction book (sorry, a "memoir") he wants you to buy. All of them still claim fealty to the Don, who now seems content to use hundreds of pages of government documents as scratch pads and toilet paper. Why did he really keep all of those documents? The answer will likely be chilling. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, as we coast into the midterm elections, the country — as always — is divided. Half think Donald Trump is crazy and half think he's merely a criminal. I'm just kidding. Everyone knows he's a crazy criminal.

Some Democrats, however, have decided that whoever is left worshiping Trump are "stupid white people." I've heard that on three separate occasions during the last week, as well as "criminal white people."

It isn't just white people who worship the Don, but if you want to address those "stupid white people," they're not all stupid — and they are the group of Trump voters most likely to leave him. The criminals — well, they're criminals. But there are many who are being called stupid because they are afraid the Democrats want to take away their rights. They see the Black Lives Matter movement as a threat, religions other than those who worship the Christian "Gawd" as a threat, and any move toward LGBTQ+ equality as a threat to their rights. Don't even start with the "hordes of illegals" swarming across the border, either to take all our jobs or sap the country of its vitality and social services. 

These are not necessarily stupid people — though indeed some are. They are fearful people. They have been programmed, and they need to be deprogrammed.

Consider this your "Handy-Dandy Trumper deprogramming guide."

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Let's start with the "hordes of illegals." The numbers, comparatively speaking, are not much different than they've been during the last 40 years — and if you want to make a point with those who are programmed, please remind them that big business (particularly corporate agriculture) encourages and pays for many migrant workers because they are cheap and necessary labor. When have any of the big agribusiness conglomerates ever faced prosecution for hiring migrants? I'll wait. The Simpson-Mazzoli Act, signed into law in 1986, made it illegal to hire undocumented immigrants, but few have ever faced any repercussions for doing so.

Then let's move on to the GOP's supposed problems with invasive policies. Most of the Trumpers decry government overreach and will tell you that the government needs to mind its own business — as many have said before, "government governs best that governs least." The Republicans are fine with that — until you talk about the bedroom, and then they're all up in your business. Ask your Trumper friend if they want the government telling them what to do in their bedroom, or what to do with their own body.

And then remind your Trumper neighbor or relative that when it comes to taking away rights, only one party has successfully done that during the last 50 years, and it's the Republican Party.

That's the coup de grace. It's something they might actually understand. 

While many Trumpers may, on the surface, cheer the reversal of Roe v. Wade with the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, that's actually the single largest bipartisan issue in the country — and Democrats still need to flip some Republican voters to win this fall. If Democrats lose the House and the Senate, the country is done. I say that not as a partisan, but as an observer who firmly believes the country has rotted from within since Ronald Reagan's administration and we're quickly losing our ability to save it. 

Electing Democrats this fall will not guarantee the country won't fall apart. It merely remains the best choice to give the United States a fighting chance of remaining so. Otherwise, it's time to mothball democracy and start flying the fascist flag. 

Thus the need to appeal to at least some of the "stupid white people," who if properly courted might just vote Democrat.

How do I know? I've had conversations with several of them: more than a dozen and less than several million. Many hardcore Trumpers will eventually admit to something like this: "Well, I don't really care what someone else does as long as I can do what I want to do." The problem is, there's a disconnect. They think the Democrats want to mandate Pride parades and transgender stripper poles in preschool and denounce God as Satan while letting Black people enslave white people as cultural revenge for something their ancestors were guilty of. Call it stupid. Call it ignorant. Just deal with it.

Remember, 90 percent of the population is ignorant and the other 10 percent doesn't want to have anything to do with us. But hey, that 10 percent sure does like to vote — and in elections where 50 percent turnout is considered great, that 10 percent can make a huge difference. Of course if you subtract the zealots who think "Gawd" is running the country and spend more money on education, society would also benefit. But we're talking short term here. Let's get through the midterms. Much of the American voting public is just sentient enough to order McDonalds, only to have the order get screwed up in drive-thru — and then eat it anyway on the road to Walmart, where they'll go shopping in  yoga pants and thongs for the cheapest buckets of lard and transmission fluid.

America's shallowness runs deep.

And the truth is, we face monumental problems in this country that we cannot solve if we do not talk to each other, no matter how repugnant we may find our neighbors, friends or relatives. I know: Others want to divide. I want to multiply.

When it comes down to it, we're a nation of spoiled children divided into tribes. I am reminded of a great line in "The American President," delivered by Michael Douglas: "America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, 'You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.'"

I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. That was the guiding principle. It has been abandoned as each side refuses to discuss common goals and instead seeks satisfaction in demonizing the other.

For the Republican Party, it isn't about issues — it's about Trump. It's about a cult that clings to whatever maniacal rantings are spewed from the cavernous depths of one man's demented soul — or from those into whom he's breathed life.

For the Democrats, if they want to hold onto the Senate and the House, it amounts to numbers. They have them, and the GOP does not. If everyone votes by party affiliation — and if everyone votes — the Democrats win. Gerrymandering aside, it would be tough for Republicans to hold onto anything.

Republicans have no issue that resonates with the majority of the voting public. On every single issue of importance, they betray their true nature. They're not on the right side of history on any issue — that is, when they bother to embrace any issue at all, rather than trying to scare voters to death.

When has any party ever been looked upon favorably by history if it supports book-burning, revoking civil rights, promoting state-sponsored religion or an economic system that makes feudal lords look like socialists?

I'll tell you when: Never.

But there is no guarantee that when the November midterm elections are in the record books common sense will overcome stupidity — particularly with the corporate media acting like lobotomized stenographers who pretend that national politics in 2022 is business as usual.

Deprogramming the media? That's a whole different story. 

For now I'll settle for defeating autocracy and seeing Trump indicted. But in a country that collectively seems to suffer from political mental illness, it's not a foregone conclusion that either event will occur.

The irony of course, is as wiser men than me have observed: If our republic is to fall, it will collapse from within rather than being conquered from outside. 

So we find ourselves at an inflection point in history, when our actions will have an immediate effect, likely to determine life not only in the United States but across the globe for the next 50 years or longer — and could lead to the end of American democracy.

We missed the clues when Trump first stepped into the public arena. Now we're dealing with an ex-president who was twice impeached, who faces potential criminal charges and who willfully kept and did God only knows what with incredibly sensitive government documents.

And for some reason, this man's minority cult-party still could take over the Senate and House this fall.

From the outside looking in, it must appear that Americans embrace insanity on a grand scale. The verdict on that observation will be issued the day after the November election is settled.