Uh Oh! Wake up America!

What we have just experienced in America is akin to having a mole on your back that you notice one day, but since can't see it daily you don't really think about it.  Then one of your friends sees it by accident and strongly recommends that you go to the doctor and have it looked at. You know you've had it for a year already, but never really thought about it, but now, feeling a sense of urgency you immediately make an appointment.  Fast forward:  you actually have a virulent melanoma, have it immediately removed, and after full body scans seem to be free of any metastases.

 

But are you really safe?....Really clean?  Only time will tell, but the constant apprehension will be with you for years.  Scary enough? 

 

And that is how we have just been jolted awake in America.  This week we awoke to the fact that 18 state Attorneys General, and over 126 members of Congress(almost 2/3 of the House Republican caucus) have chosen to pledge allegiance to a man rather than their oath to protect the Constitution and the rule of law.  2/3 of the Republican party(including all the 'mute/conspiring' Senators in Congress and a significant number of Republican state legislators including 18 ATTORNEYS GENERAL have attempted the most brazen assault on democracy in our country's history.  They collectively filed a lawsuit directly to the United States Supreme Court intended to overturn a national election to keep the ruling regime in power.  That, my friends, is not what happens in a democracy.  That is what happens in a dictatorship.  This group of seditionists attempted to overthrow our democracy and negate the will of the vote of the people.  This is a treacherous action attempting to nullify a legal choice by our citizens of who should govern the nation.  The reality is that we are living in a country where a significant minority of the country doesn't believe democracy is as important as fealty to Donald Trump.  

 

The fact is that Donald Trump lost the election.  He lost the popular vote by over 7 million votes and 306 electoral votes.  That is not a close contest, folks.  And yet, here is a major political party that wants to overturn that result with no actual evidence to support their action.

 

Joe Biden said that this election was a referendum on democracy.  Well, democracy won, and now the Republican party has rejected the result of that referendum and now demands that the notion of democracy be ignored.  Think about that.  126 members of Congress, elected by the people, have announced that they don't believe that the will of the people should be accepted. 

 

What do these people really stand for?  Certainly not democracy, right?  

 

These people have conspired to overthrow the democratically elected President Elect.  And all of these actions are based on false claims of fraud and lies perpetrated by the President and his supporters.  The American people are being betrayed by these people.   How can we trust those who don't believe in the founding principles of our country?  How do we perceive this large minority as we attempt to govern our country?  Suddenly a huge percentage of our population has shown that they do not believe in the peaceful transfer of power, a fundamental characteristic of our American form of government that has been paramount since the founding of the republic in 1776.

 

I think it is important to analyze what these actions are based on.  We knew that there would be accusations of a rigged election by the Republicans and Donald Trump ever since he was elected in 2016.  He screamed and threatened that if he lost in 2020 it would be because of massive fraud and another rigged election in 2020.  Now, in the aftermath of what was clearly a secure and honest balloting,  and a repudiation of him, and after over 60 lawsuits contesting the result, there has not been even one lawsuit that has succeeded.  In fact, all the cases have literally been thrown out of court by Republican and Democratic appointed judges!  Not one lawsuit has been able to present any credible evidence to support any of these claims.  And yet, even though the Republicans and the President have been defeated in all the lawsuits, the Republican Party doesn't care!  They just insist the election was rigged in spite of no evidence.  It doesn't seem to matter.  The only thing important to these people is that a fair and free election is not as important as retaining their power. 

 

The realization that so many people in our nation believe the lies, being egged on by these rejectors of democracy, gives us a true moment of pause.  Last night the Supreme Court rejected their attempt--we dodged a bullet, but like the guy in the example I gave in the beginning of this blog, we should now be really scared for our future.  What will happen in the next election?  How can we trust that the result will be respected and accepted?  The Republicans in Congress who supported the ridiculous Texas lawsuit may not accept the results of any election if they don't win.  Remember, they don't believe in the sanctity of free and fair elections.  They don't believe in democracy and their oath of office means nothing.

 

What is the future of our country now?  My view is that this is a malignant movement that has been festering for a long time at the hands of many non-believers of democracy.  Consider the actions of Mitch McConnell over the past 10 years; the behaviors of Republican legislators who have made it their mission to suppress as many minority and Democratic voters as possible for years.  Consider how laughable it is that Texas, (whose Republican governor mandated that Houston, a city of over 4 million people, could only have ONE ballot deposit box for the entire population in the recent election), would bring a suit against 4 states calling into question their election processes. Consider the efforts by the Postmaster General to sabotage the delivery of absentee ballots.  Elections are only for show for Republicans apparently.  If they don't win, it's okay  to nullify them.  What form of government is that??

 

The only solution to rid our body politic of these cancerous people is to methodically identify them and destroy them.  That means that unless we relentlessly purge our government of these people who are non-believers of democracy, we are at grave risk of losing our republic.  This process will not happen overnight.  It requires diligence over a period of years to rid ourselves of a coalition of people that includes racists, fascists, nationalists, and white supremacists by voting them out of office and preventing them from coming to power.  We must all recommit ourselves to the preservation of democracy in America, standing guard daily against this dark force that has somehow found a foothold in our society.  

 

In case we had any doubts, at least we now can see it for what it really is.