A New Day.....

My fellow citizens--

We are complacent and overconfident about our security as a democracy.  We have learned over the past several years that what we once thought were bedrock values in terms of our moral and civic foundation are actually porous and penetrable.

So now we are at a pivot point.  Tomorrow we will decide as a nation whether we change our direction based on the warning signs that have been flashing red since November 9, 2016.

A majority of Americans prior to November 2016 were naively certain of our democracy and its solidity.  We couldn’t imagine its disintegration.  We couldn’t see how our country would be threatened by the forces unleashed by the election of Donald Trump. 

To be sure, there were hints and signs of unrest.  A major part of our body politic was infatuated with a ‘savior’ who said he would solve all the problems that were percolating up as a result of years of forced inequality and deprivation of the rights and aspirations of the middle class.  This new wave of populism hinted at the pool of anger just below the surface of our collective awareness, and the desire for revenge against the ‘elite’ and those who were ‘other’.  We saw the trends, but still believed that we were safe—nothing really could corrupt America we thought….

The premise put forward by Trump that immigration was the monster ruining our country became a compelling distraction to his base.  So the disaffected minority belched forth its anger and hatred, with the encouragement of its provocateur President.  And make no mistake about the fact that he is THEIR President and not the President of all of us. 

We could be wrong about our misguided perception of what the majority of our country looks like.  The polls leading up to the midterm elections are not definitive.  I know that I am in disbelief when I watch angry citizens who somehow believe the tripe that is being fed to them on a daily, minute by minute basis by Fox News and other right wing, so called ‘news outlets’.  They still love this man in spite of all the horrible things he represents.  Truth is not important to them.  It’s easy to ask yourself, “Who are these people??”  The uneasy, unsettling answer is that they are our neighbors and the majority of our current leaders.

We, as Democrats and Independents, and even as people of good will of no particular party, may have mistakenly believed that our moral foundation was somehow secure, that this couldn’t really happen in the United States of America.  So, now we face the real test.  What is our moral character as a nation?

Does our tolerance of free speech have any boundaries?  Is there no stopping the fountain of lies vomiting forth from Trump’s fetid mouth? Can we sit idly by and watch our ideals as Americans be twisted and corrupted by this genius of division and hate? 

I submit to you that the events of the past ten days: the attempted mass assassination of the best of our former leaders who have devoted their lives to public service; the mass carnage perpetrated by a Neo-Nazi intent on killing as many Jews as he could--these are the cherries on top of the horrid cake already full of other indigestible ingredients being ‘cooked up’ by Donald Trump: disdain for the rule of law, lying to the American people daily, blaming the media as  ‘Enemy of the People’, stoking fear and hatred of immigrants, steering our economy toward bankruptcy from uncontrolled debt, etc.  Do I really need to itemize all this again?

As inconceivable as it once may have seemed, this one man has been a catalyst for the emergence of the decaying rot of prejudice that he encourages as he stokes the flames of division from the chanting mobs at his rallies, and that has lain just under the surface of our civic discourse for years. 

This election tomorrow is not the entire answer.  It is, however, the fulcrum of the tipping point that will determine the future of our nation and ourselves.  We all must pray that the results of this most sacred obligation and exercise of our right to vote will herald a new day of optimism and truth.  It is a chance for those of us who believe in the concepts of fairness, integrity, honesty, compassion and humanity to restate our commitment to those ideals that are the bedrock of our Constitution and our republic.  If we regain at least part of the Congress, the road will still not be easy.  The potholes are large and many.  Until we begin to shed ourselves of the Republican sycophants and remove President Trump from the scene, we will still be in mortal danger as a democracy.

However, we must make a start to take back our country and to imbue it once again with the ideals that our founding fathers so brilliantly imbued in the Constitution all those years ago.

I wish all of us good luck in our quest for a righteous result and a turn to the light that is the promise of this great nation, the United States of America.

Please VOTE!

Dark Days

So, are we even surprised?  Another episode in the continuing saga of the “New America” unfolds in all its gory reality.  A chapter unwinding, whose theme is anti-semitism with a ‘forward’ by someone with an urge to decimate all the targets of our President by mailing them bombs; who uses every chance he gets to encourage these kinds of actions and responses from his minions.

We have the dubious honor of witnessing the most horrific massacre of Jews in the United States’ history, and while we are shocked, it is muted by the sheer familiarity of it all.  Is there no escape from this maze that seems without exit?

Our elected representatives are held hostage by the gun lobby, so they are impotent to curb any use, or even the ability to keep weapons out of the hands of mentally unstable people.  Our president suggests that the carnage in Pittsburgh could have been mitigated by armed ushers in the congregation.  (Maybe the local gun shows will start offering tallises with holsters!). 

Our president, who we hoped would lead the nation in compassion and empathy chooses instead to double and triple down on his insults directed at ‘others’ like immigrants and refugees.  Our president, who misses the opportunity offered by these moments of horror to offer solace to a nation, instead aims his vitriol at the media and the ‘Democrats’, or at the victims of these mass shootings and then makes jokes about his hair.

These kinds of occurrences are all too familiar since the rise to power of Mr. Trump and his supplicants.  He equates the evils of Nazi-ism, white nationalism and white supremacism with patriotism and love of country, culture and history.

Over the past two years we have slowly yet inexorably descended into the pit of tribalism and autocracy at the hands of Mr. Trump.  We have watched our system of checks and balances, the rule of law and oversight of the Executive Branch decay day by day at the hands of the Republican party, until at this point, Trump’s ‘base’ believes his incendiary tropes that up is down, or that lies are the truth, or that science and fact are false.

When these despicably horrible events occur, when innocent people die because of the unhinging of behaviors that are encouraged by the crowds of chanting advocates screaming ‘lock her up’, we all die a little bit.

But we can act.  Have we finally had enough shocks to our conscience?  Can we now see why this election cycle may be the last exit before the toll?  Does it now make sense, as if it didn’t really dawn on all of us before, that we must try to change the direction of momentum on November 6^th?  If we don’t succeed at this moment to put some reins on this gangrenous juggernaut of ‘nationalism’, we are destined for darker days ahead.

Amen to This!

And now, for all of those who keep posting how all the 'left' and liberals are the cause of mob violence.....

For the first time in American history a man who is our President has encouraged people to violence and as a result there has been a mass assassination attempt against all the people he rails against at all his 'rallies'.  He would be right at home in 1933 Germany.

Fighting Cynicism with Hope

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I wonder if the amount of cynicism one has is directly proportional to the number of years one spends on earth.  After 71 years it seems like my level of cynicism is off the charts!  It is now just 15 days until the upcoming midterm elections and I find myself simply shaking my head and wondering what country I am living in?

I always thought and believed in the American dream—a dream driven by certain ideals and precepts that I just assumed all Americans lived by.  I have learned that I am naïve and misinformed.

I am a spectator caught in a drama that unfolds on a daily basis that surprises and shocks me at every turn.  I have discovered that 45% of the people who I thought were the same kind of Americans as I am are not really.  They do not honor truth.  They do not honor compassion.  They do not believe that all humans are created equal.  They honor someone who spends every waking hour promoting fear, division, racism, and anger.  They honor someone who does not believe in our democracy.  They honor someone who loves autocrats and makes excuses for murderers because of his own interests.

This 45% of Americans does not understand democracy.  They don’t see what is happening to the precepts of the Constitution they profess to honor….how it is being bastardized and twisted at the hands of people they elected to represent them.

It was Harry Truman who said that the people get the government they deserve.  He was right.

The government in control now is run by people who have no honor.  They believe it is OK to prevent people from having the right to vote.  There is blatant voter suppression going on as I write this, being engineered by Republicans in most state houses across the country.  Georgia, Texas, North Dakota are the most blatant examples we see, thanks to the doggedness of the media.  Do you see any accusations of voter suppression going on by the Democrats?

How does a Secretary of State in Georgia who is running for Governor have the power to simply shelve 53,000 voter registrations and try to prevent those people from voting?  How does a law that penalizes all these people for typographical errors they may not even be aware of get passed, and then get enforced by the same Secretary of State?  Research shows that 70% of those shelved registrations belong to African Americans and other minorities.

How does a Republican legislature pass a law in North Dakota prohibiting voter registration if you don’t have a street address, when the Republican legislature knew in advance that Native Americans on reservations in the state don’t have street addresses?  They consciously chose to try to suppress the Native American vote in North Dakota so that the Republicans in power could hold on to their advantage.  Is that upholding the concept that EVERY citizen in a democracy has a right to vote?

In spite of the Supreme Court ruling against them, Waller County in Texas has done everything in its power since the 1980’s to prevent 8000 students ---black students—attending college in Waller County from exercising their right to vote.  Who elected those people to be able to do that?

The answer to those questions is that the 45% of Americans who honor Donald Trump elected all those people in power. 

Truman was right.

What we have in America right now is rule by the minority.  That is not what a democracy is supposed to be.  It is not fair that Republicans, who are the minority nationally, yet holding two thirds of state legislatures, should be able to redraw voting districts to create voting patterns that solidify their hold on power.  And yet that is what they have done over the past half century.  How is it that during the past 6 Presidential election cycles 2 elections resulted in victory for the candidate without a majority of the popular vote?  Is that democracy?  Not a democracy I understand where it is the RIGHT and OBLIGATION of every citizen to have a vote.

I am a Democrat.  I have been writing in favor of Democratic policy initiatives like health insurance security, compassionate immigration policy, tax relief for the middle class, protecting the environment, belief in science, and the rule of law.  What I don’t see is an aggressive defense of these basic humanistic Democratic stances by the Democratic party.  What is wrong with Democrats?  Why are they afraid to loudly proclaim that those are the things that we should stand for?  Hope and optimism seem in short supply.

With only a couple of weeks to go, they are silent, meek, and not energized.  Why not?  There are some new faces that have some energy and are not afraid to ‘call out’ the Republican surrender to Trumpism.  Beto O’Rourke and Andrew Gillum come to mind.  They are the future of humanistic government and are unafraid to stand up for what the 55% of Americans, of whom I consider myself to be a member, believe.

I am trying to get everyone I know who is ‘iffy’ about voting this year to go vote.  Our future as a democracy is at stake.  If there is no change in the government after this election, there will be no return to the ideals of the founders.  In fact I believe we will see the end of democracy as they saw it back in 1789.  What will come next is anyone’s guess, but I don’t think I want to be around for it.

Help me fight my cynicism with hope. VOTE!