It\u2019s easy to lose hope.\u00a0\u00a0The dark future is today:\u00a0\u00a0National Guard in the streets, ICE squad roundups based on accent and color.\u00a0\u00a0Many afraid to speak; they fear retribution.\u00a0\u00a0Neighbors spying on neighbors, encouraged to \u201ctell\u201d any slip from the orthodoxy of the \u201cparty line\u201d – just text JD Vance.\u00a0\u00a0Conversations stilted; not knowing who\u2019s on \u201cthe other\u201d side.\u00a0\u00a0Families riven apart, unable to agree even on the simplest facts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The powerfully mixed potion of politics and religion, make it nearly impossible to reason or discuss.\u00a0\u00a0If the Party is also the Church, disagreement is no longer a political difference to settle with a handshake and an \u201cagree to disagree\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Instead, it\u2019s heresy, a mortal sin against the Lord.\u00a0\u00a0How can there be any recourse or recovery from that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opposition oppressed, not by law, but by economic coercion.\u00a0\u00a0Sure, you can say what you want, exercise your First Amendment right, but if it crosses the \u201cinvisible line\u201d, you might lose your job, your position in the community.\u00a0\u00a0You might be willing to \u201cstand\u201d for your beliefs, but will your employer accept the risk of having you on the payroll?\u00a0\u00a0What government approvals or contracts will the company lose by employing you?\u00a0\u00a0Ask Kimmel and Colbert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What happened to the Voltarian quote:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was a fundamental block of our democracy.\u00a0\u00a0But now, Voltaire is lost to polarization.\u00a0\u00a0Today, it’s more, \u201cIf I disagree with what you say, you are cast from my life, my neighborhood, and my community\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s happening:\u00a0\u00a0the red states grow redder by the day, and the blue states even bluer.\u00a0\u00a0Folks search for the comfort of\u00a0\u00a0\u201ctheir own kind\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0We used to call that \u201cde-facto segregation\u201d, but instead of race, now it\u2019s by political ideology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is not a dystopian novel, \u201c1984 Revisited\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0This is our world, right now, here in the United States of America.\u00a0\u00a0The rest of the world was aghast at first, but quickly adapted to the needs of the moment.\u00a0\u00a0The current President is lauded with praise and gifts.\u00a0\u00a0And more:\u00a0\u00a0if there\u2019s something in the deal to financially benefit the new President; even better.\u00a0\u00a0The graft is in the open, as is the criminality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, he is a man with prior immunity, \u201cforgiven of his trespasses\u201d by both the Courts and his followers. Does Trump sound like a President, or more like a gangster?\u00a0\u00a0Is he making peace in the Middle East, or simply taking from them an \u201coffer he won\u2019t refuse\u201d, more bitcoins in the pocket? It\u2019s hard to tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And \u201cmy side\u201d, the Democratic side (both party and belief), seems helpless.\u00a0\u00a0We are doomed to frustrated protests and interminable law suits.\u00a0We are in, what the military calls, a holding action at best, or a defended retreat at worst.\u00a0\u00a0Even if we can hold,\u00a0\u00a0for the two years until we can change Congress, and the two years from there to the Presidency, will America ever be the same?\u00a0\u00a0I suspect not.\u00a0\u00a0We are living a nightmare now, even awake in the future the memories will still be strong.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And worse, there\u2019s an insidious threat, looming in the background.\u00a0\u00a0Will we still have fair and free elections?\u00a0\u00a0At each turn the rules are changed to benefit the other side.\u00a0\u00a0Will we ever again trust the count, the outcome, the promises of honesty and fairness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gary Kasparov was a Russian Grandmaster chess player.\u00a0\u00a0As he ended his chess career, he moved onto politics, and was a driving force in the brief flash of Russia\u2019s democracy in the 1990\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0It was shut down by the forces that evolved into Russia’s oligarchy today, governed with an iron fist by Vladimir Putin; opposition pushed out the window or injected with Novachuk.\u00a0\u00a0Kasparov was forced into exile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kasparov delineates all of the familiar signs of authoritarianism he sees in the United States today.\u00a0\u00a0He travelled that road before, from the light of freedom to a new darkness of control.\u00a0\u00a0But Kasparov has one proviso, one glimmer of hope for American democracy.\u00a0\u00a0He noted that the Russian people were steeped in authoritarianism, from the Czars to the Soviet Politburo to Putin\u2019s regime.\u00a0\u00a0There was no experience, no shared strength learned by real democracy in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With all its flaws, the memory of freedom is strong in America.\u00a0\u00a0We have nearly 250 years of making our Nation \u201cmore perfect\u201d, striving for a goal never realized.\u00a0\u00a0In this moment when we see the real risk of losing democracy, we have one advantage over Russia, Hungary, Venezuela, even Italy or Poland.\u00a0\u00a0Democracy is in our DNA \u2013 from the original Declaration of Independence on.\u00a0\u00a0Even our greatest crisis, the Civil War, was ultimately fought for freedom.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things are bad, but it\u2019s not over.\u00a0Stand for Democracy.\u00a0\u00a0Stand for the United States of America.\u00a0\u00a0Maybe Lincoln said it best:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cYou can fool some of the people, all of the time, and all of the people, some of the time, but you can\u2019t fool all the people, all the time\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Many Americans may be dazzled by the present regime, but we all are not fools.\u00a0\u00a0The fight is now, and democracy will win.\u00a0\u00a0Americans will not be fools forever.\u00a0\u00a0But, we must maintain the fight until they wake up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Tom Bodett might say; \u201cWe\u2019ll leave the light on\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"