January 6. Call it for What it is.
Tomorrow is the 1st anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters, but just commemorating that violent event is not enough and doesn’t address the real problem today in America. The problem is much deeper than a couple thousand dumbasses brainwashed by a carnival barker and career liar. Our system of government is now under constant threat. That threat comes from what was once a national party that has morphed into a fascist regime which is striving for permanent power in defiance of the will of Americans. THAT is the problem.
This has been coming for decades, fueled by increasingly radical media that is unconstrained by any regulation, especially the Fairness Doctrine that Reagan destroyed at the behest of Rupert Murdoch who was also provided fast track US citizenship and allowed to monopolize US media by a compliant FCC, also under Reagan. That started the drain of fair journalism, and the rest is history. Murdoch’s empire has rotted American democracy from the inside, moving from ranting about taxes at their historic lows to Bill O’Reilly’s idiotic “War on Christmas” trope to lying about everything not Right Wing Nut Job. Murdoch offered up Fox as the official press office for TFG during his infestation of the Oval office, and still amplifies his lies ’round the clock. The entire goal was to piss off one demographic, and that has succeeded.
We now live in a society where civil discourse and fact based policy decisions no longer exist. Politics is now more than blood sport – it has become a death cult, from the radical gun culture that has successfully injected armed thugs into the political arena to losing candidates who will NEVER concede defeat, no matter how obvious that candidate’s loss is. I recall 2008 when Al Franken beat incumbent Norm Coleman by 312 votes. The votes were counted and counted and counted, and Franken’s win was close, but certain. Coleman never conceded, fighting in court for 8 months until a 3 judge panel declared Franken the winner. Since then, virtually no Republican has conceded defeat. Every election is a battle to the death, and concession speeches from GOP candidates are almost non existent. Trump has now normalized that behavior by lying and lying and lying and lying. The Big Lie has now been embedded into the DNA of Republicans, and all over the country they are taking election administration out of the hands of non-partisans and putting it into the hands of radical partisans, even legislating overruling free and fair elections if they don’t like the results.
The real tragedy is that now both sides of the political spectrum have no confidence in the system. Over 80% of Republicans have lost confidence because they believe The Big Lie and that the system is full of fraud. Over 80% of Democrats have lost confidence because over 80% of Republicans believe The Big Lie and are trying to rig the system in their own favor.
All of this adds up to every election now being contested to the death especially if the Republican candidate loses. Armed goofballs will show up at polls, counting locations, city halls, county seats, state capitols, and, yes, even the US Capitol if the election goes against their candidate. Though TFG is the heartbeat of this massive delusion, it has now grown beyond his own cult of personality. Oh, sure, every right winger will run to Mara Lago to kiss the ring, but The Big Lie is so engrained that it has taken on a life of its own. People who were reasonable folks 10 years ago are now ranting maniacs spouting bullshit and even QAnon conspiracy theories. All reason and critical thinking has all but vanished.
My greatest fear is that this won’t end well, and not until violence and fascism touches most Americans will people wake up and demand accountability from elected leaders. Add the metastasized cancer that is TFG to the political mix, and the patient could easily die. That is the risk that we really face.
And there will be no-one to save us from ourselves. The Germans had the Allies to defeat fascism…but only after they invaded other countries. Our natural opponents now (Russia, China, North Korea) will be perfectly happy to see us implode.
1I’ve never been more concerned for my kid’s and grandkid’s futures. And the radical right politics are becoming a world wide reality.
2You’re right.
Now please do as comprehensive a piece on what’s going well…
3@Ormond – That would be a short piece.
4Steve #2 – I wholeheartedly agree. I’m old so I’ll be cast aside pretty quickly in the coming fascist anarchy. But I have kids and grands, and I worry for them. Sadly, we no longer have statesmen, but just a bunch of political grifters in DC.
5Opinionated Hussy @1, Russia and China are quite happy to see us falling into a fascist cesspool, Putin has puppeteered his pawn Dear Donnei very skillfully.
But as I’ve noted many times, after we become a highly dangerous and unstable fascist power under the Republican’s Hitlerian dreams, Russia, China, and many others will be compelled to ally together, with the express goal of utterly destroying the USA forever.
They will see us as the total world threat that we will have become under complete totalitarian Republican fascist control.
Under the circumstances, they’ll be justified in doing so, just as most of the world allied against the Axis in WWII.
This, more than anything, is why the Rethugs cannot ever be allowed to regain power.
If they do, it will inevitably lead to the utter destruction of our nation; including physically, as in a very probable nuclear annihilation.
The 2022 election is now the most critical one in our electoral history. The Democrats must sweep the board, there are no halfway half-assed options, 2024 depends on it.
6Can enough people, beyond just known Democrats, be motivated to do so? Scared shitless, if necessary? There ain’t no other way to literally ‘save the country’.
Sandridge @6, interesting questions. While midterms are not heavy voter turnout times, the 2022 battle for Congress has to change that if we are to survive. The same motivation to vote in 2020 needs to be on steroids in 2022. We need so much. Criminal justice reform, gun safety, infrastructure, etc. We cannot withstand another Republicon regime with tax cuts for the uber wealthy and corporations with social policies going to hell.
Jane and I have been homeschooling our boys due to covid, but we are also concerned about sending them to schools with active shooter drills. That cannot be good for a child’s psyche. Yet we understand the importance of the school socialization experience to their development. We remember how important recess was in the elementary years, then sports, and school dances were to us.
7I’m guessing that most of the salon patrons have been thinking the same things El Jefe expressed so well. And I appreciate the comments of Ormond. It would be nice to list the good things going on. Maybe we can all pitch in and do that. Probably be good for us all. I wish I could start that conversation but I’m going to need to noodle on that a bit. One of my grandsons turns 6 tomorrow and I’m going to do what I can to make that a positive day.
8Good read to support what El Jefe wrote:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/04/next-us-civil-war-already-here-we-refuse-to-see-it
9What Steve from Beaverton said in #2, and Grandma Ada in #5. This is not the country I want to leave to my children and grandchildren.
10And this:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/civil-war-in-the-united-states-is-far-more-likely-than-you-think-in-fact-it-may-have-already-begun-11641418149
11Donald Trump is our Guy Fawkes. I look to celebrating the day with fireworks and bonfires to burn the Don.
12Jim Wright posted this today.
13https://www.stonekettle.com/2022/01/insurrection-one-year-on.html
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Take care.
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