dictators

There Is A Way


Post 1,018

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Last Sunday I brought you a celebration of our press at last speaking the truth out loud, that Donald Trump and his extremist angry/cowardly/sightless followers are bringing despotism to and killing democracy in America. It’s right there in plain sight for all to see, yet the alarm bells are only beginning to sound. The problem with the writings to which I directed you is that they offer very little hope or direction to staunch the bleeding of our democracy. That’s beginning to change, too.

Robert Kagan’s essay, A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending, Is a seminal work of laying out the threat that we face. This week he posts a follow up, explaining that, “Some readers were unhappy that I did not offer a solution.” He does so now in, The Trump dictatorship: How to stop it. In case you don’t have access to the Washington Post, here’s the bottom line: Republicans have to speak out against Trump and his awful promises of doom and dystopia. Clearly, loudly and constantly.

Voters to the right of center have little to no interest in what Democrats have to say, so while Democrats must speak up loudly and often, they won’t change minds or votes of people on the right. What they can hope for is to motivate those center and left of center voters to show up and vote, this because if Trump wins, it will be our last opportunity to vote.

The far right voters are welded to Trump and against Biden and Democrats, so their votes to save democracy aren’t available. The people who are “persuadable” are those in the center right and some on the right. They haven’t confidence or trust in Democrats, which is why the message to save democracy has to come from Republicans.

It appears that most Republican elected officials who disapprove of Trump and extremism favor silence and cowardice. Then they quit. Ref: Bob Corker (R-TN) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ), two generally centrist and reasonable Republicans who quit the senate when they saw the obvious, that legislatively violent extremists had taken over what used to be called the GOP. Flake was replaced by the undependable and enigmatic obstructionist, Kyrsten Sinema. She was a Democrat who, after repeated in-your-face smashings of President Biden’s plans to solve our vexing problems and advance our freedoms and our democracy, at last switched to Independent. She can’t be counted on for much of anything to stop the authoritarian avalanche.

When Corker left he was replaced by Republican drone Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). She was just another spine-of-a-jellyfish, dead weight to our national progress in the Senate, an obstruction to everything to make things better.

We’ve just had a spate of otherwise reasonable congressmen announce their upcoming retirements. It’s what Republicans in Congress do, instead of standing up for what they know is right and against what they know is wrong.

It seems to me that Kagan is right, that we need people like Mitt Romney and Mitch McConnell to broadcast the truth and to urge voters to vote against the impending doom of Trumpism. Some, perhaps many legislators, might lose their jobs to extremists, but is their job more important than our country?

Some will get death threats to themselves or their families for having the temerity to speak the truth. That seems to go with the territory, now that Trump and other big mouths have normalized hatred, violence and “retribution”. Whether they are willing to face an important test of their integrity is the question.

Here’s a link to Heather Cox Richardson’s essay on Friday about some people who were up to the challenge and saved our democracy for us. We need far more like them right now.

It isn’t just elected officials whom we need to stand up and tell the truth. We need ordinary Americans to speak up, people who care whether their children will be free or if they will just be powerless, lackeys to the despot. We need them – us – to be brave at the school board meetings, at Starbucks, making phone calls, canvassing, stuffing envelopes, talking with neighbors and even with crazy Uncle Bob.

Looks like influence is all we have. We better use it. Many thanks to SL for the graphic.

We need to feel the spirit of the heroes who kept faith with our democracy and give ourselves over to something so much greater than ourselves.

We all know it’s easier to click the remote and watch a football game, the opiate of the masses in these times, than to get up and do something to make things better. Far more important is for us to stop things from crashing and devastating our lives and our future. That’s what your influence is for.

If you’re not seeing it, click here to last Sunday’s post and then on the links to the essays by people who are laying out the truth for you, in living color – while they still can.

The trailer below accompanies all of my posts. It exhorts us in magenta font to rid ourselves of the democracy murderers:

  • Fire the bastards!
  • It’s in our power to do that. We’ll need help from Republicans, those with both integrity and a spine, so contact your representative and your senators, be they an R or a D. They know the difference between right and wrong. They speak the truth in the cloakrooms. Tell them you demand that they say it out loud and in public. Tell them to do so often and loudly.
  • Okay For Genocide on Campus
  • Since capturing the #3 slot in the House Republican Caucus, Rep. Elise Stefanic (R-NY) has distinguished herself with some impressively stupid, hateful and divisive comments. Many are the times that I have wondered if there is anything going on inside her head. Indeed, in the words of Rabbi David Wolpe, formerly of the Harvard University antisemitism advisory committee, “We are at a moment when the toxicity of intellectual slovenliness has been laid bare for all to see.” I like that phrase: “toxicity of intellectual slovenliness.” That’s the cadre of We the People who dismiss science, critical thinking and who lazily and brainlessly accept what some know-nothing loudmouth says. Including lawmakers.
  • But kudos are in order to Elise Stefanik for her questioning of university presidents from MIT, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. She asked them simply if students calling for genocide would be acting in violation of the schools’ codes of conduct. She slammed them for their mealy-mouthed “It depends on context” replies. Elise finally got one right.
  • I’m just wondering when the context would be such that it would be okay to call for genocide and harassment based on religion, race or anything else. When would such spewing of hatred be considered within a university’s code of conduct? I’m sure the presidents of these elite universities can explain it to me.
Today is a good day to be the light

_____________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.


  • Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too. (IT’S A FREEBIE!) It’s going to take ALL OF US to get the job done.

    And add your comments below to help us all to be better informed.

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

    1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
    5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

I’m So Old


I’m so old that I remember when passing the debt ceiling was just a box that Congress checked each year to ensure the full faith and credit of the United States. There was no conflating future spending with payment for past spending. There was no threatening of our economy. We just paid our bills.

I remember when abandoning world leadership, as well as abandoning our allies, was unthinkable, when Republicans insisted on muscular foreign policy and would never advocate for Russia or China.

And I remember when foreign autocrats, dictators and bullies were scorned and it wouldn’t even occur to a red, white and blue American to praise or emulate them, much less invite these thugs to deliver a keynote address.

I’m so old that I remember when promoting child labor or child marriage or defending statutory rape were unthinkable.

I distinctly recall a time when one country invading another nation’s territory, threatening its sovereignty and committing war crimes were universally abhorred, especially by Republicans, who would never condone, much less praise such actions.

I remember clearly when lying about voting fraud and election results were bad things and when actively promoting such lies was seen as treachery.

I remember a time when making death threats against fellow citizens was unacceptable.

I’m so old that I remember when there were profiles in courage to write about in books. And books were good things that only evil despots banned and burned.

I’m so old that I remember a time when having more rights was a good thing and something to defend and protect.

I remember when Supreme Court justices were held in the highest esteem by the entire country, this because they earned that esteem.

I’m so old that I remember when a president of the United States would never deny the reality of a deadly pandemic for months, then prescribe treatments that had absolutely no efficacy and some which would kill patients immediately. No president would accuse and ridicule our dedicated public health experts or reduce testing in order to make his numbers look better, all leading to over a million dead Americans.

There was even a time when a politician accused of crimes and about to be indicted for several more couldn’t possibly collect endorsements for his candidacy for the next election for president. And the notion of running for the presidency from a prison cell would have been universally considered absurd.

I distinctly recall when a mass shooting was murder, as were shooting someone who rang the wrong doorbell or who got into the wrong car or who pulled into the wrong driveway. It wouldn’t have occurred to anyone then that such shootings were someone exercising Second Amendment rights or that “stand your ground” meant that it’s okay to just blast away. Back then private citizens possessing weapons of war was unthinkable.

I remember when both major political parties had clearly stated policies and program ideas to implement those policies and they negotiated to find a way forward. It was all based on agreed upon facts and observable reality. How quaint.

I remember when the American people weren’t so disgusted with politics that 41% refused to declare a party affiliation.

Click me for the story

I’m so old that I remember when committing business records fraud, making illegal campaign contributions, stealing government records, some highly classified, leaking top secret documents to adversaries, committing rape, defamation and numerous episodes of adultery, inciting a mob to riot against our nation in an act of sedition, soliciting vote count fraud and committing tax fraud were universally believed to be illegal and worthy of prosecution. Except for adultery, which is a civil violation.

I must be really old.

Quote of the Week
  • “Clarence Thomas has got to fall back. He is the definition of a cuck, which, if you don’t know, is someone who lets another guy pay for his mom’s house.
  • “Or, I know a lot of people are, like, isn’t a cuck a guy who watches his wife screw America? Either way, he’s gotta go.
  • “And I don’t think there will be justice on the Supreme Court until Clarence Thomas steps down and is replaced by Anita Hill.”
  • – Jena Friedman on The Beat with Ari Melber, April 28, 2023
Betcha you laughed at that last one.
Today is a good day to be the light.

______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

    Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too. (IT’S A FREEBIE!) It’s going to take a lot of us to get the job done.

    And add your comments below to help us all to be better informed.

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

    1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
    5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.

    JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

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