I had no idea when I first started posting a few years ago what was ahead for our country. What was ahead was to be so dark that my imagination failed. Our country has been swamped by hatred and bigotry unleashed by a man without a moral compass... heck, forget the compass, he has no morals whatsoever.
Donald Trump started his "career" in politics by questioning if our first Black president was born in the United States. My thoughts were, "No one would pay attention to him." Wrong.
He next popped up on my radar by saying in 2015 that he was running for President of these United States. "What a joke!" I thought. Wrong.
After he was elected it soon became clear that he was going to be the wrecking ball for the far-right conservative movement... nothing was sacred.... nothing too low.... nothing for the country... the ends justify the means.... his base loved it. I thought, "The good people in the GOP would sit on him." Wrong. Some did try, but they had to leave the party to try.
As I write this today, I am faced with the realization that the GOP, after 4 years of tearing down the foundation of the government in an attempt to discard "by and for the people" are continuing to be "by and for Trump" and the GOP. Period.
Trump, his enablers and minions went so far as to foment an insurrection by attacking the U.S. Capitol, threatening lawmakers and the Vice President in a bid for power trying to nullify the Presidential election. Now, since this failed, the GOP is now manipulating State laws by low-handed legal maneuvers and propaganda, supporting the big lie that Trump won the election... all applauded by Vladimir Putin and Russia who have Trump and evidently much of the GOP in their pocket. Don't doubt it.
By taking the country back decades, to the "good old days;" by promoting the suppression and persecution of Blacks and "others;" by passing arcane voting laws; by chipping away at the rights of women, LGBTQ and anything else the GOP deems as threatening their white-supremacy and fringe-religious prejudices; the GOP has exposed the rancid underbelly of the country. I was living in la-la land. I had no idea.
This rant will do nothing to change this headlong rush to autocracy. I don't have the answers. Will those who are misled or uncaring start to see what is going on? Will they understand the consequences, what it means to live under a dictator? Do they understand that their rights will be trampled, their lives altered and not for the good?
We must do more than hope so. Speak out, vote, support those trying to preserve our democracy. I live in hope that some day we can say.... "The democracy survived, but look at what almost happened to our country."
