I know we’ve been bracing ourselves seemingly forever in our country, but this time, that call to brace ourselves is rooted in an upcoming Supreme Court decision, possibly in June, of a case out of North Carolina. If the case is voted in the affirmative, it would, in effect, allow state legislatures to nullify the vote of the electorate and declare a different winner in the federal election. Yes, MAGA Republican legislatures could, in effect, swing the state to Donald Trump, for example, even though he lost the state’s popular vote. Why the Supreme Court would do this is not entirely clear, but conservatives have been trying to give states more power than the federal government since well before the Civil War. Back then the intent was to preserve the practice of slavery in the Southern states, and they almost pulled it off. Only Lincoln and the Civil War blocked their evil attempt.
Well, the extremist conservatives are still at it, I’m afraid, and if successful, they will further fray the fabric of our democracy, weakening the vital threads of trust in our electoral rules and regulations. And once that’s accomplished via the Trump-infused Supreme Court, they won’t stop there.
For trust in our government is the ultimate element that holds the entire embroidery together. Current MAGA Republicans are trying to undermine that trust with using the debt ceiling crisis to hold the Biden government hostage in order to make it impossible for the government to honor its debts, thereby shaking ours, and the world’s, economic foundations to collapse. In a means-justify-the-ends mentality, they are willing to risk world economic stability for their push towards power. Can they be stopped?
As for the Supreme Court and the damage it has and will do, no, it cannot be stopped. Our Constitution didn’t account for idiots to be appointed to that Court. The court can be packed for more balance by the President, but Biden was just a get-Trump-defeated–candidate. He really doesn’t know what to do with Trump and his sordid legacy now. He’s not too old, but is a bit too old-school.
Not only does Trump need to be stopped, but the entire Republican Party needs to be stopped, and stopped fast before our democratic fabric is in shreds. We say, just vote them out, but people are so disheartened, so demotivated, so burnt out, so downright tired, along with the young being so angry due to Biden’s reversals on fossil fuel and the environment, that I doubt they will enter the polling booth–if they indeed do enter those now figurative booths. And if many will still vote, they will vote as if in a retro fog of 1955, when the echo of Trump’s MAGA harangue reverberates in their mind’s ears.
These words are good examples of where such warnings will wind up. Of my few hundred “friends” on Facebook, perhaps three will click a Like and two will comment. The rest will scroll on down to the next puzzle or prank or pratfall or puppy or precious whatever they stumble upon. Most in our society are sleeping while awake and awake while sleeping. And the Republicans, being the fascists that they are, know this and take full advantage. The Democrats live in a kind of bubble, thinking that all will eventually balance out and that the American People will come around, as always, and rescue us from the mean GOP.
Well, I’m here to tell you that that playbook is becoming too old and hackneyed to continue to save us in this post-pandemic, post-(we hope!)Trump, post George Floyd, post Tucker Carlson, post-(we hope not)democracy era. Before we fully enter the autocratic belly of the beast, we need to mount the kind of energy exhibited by Lincoln, by FDR, by Martin Luther King Jr., and by the civil rights and Vietnam protests of the 60s. That will take tremendous initiative, will, determination, and resolve, not so much from our politicians, but from our rational and reasonable populace–black, white, red, yellow, trans, straight, gay, male, female, otherwise, atheist, religious, liberal, conservative, blue state, red state, legal, illegal, gun owner, no gun owner–you name it!–of this great, diverse nation of ours.
You dig it, man?
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On a lighter note, as a songwriter, I have two songs streaming, and screaming for your attention, on all your favorite formats, including Spotify, YouTube, iTunes, and even smart speakers. The songs are called Stones, and Cruisin’ West Out of Vegas. I’d put them in the Country genre. I think you’ll enjoy them. More to come. Thanks.
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