Stephen Altschuler

thoughts on environment, politics, health, life issues

2022 election

“Cause that’s where the money is”

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Someone once asked Willie Sutton “Why do you rob banks?” “Cause that’s where the money is,” Sutton famously replied. Same thing Trump would say if someone asked, “Why do you continue with the Big Lie?” Or “Why do you support LIV Golf?” Or “Why do you continually attack Liz Cheney?” Or why do you now attack the FBI?” Or “Why do you call the Capitol rioters patriots?” Or “Why do you continue to dangle the possibility of running again in 2024?” All the same answer for the same reason. Trump’s father drilled it into his head early on, “Whatever you do, go where the money is and do whatever you need to do to get it.”

And for Trump, all of the above leads to incoming money from gullible followers who will indeed support their cult leader, as he said, “even if I went out and killed someone on 5th Avenue.” It’s a sickness, on Trump’s part, certainly; but on his follower’s part as well, voters and politicians who each have their motives for supporting a terribly off-balanced human being who happens to have a lot of political power at the moment.

I say “at the moment” for that won’t always be the case. One day, Trump will be a cipher, a footnote, a paragraph, at most, in an exhaustive history of the U.S. We will survive Donald Trump. But, unfortunately, we must endure more of his intractable behaviors and shenanigans. How much more? A blip in the scheme of history, but a significant blip in an era of unbridled and unrestricted social media, conspiracy theories raised to the toxic level of truth, and fake news raised to a level of real news perpetrated by Fox “news”, “News”max, and One America “news”.

So, for the moment, we are saddled with the reality of a Donald Trump and friends such as Taylor Green, McCarthy, McConnell, He-Hawley, etc. etc. etc. It will change. And that change will occur through the action of voters like you and I, as long as trust in our election process remains intact.

Unfortunately, that faith and trust is weakening, and so our democracy is on the brink of crumbling. For what is a democracy if not the sacred ability of the people to choose its electorate? With dictatorships like China, Russia, Hungary, Afghanistan, Cuba, elections are a sham, decided in advance by the ruling party or leader. Rules and laws are also determined by the few loyalists to the leader or the leader himself. The Taliban now forbids girls from advancing their education, orders women to wear a full body veil, and bars them from holding government jobs. Stalinist Putin imprisons or has murdered those who actively oppose him. Xinping keeps his country’s people in a continual state of fear via the secret police and civilian informants.

As we’ve seen, Trump has similar inclinations, seeking revenge on all he deems enemies, weaponizing “his” Departments of Justice and Defense, and actively instigating a violent insurrection against the U.S. Government. He is a criminal, plain and simple. And we’ve only seen a preface to what will come if he, or any of his surrogates, is reelected in ’24.

But ’22 is still ahead, and Trump’s influence has been alarming in the primaries. So the lines are clearly drawn: Trump extremists versus Dems. It will not be an easy fight. Dems will need money, for with politics, money talks. Dems will need grassroots volunteers, for only volunteers can canvass neighborhoods directly, making eye contact with voters. And Dems will need voters to vote in record numbers, up and down the ballot to prevent the kind of results Republicans are crowing about will happen.

For if the radical GOP takes over either of the two Houses, they will stymie Joe Biden as they stymied Barack Obama, thus paving the way for a Trump run in ’24.

We can’t let that happen!

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The Erosion of Trust: The Infrastructure for the establishment of fascism is underway

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When trust is gone so is a romantic relationship, a job, a friendship, a teacher, a spiritual or religious path, and a democracy. At this moment in the history of our country, it is the latter than is of most concern to me, for with the erosion and dissolution of democracy comes fascism, and with fascism, as we have seen repeatedly throughout history, comes terror, destruction, racism, civil war, dictatorship, injustice, one party rule, intolerance, and, yes, genocide.

How does trust erode? It comes from putting doubt in people’s mind about what is the truth. Orwell’s 1984 spelled it out clearly as the fascist government in charge assigned a new language called Newspeak for all to follow and adhere to. The Republican Party, under the influence of Donald Trump, along with evangelical white Christians who think Trump is a divine intervention sent by God, is currently engaged in doing just that, and a large percentage of our population is swallowing the bait hook, line, and sinker.

As examples, they’ve derisively labeled the House Commission Investigating the Insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 “a kangaroo court” and a witch hunt, despite the fact that almost all the witnesses testifying before it were and are loyal Republicans, even former Trump Republicans. They’ve labeled the adjudicated rioters and insurrectionists “patriots.” They call all Democrats “liberals” and “Communists.” They even target their own Party members as RINOs, Republicans in Name Only and have peppered them with death threats and primary challenges with Trump loyalists. They have stacked our Supreme Court with “originalists” whose aimed is to tear down the separation of church and state, hoping to establish a White Christian Nation overseen by one party enforced by white nationalist militias. They have waged various culture wars weaponizing innocent language, whipping their death threatening mobs into a bloodthirsty frenzy using Fox “News” as more-than-willing media goons. They call Joe Biden “malevolent”, blaming him for tearing down the fabric of our nation.

And what is this fabric, these violent Republicans think our country is made of? We’d have to go back to about 1870 to answer that. Back then, in practice, some citizens had more rights than others. Women were not permitted to vote, not able to choose much of anything about their lives, and relegated only to the kitchen and child bearing and rearing. Black Americans, recently emancipated by the Federal Government, were intimidated, threatened, murdered, and rendered politically, socially, vocationally, and culturally emasculated in much of the country. Jews and other minorities were discriminated against to such a degree that they were denied access to the basic rights of “life, liberty, and happiness” enjoyed by their white Christian counterparts. Black Christians were duly ostracized from a society that did not consider them equal citizens, let alone full human beings! And this wasn’t just in the South, although the ignominious practice of lynching was a particular past-time of the Deep South and its KKK.

So the MAGA Trump Republican, White Christian Evangelical Nationalist of today want a Christian mono-culture, beholden to one ruling party, led by an autocratic dictator wielding an iron hand of submission of a populace forbidden to protest or demonstrate, denied due process, and subject to arrest for violation of its rules, however arcane and arbitrary.

Not sure what that will look like in reality? Think present day Russia under Putin. Think present day China under Xi Jinping. Think present day North Korea under Kim Jong Un. Think present day Iran under the Ayatollas. Think present day Hungary under Orban. Think present day Syria under Assad. Think present day Cuba under Castro. Think present day Brazil under Bolsonaro. Think any country where the people do not consent to the present government, and are not permitted to voice their disagreements without threat of arrest or harassment.

America is on a razor’s edge of being such a country if we continue down this Trump Republican/white Christian Nationalist road to perdition. The erosion of trust, the redefinition of truth, even a call to arms: The infrastructure for the establishment of fascism is underway.

This is a Mayday call. We need all hands on deck to vote for Democratic candidates this November, enmass. Our democracy and your freedoms are at stake.

Thanks for you attention. If you are simpatico, please spread the word by sharing this post.

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Will 50 States Devolve into 50 separate countries? Seems like it!

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What the Supreme Court is doing is what white slaveholding southerners tried to do in the many years before slavery was abolished: to give civil rights granted by the federal government back to the states to decide what laws were right for their state. If that were carried to its utmost in our country at present, then on this July 4th, 2022, you might as well separate this union into 50 separate countries, each with its own legal system, monetary system, health care system, regulatory system, law enforcement system, legislative system, etc. so then traveling from state to state would be near impossible not knowing the differing laws, customs, mores, and traditions. One state/country might bring back slavery, while another might make it punishable by death. One may ban any and all gun restrictions, while another has extensive regulations that include thorough background checks, licensing that involves test taking as is required of a car license, and banning open carry. And of course one may allow unlimited abortions while another may ban them altogether with no exceptions for rape or incest (at the moment, in an actual case, a raped and pregnant 10 year old girl in South Dakota is ineligible for an abortion by state law, a fact confirmed and apparently supported by its present GOP governor!). There may be checkpoints at state borders not just for contaminated fruit but to check your car for abortion pills!

Not possible, you might say. Not in America. Well, we have already taken some major steps in that direction. This Supreme Court that we are saddled with seems intent on taking us back in time to before the Civil War. And given the ages of the reactionary justices, they will have many years to accomplish their caustic agenda. And these justices may be harder than presidents to impeach. The only option I can see is to increase the number of justices to balance its present right wing extremes.

This court has become a political party unto itself, apparently becoming part of a conspiracy to shift the country in a highly dangerous, anti-democratic direction. FDR threatened to increase the size of the court in 1937 when it gave strong indications they would declare Social Security unconstitutional. He called their bluff and they backed down without his having to follow through on his threat. But Joe Biden does not have the wisdom, courage, or the guts of a Roosevelt. He’s a cautious man. He’s a good man but a calculated Centrist who fears doing anything that would draw criticism from conservatives or progressives or liberals or independents. Perhaps he fears probable retribution of any acts deemed too liberal or progressive or over the top.

So we are essentially stuck with this SCOTUS for the next 45 years or so. But we are not necessarily stuck with a fascist-leaning Republican Party. On this Independence Day we are still, in theory, a democracy with a government elected of, by, and for the people. That’s important to keep in mind as election day approaches. The key of course is how many and who votes. In the controversial presidential elections of 2016 and 2020, it was 54.8% and 62.0% respectively. Nothing to write home about, but with midterm elections, only about 40% of eligible voters take the time to vote. When you consider the consequences of the next midterm, that’s downright discouraging, especially when you count the number of right wing wackos, Trump cultists, ’06 Capitol Hill insurrectionists, QAnonists, and other GOP snake oil salesmen and women running. Let me now change “discouraging” to “alarming!”

Of course, before and during the Revolutionary War, there were monarchist Americans who stayed loyal to the king and considered patriots extreme insurrectionists. But that was the 1770s. Things have gotten a little more complicated since then. Today, one man, Donald Trump, has been able to knock us off our democratic experiment as our Founders called our fledging country declaring equal rights for all. One man has shown us how fragile our democracy was in 1776 and still is. Perhaps more so.

So on this Independence Day perhaps we should all reflect on what it would take to keep this experiment in democracy intact, growing, and stronger than ever. Even with such as Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, our country has never depended on the allegiance to one person as we did to King George III before 1776. Never has our country granted each state sovereignty over itself. For that would not be a United States. And if we are not united, at least in the value of democracy, what it entails, and what constitutes a patriot, then we are woefully divided, and a United States is no more.

Happy 4th, y’all.

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The Trump Conspiracy: Then and Now

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It started when Trump tried to prove that Barack Obama was not a natural born citizen, which helped Trump build a following, a base, and ultimately a cult. He sensed the undercurrent of racism in 2016, linked it with xenophobia around Hispanic immigration and fear of Islamic terrorism, enlisted the support of Russian cyberterrorists and was able to paint Hillary Clinton as a candidate worthy only of a prison cell. With a scorched earth approach, Trump blasted anyone who opposed him, regardless of party affiliation. He essentially and ironically stole the 2016 election, blatantly promising to appoint anti abortion judges to the Supreme Court, again parlaying a hot button issue among evangelical Christians and pro life Republicans to energize the Republican base to come out and vote for him, despite his obvious moral shortcomings.

Once elected, he conspired with Mitch McConell, another power hungry oportunist, even before the election, to block the Obama nomination of Merrick Garland to the court several months or so before the election, something entirely unorthodox as well as unethical, and probably illegal. It was also in violation of the Constitution but no one took any significant action to block McConnell. It was part of a plan to put a minority party into a majority position and essentially control the federal government through judicial control of the courts.

With McConnell’s help, a president Trump was able to nominate and push through three right wing judicial extremists to the high court who as he and the radicalized GOP had hoped would set the country back about what…50,60, 70 years, defining “Great Again” as white and segregated again and where women would return to the kitchen and their traditional place of mediocrity?

The next phase of Trump’s take over plan is to fill the congress with representatives and senators who are beholden to him for their election, and are therefore pawns in the game of his ambition, which ultimately is designed to increase the financial fortunes of the Trump family dynasty. That will lead, he hopes, to his regaining the presidency in ’24, and his solidifying his oligarchy–an essentially fascist rule which has absolutely nothing to do with government of, for and by the people. The people under Trump’s rule will be just that: under his thumb and forced by fear to pledge loyalty to him and his chosen oligarchs, modeled after his friend Putin’s increasingly fascist rule in Russia.

It’s not a very copacetic scenario, is it? We’ve not seen anything like a Trump before and so don’t quite know what to do with him. The 14th and 25th Amendments address it but no one really knew or knows how to enforce the Constitution, especially when trying to figure out how to handle a seditious ex president who attempted a bloody coup against the government, who would not agree to a peaceful transition of the presidency after he lost, who instigated a violent, armed mob to attack Congress with the intent of stopping the counting of electoral votes and hanging Mike Pence, who even tried to commandeer the car he was in after Ellipse rant, trying to grab at the wheel and choke the driver and head secret service agent who was insisting returning to the White House instead of joining the rioters as Trump wanted–a loyal civil servant who would take a bullet to protect this asshole. First time for that. Go figure. It’s got many of us pretty buffaloed, hasn’t it? As Riley (played by the great William Bendix) used to say, “What a revoltin’ development this is!”

Good day, y’all. Be well. Sleep tight tonight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.

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The Battle Lines They are Drawn

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The battle has begun. Trump misogynists vs. a woman’s right to choose. The Trump Republican base vs. the Democratic Party. A clear division. Both sides are equally energized after the Supreme Court ruling obliterating Roe v Wade as Trump conservative appointees said they wouldn’t do. They lied in order to gain confirmation, as Trump lied to illegally regain a presidency he lost. The ’22 midterms define the battleground. And as often in political war, the outcome depends on how many troops show up to the final battle on election day.

Voters in America are often energized by one primary issue or candidate. They went for a madman in ’16, i.e. more Republicans turned out, because of his promise to reverse Roe. And with the scurrilous help of another madman, namely Mitch McConnell, he did just that appointing and seating three ultra conservative justices to the Court. With that, though just a one term president, Trump changed the direction of American politics and civil rights in a drastic turn backwards and sharply to the right.

Since the Civil War, such conservative turns have stymied our march to make this a more perfect union, with justice and civil rights for all. Linked with big money interests, extreme conservatives have stood in the way of every piece of legislation and initiative that hoped to level the playing field to allow the progeny of slaves to recover and share in the wealth and original vision of this nation, as spelled out in the Declaration of Independence. Now, still under Trump’s influence and using his violent tactics, though still a minority, they are achieving their goals of returning to a predominately white Christian paternalist nation where some are more equal and privileged than others.

I understand the next target of this Supreme Coup is gay marriage, and after that contraception, and after that… (fill in the blank!)

So, chose your side. Your weapon is your vote. But you’ve got to show up to the battle to cast it. The Trump gang is depending on the apathy of Democrat voters. But I sense an unusual upwelling of discontent among those Blue voters. As they gather forces and showed up to defeat Trump in ’20, this extremist Supreme Court may energize them to come out again and increase Democratic majorities in the Senate and House. It could very well happen.

Where do you stand? Will you vote? And if so, what kind of country do you want? For we are still a democracy where the people get to decide on their elected representatives. Whether it remains as such, is not up to Donald Trump and his cronies. It is up to you.

The AR-15 Assault Rifle

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These guns are weapons of war and mass murder, and, obviously, should not be so easily obtainable. So the question begs, Why are they? The Second Amendment starts with “A well-regulated militia…” In any ingredient list, the item of most quantity, and therefore, most importance, comes first. That’s why ingredient lists are so vital to us in making the right decisions about what we consume. For example, with many yogurts, the top ingredients are sugar-related, and so probably best to avoid and choose a brand with much less. So our Founders apparently wanted us to own guns as long as they were “well-regulated.” Are they well-regulated in this country? No, they are not. For God’s sake they don’t even require safety trigger locks or that they be locked up or that you have a permit in some states or that you have training or pass a licensing test as you do for vehicles. Is not a gun potentially more dangerous and potentially more abused than a car or truck? You don’t have to be a Harvard professor to read the news and see that they are.

So why do people keep voting into office people who continually ignore the beginning instructions–the most important item–of the Second Amendment? Now don’t get me wrong: I am not calling for an outright ban on the sale of the AR-15. I am calling for more regulations around this weapon, and actually a lot more regulations. We’ve seen what they and their high potency clips can do to a child’s body. Recently in Uvalde Texas, murdered children could only be identified by the shoes or the clothes they had been wearing, not by any physical body characteristics. That’s right, even their own parents could not identify their own children after many AR-15 bullets had torn through and ripped apart their little bodies.

You might be surprised to know that I, a liberal Democrat, have considered buying such a weapon. That’s right. Again, I do not advocate banning the sale of these weapons or any guns for that matter. When I was a boy in the 50’s I participated in NRA-sanctioned target shooting with 22 caliber, bolt action rifles at paper targets at safe shooting ranges. I got pretty good at it, a source of pride and satisfaction, as I showed off my bullseyes to my friends. I got used to the feel of a rifle’s kickback and I learned the proper and safe way to hold and aim a gun. My parents were not gun owners, at least not that I know of, but they encouraged my training and practice at the range. That’s what the NRA was all about in the 1950s in America. That, as we all know, has changed with this organization.

Why am I considering the purchase of an AR-15? Because this country has gone psychotic over guns and I am concerned that a full blown violent civil war could erupt within the next few years. As the House Committee investigating the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 is so graphically demonstrating, the opening salvos in that civil war have already happened with Capitol police officers suffering injury and even death as a result. The chief instigator of that coup, former president Donald Trump, has not even had the decency to call the families of the murdered officers to offer condolences. The enforcer of our Constitution, the Department of Justice, has prosecuted and convicted hundreds of rioters but has done little so far against the major organizers of the coup. And I worry that little will be done against those traitors at the very top of the government at the time–traitors who may still be plotting against our government. So if I and my wife are confronted by automatic weapon-wielding insurrectionist fascist militia Trump/Bannon white supremacist members, I want to take a few of them down with me. I do not want to go down without a fair fight. So, yes, an AR-15 with a 100 bullet clip will even the score some.

But, I want my purchase of that gun, if I do decide to go ahead with a purchase, to be “well-regulated.” Do an extensive background check on me, checking with all relevant law enforcement agencies nationwide. Test my proficiency with the weapon as you have tested my proficiency with an automobile. Make sure I am of an age of reason and maturity. Make sure I do not have or had a severe mental disorder. Make sure there are sufficient safety measures in place such as trigger locks and required lockboxes, by law. Yes, I am a law abiding, mentally stable citizen, but, unfortunately, there are many, many people in our society who are not, who are as unstable as a pressure cooker on a high flame that has run out of water and…and…have an AR-15 with a lot of ammo in their possession.

So when you go to the polls this November, check the candidates’ voting record or positions on gun regulations. Are they in favor of a “well-regulated militia…?”

Pro Life? Is a fetus a full human being?

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OK, let me get this straight. If the Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade, many Republican states will legislate that all abortions will be illegal in their states. The Nebraska governor has even said that will apply to cases of rape and incest. No exceptions. So, in effect, that once the baby is conceived the state takes control of that fetus–a fetus that is legally a full human being, apparently with the full rights of any citizen. That opens the door to charge the mother with murder if she aborts the baby by any means available including pills. But if, before the abortion, the mother takes her case to court in an attempt to obtain an abortion in another state, or country, or where it is legal, or even that state where it is illegal, there would then have to be a lawyer for the fetus and a lawyer for the mother, if I’m reading this correctly. After all, since the fetus is considered a full and independent human being, it would be entitled by law to have legal counsel.

During the trial, the mother, of course, can speak for herself, but who speaks for the fetus? How do we know what the fetus is wanting in this case? Could be the fetus has a disability and doesn’t want to be born; or maybe the fetus does want to be born but has doubts about it given the world situation; or maybe is just feeling crappy that particular day of the trial–you know, moody and kvetchy or antsy and pissy and kicking a lot–and doesn’t really want to say what it wants. Actually, come to think of it, the fetus doesn’t yet know how to speak!

What happens then when the jury goes to deliberate? The jury has to start guessing what the fetus wants because they really can’t trust that a proper deposition has been done with the fetus. So how do they determine the truth of what the fetus wants? They know of course what the mother wants but not the fetus. They know what the fetus’s lawyer wants. So since the fetus is legally a human being, the jury finds itself in a quandary. Now picture this happening all over the United States. Needless to say, we quickly become the laughing stock of the world, and hopelessly stuck in a myriad of legal quagmires.

But perhaps, with our present Trump Republican Party, we already are the laughing stock, and the butt of jokes worldwide. It’s likely. But that doesn’t seem to deter Trump and his cult followers. Now if being a human being is defined as the taking of the first breath, same as any other animal, then things are much clearer. The decision about the fetus lies entirely with the mother–and father, usually. That’s how it’s done in most other advanced countries that are not governed by religious dogma. No legal issues there. The mother gets to choose. She is the only full human being here. The fetus is legally an integral part of the mother. The fetus actually is the mother since there is no separation between the fetus and the mother. The umbilical cord proves that–a cord that has certainly not been installed via medical procedure. Without the cord, the fetus dies.

Ironically, by declaring a woman’s right to choose illegal if she chooses abortion, we will be granting more civil rights to an unborn not yet fully human fetus than we do its mother! It’s makes no sense, mixing church and state like way too much salt in a pot of soup!

The state has no rights to any biological part of the mother, as it has no rights to any part of the father. If we start allowing the state to have such rights, that is tantamount to fascism, and exactly what Hitler set up in Germany before and during WWII. In fact we went to war to oppose this sort of state takeover of the human body, mind, and spirit. The Holocaust showed us the ultimate consequences of such a state takeover. Citizens had no choice over any aspect of their lives. Is such a government pro life? Certainly not.

And that, dear readers, is exactly where we, in America, are headed, and in some respects, already there. And this from a Republican Party that wants the federal government to regulate practically nothing, including business, food, health care, consumer rights, vaccinations, oil and coal extraction, ethics, guns, speech, transportation, mining of other natural resources, the environment and climate change, the economy, civil rights, etc., etc.

Why now women’s bodies and the fetus’s they carry?

And today yet more evidence of hypocrisy and ennui. Every single Republican in the House, save 12, voted against an emergency bill to address the baby formula shortage. Pro Life?

And today the House voted in favor of a bill, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022, which steps up the sharing of information about domestic terrorism among government departments and creates an interagency task force to analyze and combat white supremacist and neo-Nazi infiltration of the uniformed services and federal law enforcement agencies. The House passed the bill by a vote of 222 to 203. All the no votes came from Republicans; all the Democrats voted in favor. Pro life? Pro democracy?

If you are thinking of voting for Republicans in the midterm elections, please, please think again.

Heavy National Karma

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I hate to be a prophet of doom, but America has some pretty dark karma to work through–karma that started well before the official start of our country. Since that time we’ve fabricated myths to deny the realities of that karma, myths that are apparent to this day and that have created a polarized country that is, in effect, fighting another civil war. As in 1860 when half the country professed fealty to slavery and half the country was against the further enslavement of human beings, we’re now divided into Trump Republicans and Liberal Democrats.

Whether we proceed to enter a physical war remains to be seen but the two sides are deeply opposed to even talking to one another. The only thing they seem to be in agreement on is opposition to the war in Ukraine, although there are a number of Republican politicians who are against any further military aid to Ukraine and even lean towards supporting Putin. Their number one goal, amidst all the problems we have is apparently to make Joe Biden look bad so he will lose support in ’22 and ’24. Mitch McConnell has been obsessed with this strategy since Barack Obama was president. And with Manchin siding with the GOP on major issues and the Supreme Court taking an ultra conservative tack since Trump’s three appointees were confirmed, the Democrats busy themselves with defending against the baby formula shortage. It’s discouraging to see a democracy swirl down the drain without much attempt to plug the leaks in the tank.

We need an Abe Lincoln with the courage of a lion and not a bunch of whimpering victims of a junior high bully. We need someone with the guts of Lincoln who could beat Trump and his Republicans like a rug on a clothes line.

But that’s not the main reason I’m writing today. I have a theory as to how we got in this mess and how we might begin to extract ourselves before we end up like the Holy Roman Empire, and everybody knows what happened to it. Charles Darwin showed us how animals evolve in reaction to their need to survive and continue their species. (Although even there, many Republicans don’t ascribe to Darwinism and don’t want it taught in our public schools!). Animals make changes over time in response to the changes and threats in their environment-changes that eventually become so ingrained that they solidify in their genetic DNA material generation after generation. Human beings, of course, being mammals, are no different.

The seminal epoch in the history of our country was the advent and continuation for several hundred years of slavery, a time when human beings were treated worse than animals and were actually tallied as three-fifths of a human being in the original Constitution. You all know by now how they were abused, bred, and murdered over those horrible years so I needn’t inventory it all in these pages. Consideration was given to enslave Native Americans, called Indians by the original white setters, but they resisted from the start, drawing inspiration from courageous chiefs and wise elders. Instead, they were banished from their ancestral lands and murdered.

So attention turned to merchants who were selling Africans as slaves. Despite any moral considerations, landowners in the South seized the opportunity to secure free labor and proceeded to become rich men with vast political power as a result. So from 1619 to 1863, human slavery was the law of the land. And from 1870 to 1964, brutal Jim Crow practices and laws, particularly in the South, but also in varying degrees in other parts of the country, essentially enslaved Black Americans further.

What effect did this have genetically on Blacks and Whites in this nation? I submit that hatred and suspicion are largely prevalent in both races to this day, directed towards each other. Due to how they’ve been treated over these centuries, Blacks keep their distance from Whites, live in their own communities, work at jobs friendly to minorities, bank where they can obtain loans without discrimination, and make friends mostly with other Blacks. Whites also live where mostly other Whites live, shop where Whites shop, work in White controlled businesses or corporations, and fraternize mostly with other Whites. Generally if a White sees a Black, particularly a Black man or teen, approaching them on a lonely street in a city, they will more than likely cross the street to avoid the confrontation. A Black person will not cross a street to avoid a White, but will avert their eyes, genetically remembering the consequences for looking at a White directly from millennia of cruel punishment for doing so in the American South.

Behavior is largely conditioned as psychologists have shown. And conditioned behavior usually translates to corresponding genes that get passed from generation to generation. The behavior of white slaveowners has also embedded genetically, manifesting in today’s conservative politicians, in hiring practices, in blocking civil rights legislation, in continued housing discrimination, in educational opportunities, in blocking internal and external infrastructure, in income discrepancies, in police protection, in health care advantages. The list goes on and on.

Laws have been passed to right the wrong, but conservatives constantly push against these laws, and the often conservative courts follow suit. Even our present ultra-conservative leaning Supreme Court has reversed long standing civil rights legislation, along with other established precedents. And GOP-controlled state legislatures have enacted voter suppression laws not unlike the laws that blocked Black voters and politicians just after the Civil War.

This last point is critical given the inbred nature of systemic racism. In order to change the societal genetic landscape, the government and the courts must support laws that right the wrongs of the past. Otherwise nothing will change, and the principles put forth in the Declaration of Independence will be for naught, thus furthering our moral and legal downward slide as a culture and a viable democratic republic where “all men/people are created equal.”

Presently, we are a divided country, racially, politically, and, seemingly, morally. That can only be sustained for so long, as we’ve seen historically. Discord devolves into turmoil. Turmoil devolves into anarchy. Anarchy devolves into dictatorship and fascism. And this kind of fall is a result of years and years of genetic karma–the word karma coming from the Sanskrit word for action–of the kind I’ve described. The Buddhists say the way to change karma is to hold past actions up to the light and make a conscious, enlightened effort to see the error of that action and change direction–with honesty, courage, fortitude, compassion, understanding, and wisdom.

It’s not easy to change the karma of a nation. In a sense, each individual of that nation must also look at their own past actions and make changes on that level. There must be a common goal, a common mission statement, of which the United States has two: the Declaration of Independence and the Golden Rule.

Let’s live by them, shall we!