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He’s a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody

Remember the Beatles song? It fits like a glove on OJ on none other than…you guessed it: Donald Trump. Another run for President? This guy is either stupid, demented, mentally ill or all of the above. And if his MAGA cult members stick with him this time, they are clones of him. Problem is cult members can never leave their leader. It’s do or die. Now their leader is even turning against his own proteges like DeSantis and Youngkin, which confuses the cult to no end. They can’t fault their dear leader. That just wouldn’t do. Where would they go? What would life’s meaning look like if they abandoned Trump? They’d be lost in the woods of innui. And Republican political leaders who continue to support Trump are equally lost, confused, and forlorn. They’re damned if the do and damned if they don’t; stuck between a rock and hard place; caught behind the eight ball, painted into a corner, out on a limb, and up shit’s creek without a paddle.

Folks, it’s high time to let go of this albatross around the neck of America. He cares about nothing but himself. He is haunted by his father’s voice saying the worst thing in life is to be a loser. And yet, time and again he has proven himself to be just that: a loser who’s only good at evading indictment. He is certainly no model to hold up to a youngster desperately needing models of moral and psychological character to see them through the rigors of modern childhood and adolescence.

So we know that his MAGA base will not let go. They will continue to fly their flags on the backs of their pickups, sell Trump memorabilia on Main Street corners, and vote for this guy come hell or high water. That’s a given for about what 35% of Republican registrants. A significant number, for sure. Their ears are closed to any arguments against their cult leader.

As for GOP leaders, there may now, after this last election, be more latitude, although Kevin McCarthy is still trying to spin the results into some sort of victory that he predicted. They still want that cult Trump base. And they want to avoid the inevitable death threats to them and their family should they turn against Trump. Yes, Trump uses these elements of his ruthless base to wield his political ax like a mafia don. But other leaders have blinked after poor showings by Trump-endorsed candidates in the last three elections. If nothing else, Republicans want votes and when votes are not forthcoming they start changing their tune. It’s the sine qua non of politics in America.

After hearing of his speech announcing his run for the 2024 election, I am convinced that we have little to worry about. Donald Trump is defeating, and will continue to defeat, himself in the days, weeks, and months to come. We are witnessing a sad excuse for a former president, a true nowhere man in the process of coming undone, of falling apart, of shooting himself in the foot, of cutting off his nose despite his face, leading the rats off a sinking ship…which is sinking very fast.

So another song comes to mind for those still enamored and in bromance with Donald John Trump. It’s the chorus to Paul Simon’s 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover:

You just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don’t need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free.
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don’t need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free.

Sixty six million years ago, an asteroid hit Earth and the dinosaurs began dying off–more and more as dust and dirt from the explosion choked off the sun and cut oxygen from the atmosphere, as we can assume. And finally the last of the dinosaurs breathed their last desperate breath and became extinct, no longer a threat to the mammals who tried to avoid them for years and years. And so it is with Trump Republicans shortly after this last midterm election. Republicans and Trump himself are gasping for that last breath of air, a result of another misinformed polls that predicted a Red Wave would descend upon the planet–a democracy destroying Red Wave that would anoint Trump the ultimate authority and Putonian ruler.

Didn’t happen. In fact the numbers are similar to before the election except that Democrats outperformed the poll predictions and the right wing loudmouth roosters. And this left wing loudmouth, namely me, seemed to, in fact, make a difference. Dems did indeed get off their duffs and pull that Dem lever or mail in ballot, at least for the most part. True, the war is far from over, but a major battle has been effectively won. And I bow deeply to my readers who read my rants and found some semblance of worth in them.

The Democrats defied the polls and retained control of the Senate. They are narrowly losing the House, essentially crippling Republican intentions there, such as defunding Ukraine and impeaching Joe Biden and reversing Biden successes. So how and why did this happen. Here’s how I see it.

*Americans relate to Ukraine and their fight against Putin’s Russia. Republicans threatened to defund our military support for Ukraine, and deeply resented this.
* Americans again voted against Donald Trump, putting a exclamation point on wanting to see this evil, self serving individual gone, and gone for good. They voted against many of Trump’s ridiculous endorsees, sending a clear message to Trump: Leave and don’t come back!
* Americans are more wanting to protect a woman’s right to choose, than approve a national ban on abortion.
* America rejected anti-democratic, MAGA, and extremist conspiracy theories and white nationalists.
* January 6th was a watershed event in American history. Americans resented Republicans tried to whitewash this event, calling rioters and insurrectionist patriots, vilifying Capitol and DC police officers who bravely defended our Capitol and our elected representatives.
* Americans resented and reviled the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
* Americans are sick of death threats coming from MAGA thugs and the fact the Trump has never cautioned or repudiated these cowardly attacks on anyone who didn’t support in lockstep.
* Americans understood that inflation had nothing to do with Joe Biden or Democrats and began to see evidence that inflation was decreasing.
* Americans believe in democracy and the original intent of our Founding Fathers.
* Young people rose to the occasion and voted for more Democrats than MAGA Republicans.
* Americans are angered by the manipulation of our Supreme Court by Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, and the lockstep GOP caucus in the Senate. Trump left his toxic stamp on our country through his extremist right wing choices which McConnell rammed through via deception and fraud. This, along with his equally toxic appointments of federal judges throughout the country, has set our country back decades.
* Americans are alarmed that Trump, a criminal waiting to be prosecuted, is still wielding political power like a mafia kingpin, and, though obviously unfit for any elected position, is on the verge of running again in 2024.
* Republicans have no platform, other than opposing everything Democrats propose. Americans finally acknowledge the GOP as the party of NO, and like the Wizard of Oz, there’s no there there.
* Americans are sick and tired of the likes of Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema and want to see them move to the backbenches of the Senate. Consequently, from my perch, it looks good for a 51-49 Democratic Senate.
* Americans are against election deniers, including Secretary of State candidates who supported the Stop the Steal movement pushed by Trump like a heroin dealer.
* Americans are against the proven Russian campaign of disinformation in relation to our elections, a campaign that Trump obviously knew about and conspired with.
* Americans are sick and tired of the disingenuous culture wars Republicans rely upon to garner votes.
* Americans are opposed to Republican racial dogwhistles led by the leader of the party,
Donald Trump.
* Americans are quite aware of the legal cases against Trump and have discounted his primary challenges which have led to flawed candidates on the Republican ticket in the recently conducted general midterm election.
* Americans know from experience that our elections are fair and square and Republican and right-wing radical media rants of fraud are outright lies and misrepresentations.

Like the flight of a golf ball, the outcome of the vote tells all. With golf, a slice or big hook and you know something’s wrong with the swing and needs correcting. The GOP and their dear leader Trump have come to a toxic crossroads. This election strongly indicates the road they have taken is headed for Hell. Unfortunately, from my perspective, with Trump as their continued cult leader, they have neither the brains, heart, or soul to make the needed directional corrections on their journey to perdition.

This vital midterm election is again, as in 2020, essentially a battle between President Joe Biden vs. former president Donald Trump. Biden has made it clear why, like Lincoln before him, he wants to retain our country’s commitment to democracy and a government for the people, of the people, and by the people. Trump has made it crystal clear why he is in favor of an autocracy, like Joe McCarthy before him, that wants a country ruled by a single party with a dictator at the top, much like his friend Putin in Russia, Xi in China, and his bromance buddy Un in North Korea. If Trump endorsees take prominence next week, we will have a number of key battleground states being run by election-deniers in positions of power to reverse the vote of the people according to their whims and wants. This will unalterably tatter the fabric of our relatively fledgling republic into, in effect, a third rate banana republic, rife with bloody coups, rampant gun violence and vigilantism, and racial and religious bigotry, discrimination, and, yes, even ethnic cleansing.

Joe Biden is a decent man, there no doubt about that. Donald Trump is a coarse bully and bigot, and yes, insurrectionist and traitor. There really is no doubt about that. He is reminiscent of the white slave holding plantation owners of the dreadfully lengthy and violent slavery era, of which this country has never atoned for, even years after an horrendous Civil War. They were arrogant and evil men, mysogynists, rapists, racists, human breeders, and demigods, bent on using human beings as slaves to advance their position and wealth. Things really haven’t changed much. Women, Blacks, Jews, Moslems, Mexicans, Native American Indians are still demeaned, denigrated, and denied full rights, respect, and protection in our supposedly liberal democracy.

And Biden himself has been denigrated and defiled with memes and monikers more appropriate to a common criminal than a President of the United States. But that tells what exactly the Republican Party has devolved into. Joe Biden has done good things for ordinary citizens: infrastructure, jobs, health care, alternative energy. Though he struggles with inflation (which, I might remind you that means an increase in wages as well as prices!), he has remarkably lowered the deficit more than any administration in years. He has done things for the international community via military support for the Ukraine, strengthening NATO, and providing vaccines to Africa. He has tried to right the wrongs of Trumpian immigration policies, including stopping the building of a politically motivated, wasteful, and ineffective wall on our southern border. He has not only not defunded the police but has strengthened their budgets and actually lowered the crime rate around the country, despite Republican lies to the contrary. About all the Republicans and Trump did on that score was to call the Capitol rioters on January 6 patriots and ignore the service of the Capitol police and DC police did on that day to protect our legislators–and their own Republican Vice President–who cowered in fear for their lives in basement bunkers. The Party of law and order? Hardly. Trump never called the family of slain officer Brian Sicknick or attended his funeral!

And what did Trump do as president? He drove up the deficit with tax cuts for the super rich. He did nothing for infrastructure. He tried to axe the Affordable Care Act which gave health insurance to millions. He offered crazy remedies for Covid-19 that would have killed people quicker than the virus itself. He engineered the appointments of three radical religious right wing justices to the Supreme Court. He tried to disembowel NATO, and supported the UK’s Brexit which undermined the EU. And he instigated and organized a coup against our rightfully elected government.

So what is driving the pollsters to predict a Republican sweep next week? One conservative commentator, David Brooks, thinks it has to do with a discrepancy in levels of education between voters of opposing parties. There are many more college educated Democrats than Trump Republicans. I agree with him, but there are, in fact, more registered Democrats in this country than Republicans. So the answer is more turnout than anything else, which is why I keep sounding the drum beat for Democrats–and independents–to get off their couches, get to the polls, or dig out those mail-in ballots they misplaced and fill in those boxes that will give Democrats–and Joe Biden–a stunning landslide victory on November 8th.

When I look at the polls and reports of a big Republican win next week, I really have to scratch my head. What’s going on with this country? When you look at Biden’s accomplishments over the past two years in the face of almost total Republican opposition in Congress; when you look at the voting records of almost all of those GOP legislators in the Congress and in state houses across the country; when you look the violent and deranged rhetoric of many GOP pols, representing now the Trumpian core of their party; when you look at the lies and distortions coming the right wing media; and when you look at the behavior and rhetoric coming out of Donald Trump, a narcissistic, bigoted, racist, traitor who initiated a coup against our government: I just can’t fathom how an American voter could even consider casting a vote for a Republican, in fact just about any Republican. Are they wanting Trump to return to office and set up an authoritarian oligarchy in place of our democracy? Are they wanting a one-party fascist-type government on our Jeffersonian soil? Are they wanting an economic system of tax cuts for the rich that the GOP has been claiming since 1980 will solve our problems but in practice never has? Are they wanting the elimination of government regulations that protect the environment and consumers? Are they wanting the diminution of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security which is what GOP leaders are now proposing? Are they wanting the joining of church and state, where Christianity is the official and only valid religion of the land, while all others are suspect and persecuted? Are they wanting white supremacist gangs roaming the streets at will, not unlike Nazi Brown Shirts in Hitler’s Germany, enforcing fascist-like rules laid down by an all-powerful leader and his or her rubber-stamping legislatures, much like China and Russia of today? Are they wanting Ukraine to fall to Putin, which will happen if Republicans take over the House, eliminating military aid as they have threatened to do?

Is this what American voters want in 2022 America? If it is then, yes, these GOP voters are all of the above: stupid, crazy, and just plain tired out from Covid, inflation, mass killings, polarization, misinformation, a society drunk on celebrity, and social media and Fox “news” gone berserk. At this point, I’m down to hope and a prayer for a Democrat landslide. The abortion/women’s right to choose issue, lowering gas prices, a strong stock market, a strong job market, low unemployment, a GDP that is strengthening, and a deficit that Biden has managed to actually decrease for the first time in many years. All of these give me hope. But when I pick up the morning news, I am filled with despair. I know I must steel myself to the possibilities: plan for the worst, hope for the best. But the worst could very well drive me from this country, and that would make me very sad and angry indeed.

I do love this country dearly. I do not wish to leave it. In my 77 years, I’ve seen it solve and survive many crises. I’ve seen it struggle with its past. I’ve seen, for the most part, politicians of both parties come to consensus, acknowledging their commitment to country over party, their commitment to the welfare of its people over lining their own pockets with graft and profit, their commitment to working with the rest of the world and the planet itself over “America First.”

This planet was once Pangea, just one giant continent. Many plants and animals on our now seven continents are common to one another. All of the world’s Homo sapiens have brains and bodies common to one another. We are all in this boat together. Will we sink? Or will we come to recognize our common heritage, our common desires, our common needs, our common connections, veering from polarization to cooperation, from dystopia to health, from violence to peace, from hatred to love.

Bowing deeply.

I’m no Nostradamus, but like my ancestors in Eastern Europe I can tell when fascists are bearing down on us. Some of them got out which is why I’m alive today. Some stayed and paid the ultimate price. What I see happening here is one part of a populace that is leaning to authoritarianism and one party rule; and one part of a populace that is more liberal and wants democracy but is tired, rundown and apathetic. That’s a dangerous and reckless combination. The proof that’s in the pudding comes next month with the midterm elections.

If the former is energized and the latter is apathetic, we will have a Republican controlled Congress, either completely or partially. That will stymie Joe Biden and the Dems as far as their agenda is concerned. A GOP House and a Dem Senate will right-wing-radicalize this government and pave the way for a Trump run in ’24 which opens the door for a Putin/Orban/Lukashenko/Xi/Un autocrat in the White House. A Dem House and a GOP Senate blocks anything Biden and the Dem House propose which also opens the door for a Trump run in ’24, creating momentum for a continuation of the road to a fascist government in the United States.

As I’ve been saying in previous posts, Trump needs to be stopped in his tracks before ’24 via legal action or application of the 14th Amendment. Without that, he will run again and continue his march towards a bloodless coup (which could turn into a bloody coup as did January 6, but even more wide scale). Trump is well-schooled in the tactics of delay and avoidance, so I don’t think he will be stopped in time–another writing on the wall.

Will he win if he runs again? With the help again of the Russians and dirty tricks and misinformation and wretched attack ads, it’s possible, and perhaps probable, he will, by hook or by crook. It now approaches two years since the ’20 election and he still cries rigged election and claims of his landslide victory, despite hard evidence against this claim. Despite everything against him, his minions continue to lavish him with support and money–lots of money. Republicans have worked hard to reengineer an election infrastructure that will insure them a win in virtually any subsequent election. Their goal is essentially a one party system with a despot at the top with a cabinet, administrative offices, and a rubber-stamping Supreme Court beholden to that person, male or female (people such as Tulsi Gabard, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Kristi Noem would probably qualify). It’s how a fascist system is run. Elections are held but they are sham elections, with guaranteed results, designed for an eternity. Putin received 99.8% of the vote in the last election in Chechnya. Yeah, right!

The Senate race in Georgia is indicative of the current writing on the wall. A very able and qualified Rafael Warnock, the incumbent, is trailing in the polls to a very incompetent and unqualified Herschel Walker. Voters there say they know Walker is unqualified but their only goal is to regain a GOP majority. Power is the one and only priority, another fascist principle, democracy be damned.

Nobel Prize winning songwriter Bob Dylan, who also saw the writing on the wall in the early 60s, started his signature song, The Times They are A-Changin’, this way:

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
And you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.

His words are as applicable today as they were then. Just change “swimmin'” to votin’ Democrat up and down the ballot next month.

Former President Donald J. Trump was an accessory before and after the fact to a felony that involved the injury and death of police officers. He also instigated an attempted insurection upon our government. He also obstructed justice and tried to tamper with witnesses in a Congressional investigation. There’s more, as you know, but that’ll do for the purposes of this post. He needs to be immediately arrested, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and, hopefully convicted and jailed…for a long time. This political monster has managed to weaponize a significant portion of the population, who operate with impunity hurling extremely intimidating death threats at politicians, election officials, judges, FBI officers, former Trump staffers–anyone who they deem oppositional to their cult leader. Trump has become a kind of de facto Mafia boss skulking around in the dark and dank understory of our nation, operating the puppet strings of his minions both in Washington and across the countryside.

We have the goods on him, but Teflon Don is slippery. They resorted to tax evasion to get Al Capone, another mafia Don, but you wouldn’t think it would be as hard to nab Trump. Thing is, this country hasn’t seen anything like Donald Trump ever–a slick, carpetbagging career criminal who manages to get himself elected president and who won’t accept defeat after he loses his reelection bid. It’s like a whole new strain of cancer that doctors have no idea how to handle. Joe Biden is back in the 1980s around what to do with Trump. Meticulous Merrick Garland is no match for the con man. The FBI may have Trumpsters on board. And the Democrats in Congress? Well…they’re still the cautious Democrats in Congress nervously wringing their hands, at a loss for dealing with a raging political bully.

What we do have is Liz Cheney and the January 6th Investigation Committee. They have just issued a subpoena to Trump. That’s highly significant, whether he complies or he refuses. Either way, he loses. We have, too, the criminal case in Fulton County Georgia as per the phone call to Raffensperger demanding he find some 11,700 + votes to illegally sway the election in that state to him. We have, too, the DOJ’s case of the missing national security documents that Trump carted off to Mar a Lago instead of giving them to the National Archives where they were legally required. Garland and the FBI did raid Trump’s house but the case has bounced around legally due to Trump’s chronic delaying tactics. Thankfully, the Supreme Court has chosen not to take up Trump’s request to help him oppose the DOJ.

As for the 14th Amendment and its clause that bars public officials who have participated in any insurrection against the government from running for public office for the rest of their lives, there has been no significant move from the Congress to do so. And, yes, it is either the Congress or the courts that can do so. I have contacted my representatives in Congress asking them to take such action via an appropriate bill, but was completely ignored. When the Bill of Rights are ignored, our democracy is headed down the drain.

So where does that leave us with regards dealing with this individual? My first job out of college was a social worker in a state prison. Some of those men I counseled were convicted of being accessories before and/or after the fact, as the driver during an armed robbery, for example. Trump’s crimes were far worse. Garland hesitates because the perp is an ex-president, but he’s also stated that no one is above the law. Like the guys in the prison I used to work in would say, “When you do the crime, you do the time.”

The integrity of this country is at stake. The whole world is watching. Garland soon comes to a fork in the road. Does he prosecute? Does he absolve? Does he let it fade off into the sunset?

And what of our democracy? Will the country let it go and replace it with an authoritarian at the head of one party, such as Russia, China, Cuba, Hungary, Belarus, Myranmar, Syria, Iran…? This next election will tell us how much danger the canary in the coal mine is in.

One more thing: the Oath of Office of the President is as follows:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Donald Trump seriously violated that oath. If the oath means anything, there must be severe and significant consequences. If not, as Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said today at the latest session of the House January 6th Committee Hearing on the Insurrection, “That, my fellow citizens, breaks the republic.”

Or as Speaker Nancy Pelosi said when she heard Trump was on his way to the Capitol with his rioters on January 6, “I’ll punch him out… I’ll go to jail, but I’ll be happy!”

In an extraordinary announcement, Rep. Liz Cheney (R/Wyoming), an otherwise staunch Republican conservative in spite of her equally staunch opposition to Donald Trump and his fascist leanings, has advised an Arizona audience to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot. She realizes that the Republican Party has been dominated and almost thoroughly controlled by MAGA/Trump supporters whose goal is to take the country to an authoritarian extreme. From top GOP leaders to Main Street voters, many Republicans have been duped by Trump and his surrogates, to the point of cult-like loyalty. We’ve seen cult mentality in the past from Jim Jones to Hale-Bopp psychotic voyageurs, but this is the first time we see it on a national level with a major political party. We see it with Trump-endorsed candidates throughout the country, especially in battleground states where Trump has an eye to 2024 and an attempt to wrest control of the government again through any means necessary. His arrogance and impunity tells him he will defeat current attempts to indict him, as he has evaded prosecution most of his criminal life.

Liz Cheney is a champion for democracy, on a level of, yes, Abraham Lincoln. Hyperbole? Not at all. Lincoln knew the challenge of white slaveholders in the South was a daunting one, and the chips were stacked against him. If France or England assisted the Confederacy, victory could well be theirs, and today, we would be two separate nations: Free and slave. But today, because Lincoln held to his principles and convinced the free states to fight for those principles, we are one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. (“Under God” was only added in the 50s to our Pledge of Allegiance and, in my opinion, should be removed to allow for patriotic atheists or pagans among us.)

If MAGA Republicans take over the House and/or the Senate after these upcoming midterms, their intent is similar to the white plantation slaveholders of 1860. They want a white, Christian nation controlled by an authoritarian MAGA leader where civil and voting rights are only for a relative few. Others would be persona non gratis. This is the direction the current Trump-infused Supreme Court is taking us. These MAGA Republicans even consider Kevin McCarthy too moderate and will try to appoint a Speaker more in line with their extreme right-wing agenda. They will even try to impeach Joe Biden via false charges to further tie up his nation and economy-building agenda.

The only answer is to know who you are voting for and what they stand for. I’m not necessarily suggesting that you blindly vote for Democrats, for you never know these days the subtleties of a candidate’s platform. Study your pamphlets. Choose wisely candidates who will support what’s important to you. And vote.

This next election will give us a good indication of the direction this country wants to take. It is like a canary in a coal mine. If MAGA Republicans take over Congress, the canary dies, and we’re in big trouble. If the Dems increase their majorities, the canary lives and thrives, and we’re on safer ground. Don’t think your one vote is inconsequential. It’s critical. Elections in recent years have been decided on the basis of very few votes. The Presidential election of 2000 showed us that.

The strength of our democracy depends on the willingness of voters like you and I, to do our homework, study the candidates, and go to the polls or fill out your mail-in ballots, whatever the obstacles Republican state legislatures and the Supreme Court have put in your way, and vote. I’m with Liz Cheney on how you should vote. But the final decision is yours.

A democracy can of course be divided–opposing parties, differing opinions, strong arguments for and against various positions. A free, vibrant country thrives on such dialogue and discussion. But when the discussion gets down to the meaning of the truth, itself–what is true? what is reality? what is sanity? what is insanity?–then we’ve got major problems, i.e. a democracy cannot really survive when those questions are in dispute. For example, we now have a sizable number of people who believe that Democrats are evil child molestors who drink the blood of dead children and call for Donald Trump to regain the presidency so he can “round them all up, bring them to trial, and execute them publicly.” There’s no arguing with this QAnon crowd, which now includes Donald Trump himself. Yes, he too “believes” he is this Savior-like choice of QAnon and many Christian evangelicals to eradicate these “enemies of the state.” Before my retirement as a mental health professional, I heard many of my psychotic clients, duly diagnosed, espouse similar delusions about how they were Christ or that the CIA was after them or how they were indeed President of the United States working undercover. Such delusions and hallucinations, in effect like these, are now considered sane and true and part of the mainstream, agreed upon by a former actual President who thinks he won the election, in a landslide, despite definitive and legal evidence to the contrary.

As in Orwell’s 1984, the truth has been and is being redefined and installed in the hard-drive brains of a large group of people who also think the 2020 election was “rigged” and a “fraud.” That’s what a fascist government does as it dismantles the political and cultural infrastructure of the country it wants to control. We’ve seen that in the Germany, Italy, and Japan of yesteryear, and the China and Russia of today. And “guess what?” (as Joe Biden likes to preface many of his remarks), we’re seeing it increasingly in the America of today as well.

Democracys are not guaranteed to continue indefinitely. A number in history have crumbled when not properly cared for and nurtured. Ours is 246 years old, which is good but no world record. In the beginning, there was a commonality of purpose. But around 1860 there were major disagreements and fissures, again, over the truth and how it was defined. We fought a bloody civil war over slavery and whether it was true or not, whether it was moral or not, whether it was right or not, whether it was fair or not. Black-skinned human beings were defined as less than human by some Americans and fully human by others. Some assigned more civil rights to whites, to men, to the rich. Some stated that all men, and ultimately all people, were created equal, endowed by their Creator to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our very democratic ideals and principles, as defined by our Founders were under attack, literally in a life or death struggle that killed and uprooted hundreds of thousands of Americans and eventually assassinated one of our greatest Presidents (John Wilkes Booth was a Confederate sympathizer).

At the core of what is true in our country, we are not much removed from where we were in 1860. Fortunately, we had Abraham Lincoln as our leader then, a President who knew what our country stood for, who knew what was true and would “not suffer fools gladly” those who claimed differently. Lincoln fought that war with gusto, eventually freeing the slaves and making them full citizens of the country that brought them here. He and the Army of the Potomac knew what this country stood for, what was true, and were willing to risk everything for our democracy.

We approach a critical election–after 2020 perhaps the most critical in our history. 2020 closed the coffin. 2022 will either put the nails in or leave the lid ajar like Pandora’s Box. I needn’t elaborate. If you’re at all informed you know what I’m talking about. In the county I live in, the official Republican candidate for the U.S. House is a Trump-endorsed, 2020 election-denying, Neo-Nazi, white-supremacy sympathizer. He defeated our former Republican representative in a primary because she had voted to impeach Donald Trump and the voters here punished her for it. There are many such Trump-endorsed candidates running up and down the Republican ticket throughout the country, from election officials to Congressional representatives.

A political civil war is upon us, with a demonic Roger Stone echoing his former battlecry of “F…k the voting. Let’s get to the violence!” Our fragile democracy hangs in the balance as we await the outcome. Do we do the right thing and turn towards the truth, towards morality, towards sanity, towards democracy, as Lincoln did? Or do we go the way of Stone, of Bannon, of Trump, of the Confederacy?