The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. —William Butler Yeats
There comes a time in every battle when either the line holds and the enemy is repulsed or the line fails and the enemy breaks through.
On January 6, 2021—which millions of Americans don’t even know about!—the line held. At the nation’s Capitol, Trump’s army of violent ignoramuses killed several police officers and injured over 140 more.
That day the line held. Democracy survived.
But since then, virtually nothing has been done to rout the enemy. The secessionists were allowed to scurry off into their ratholes. Some of the more violent offenders met with justice and were jailed, as befits criminals.
But the leaders have gotten away with it. By using the justice system against itself, they have exhausted justice until it is almost too weak to make them pay.
And now we have an election in which most people don’t care or even know about the heroes of 1/6. Republicans have managed to convince hordes of people that inflation or crime or immiration is the most pressing thing.
But in fact, democracy is the most important thing. If we let Republicans get control of the election systems in any swing state, there will never again be a real election. And you will have no say at all in how we tackle inflation, crime, immigration or anything else.
That is the line we must not let them cross. All we have to do is vote them out entirely by next Tuesday to break them, because their ranks are declining while ours are growing. We can stop the passionate intensity of the worst from destroying everything America should be.
We are the line.
Scott! My friend you are straightforward, eloquent and spot on in your writing.
It is not gas prices, or angry blue collar workers bullshit that is the cause of all this Fascist ideology on the rise.
It’s just a growing fear nightmare that Republicans have fed since the 1950’s which boils down to “the Other” be they black, Muslim, Mexican, or Seven Foot Lizards.
The irony is that employment is at its highest in modern recorded history. And this horrid inflation? Get the fuck outta here. This is nothing like what I lived through in the so called “Go-Go” eighties with mortgage rates at 13%.
Like I need to tell you that this nation could provide free college education (and debt relief to millions), or expand Medicare to all (and cut out these leach Insurance companies) and to provide for affordable housing... All for less than we spend yearly to have a military budget greater than the next 14 nations combined.
We can send these “scummers” back under the rocks from which they crawl... all by taking a couple of hours out of our demanding lives to vote them out.
We shall see on Nov. 9th whether we will prevail or dig the trenches deeper my friend!