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Heading Toward Another Date With Destiny [1]

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Date: 2022-08-15

I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close. – Edward Luce, US national editor and columnist at the Financial Times

Is it always darkest before the dawn? Or does it just get darker?

Do our institutions always hold? Or are all bets off once our institutions become corrupted beyond recognition?

Will the greatest country in the world always be the greatest country in the world? Or will it join the other great civilizations that have crumbled over the course of history?

These are serious questions that deserve serious consideration. Maybe in a nation that is often too full of itself we don’t see this as possible. Maybe we’re so used to going about our day-to-day lives with no concerns that the world around us will fall apart. That chaos will replace order. Violence will replace peace. Death will replace reasoned debate and our democratic process.

In a nation where outlandish conspiracy theories are thrown around like nickels, legitimate fears about the end of our democracy and the rule of law are handled more like manhole covers.

In a country where a president can steal – yes, he stole them – top secret documents, rebuff efforts to get them back up to the point where a search warrant must be served, and a good part of our country screams that HE’S the victim, where are we heading?

In a political system where the Republican Party seeks a return to control of Congress, not to govern and move our country forward but to create chaos, dole out revenge, and further corrupt our political system to meet their goal of converting it from a democracy to an assurance of minority rule, what will that end game look like?

A lot of the insidious efforts of the GOP aren’t happening behind closed doors. They’re happening right before our eyes. Step by step it’s extended its corruption deeper and deeper into our government. Aided by a right-wing media machine spewing dangerous lies and propaganda to an audience cultivated to listen to it and it alone.

Denigration of the media and law enforcement to erode public confidence in the very institutions charged with protecting our democracy. Voter suppression efforts and new laws that could give state legislatures to ability to throw out the legitimate vote totals and replace them with a winner of their choosing. Lie after tireless lie, all to distract us from what they’re doing. Lies that too many people are falling for.

And the growing lust for violence. The threats of a civil war. The targeting of institutions and individuals who the Right sees as disrupters of its master plan. Will they work? Will they scare off the honest people? Are they the prelude to disaster?

How many “wake-up calls” must we receive before we finally wake up? Or will we figure it out after it’s too late?

Open your eyes. All around our country the enemy – yes, they are the enemy – is poised to make more inroads into our local, state and federal governments. Election deniers. White nationalists. Followers of former president/king of corruption Donald Trump. All dying to help Trump or someone like him take the White House in 2024. All ready to lie, cheat, and steal for their cult leader.

The polls say this. Then the polls say that. The only poll that counts will be taken on Election Day. That will be the day when we’ll see if those who still cherish what this country stands for will be in a position to fight off those who would destroy it for their own benefit.

That will be our day or reckoning.

***

Thank you for reading my post. You can see more of my writings on my blog: Musings of a Nobody.

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