August 3rd 2020

By James Rogers Bush

We, the people of the United States, have made a terrible and possibly fatal mistake. One can make a list, blaming this group or that demographic for what has happened, but, on balance, we all share in what has occurred. Those who did not vote, those who voted for Donald Trump, and those who did not join Hillary Clinton, all share in what we are now facing.

A demagogue and the sycophants that gathered around him entered the White House and took the reins of power of the most consequential nation on earth. A veritable rogues’ gallery of has-beens, wannabes, bitter haters, and bottom-feeders from every quarter are now having their day, and if history is any indication, they are going to continue to run rampant over every safeguard, tradition, and standard that has kept our democracy intact for the last 245 years.

In the name of ‘shaking up the system’ and ‘clearing out the swamp’ in Washington, disappointed, disgruntled, fearful, angry, and yes, ignorant, racist white folks, from small-town, rural, and suburban America, with the help of apathetic, non-voting, and yes, ignorant, white, Black, and brown folks, from big-city, urban America, with the added assistance of educated but immature, young, angry, idealistic, millennials, allowed a virtual crime family, supported by white nationalists, evangelical Christians, foreign enemies, turn-coat Republicans, and corrupt business people to drag our nation and its political system through a gutter of mendacity, moral corruption, and just plain bad behavior, the likes of which this nation has perhaps never seen.

Now ‘the die is cast’ and, short of actually fighting in the streets, there appears to be no way to stop what, for the last three years, has been transpiring. The weakness in our representative democracy; the weak link in a democracy’s chain has been found and broken. Those who do not really care about or do not understand our form of democracy found that weak link and successfully exploited it - and the inmates have taken over the asylum. The lowest common denominator in our body politic is in power, and, mark my words, they will continue to wreak havoc and try to make all of our worst nightmares come true. They will try to roll back, eventually by force if necessary, all of the gains that progressivism has made since Roosevelt’s New Deal.

So what can we do? First, we continue to resist, in all of the non-violent ways still open to us. We continue to march, we petition, we volunteer, we write letters, we donate money, we join appropriate groups, we support our people in Congress in doing what they can, we vote in 2020, we support each other, we stay in touch, we share information, we give moral support, we summon all of the courage we can muster, and we stay strong - because, as our rightful President said, “We are stronger together!”

But what if all of this does not work? What if, with the impeachment acquittal, we then lose the 2020 election? What if we find ourselves in a fight, not just for our constitutional republic but for our very lives? What if violence and fear become the order of the day? What if fascism really does rear it’s ugly, deadly head and we are all pushed to the wall, both metaphorically and physically?

If the worst should happen and we find our country spiraling into a death-spin of Orwellian proportions, then we will each be called upon to either curl up in fear and roll over in submission or face the monster with all of the willpower and courage we can muster - and then fight, using whatever means necessary to defend ourselves.

I pray that it does not come to this, but I fear that if we do not fight hard enough now, while we still can fight, then we will one day find ourselves in a position where we are no longer able to fight; where we are no longer able to resist. If it comes to that, then we and our republic will be truly lost.