It’s time.
Usually I resist urges and calls and demands for fear, plenty of which have been trumpeted and shrieked over the past, oh, 248 years. In other words, for the entire history of this holy land. A democracy that purports to cherish free speech will always have as white noise predictions of doom, gloom, and the end of civilization.
And, to be sure, there have indeed been dark times when our little experiment in nation-ing has dipped perilously close to either splintering or falling into the clutches of bad men. The nation broke in two for a brief period of time in the 1860s. And then, business and gov’t conspired to violently crush labor movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Then there were the federally tolerated — even sanctioned — Jim Crow laws and anti-semitic covenants. The United States of America has committed a couple of mortal sins peculiar to it: they being the Native American holocaust and slavery. Its many other sins are those shared by every other land in this bizarre world.
But throughout our history, there’s always been an underlying hope, even among people getting the crap kicked out of them, that this nation was both aiming for and on its meandering way to being a haven for those craving freedom, equity, justice, and, as Jefferson put it, happiness.
Maybe we still are. Maybe the events and conditions of the year 2024 will be seen as a blip on the way to that earthly utopia.
But we’re headed in the wrong direction, here and now. And we’re in for a rough go over the next ten years.
Our current president, Joe Biden, is doing a fairly decent job, save for a few idiotic blunders; for instance, cheerleading Netanyahu’s murderous temper tantrum in Gaza. Other than that, he’s done nothing to turn any appreciable segment of the voting population against him. Under normal circumstances, that is. But in this Fox News/social media/hyper polarized age, he’s the enemy, a villain, “the worst president this country has ever had.” (Worse even than Andrew Johnson or James Buchanan, for pity’s sake?!)
Add to that his abysmal showing in this week’s presidential debate, during which he mumbled and stumbled and proved himself to be a doddering old man. All the while his opponent, Donald Trump, uncharacteristically, even shockingly, played the temperate, reasonable, disciplined human being, descriptors that have never, ever, ever been employed re: him throughout his life.
The truth is, Trump is barreling toward a November victory. Should Joe Biden somehow reverse the trend and stage an upset, it’ll be a bigger surprise than when Trump himself overcame the flawed juggernaut that was the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016.
An aside: a better bet than hoping — praying — for a Biden upset would be for the Democrats to lean on the incumbent to drop out of the race and focus their efforts on someone, anyone, else. Kamala Harris, for instance, or Gretchen Whitmer or Pete Buttigieg. Biden may indeed be in full command of his faculties but a swiftly growing portion of the American public thinks otherwise and, of course, in politics perception always triumphs over reality.
Up to two of the aging Supreme Court justices just might up and die or decide to hang up their gavels during the next presidential term, giving Trump a total of five picks over his two presidencies. And we know what his so-far three nominees, transforming the Court into a radical, activist, right wing, pro-corporate, anti-people sledgehammer, have meant for the country and its future.
The presidency, though, isn’t the only thing to be jittery about. The states of Louisiana and Oklahoma in recent days have endorsed mandates to impose Judeo-Christian biblical propaganda in public schools. That’s not a small step toward theocracy; it’s a giant leap.
An ungodly number of Republicans and other authority idolators love Vladimir Putin to pieces. As far back as 2008 when then-VP candidate Sarah Palin compared Putin favorably to Barack Obama, the right has been drifting into the arms of the Russian strongman.
Closer to home, rural merchandiser Tractor Supply Company. has officially declared itself free of any duty to diversify its workforce or even to sponsor such horizon-broadening efforts such as Pride fests. The company thinks so little of such things that it issued a manifesto saying, essentially, fuck the Human Rights Campaign. Tractor Supply even added it will “withdraw our carbon emission goals,” meaning the whole world can burn or flood or be battered from pole to pole by hurricanes, tornadoes, and extinctions so long as we can do whatever the hell we want, primarily enrich our stakeholders.
The Heritage Foundation last year issued a 900-plus page “Mandate for Leadership,” also called Project 2025, laying out a strategy to “save our republic.” The Project explains why someone like Trump has to be president, lays out a plan to dismantle the federal regulatory infrastructure, dramatically expand presidential powers, spend scads more dough on the military (as if we don’t do that enough already), re-unleash the Wall Street investment banks to plunder the global economy as never before, limit voting rights, and, basically, turn the keys to this country over to the 1% in a way that makes our current stacked deck look like a hippie commune.
The Foundation hollers: “It is not enough for conservatives to win elections.” No, it wants conservatives to reign.
We’re driving toward an authoritarian nation. So, yeah, I’m scared. Fingers crossed it’s just another detour. Fingers-crossing, though, ain’t enough