Time for Change is here
So many people have vested interests in maintaining the status quo that change is difficult at best. Depending on the magnitude of the change, it can be nearly impossible. Take, for instance, America’s body politic before Trump.
Our government had, for all intents and purposes, ceased fulfilling its mission: the governing of its people. The interaction of its two warring factions had ground all progress to a halt. One side, in pursuit of equity and fairness, became mired in its own status quo and did not see what was happening. The threatening neoliberal economics, pursued by the other side, was intent on small government and less regulation.
A similar disfunction occurred in America during the 1920s, culminating with the stock market crash of 1929. The ensuing global economic ruin was so catastrophic, so completely shattering the status quo, its instability caused World War II. The election of FDR began 50 years of unprecedented progress of, by, and for the people of America. Rebuilding in the aftermath of WWII produced Europe today. Never, in the history of the world, has there been a time where the needs of the many outweighed the wants of a few.
The gridlock in our system has produced Trump, the epitome of unrestrained capitalism with utter disregard for wealth disparities. He is breaking our governmental status quo with a wrecking ball. Moneyed interests are crushing liberal ideals aimed at equality and inclusion. Momentous change, in America, is at hand.
Never let a crisis go to waste
No one knows exactly what lies before us. There is both hope and dread where we stand. In the 1900s, under the stress of egregious wealth, we economically wandered into disaster. This time great wealth is intentionally, knowingly, imploding the status quo while ignoring history’s tendency to repeat itself. We are heading toward economic catastrophe.
It took the forces of greed 5 decades to recover from their last debacle. The elections of Reagan and Thatcher started the neoliberal revolution culminating with Trump, Vought, and Project 2025.
The current wholesale destruction of the status quo may still avoid complete economic failure, if we manage to stop the Trump Regime in time. We prepare for the window of change and transformation that is at hand. If Trump is stopped before complete financial collapse, Europe will survive the destabilization emanating from us, and America can break away from the neoliberal economics that dominates us.
Unlike 100 years ago, we already possess monetary tools proven to work. These tools kept England from complete failure in WWI and provided the framework for governments in America and Europe that better meet the needs of the many. The successful economic policies of John Maynard Keynes can be summed up in one phrase: government must do what private enterprise will not.
Capitalism, by its nature, creates profitable ventures. It will not provide economic stability, will not stop inflation, will not stop boom and bust economic cycles, will not control market forces, will not provide equality of opportunity, will not deal with racism, will not care for those in need, will not employ everyone. Its single-minded focus on profit will not allow it.
This is what we must do
There is a singular solution for all the things capitalism will not do. FDR tried and failed to enact this. It has been successfully, but temporarily, tried by India and Argentina. It has been proposed as a solution many times, most recently by Pramila Jaypal in 2020. It is a solution that will beat back the forces of oligarchy and greed: A Federal Job Guarantee.
It is the road not taken like the one conceived by Robert Frost, published in August 1915.
It is time to embrace the ‘road not taken.’ It is time to make a difference. It is time for a Federal Job Guarantee.
The Way Forward for Democrats
Introduction
The Democratic Party faces a critical juncture. The elected representatives are failing to uphold their oaths to “protect and defend the Constitution from enemies, foreign and domestic.” Their response to the current threats to democracy and the dismantling of government institutions has been underwhelming. If this situation is not addressed soon, America risks suffering the same fate as the Weimar Republic in Germany under Adolf Hitler.
Current Situation
Although Democrats do not currently control the White House, Supreme Court, House, or Senate, this does not mean we are powerless. Recent events provide clues to effective action.
Governors’ Actions:
- Janet Mills, Governor of Maine: She publicly refused to comply with Trump’s new discriminatory transgender athlete rules, leading Trump to declare that Maine would receive no federal funding.
- Josh Shapiro, Governor of Pennsylvania: He successfully sued the administration over $2 billion in funding for his state, making it clear that he would withhold all payments to the IRS from Pennsylvania if the money were not provided.
Effective action
A governor has the power to redirect federal taxes collected in his/her state. Unless or until collective demands by the governors of the following states are met, all federal taxes collected by businesses and organizations will be redirected to each state treasury. These states collectively hold the power of the purse: Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Why this will work: This tactic worked in Pennsylvania because, for Trump, everything is transactional. The above-named states each pay out more in federal taxes than they get back, meaning, this will sharpen the pain felt by Republican states, all of which receive more from federal taxes than they pay in. This will erode their support for Trump. He will not let that happen.
Additional states: Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kentucky, and North Carolina may wish to join this effort because they each have Democrats in their State Houses. The more extensive the protest, the better chance it will succeed.
Details: Participating governors must be fully committed. They must have a spokes-governor, so they speak with one voice. Simultaneously, each participating state must call out the national guard for a State of Emergency just prior to contacting President Trump. This will ensure that the military in each state is under the control of the governor and cannot be called out against them.
No money withheld from the federal government will be replaced but, instead, it will be used by each state for its needs. All the states will then be able to fund programs typically covered by federal government commitments. Hawaii and California can start recovering from their devastating fires. When demands are met, federal tax money will again flow to the IRS. If demands are not met, federal tax money from these states will end entirely. The longer it takes, the more money will be withheld.
Your part
The only way we keep our democracy and institutions is through unity. This boycott by our governors must be supported. Call your governor today, tomorrow and every day, urging them to take action in defense of our democracy.
10 things that need to be done (my list of demands)
In actual dollars the U.S. government spends more than any other country in the world. On a per capita basis, we are 5th and yet our citizens receive far fewer benefits of that spending than our neighbor Canada (17th in per capita spending). Even I believe we spend too much money and, politically, I am somewhere to the left of Bernie Sanders. If you want a more responsible, efficient government, let me help.
- Stop withholding federal spending that has been approved and budgeted for.
- Stop Musk from cutting federal jobs
- Enlist the help of Democrat and Republican lawmakers to reorganize departments to find actual savings.
- No tax cuts for the wealthy and no tax increases for the bottom 20%
- Eliminate all subsidies for wealthy individuals and corporations. These corporate subsides alone account for more than $80 Billion in savings. There are plenty more.
- Ensure the Defense Department accounts for its spending (It has failed the last 7 audits). Any unaccounted spending from its 2025 audit, cut from their budget, a potential savings of $200 Billion annually.
- Break up the monopoly of Defense Contractors to prevent price gouging, which adds more than 25% to every contract.
- Rehire all IRS staff tasked with tracking down rich tax cheats and making them pay, which could account for more than $150 Billion annually.
- No cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits. Remove the salary cap on SSI and Medicare deductions to make them solvent for the next 75 years.
- Trump and Vance must sign letters of resignation that will take effect if, for any reason, free and fair elections do not take place in 2026 and 2028.
Conclusion
The Democratic Party stands at a pivotal moment in history. Our elected representatives must rise to the occasion and fulfill their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution. The actions of governors like Janet Mills and Josh Shapiro demonstrate that we are not powerless. By redirecting federal taxes and taking a unified stand, we can exert significant pressure and bring about meaningful change.
Unity is our strength. By supporting our governors and demanding action, we can preserve our democracy and ensure that our institutions remain intact. The proposed measures, from stopping indiscriminate federal job cuts to ensuring accountability in defense spending, are essential steps towards a more responsible and efficient government.
Together, we can make a difference. Call your governor today and every day, urging them to act in defense of our democracy. Our collective efforts will pave the way for a brighter future for all Americans.
Into the Storm
Trump lies.
The first tragedy occurred less than two weeks into his second term. On the heels of firing 400 FAA senior officials, the TSA head, and 3,000 air traffic controllers, 67 innocent people died in the worst midair collision in 16 years. Trump knowingly murdered these people because of his greed and incompetence. He will lie about his guilt and complicity.
He lied about fixing inflated food prices. No cuts to Medicare and Social Security he said. Cuts to every social program including Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are on the table, another lie. He has ordered tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China (our three largest trading partners). This will send prices soaring. There are executive orders to end constitutional birthright citizenship, kill clean energy, double down on climate changing fossil fuels, end job protections for civil servants, sign Transgender people out of existence, withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization and much more. Project 2025, which he denied knowing anything about, is coming to every neighborhood in America.
Pete Hegseth, a drunken abusive philanderer, who merits advancement solely because he is a white Christian male Fox News celebrity, now heads the Department of Defense. Others, who choose Trump over the Constitution, run the Justice Department, CIA, and Department of Homeland Security. Elected Democrats helped confirm these clearly unqualified appointees.
Registered Democrats across this nation will watch as an unqualified psychopath bent on revenge is confirmed as Director of the FBI, a Russian asset/agent as the head of National Intelligence, and a brain worm addled anti-vax, conspiracist will lead the health department… with votes from apathetic Democrat Senators. Members of the 1932 Reichstag snickered and joked about Hitler’s unqualified nominees.
Politically we are careening headlong into tornado alley.
Incarcerated January 6 offenders, Red Hats (Hitler’s Brown Shirts), were freed with a blanket pardon. It was ‘too hard and time consuming’ to separate out the violent offenders. This same mindset consumes immigration raids. Legal, illegal, and citizen alike are being collected and deported. No one ‘has time’ to check documentation.
What happens when they start rounding up LGBTQ+ people, Muslims, atheists? Then anyone who dares speak out? How long before foreign countries stop accepting plane loads of people not from their nation? Before concentration camps spring up? And extermination facilities appear in those camps? Remember, lurking around out of sight, unelected, is Stephen Miller who has the same amiable sensibilities as Hitler’s henchmen: Josef Mengele and Adolph Eichman.
Elected Democrats will be powerless to stop a national abortion and contraception ban. Red capes and white bonnets will follow as pregnant women are forced out of the workplace. Cancellation of the minimum wage, 40-hour work week, overtime pay, vacations, sick leave, and the right to Unionize will soon follow. Then Americans will find themselves forced to fill the jobs of deported immigrants at any wage under any conditions.
Who will stop this madness? The courts? A drooling syphilitic half-wit can see how ineffective the courts have been at containing pre- and post-inaugural Trump and his agenda.
The truth about what he wants.
I believed him when he told followers at a campaign rally, “You won’t have to vote anymore.” We have had the last free election in America. The appearance of Constitutional adherence will continue only until loyalists are in place deep into each government agency and at the head of each branch of the military. Then the charade will be over. Trump and Vance will be free to shanghai the rest of America into Project 2025 using police, military, and the courts as weapons. They will not stop until America is returned to a mythical version of the 1950s, a walled-off white Christian Theocracy.
WAKE UP! This nightmare you are experiencing is real.
Stop pretending that we still live in a democracy. Our elected representation has no power. The struggle for our rights, our liberties, our very lives has begun. It is playing out in our cities right now. Soon there will be battle lines down the middle of every street in America.
“When in the course of human events…”
I am more afraid than I have ever been, but there is no going back. Our only hope is to move forward and Into the Storm. To quote Benjamin Franklin, “We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” I will not fire the first shot in the coming conflict, but once fired upon, may the gates of hell open and swallow them whole.
To our freedom, to this democracy, I pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor.
Thomas Crown
What are you going to do if Trump wins?
I have been working on four different Op-eds but cannot finish any. None of them are gelling. I have been unable to stay on subject, find an ending, make a coherent point. What I can write and finish, is this.
What are you going to do if Trump wins?
There is little point in discussing Trump’s course of action if reelected. Simply read the 900-page manifesto, Project 2025. It gives detailed descriptions of what to expect. If you are reading this and have no idea what is in Project 2025, I have two more questions for you: ‘What abandoned coal mine have you been living in?’ and ‘Is there room for me and my wife?’
If your first reaction to ‘What if Trump wins?’ is, “I’m leaving the country,” consider this: If you do not already have plans locked in, a specific destination reserved, a valid passport, and half your luggage packed, it is doubtful you are going anywhere.
Besides, where would you go? Trump has already expressed the desire to invade Mexico ‘to stop the drug cartels.’ How long after that before he and General Flynn turn their attention toward Canada?
Further away? Say, Europe? One of Trump’s first executive actions will be to ‘end the war in Ukraine’ by cutting weapons support. He and Vlad are, after all, ‘friends.’ In the ‘interest of world harmony,’ he will next withdraw from NATO because none of those people like him. The ‘all clear, having been sounded,’ Putin will advance westward, pausing only to admire himself in the mirror, on his way to Cabo da Roca, Portugal.
Even further away, perhaps? How about somewhere in Asia? In the breath after abandoning Ukraine, Trump will, ‘in the spirit of global peace,’ gift Taiwan to Xi, another ‘friend,’ opening the door for massive Chinese expansion… in all directions. Say goodbye to any friends you may have in Australia, New Zealand, or Japan. India will react by gobbling up as many neighbors as possible. This is my feeble attempt to keep it light WITHOUT mentioning WWIII. Oops! Said it anyway.
So, what are you going to do?
Go back to business as usual and hope no one notices… like a sizeable percentage of German citizens did when Hitler became Chancellor in 1933? It takes little research to reveal how badly that turned out.
Jon Stewart has his answer. If you have not noticed, he is a mess. He is beside himself at the prospect that Donald will once again be ensconced in the White House. Stewart is a man who has the resources to disappear into the mist. Instead, he will remain at the Daily Show. He renewed his contract through 2025 to continue speaking truth to power until they drag him out of his chair on set in front of a live audience. Jon and hundreds of comedians will among the first relocations to internment camps. At the behest of Stephen Miller, they will be joined by outspoken journalists and politicians.
Now, look in a mirror and ask yourself, seriously: What are you going to do if Trump wins? Be honest. Do not lie to or kid yourself. Your answer will tell you how firm your commitment to American democracy is whether Harris wins or loses. Have your answer by election day, November 5.
We will, then, have until January 20, 2025, to prepare for whatever is next.
Me? I’m with Jon.
To new beginnings.
Good luck!
God’s speed.
Dear Democratic leadership: Do you want to win in November?
The 2024 campaign has begun. Joe Biden, despite his accomplishments, is flagging in the polls. We Democrats have 20 Senate seats up for re-election and the Republicans in charge of the House holding the nation hostage over the budget and trying to impeach this entire administration. It would not surprise me if they started hearings to remove Commander, the president’s dog. But you already know this.
Do you want to win in November?
When I ask if you want to win in November, I do not mean simply keep Biden/Harris in the executive branch. Nor do I mean keep a one seat majority in the Senate and pick up a few House seats. I mean clean sweep WINNING: A Biden/Harris blow out re-election win, a comfortable majority in the House, and half-dozen more seats in the Senate?
Fundraising that will yield enormous results in November.
Asking me 4 or 5 times a day whether I am voting for Biden, not Trump, will not help us win. Do you know how many of those emails/texts I have opened? Two! The hundreds more you sent I deleted unopened. What a waste of campaign effort?
How many more campaign dollars could you collect if every email/text you sent was opened? A simple modification will achieve those results while, at the same time, finding out what we, on the streets, suburbs, and in the countryside, really support. Instead of obsessively incessantly offering us a Biden poll, ask “Do you favor taxing the rich?” In the next email ask, “Is healthcare a right?” Then, “Should abortion be legal everywhere?” “Do you support unionization?” “Raise the minimum wage?” “LGBTQ+ rights?” “Should America remain a democracy?” “Is our economy working for you?” “Did the Infrastructure bill affect your community?” You have also not asked about gerrymandering, taking donations from corporations, trading stocks in Congress, Washington D.C. or Puerto Rican statehood, childcare, student loan forgiveness, or tuition free public college. This list is endless.
At your current fundraising pace send every Democrat and left leaning Independent at least two hundred differently titled emails/texts before a repeat. We will open all of them because, more than anything, we want you to know how to best represent us. Tallying the results will give you a real platform and effective talking points.
More than 40% of Americans are no longer registered Democrats or Republicans because both parties stopped listening to the people. We need you to hear us.
Speaking of talking points
While negotiating the budget, every hearing and budgetary press conference should feature these talking points.
1.The Republicans are not/cannot be serious about our debt/deficit if taxing the rich is not on the table.
2. If the Republicans want budget cuts, start by ending subsidies, tax loopholes, and tax credits for the wealthy and rich corporations.
Cuts to the IRS, CFPB, Medicare, or Social Security are not on the table. If they threaten to shut down the government, let them. Dare them to do so.
I have been a Democrat for more than 50 years. I know you Democrats in charge are shuffling around staring at your feet, running your fingers through your hair, mumbling, “What if we make a mistake? What if we lose?” There is no time for that nonsense.
Stop it.
The Republican Party is already doing everything in their power to hand us an election landslide by threatening to shut down the government, banning books (including the dictionary), arresting women for having miscarriages, balking at support for Ukraine… the list is extensive.
There are two issues that certainly garner more than 50% support among voters: legalized abortion and democracy in America. Spend more of our campaign war chest making sure the abortion question is on the ballot in all 34 Senate races, especially the toss-up states. Meanwhile, run TV and social media ads that embrace, “Voting for any Republican is voting for a national abortion ban.” and “A vote for any Republican, is a vote to end democracy in America.” If you cannot bring yourselves to adopt this ‘take no prisoners’ attitude, fix that by hiring those who have and do. Embrace the unthinkable: invite the Lincoln Project to craft your messaging.
Address immigration with action.
I do not agree with Governors Abbot and DeSantis sending migrants to cities run by Democrats. It has, however, brought attention to the crisis at our southern border. Unless we can magically end all global conflicts and human rights abuses, people arriving at the border will continue. All these negotiations and press conferences should include the labor shortage in America and what Republicans support: putting children to work and keeping all immigrants out. Citizenship for DACA should be in every negotiation. Do you want to blunt Republican immigration talking points? Publicly encourage every Democrat run city in America to take in as many immigrants as they can while negotiating for funds to make that possible.
We can have a substantial victory this November! We will have a substantial victory in November… if you stop worrying and start daring to act!
I sent this letter via snail mail to Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Jaime Harrison, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Henry Munoz III, Rep. Cedrick Richmond, Ken Martin, Virginia McGregor, Chris Korge, and Hillary Clinton. If you wish to send any a letter here is the address:
430 South Capitol Stret, Southeast
Washington, DC 20003
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Election 2024 is at hand
Last November I posted “The Visibility Initiative Project” that pointed out Hitler’s rise to power in Germany as the result of good people being silent and invisible. Since then, Donald Trump has threatened to corral immigrants in concentration camps like vermin and promised to be dictator on day one of a second term while denying he had read Mein Kampf, the source of these talking points.
As Trump supporters go about their daily lives, everywhere they look, they see only MAGA hats and shirts and yard signs. To them this confirms what they saw today on Fox News: They are the voting majority in the United States and election 2020 was stolen.
They are visible! Meanwhile, resistance to the rise of Hitlerian fascism in America remains invisible outside the media.
Democracy is on the Ballot…
A vote for any Republican is a vote for a Trump fascist government, a national abortion ban, and an end to progress on Climate Change. There will not be a box to select that says “democracy.” There will only be names of candidates and ballot initiatives. Choose wisely.
Being visible is a key part of not allowing us to slip into that authoritarian government. My site, BlueWavePolitcs, is one of a multitude of sites that can provide you with apparel and kitsch so you can be seen. Stand up. Stand out. Be visible.
New designs on my site can help you speak volumes without saying a word. In your everyday comings and goings people will notice and say they like your sweatshirt or tote bag. That idea will be planted. It will germinate and bear democratic fruit for the coming election!
Here are innovative designs that scream “democracy” now available on sweatshirts and tote bags:
There is a slim possibility that Democrats will make a clean sweep in November capturing both the Senate and House of Representatives… but not if we remain invisible!
If you have ideas for designs or would like to help with this project, contact me.
Kevin and the no good, very bad Republican agenda (part 1)
This is the second in a series of articles. In “Kevin McCarthy and Republicans and Debt Ceiling, Oh My!” it was clear that Kevin and the Republicans did not believe what they were telling the American people about budgetary restraint. If we look beneath their rhetoric, we will find what their real agenda is and who that agenda serves.
Taxes
Rather than let the debt-ceiling deal begin closing the gap between revenue and expenditures, McCarthy announced his intention to cut taxes. How is that fiscally responsible? Simply, it is not.
Historically Republicans seek to reduce taxes. George W. Bush cut taxes for the rich twice and added a tax rebate in 2008. Donald Trump ‘reformed’ the tax code making another windfall for the rich. Both presidents billed these cuts for the rich as the way to stimulate the economy that would pay for themselves. Together their cuts contributed $11Trillion to our $31T national debt. They did not pay for themselves.
Imagine receiving one of the above tax cuts for your widget manufacturing company that has already laid off half its employees because no one is buying your wares. Would you use that tax relief to re-hire workers to make more widgets that are already NOT selling? Of course not! Your furloughed employees will spend their tax relief on food, clothing, and housing, not widgets, further reducing demand for your products.
Since the lion’s share of tax cuts accrues to the top 5%, what do businesses, large corporations and the rich do with their tax rebates? One thing large corporations do with significant tax cuts is stock buybacks, something that was illegal until the Reagan administration. Buybacks cause the stock price to rise, thereby increasing their wealth and that of their rich shareholders.
Tax cuts for the rich and large corporations do not stimulate the economy. They ONLY make them richer and the poor more so, increasing the wealth gap in America.
Regulations
Cutting regulations has been a mantra of the Republican party for my entire adult life. Recently, Norfolk Southern lobbied the Trump administration to get reduced safety regulations. The wheel bearing failure that caused the derailment and subsequent disaster in East Palestine, Ohio is the product of those hamstrung regulations.
In fact, it is more profitable to ignore safety rules. Just as it is cheaper for a company to dump waste into the nearest river than to dispose of it properly, cheaper to spew air borne waste into the atmosphere, cheaper to use inexpensive nonfood fillers in our food. It is more profitable to build whatever you want, wherever you want than to go through an expensive approval process and follow building codes. It is more profitable to pay workers as little as possible, not offer health benefits, nor provide safe working conditions.
Cutting regulations increases profitability and mostly benefits the richest among us while endangering the lives of the rest of us.
Small Government
Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform once famously said: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”
What is so appealing about a smaller government? In the recent negotiations over the debt-ceiling Speaker Kevin McCarthy initially asked for a 22% across the board reduction in spending (not including the military). The bill specifically targeted an increase to the IRS budget from the Inflation Reduction Act passed by the Biden administration. Some of that IRS increase was meant to restore cuts by previous administrations. Most of it, however, was earmarked for collecting taxes from the rich.
Lopping 22% off federal funding would reduce the enforcement power of every regulatory agency, not just the IRS. If you cannot curtail or diminish regulations through legislation and lobbying, the second most effective means, achieving comparable results, is to make the rules impossible to implement by making government small enough to drown in a bathtub.
Slashing funding, in addition to crushing enforcement capabilities, reduces the effectiveness of our social safety net. This translates into less money available for unemployment insurance, SNAP benefits, Veterans benefits, Medicaid, child tax credits, school lunch programs, Pell grants, and other programs for the poorest among us.
In the end reducing the size of government becomes a downward spiral feeding on itself. Smaller government is less effective. Now Republicans can tout that our government is not working, therefore, more cuts should be made.
The difference between cutting regulations and reducing the size of government is that, by circumventing laws and regulations, one can be prosecuted for doing so… if only there were funds for that.
Smaller government benefits only the rich while forcing the poor further into poverty.
Kevin and the no good, very bad Republican agenda
Republicans, regardless of their rhetorical misrepresentation, enact tax cuts, eliminate regulations, and make government smaller to benefit the rich. They support the same actions at state and local levels, as well, to the same effect. The rest of us do not economically matter.
One more thing
The richest among us will support whatever form of government that best supports them whether it is a dictatorship or a democracy. If we are to continue our American experiment with Democracy, we must take our country back from the rich. We must force them into their proper place in a democracy: Serving the Common Good.
Electing Democrats is the only way forward for democracy. Show your ‘followers’ as you drive around your community where you stand. Put one of these on your car:
We, the Unchosen
We did not grow up to be the President. We did not become pro sports legends, movie stars or astronauts. We have not won Nobel Prizes. Those dreams of greatness faded with adulthood and responsibilities. We chose families and the work-a-day life. We are the Unchosen. We are America.
My father belonged to the Greatest Generation, the one that saved the world from totalitarian rule by defeating Hitler and the Nazis. World War II claimed the lives of 419,000 Americans (60 million worldwide). All but a sliver of those were also Unchosen.
The perilous threats we face today overshadow those of my father’s generation. The global cost of worsening Climate Change, in lives and property, continues to mount. American oligarchs like Charles Koch are lining the pockets of Trump Republicans to make certain their income streams are uninterrupted by mitigation measures. Other oligarchs, likewise, make similar investments to avoid being taxed, thereby, assuring government coffers are too empty to take effective action on this extinction level event that is climate change.
The conservative U.S. Supreme Court, having diminished women’s control over their own bodies, blunted government efforts to allay our climate crisis, reduced efforts to control deadly weapons, and opened a breach in the wall between church and state, are prepared to vacate rights to contraception and same sex marriage, while allowing wholesale discrimination against certain minorities.
A re-elected Trump would hold Putin and Xi in such high esteem that, one could easily imagine him ceding Ukraine to the Russians and gifting Taiwan to China in exchange for one-third of the world pie, the triumvirate of nuclear nations, crushing democracies and ousting tinhorn dictators around the world along the way.
In November of 2020, we, the Unchosen, manned the polling ramparts and turned out in record numbers to fight for our seat at the table. We carried the day and took our seat.
Again, the forces of darkness are amassing for the next battle, armed with legalities and loopholes meant to strike down as many of our voting numbers as possible, while scaring up more opposing voters with inflation, immigration, and socialism.
Whenever Trump endorsed candidates declare that the 2020 election was stolen, they are not promoting the Big Lie. They are sounding a dog whistle to publicly acknowledge their ongoing seditious conspiracy and commit to installing Trump or a protégé as President following election 2024, by whatever means necessary. If his candidates are elected this November, they will be poised to install their candidate regardless of the outcome at the polls. If they succeed, 2024 will be the last free election in America.
We must defeat them all, even if it means escalating the civil war that may have already begun.
If we are victorious in this November’s election, we will further advance the transformation that will save us all. If we persist, triumph after triumph in election after election, through the darkness in the decades to come, we will reach the dawn of that better day, a democratic America, having averted the climate catastrophe. We, the Unchosen, will be hailed as the Greatest Generations to have ever lived.
If we fail, there will be no one left alive to notice.
We, the Unchosen, are the only heroes we have. We the are the heroes we need! You may not be a Democrat. You may not like what the Democrats stand for, but this November, they, alone, stand between us and the abyss. Choose wisely.
Vote!
The Bitter Pill: A prescription to cure the Republican party of Trumpitis
All you anti-Trump Republicans out there listen up!
From my perspective, I hope that the division in your party destroys it completely. However, I have a vested interest in you solving your dilemma. If this all plays out without your intervention, it could take years. Unfortunately, America and the rest of the world do not have years. We are facing problems, like Climate Change, that cannot wait until you children duke it out and, along the way, delay the action we need for humanity to survive what is coming. To rid yourselves of Trump you are going to have to swallow a bitter pill.
You cannot negotiate your way to a “compromise”. There will be no compromise. Likewise, running TV ads and running candidates in primaries will change nothing. If you survive that pitiful effort, you will find yourself voiceless when it counts: the next election.
As long as Trump is in your party, your candidates will lose to his in the primaries and your voters will have two choices at the ballot box: Democrats or Them.
If Anti-Trump Republicans want to return to a conservative party capable of governing rather than fear mongering and spouting conspiracies, it is going to take a greater sacrifice. Ten Republican Representatives voted to impeach and 7 Repbulican Senators to convict the former President. Liz Cheney has continued to rail against the big lie. Brave of them. They are already paying a price and, collectively, will fall victim to primary challengers from the Margery Taylor Greene wing (nut) of the party. Not enough. They should be willing to lose their jobs in this quest if, for no other reason, than complicity in ushering America toward January 6.
There is no way to remove Trump from the Republican Party.
To be rid of Trump, you must bury the GOP with him in it. You must give never-Trump Republican voters a real choice at the ballot box: start your own party and run candidates in general elections.
The bitter pill? Starting your own party will assure victory for Democrats… not just in 2022, but probably until the end of this decade. By then, you should have a viable, electable conservative party in America.
Are you really prepared to do what it takes to make sure Trump never sees the White House again except as a tourist? Are you truly prepared to make sure his minions leave office, tails between their legs? You helped create this problem. Now fix it.
The fate of our democracy depends on what you do next.