Well, guess what folks undermining our basic right to voting IS HAPPENING. Senator King articulated clearly on the Senate floor October 20, 2021 what has been going on for years now. Senator King’s speech validated everything I have said or discussed with others since the former guy traveled down his escalator. Even before that catalytic event the signs have been building for years yet most people ignored them because they were caught up in the normal priorities of their own lives.
I have experienced animosity, denial and a whole range of expletives over the last 6 years because of my stance on the future of our democracy, part of my family even disowned me. Step away from the political news they say, nothing is going to transpire, America will be fine we are a country of laws. You are being too pessimistic or no way that will ever happen here.
What has been ignored by so many is the underlying fact politics touches every part of your life. Now that truth is glaringly obvious to everyone as republicans refused yesterday to honor the basic concept of our constitution, ‘by the people for the people’ and the right for every citizen to vote. States controlled by republicans have already put laws in place to deny acceptance of any elected official who is not THEM.
So how did we get to this place? While there are many other actors and incidents to occur these last 40 years, here is an abbreviated list of what I feel is important that happened during my life (born in 1953).
The first red flag was in 1964 when former President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. The southern democrats, unable to accept black Americans as equal to whites, fled to the republican party. The civil rights and women’s movement, Vietnam and the counter-culture all pushed back against the establishment, one based on the patriarchal power structure.
The second red flag was in 1980 when Reagan elevated the Christian right as a core component of the republican party. Reagan invited them in and introduced the proliferation of pious politics, then elevated trickle-down economics which resulted in destroying the middle and lower classes in this country. Once dedicated, loyal employees valued for their contributions to the success of a business became expendable assets to the bottom line for the corporate officers. The only trickle-down that happened was the debasing of American workers as a valued component of work environments.
The country continued down this path as technology made instant billionaires, high paid sports figures became heroes regardless of their infractions. Everything focused on success defined by fame, money and power. There was minuscule focus on the character of a person in leadership or those seeking power but most of it was false or double speak. The republicans continued to move to the right pushing ‘family values’, focusing on ‘their’ definition of morality while making backroom deals with lobbyists to slant the benefits toward the rich.
This move to the right caused democrats to hop on the Wall Street bandwagon in order to counter republicans and obtain political power. A large percent of democrats were forced to move to the right during the Clinton administration becoming more in line with what used to be the republicans’ centralists and left leaning politicians.
The third red flag slowly built over the years as wage stagnation undermined the middle class. A scrape goat was needed and rhetoric focused on immigrants and the false claim they were taking away jobs from the American people. At the same time the LGBTQ community started fighting for their own rights. This particular group of people offended the religious right and thus the culture wars heated up. Women rejected their ‘biblical’ role and entered the workforce en masse. The corporations continued their assault on the work force, off shoring jobs, destroying workers’ rights, taking away once standard benefits like pensions. Money became the leading indicator as to what laws were being established.
The fourth red flag was 9/11, a time that brought people together in this country but also separated us as backlash against Muslims and immigrants accelerated. Fear was once again a tool of the right to push their agenda of the false view that our country was founded on Christianity, the superiority of whites and the idea immigrants would replace white Americans.
And then came former President Obama, an intelligent bi-racial man who proved a black man was not only equal but, in many cases, more accomplished and honorable than many whites. While Obama treaded very carefully to not appear bias, just his presence in office sent the GOP, hard-right Christians into a tailspin, and all the racists came out of the woodwork. The former guy who loves chaos then united those groups, feeding into their fear whether it was women, POC, immigrants, LGBTQ and of course democrats.
During these years the population of America changed. Intra-racial, intra-religion marriages became more common. Young people grew up accepting diversity and the country’s rich changing culture. POC, Indigenous people, women and LGBTQ demanded equality. More women went to college and chose careers over starting a family. All these societal transformations resulted in a steady decline of the ‘white’ majority population birthrate. Add on top of all this was the continual denial of climate change, increased natural disasters and an onslaught of drug addiction and violence born out of hopelessness. Despair feeds unrest on both sides and while most have tried to work within the system the republicans have jury-rigged their influence over others.
Finally, people are waking up to how the minority has controlled the system, denying what the majority wants time and again these last 15+ years such as gun control, fair wages. Foreseeing demographic changes years ago republicans have been gerrymandering, suppressing votes, getting conservative judges in place to uphold their view points, pushed the culture wars and jumped on the bandwagon of the corrupt former guy because he brought the votes.
The republicans made a choice when they ignored the former guy’s corruption and lawlessness. I believe the majority of them were really surprised when their lack of holding him accountable resulted in actual violence on January 6. Some still thought they could ride the tiger to stay in power. Now the price of their souls has become denial or silence. So here we sit today with one party and 21% of the population willing to destroy our democracy and country for power. The actual antithesis of Christian morality.
Regardless if the bill does pass, I believe republicans and their base have gone too far to turn back now. They have already proven power is more important than truth and democracy. And through their refusal or cowardice to condemn the violence of Jan 6, or say the election was not rigged they are condoning violence as a means to future power.
I fear for our country and what is to come. The 21% are wounded animals who believe their rights and values are being taken away from them, and wounded animals will fight to the death. I wish I could be more optimistic, but to do that I would have to close my eyes to what is actually happening, and that I am unable to do. But at least I was able to feel vindicated by Senator King as he vocalized my thoughts so elegantly.
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