RED DAWN, THE SEQUEL

 Do you remember the movie? It was a stock film, Grade B, which became  a cult favorite, commanded a sequel and imitations, and became a talking point for many. The USA was invaded by Soviet troops, I believe, and heroic teens and the adults inspired by these youngsters, managed to set a challenge, light a spark in the defeated people of the nation. They defeated the collaborators. It was a film with action - of the time - no fancy CG tactics or techniques and did its job in entertaining and making people feel good by the end of the movie. All well and good.

 However, today we are facing, living through, actually, whether we realize it or not, our own version of Red Dawn as the GOP loses its soul and commits itself to a cult culture, serving up their own 'cancel culture' movement. One GOP leader states, quite telling, that  "We Republicans need to remember that we are united by fundamental principles such as belief in personal responsibility, individual freedom, opportunity, free markets, a strong national defense. Those are the principles that unite us. We are not a party that is just led by one person."  This, after Romney was booed at a Utah meeting, and GOP candidate after candidate in so many races swear loyalty to Trump, becoming  a Party of ONE, no different in behavior and intent from historical fascist dominated countries. 

This, after they have forsworn these principles, spoken by their own actions or lack of action. Yes, we have Red Dawn once again, only this time in real life rather than the movies. This time it is not foreign intervention, though we have seen much evidence of foreign interference in the Trump administration, but rather the insider attack by the GOP members of a Party who have sold their souls and mortgaged the nation to Trump. 

We have created our own Red Dawn. We are self defeating, carrying out attacks on our own democracy, throwing away all that was and is good in the nation, posing an existential threat to the leading democracy of the world, denying it a future, and busily engaged in cutting noses in spite of faces, as they unbelievably turn on a dime in order to remain in power. An example of such nose cutting? There is a bridge in McConnell's state that badly needs replacing and he has fought, unsuccessfully, for years, for the funding necessary. Now that Biden's infrastructure bill has funds allotted to it, he protests that very fact! Weird. Ridiculous. Unbelievable. And dangerous. There is no more thought, only partisanship and the people of this country be damned. 

Voter rights attacked. Restrictive laws passed wholesale, despite all historical knowledge and lessons to the contrary. Gerrymandering of the most egregious and evil inspired plans. Hatred abounding. Anti-Semitism . Anti Asian. Anti people of color. Does it ever stop? Principles of democracy, uniquely American tenets, being discarded, the Lady of the Harbor tarnished, as Emma Lazarus cringes at the defiling of her welcoming poem etched on the Statue. Citizens in need neglected, religion becoming extreme and demanding, interfering in politics, supporting lies without compunction. Lies after lies after lies, with only 23% of GOP members agreeing with the truth, the facts, that Biden won the 2020 election. The introduction of mistrust, distrust, in our democracy, setting us up for the culmination of our own native born and supported Red Dawn.

How has it come to this? Biden asks that we become united, act together as a nation, but how can that be? We still cannot talk politics in a civil manner, continue to have families and friends divided along deeply etched lines in the soul of our nation. We condone attempts to overthrow this country's legitimate government, attack its own leaders, falling to the level of corrupt countries who see no harm, nothing wrong, in murdering their heads of state in order to replace them with their own cult figures.

Red Dawn in the morning. Or the evening. Or whenever, but we are well on our way there, with the colors of the country changing drastically, faster and faster, as we give away our own rights, cede it all to Trump and his rabid, unthinking followers, traitors to their own oaths of office. One Republican, trying to show that it is wrong to blindly follow one person, says, no, our loyalty needs to be to the Party. Really? What happened to loyalty to the nation, to its population? Gone, with the red, white and blue overlaid by the layer and colors of Red Dawn.

What have we done? What have we allowed? How have we reached this point, denying our heritage, turning our collective backs on the values of this country, negating the efforts of the Founders, of the Reformers, of its soldiers who fought and died for it? Have we become willfully blind, deaf, to its agonies, to the cracks thundering louder and louder in the nation's strained psyche, to the dangerous words and behavior of supposed leaders of this country? What have we done? Is there still a way back? You tell me. You do not want my opinion, the expression of my fears, my answer, in blunt words.