...away we go, but to where? Is it down the slope with a contagious merriment, as when a child - or an adult - sleds down a snow laden slope? Or is it rather the path down a dangerous slope, an avalanche awaiting us, at any moment, as the echoes of the loud shouts, the overwhelming noise, sets off the vibrations of danger. Do we stand there and wait, feeling it is beyond repair, or do we aid it, hasten its arrival, thinking - or not - that post avalanche things will be better? Or do we try to shore it up, prevent a tragedy, but worry, worry a great deal, as to whether it is too late? And if so, then what?
Yesterday I heard a term referring to our political status these days. Not sure who said it, it is surely highly applicable to the days we are living through. "The beast is growing" it was said. The beast being the ultra conservatives, and that actually is an insult to true conservatives and conservatism. The beast today is an ugly conglomeration of twisted faces and mouths, spouting hate, embracing fascism, cheering the ultimate demise of America as we know it. It is an ignorant self defeating cheering on of danger to every individual such as we have never known before in this land of ours. Yes, we had the McCarthy Era, the disgrace that it was, but that will appear to be child's play compared to what is awaiting us, unless we wake up, yes, be "woke" to the dangers of the far beyond extremism of a growing chorus of hate, of anger. Yes, the beast is growing. The beast is being fed and rumbles and tumbles around, beneath our feet, awaiting its full acceptance, its glee growing as the people bring about their own catastrophe.
"Win at all costs" we are told, is the theme, the urgent motto of CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference. Truth, my friend, truth indeed. The road to their victory is being paved with heaps of stones representing danger to us - restrictions of voting rights to the point of rescinding these rights. An emphasis on extremes that do not allow for conversation between adults, but rather for schoolyard contests between a bully who is growing and a victim who is steadily weakening as his former friends turn away, turn to the bully as a hero and protector. Reality is ignored and wanna be dreams, dangerous dreams, tainted dreams, become the new norm, truthful or not.
Our own neighbors have turned on us, on our country. The former President, a dangerously demented man, enabled by those whom I cannot even begin to understand, knowing the truth, yet keeping the game in play, a truly life threatening game, continues his rant of false election results. He pushes for distrust and mistrust of our nation's workings, of its very core of beliefs. Instead of being put away, 'rest' home or prison, he is continually spouting his disgraceful memes and tropes, given more hot air, more poison to spew. And admired for all that.
The Jan. 6 rebellion, clearer than ever, was just about most certainly planned and encouraged, with his fingerprints, footprints and big mouth right there. He continues to press their rhetoric, justifies their behavior, ignores the truth, and calls these rebels, these enemies of the people of this nation, "peaceful people, ..great people", calls them heroes. Not in my book, and should not be in your book.
What is truly frightening is to watch these deluded people being drawn in, further and further until they are truly mired, hopelessly, in his quicksand. Even FOX News is too liberal so they turn to Veritas, NewsMax, Clouthub and hear the same poison, bare their arms for yet another infusion of hate, lies, and danger. This is the growth path of every dictator, the replication of Nazi Germany, but today, we are the country in existential threat, our own neighbors who are growing in ugliness of heart and soul, morphing into physical manifestations of this hate, of this perversion. Further, deeper, they go, and do not even realize it.
They cheer on a no vaccine policy, even though Trump took his. They unbelievably cheer on their own imminent death from COVID and its variants, the imminent deaths of their loved ones. Blind to the huge holes opening in the road ahead of them, not seeing the cells awaiting them, doors oiled and greased, ready to roll shut on them, they plunge and lunge on, unthinking, deluded, abused by those in whom they have misplaced their trust and loyalty.
More frightening is the very noticeable rise of American Fascists and its proponents. Matt Goetz. Lauren Boebert. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Paul Gosar. Nick Fuentes. Frightening mobs of ugliness, of men, women - even children - faces and psyches twisted, rabid, and guess who are the targets. The America First party is real. It is growing. It has absorbed ever more national representatives, as they consort with these haters, openly, proudly. Governors of state are falling in line, state legislatures are falling in line, ignoring the cries of the oppressed, the endangered, the people crying out for this country to remember its origins, its purpose, its very own national documents under attack - the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of these United States. And all the while we are allowing this evil to grow.
These people are not "loving people who wanted to save the nation". Contrary to Trump's statement. They do not respond to rationality, as when they were asked to stop what they were doing at a family tailored event, "everyone, regardless of your views, try to keep your voices down and be quiet so we can have a conversation."
They did not. Nor will they ever.
We need to pay more attention to the reality we are living. These people are dangerous. They are frightening. They are emboldened. Trump, unfortunately, is not dead and gone, his poisonous speech remains. Would that he was stuck somewhere on a golf course. He is still with us, with his existential threat to us, to America. Are we to be forced to walk down that road of refugees, enemies in our own land, weeping, as we follow Uncle Sam, the Lady of the Harbor, all the great, large and small, people who made this country? Are we? Will we allow this to happen? Will we allow inertia to steal our lives from beneath our feet?
Will we?
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