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Over the past six years, we, as a nation, have suffered through a political time unlike any in the more than the four decades that this writer has been involved with, engaged in or otherwise closely following. This  Republic and its government, as noted before, is in the  throes of a war for survival and perhaps in  a war that cannot be won.

While having its roots long long ago, it really kicked in to high gear when we  saw a known grifter, reality television barker and confirmed pathological liar , calculating the crass ignorance and fears of the electorate, gaslight himself in  to the highest office in the country, in spite of the fact that he lost the popular vote by over three million votes. Continually spouting hate, bigotry, ignorance and disregard for the rule of law, he sowed the seeds of the autocracy to come.

The tenure of the regime – one cannot call it an administration – was marked with policies that were blatantly inhumane, a strategy to, in fact, dismantle the government as we know it, establish a kleptocracy supported by Wall Street and its corporate welfare beneficiaries and, with the aid of loyalists both inside and outside the West Wing, spinning some of the most incredible conspiracy theories and peddling  a calculated campaign of misinformation the likes of which we have never seen. Claims  such as the press was the enemy of the people or the whole “deep state” conspiracy that contends that there are those in government that were out to ruin the White House occupant. Evidenced this now by reports coming out regarding that the regime, through the Office of the Attorney General, was actively spying on members of congress, their staff and their families who were seen as enemies, subpoenaing their records from email carriers and from their phone records from Apple. To this day, he and his allies continue to proclaim that the “Left” is undermining democracy and he is the only one who can save it from their “ extreme socialist agenda”.

One could go on for pages and pages about the nothing less than madness emanating from the Oval Office but, as time went on, we became frightfully aware that the worst – by far the worst — was yet to come.

During the night of  the 2020 election, as they watched the returns the candidate screamed ““This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election — frankly, we did win this election,” trump declared. “We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list.”                    It became quite evident that one, he was completely ignorant as to how elections are processed, and two, it was also becoming clear that a “ peaceful transfer of power “ was simply not going to happen.He had his entire entourage convinced that the only way he would lose the election was if it were rigged and this became not only his mantra but the mantra of the entire GOP.

Throughout the coming months after the election, the “Big Lie “ was being spread far and wide and as thick as molasses.  The cult loyalists began to take action in a clear attempt to change the election result. In no less than sixty court filings, the state GOP leaders, ONLY in the states that trump lost, tried to have the election results thrown out, alleging voting by illegal immigrants,, widespread fraud and machine tampering – all to no avail.  The actions were ALL thrown out of the courts as being the baseless charges that they were. But that did not stop the tide of madness. As the states began to certify election results and impanel the delegates to the Electoral College, some states actually tried to block that or, as in the case of Arizona, select an “Alternate delegation slate “ pledged to trump and sent that in to Washington as the official electoral vote. As all this nonsense was continuing , the believers of the Big Lie, stoked by the losing candidate, his close allies and his deep delusions, took to another plan. And yes, it was a plan. By invitational urgings from the White House, and orchestrated by White Nationalist groups and  certain so called militia, large groups were to descend on Washington for a rally to “Stop the Steal “ – a mantra coined by extreme far right groups and happily approved by the White House. The rally was called for January sixth, no accident as this was the date for the certification and official counting of the electoral college votes, to be conducted in the U S Senate chamber.

We all know the result of that rally. We all SAW live action of the storming of the Capitol, the destruction, the mayhem, the injury of many and the death of a police officer and the shooting of one  insurrectionist trying to break through barricades into congressional chambers in order to kill the Speaker of the House and hang the Vice-President.

There were many mistakes made during those hours and the system designed to protect the Capitol miserably failed. Nonetheless, after things subsided, no less than one hundred and thirty-nine members of the House of Representatives and at least three members of the Senate voted to reject the election results. Yes, they sided with the White House, the delusions of its occupant and the out of control insurrectionist mob. Finally,  in spite of it all, the process was completed, the Electoral Votes counted and the election was certified and it was done. Or was it ?

Here we are, seven months after the 2020 election and still, yes, still, the GOP controlled state legislatures are trying to overturn the election results. Pay no mind to the protests that this is not what they are trying to do. One state senator in Arizona went on record  saying that  they are only trying to make certain of the integrity  and security of  future elections. This, in spite of CISA reports as well as other intelligence and law enforcement agencies certifying that the 2020 election was the most secure in our history.

This same senator then proceeded to demand yet another audit, subpoenaing

all the ballots from the most populated county in the state and have them reviewed by a firm brought in from Florida – a company led by a known QAnon conspiracy devotee with NO EXPERIENCE in election auditing whatsoever.

And Arizona is not the only place. This whole mindless audit rehash thing is spreading – curiously only those GOP controlled states where trump lost.

For certain, this insanity is not over and the campaign to overthrow our democratic process continues.

The next phase of this overthrow, and by far the most dangerous in the long run, is the passing of strict voter suppression laws which blatantly establish the mechanics of making voting increasingly more difficult, especially in heavily democratic neighborhoods, and in several instances, permitting the state legislature to reject the final election results if the outcome does not seem supportive of their agenda. 

Now, back to inside the beltway and in to the halls of congress, we find that the GOP leadership, though in a minority in both houses, has managed to block any and all legislative movement to counter what is happening in the states and what is designed to bring a level of uniformity and security to the voting process across the country. Laws that are clearly meant to disrupt the process and favor certain constituencies  and therefore certain outcomes, seem to now be embedded, especially in what are know as swing states, currently controlled by the GOP.  As former Attorney General Eric Holder, with no hesitation in answering a question from the audience in Phoenix noted, the most dangerous threat to our national security is “VOTER SUPPRESSION”. 

Now, this is where we are today.  If one follows the path of history, one will clearly see how totalitarianism, and its specific form known as kleptocracy, grew from the back  rooms of hotels, spread throughout and grabbed hold of a country.  What we can also, beyond doubt, confirm  that we have failed to learn from history.  In his book “ On Tyranny “, Professor Timothy Snyder warns to beware of a one party state. It appears that this is the path down which we are headed.                                                             

We have gone long past the era of bi partisanship and the idea of negotiating in good faith between the parties in order to get relevant and functional legislation passed is now foreign inside the beltway. What we now are plagued with is one party which is obsessed with securing and maintaining power as its sole agenda and another party which, while well intentioned, has neither the strength of character nor the determination to bring a sense of government back to the halls of congress.

In short, we are now without a government which actually governs. As before, a “Requiem for the Republic”.