SOTU 2022  -THE CHOICE

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Over the course the past two decades, we were been witness to some positive measures gaining ground. There have been serious advances in the tech world with mobile phones that will do so much more than just make a call. We are on the way to developing a fully electric car that will not cost a fortune and have a long lasting battery to go with it.. The world of medicine continues to make great strides, particularly as we are still combating the Covid virus and its variations .  They have developed a way to test glucose levels without pricking your finger .  Solar energy is getting more and more part of the overall energy scheme of thing.  And while I fail to understand much of the entertainment world, there have been some good productions out there, though the so called music is a bit off putting, at least to my taste. How I miss the real folk rock of the sixties. All in all, not too bad.

However, the latter years of that period were and continue to be plagued with what can only be described as  widespread insanity. It all started, I submit, with the rise of the Congressional Tea Party and went down the hill faster than that proverbial snowball in hell. Since then, as Jimmy Carter noted, the governing has become farther and farther away from the governed  until present day when the governing, or at least the GOP side of the aisle, simply has ceased to govern any longer. What  remains is a total abdication of responsibility and a complete violation of the oath of office and, while this is prevalent on the GOP side, the other side of the aisle is not without sin, so to speak. And the dangerous part of it all is that the insanity is not limited to inside the beltway.

In a plan that probably began in earnest in or around 2012 , one donald trump was being groomed to be the answer to Vladimir Putin’s wish to disrupt the entire western world and convert democracies to authoritarian dictatorships. Capitalizing on widespread fear and ignorance on the part of the body politic and with the help of influence from Russian forces ( who now fully admit to their interference ) in social media and other segments of the social order, trump – in spite of losing the popular vote by over three million votes, secured his place in the oval office. The country then embarked on the singularly most corrupt regime – one refuses to call it an administration – in our history where we saw one agency  after another  become weaponized in furthering the far right, nationalist agenda. We saw things never seen before, including what has to be an unbelievably cruel scheme of separating immigrant children from their parents when arriving at our southern border, some to be lost in a totally broken system. Non one can excuse the separating of children from their families, some to be lost in a totally broken system.  As Adam Serwer asked, were we at the point where “ cruelty is the point “ According to Stephen Miller, we had.The regime continued its agenda of control and influence, strategically spreading fabrications  through the use of sympathetic  far right media outlets.  The country tolerated years of these regime antics exercising no move toward accountability. In fact, the key actors in this scheme actually found support among the right wing leadership of the GOP, particularly in the House.                                                                                            

Then came 2020 – a year for which we are still paying the price. 

In the months running up to the election, the pre determined GOP nominee and his minions began an orchestrated campaign of disinformation challenging the election results even well before the election actually happened, stating that the only way he could lose would be if the other side cheated. The purpose was to garner enough support for the idea that the election would be rigged and rife with fraud and that the supporters would demand the election be thrown out and their candidate be returned to the oval office on the so called merits. Without going in to the almost full year of this nonsense, let’s skip to the end. With the support of many in congress, the far right media, an unbelievable cadre of lawyers, right wing self styled militia members and some serious money people,  what became known as “THE BIG LIE” was hatched and promulgated through the country. The sad thing is, millions bought it – hook, line and sinker. As noted over the years, fear and ignorance will win any election. The incumbent lost by over seven million votes. However, this did not stop the drive to keep him in power and, after all, this is what it ultimately was all about – power.  The following months saw a barrage of media rants, far right congressional rants and so called “ influencers “ screaming that the election with fraudulent. In spite of that, audit after audit disproved that allegation and over sixty court cases were thrown out as having no merit. And then, we witnessed not only fake electors  from several states try to overturn the election results but calls to state official calling for rerunning of the election or “ find me 11,870 votes” to overturn the results in Georgia.    

And then came the sixth of January. We all watched in horror as trump supporters, self styled militia in full tactical gear and trump cult followers from every part of the country storm the Capitol in a riot not seen since the 19th century, aimed at ending the peaceful transfer of power, literally throwing out the election itself and murdering the vice-president and the speaker of the house. The overwhelming promulgation of The Big Lie had nearly succeeded and the trump cult was nearly to have its way. But the process held and a new president was inaugurated. However, the insanity was not to end. The far right, still blindly contending that the 2020 election was stolen, focused on the mid term elections. Still promulgating of the Big Lie  and threatening to decertify the 2020 election, the scheme is now carried to the state and local levels, jeopardizing free and fair elections throughout the country and, as it turned out, we are now facing two years of revenge politics and absolutely an absence of governing. But the cult fever has now spread to other facets of the political realm. One of the new targets is the school systems. We are seeing blatant discrimination against LGBTQ students, suppression of curriculum and yes, even book banning.

Overall, what was an ever present undercurrent of far right, so called christian nationalists has been there since the Cold War era.  Book banning, election outcome control, suppression of rights – all have now come to the surface, all as a direct product of the scheme shaped back in 2012, promulgated over the next decade and launched full force in 2020. And the frightening thing is, the parallels between the U S of 2021 and Germany of 1938 are real, true and exact. 

We are finding ourselves in a state of chaos and the very survival of the Republic and our form of government is now in serious peril. Voting will help somewhat but confronting the media for its role in this is a must part of the answer. Promoting lies, fabrications and disinformation with no accountability must come to an end. We must cease allowing lies and conspiracy theories to be the norm. 

To quote Mr Franklin, “ A republic, if you can keep it” is true now more then ever. Whether he actually said it or not, we must acknowledge it’s relevance to today. We are facing the end. We have driven down the road to perdition and are now at the crossroads –  a democratic republic or a fascist dictatorship. Will we move forward while repairing the damage or succumb to the forces of authoritarianism and become the world’s newest third world country.  Quo Vadis………