As a democratic nation we are a little over 200 years old. Our political system is based on the core principles of freedom of religious and political expression for all its’ citizens; especially if you are white and Christian, as these principles did however not seem to apply to the indigenous population, or immigrants from darker skinned nations that populated our country.
These early Christian principles are embedded in the tenets and foundation of our culture. which has only served to foster the hypocrisy of justice for all that we still find today in our society.
These principles helped to create a strong, prosperous fledgling nation that was composed of the intrepid explorers who discovered our nation, those persecuted for political and religious beliefs in Europe, as well as deported lawbreakers, convicts, and a plethora of the old world’s “unwanted.” Together the created the United States of America in 1776. Five years later E. pluribus unum, which is Latin for “Out of many, one” became our nation’s first motto.
The U.S. population achieved its biggest growth in history during the 1950s, going from 150 million in 1950 to 180 million in 1960 – as post WWII newly married young couples were actively starting the baby boom generation. Churches and schools were being greatly expanded to accommodate the growing population, and organized religion was in its heyday. On a typical Sunday morning almost half of all Americans were attending church – the highest percentage in U.S. history where nationwide church membership grew at a faster rate than the population.
The baby boomers born and raised in that era are now for the most part retired and watching our social security payments come in as we watch our nation falling apart. What happened to the great experiment? Why is it failing?
We seemed to have lost sight of our forefathers’ vision that is gilded within the preamble to our Constitution.
When did our democracy start to fail?
I believe it began in earnest when our country began importing its labor force with stolen citizens of other countries while at the same time trying to convert or exterminate the indigenous peoples of our first nation. That was the beginning of our country’s downfall and when the fight to save democracy truly began. Our forefathers intended to ensure freedom and rights for every American citizen whatever their country of origin they had emigrated from. The affluent and successful antebellum society of our southern states capitalized on the cheap labor force, political control, and their exclusive religious doctrines, all of which included the subjection of its nonwhite and heathen domestic citizens.
Organized religion flourished in the 1950s. Before the advent of WWII organized religion was much more restricted and exclusive in its memberships. The 2nd world war exposed many Americans to new religious thought from the soldiers who travel overseas to the influx of the dispossessed and refugees from war torn Europe. These fledgling new citizens brought with them their culture, their language, their rituals and religion and the browning of America began.
This boom in religious expression slowly created deep social chasms between white Christian believers and adherents of any alternative non-Christian deity. A “high” vs. “low” mentality became mainstream in America. Catholic vs. Protestant, liberal vs. conservative, Republican vs. Democrat, capitalism vs. communism, hawk vs. dove, bull vs bear, free vs. slave; white vs. brown. Diametrically opposed positions in a country of united states that maintains, fosters, and perpetuates a political system based on the collective of conservative white male Christians that have the upper hand; seemingly a conundrum in our constitution that states all men are created equal.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
― George Orwell, Animal Farm
In our country’s early years, we witnessed the scourging and almost complete genocide of our first nation peoples; the rest were forced to become Christians.
We witnessed and encouraged the subjugation and slavery of all darked skinned people for profit, privilege, and power. Black males were given the right to vote in 1870, much earlier than even white Christian women who did not get the vote until 1920. The freedom to vote was unfortunately only lip service on paper for black Americans, as intimidation in most cases prevented them from doing so. It was not until a 100 years later did the civil rights act of 1964 and the 14th amendment provide a formidable expansion of the American black vote that could influence political policy and elections. This is changing America; the expression of the dream that our forefathers had, and one that Martin Luther King reinforced and died for.
The vote is integral to our democracy, we must trust it, or we are lost as a nation. The overriding vote of the populous is the will of the people. Every 4 years it is our elections that continue to hone the skills and successes of young democracy becoming.
The first democracy in the world is 2,500 years old. Our democracy is just 221 years old; we are a mere toddler in governing a country. We only continue to hone our success as a working democracy from the voice of its citizens in the spirit of their resilience to be able to adapt to a changing world. We turn to our bill of rights, our constitution, and its amendments to this purpose; we have promises to keep. That defines America.
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
-Robert Frost
Unfortunately, with the greed, elitism, selfish pursuits, ignorance and strong held religious beliefs held by the lion’s share of Americans it furthers the divide between our American citizens. A divide over race, religion, human rights, and political ideologies as well the attainment of keeping of wealth, which happens on both sides of the political aisle.
We are seeing an increase in the voracity and exclusivism rising for the some 20% of Christians who identify as evangelical. They seemed to have joined forces with the legions of disgruntled gun wielding, non- mask wearing, confederate flag waving, conspiracy creating miscreants, rebellion bent so called patriots of our society who want a white, protestant America back at any cost.
Together they both seem to agree with the tenet that no women or people of color, Jew, or Muslim should hold any office or garner their respect. Women must also follow the orders of her husband as scripture dictates and obey his commands. Make America great again; bring back 1955 when white was right, women stayed home, communists were blacklisted, gays were ridiculed & beaten, and minorities knew their place or else.
Unfortunately, the experiment with the MAGA rebellion has almost destroyed our republic and crippled our world reputation as a working democracy. Where did we go wrong? Why is this happening now? Why this specific time in our country?
Why?
Because of Donald Trump.
Donald Trump became our President on a whim.
He was told by his early sycophants for many years that he should run for president. It eventually sunk in and the thought inflated his insatiable ego. With the huge success and popularity of his television show and financial resources, he said what the heck. He campaigned and to the shock of the nation and won the election… and became our 45th POTUS. Nothing has ever been the same since. His ego went into irreversible hyper drive with a needy populous hungry for a hero.
He carefully picked his Vice President, a former Catholic turned evangelical, and peppered his cabinet with many right-wing Christians. He newly professed Jesus as his personal savior and created a Presidential Evangelical Advisory board. He started his playbook in Christian doctrine for ensuring his 2nd term as president. He used the Christian radical right who was hungry for the return of a white Christian nation. They also believe that he is an instrument or vessel of God for a divine purpose for our country. Some believe his presidency predicates the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ. In scholarly works it is known as Parousia, the end time prophecy and return of Messiah as foretold in Revelations Daniel 9, the 70th week.
There are many signs and the opening Seals as outlined in Revelations that predicate the return of Jesus. Many of these can be perceived to have happened that only bolsters confidence and radicalize devotees to anticipate what Christians have been waiting 2000 years for; rapture where good Christians are taken up to heaven and good Christian souls who have died will be reunited with their bodies for eternity.
There are many other signs in revelations, too many to list here but Trump is creating an illusion of fulfilling prophecy to gain favor with that large base of Christian voters. They want to believe that Jesus is coming back by 2021 and that Trump is a necessary evil for that to happen. They will stand firm and may even give their lives if necessary, to allow prophecy to be fulfilled at any cost. Coupled with many very real celestial and planet disturbances this past year which only serves to enforce their belief that prophecy is being fulfilled.
When an angry Christian mob stormed the capital on January 6th because of President Trump’s words and encouragement he became responsible. Some believe that he is “the abomination that causes desolation” that predicates the return of the messiah as foretold in revelations. The dawning of Parousia, the end time.
With Covid deaths surging around the world, it seems to be becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy as written in Daniel 9 that 1/3 of the world’s population will die, signaling Parousia. This can even make the hardcore cynic pause. This playbook was written long ago and not the first attempt to fulfill or interpret prophecy for personal gain, nor will it be the last. You must give the great manipulator credit; he knows what he is doing.
We must not be complacent, evil does not go away, it secrets itself in the hearts of discontent, avarice and illusion that still roils unabated across this nation. The disgruntled devotees of this insidious Pied Piper are enervated by fear and loathing. The defeat of their leader will only serve to bolster the indignation they now feel in losing the election. Like wolves they will retreat to their den to lick the wounds of defeat and foster more dreams of rebellion and sedition with renewed focus. Its difficult, sometimes impossible to hinge that which has become unhinged; when patterned neurons of dark selfish desires takes control, it creates an intemperate, unyielding partisan of hate and anger that can turn to an unfettered and unabated rage.
Despite the list of immoral, inept, insular, insipid, insecure, irascible, idiotic, indecent, insulting, insurrectionary, illusionary, insecure, insane, indignant, irritating, illegitimate and inexhaustible list of expressions to describe the golden calf that they have created from the own fear and insecurity they will not yield to the truth that they are being duped. Their bigger than life demigod has them hook, line and stinker; they will stand firm.
The wolves had entered the city and were driven back. They cloister now in the backwoods, bowling alleys, biker bars, gun clubs, church basements and rabbit holes. They are supported by rogue Messianic churches who delve into the dark web of conspiracy, Armageddon, prophecy, and numerology. Their drums of discontent will be continued to be heard across the underbelly of our nation for a long time to come. Disgruntled, disenfranchised, uneducated, unhappy, the angry and the ignorant will be crying with bile fed revengeance for a rematch or more rebellion. They will double down on their ignorance and their embroiled bigotry. They will continue to drink the Kool-Aid and share their pablum of discontent as anarchists for antiestablishmentarianism. The orcs and trolls of our society will gather and prepare to implement plan “B”; they have not given up, they are recruiting. We still need to be diligent, there is no vaccine for this virus.
However, there is a silver lining. The serendipity within the uncivil war of our political system during this last election is the awakening of the real silent majority “the complacent”. The silent centrist, the fence sitter, the apolitical, the non-wave maker, the complier, the nonvoter, the trusting naïve, and the convivial proletariat that had the quiet and comfort of their non-conviction shaken to its core. The collateral blessing of Trump’s tenure is that he has awakened the true silent majority to the fact that their prosperity, happiness, freedom, and vision for their children’s future depends on every one of our votes, it cannot be taken for granted.
Complacency is not an option for a working democracy, it is its nemesis and a political cancer. We can NEVER get this close to insurrection again. Engage with our elect. They are our representatives and our voice. Vote.
Is it possible that I may be too fortunate in life? I am not rich by any stretch, but I have worked hard and saved a little. I just do not understand what is so bad about this country from the MAGA perspective? What is so bad? What is so intolerable in their lives that they are so ANGRY? Angry enough for murder, insurrection, loss of relationships with family and friends, as well as a very real threat of federal prison?
If the economy is so bad, jobs are so scarce, and conditions so awful how can protesters afford to fly across the country, buy expensive guns and stocks of ammo? How can they buy expensive motorcycles, ATV’s, boats, jet skis, RV’s, and monster trucks? They enjoy their pit bulls & gun ranges, long beards & beer bongs, pipe bombs & potato guns, splat ball & cockfights, ass kicking & strip clubs, cross burning, & lynching, name calling, mayhem, madness, and murder. They can have long hair with red necks, sport mullets in leisure suits, they come in skinheads, jarheads, and talking heads, they smoke pot and drink moonshine, gray haired men dressed in gray suits, and peace officers who wear a hood. Demographically they are primarily white Christian, poorly educated lower middle-class male bullies who fueled by their own Freudian anatomical deficiencies attempt to stimulate the expression of testosterone with bravado and aggression.
A particularly unstable, volatile, and unsavory group of individuals who are all hungry for a scapegoat, a whipping boy and convenient pariah to be dealt with. To be able to express their bravado, defeat their self-hatred/self-doubt they must muster up their testosterone to steroidal levels so high that it activates the limbic system, and their lizard brain responds and activates accordingly with eat or be eaten. So many little boys in a big man’s body is frightening.
Then we have the evangelical religious right. Literal interpretation of the bible is their strength, following its dictates as written is their shield and portion be; they are on fire for Jesus; on fire to save others and on fire to prepare for the rapture. They will do almost anything to prepare the way and be ready for the 2nd coming.
Then we have the political right that is losing their identity, their political panache and respect. They are losing many long-standing historical positions held in the annals of our government since its inception. The vestiges of antebellum reconstructionism morphed underground with seeds of discontent and continue to foment to this day ideologies of a white America with its age-old traditional values and Christian ideals. This has created a plethora of hate groups that are united by the internet; gaining more support as the browning of America continues.
Trump supporters and loyalists can come from any of these groups and the election has brought them all together to drink from the same well. They are not a cult with blind allegiance to all the rules as outlined by their leader. There are no rules, he is no leader, only their image of a hero. That is his secret. He adopts their grievances, their religious beliefs, their vision for America and makes it his own. Blind with hope and hatred they do not see his cunning and he becomes their God’s chosen one and leader of their dreams; nothing can convince them otherwise.
The great experiment known as America is evolving with time to become an amalgamation of the world, a microcosm of the macrocosm of the inhabitants of this planet. The United States is more ethnically diverse than anywhere else in the world and growing more so every day. Many underprivileged/poorly educated white protestant males, as well as some Harvard and West Point graduates still want the America that their Daddy’s held so dear. A country of white privilege. They are still holding on to the notion that white male superiority is the only salvo for this country; it is a man’s world, run by men, good Christian white men. To think otherwise is unpatriotic.
With the election of a black president in the white house the embers of discontent began to rekindle with earnest in the backwoods of our nation. Jim Crow again was enervated by scores of knuckle draggers who were gobsmacked with unbelief, fear, and anger that we had a black president. He threw down his barrel of cheeseballs, inserted a large pinch of Copenhagen into his angered mouth, turned on his computer and sent a mass email to all his black hearted constituents with a cc to old Scratch; It has begun.
Obama finally leaves office. God forbid we get another minority in his place, a Jew, a gay liberal or worse yet a woman for president. The plan to install the great white hope ensued and the progeny of the good old boys of our political system found a willing ego-filled pathological narcissist who took the bait. Tell me what you want, and I will become that leader. Beyond all rational odds and a naive/complacent voting populace in America he won the election as 45th POTUS and the spiral to insurrection began.
This was the beginnings of a renewed helter skelter that was ignited and fomented by prejudice and the embedded racial superiority in our country. Their poison is robustly infiltrating our populace that a deep state exists with a dark and decadent and Godless agenda that is threatening to destroy our country. This belief is touted by many cadres of white discontented “patriots” in this country as well as extreme evangelical messianic cults. Together the form a bizarre amalgamation of alternate realities and unalterable thinking These two groups together synergize their hate and envy that combines into a force to be reckoned with. They have heavily infiltrated the Republican party into the unrecognizable grand old party that we see today.
In four years with the Trump administration, a portion of our society has degraded into a society of freelance hooligans fanned and agitated to aggression by their great white hope who promises to make America white again. With the threat of having a cookie cutter Catholic career politician as president, coupled with the potential for a woman as VP (who is black no less), their peter principle of tolerance reached the end of its rope for many far-right supporters.
Their only other choice for president was a radical right Marxist leaning aging Jewish man who had great ideas, but was just a little too old, a lot too left, and little too Jewish; an intelligent and well-respected man but a throw away vote the centrist and the NeverTrumper. The perfect storm was brewing for a rebellion in our country, an unheard supposition in our modern America. They had to find a rube with an insatiable ego to take back the country and foment rebellion. They found the perfect and willing candidate in Donald J. Trump and he succeeded.
But I am sorry to to Jim Crow but America will never be a White America again; the horse is out of the barn with our expanding diversity. The pipe dreams of a resurrected dying confederacy coupled with evangelical visions of a rapture in our time ended when our 46th President Joe Biden was inaugurated on January 20th. There was no military coup d’état, no complete civil siege of the capital with the lynching of the vice president and speaker of the house with trials for treason that they had planned. No rapture for the faithful, no angry mobs clad in combat helmets and confederate flag capes of insurrection, no antithetical anarchists defending their right to be enslaved by ignorance attended the inauguration. It was a peaceful transition of power. Democracy prevailed where hyper hypocrisy failed. America continues triumphant.
The budding return of the grand old party of better days has been destroyed. These angry white men and their dutiful wives will still be angry and extremely disappointed that their dreams will never reach fruition. They will have to accept the truth that dixie is dead and Jim Crow is dying. For the most part they are selfish Americans who do not want to share it with anyone who is not white. This is a bitter pill to swallow; to have their hopes destroyed that the South will not rise again, and Parousia has not begun.
Swallow the bitter pill they must, for our country will move forward into the future, more diverse and prosperous than ever before. Although these antebellum vestiges of a failed counterculture of white superiority will be subdued and deflated, like lamprey and barnacles they will still cling to the underbelly of the nation far into the future. Our country will continue to grow in diversity and their angry numbers will hopefully wane through attrition, education and through dilution of good character.
Making no bones about it will take time. The troubles we see in this country right now with the insurrection of our capital is at its core a racial pogram of disenchanted melanin challenged extremists. They do not want to share their country with black and brown skinned people. Simple as that. It is not about politics, financial insecurity, religion, war, abortion, climate change, gun rights, the pandemic hoax or not wearing mask… or really even who is president. They will not be happy until white is right and black is put back. When we have daily Christian prayer back in school, the wall is completed, abortion clinics are closed, our borders our sealed off and school lunches will only serve pizza, burgers, fries and Diet Coke.
These insurrectionist slimeballs or even their politicos in a nice suit are putting a forever stain on the word Patriot for every proud citizen of our country. They have denigrated the once proud name of the Republican party that may take decades to recover from, and we need that party; we are both sides of the aisle.
Honesty and justice will prevail. Democracy allows for protest with our 1st amendment, and our right to bear arms with our 2nd amendment. However, it does not seem consistent with our constitution to exercise them simultaneously in a public gathering, federal office or used as a tool for intimidation and sedition.
They had their moment in the sun, their 5 minutes of fame and footprint of shame; this too shall pass.
I have faith that the American dream is not a dream, but that it is a reality. That reality was just confirmed at Noon EST on January 20th. What we have just experienced for 4 years was just an awfully bad dream. Oftentime nightmares can indicate an internal disruption in our chi to initiate a different path to attain balance. This may be the cass here. The pendulum always swings with perpetual inertia both directions; it cannot be stopped or reversed. I am confident we are on a return to center.
I feel as though I have doffed a heavy rain-soaked woolen trench coat and I am standing next to Bon Jovi singing “here comes the sun” at the top of my lungs. At long last the deluge has stopped, the clouds have lifted, and the nightmare is over; step out of dark, into the light and into the sun; E Pluribus Unum, out of many, we are one; thank God for 2021.
MC/1/22/21
Proactive Grieving Blog from heartlightstudios.com 