In this trying time, we must all take action

We live in interesting times, and they are going to get far more interesting, as MAGA Republican leaders, still led by former president Donald Trump and their “conservative” propaganda press continue to lie blatantly to their constituents, vilify the left and Democrats and even moderate members of their own party, fomenting anger and divisiveness. Their leaders have learned the art of propaganda straight from the example of Joseph Goebbels, who inspired with such sterling quotes as “if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself,” and “propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will.”

They never admit a lie even when their lie of the day before directly contradicts the one they tell today, they never answer rebuttal or being called out with data or facts, but sidestep by calling attention to the perceived faults of others, by concocting ever greater lies, by attacking the persons of those who disagree instead of their argument, by endlessly repeating the same slogans, by cherry picking facts and weaving them into the tapestry of the lie.

These leaders hold on to those in their trap by appeals to their vanity, calling them “patriots” when they are not, by making them feel important, part of something far bigger than themselves They give them someone to look up to and admire, even if the icon, such as Donald Trump, is far from admirable. They give their followers false hope.

I already hear the howl; “it’s you who’s lying, trying to deny me, to destroy me!”

It is almost impossible to convince those of any radical faction of reason, so convinced are they that they are the victims under attack, in today’s climate by the radical left, who want to “groom” their children and teach pedophilia in the classrooms and other outlandish ideas, all easily disproven by those not in thrall to the golden promises of an authoritarian promising a nation following one God, theirs, a land where men are men, women are nurturing servants with little say over their lives and none over their bodies, where enemies are kept at bay and everyone knows and keeps to their place. A land that backs the blue when they have knees on the necks of Blacks, but calls foul when they “raid” Melania’s closet.

Theirs is the same defense the victim of any scam makes just before they wake up fleeced. In Donald Trump’s circle, an ever growing group are finding out that loyalty to him only flows one way, and many are in jail or cast to the curb. You do not question Trump, who measures loyalty by how devoutly his fawning sycophants believe in and and sermonize his lies.

No sitting president in U.S. history has had more members of his administration indicted than Trump, 215. For comparison, Richard Nixon had 76, Barack Obama zero. No sitting president has had more in his inner circle write tell-all books or give damaging and credible testimony before grand juries or congressional committees.

How can you tell who are the truth tellers and who the liars?

Simple; just determine which side is acting. It wasn’t ANTIFA, BLM or the left who instigated the violence and lawlessness at Trump era protests MAGA points to when confronted, though they are loudly accused and and even get swept up in the violence initiated in nearly all cases by those on the right, who tote guns to a human rights protests a state away to protect a store from left wing radicals. It wasn’t socialists, Demoncrats or the left who carried tiki torches in a march in Charlottesville, shouting “Jews won’t replace me!” It was white supremacists.

It is not the left banning books, making it harder to vote, shipping migrants to “sanctuary cities.” That would be MAGA governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott. It isn’t the Democrats shouting “election fraud!”

It isn’t left wing liberals decrying critical race theory, “the grooming of children to pedophilia in our libraries and classrooms,” words and phrases coined by MAGA. Liberals, Catholics, Jews, Buddhists nor atheists are calling for a national religion, complete with a religious test. That is two proud and angry gun-toting patriotic evangelical Christian U.S. Congresswoman so willing to shred the U.S. Constitution.

It wasn’t the radical Democrats who rose in insurrection January 6, 2021, to keep Congress from counting electoral votes and making official Joe Biden’s win. It was Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and MAGA Republicans, heeding the call of their president so as to uphold his lie that he was robbed of a second term.

And therein lies the difference; the MAGA conservatives not only believe the lies, they are motivated to act.

The dangers of the MAGA movement are not confined to our nation’s capitol. It’s trickling down to every county and municipality in the land as the MAGA conservatives run for or attempt to usurp every elective office from dog catcher on up. You can always distinguish a MAGA candidate or effort from an honest attempt by the rhetoric; listen for the catch phrases, the words that have been coined or co-opted the the radical conservatives, some mentioned above.

If, for instance, a group somewhere were to propose the recall of, say, a library board, solely on the basis of alleged grooming, CRT or to save kids from pedophilia from awful books included on lists identical from Albuquerque to Washington, D.C., especially if presented insistently and without a shred of objective proof of their allegations or even caring if presented solid proof their allegations are false, it’s highly likely that the goal isn’t to protect kids, but to take over the library board.

You see, those in the MAGA movement not only storm citadels and crap on the capitol floor, they recruit and fund candidates, do their utmost to create openings if none exist, and more importantly, they get out the vote.

They are not a majority, but they win and put radicals into offices great and small because so many of them cast ballots while so many of us don’t think our votes matter or have more important things to do, such as enjoy crudités and espresso while waiting for the symposium on global warming to open.

President Joe Biden took action in Philadelphia this week, declaring “as I stand here tonight, equality and democracy are under assault. We do ourselves no favor to pretend otherwise.”

No words more true have ever been spoken, and he had truth on his side when he said, “MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election, and they’re working right now as I speak in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.”

It isn’t political, it isn’t partisan. It’s truth.

We stand on the brink, faced with the clear and present danger that our democratic republic could fall, our constitution be trampled underfoot. President Biden was right, too, in saying, “we’re all called by duty and conscience to confront extremists who put their own pursuit of power above all else. Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans, we must be stronger, more determined and more committed to saving American democracy. And MAGA Republicans are destroying American democracy.”

In this trying time, facing again a critical test, we must all take a stand and take sensible action befitting a democracy so as to determine, again, if a nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal … can long endure.