You Never Know

There are people who claim the name of Nazi in our country, but most of the people who are steering our decline are not Nazis. To paraphrase the immortal words of Paul Anka, we’re doing it “our way.”

We need a new word, a new name, for our fascism. The first thing that came to my mind was the ICE age, but that doesn’t really do it. I’m open to suggestions.

What is happening is not simply about the Executive Branch. It is the entire gang – Executive, Congress, and Supreme Court, and their backers - which is presently deconstructing our constitutional republic as fast as it can.

Checks and balances? Not when you control all three branches of the government. Medicare and Social Security? Hah. The billionaires need that money. Let the sick and elderly die off and stop being a burden to rich people.

Perhaps the racists currently holding the reins and their supporters would like to make this country the lily-white paradise they imagine it was in the beginning, having conveniently dismissed the natives living here when Europeans arrived.

We are far from being a white country. In the 2010 census, 63.7% of the country was counted as white, which left 36.3% of the population as non-white.

In America we have a significant population of people of African descent, and we have a population of people who are Muslims, and many Muslims are people of African descent whose parents and grandparents became Muslims in the 1960s and the years since. Those people are Americans.

As for Hispanics – they are not a race or a religion. They are people who descend from people who come from Latin America, Spain, or Portugal. As of the 2010 census, there were about 51 million Hispanic people in the United States, which makes them the second largest group in the country after whites (197 million, 2010 census). All those Hispanics are Americans.

Fun with numbers.

Meanwhile, back at the fascism, it is looking grim for those of us who were fond of having rights and freedoms.

Don’t people who support He Who Shall Not Be Named realize that they are losing their rights, too? Don’t they realize that after the government has come for the people of African descent, and the Muslims, and the Hispanics, and the LGBTQA people, and the union members, and the Jews, and the uppity women, that they might be targeted? Maybe they had a Jewish grandmother. Maybe their church isn’t conservative enough.

It is my hypothesis that supporters of the current regime have Not Thought Things Through. For example: in 2016, some people voted on the single issue of making abortion illegal.

Now, I do not believe that abortion should be made illegal. Why? Because I thought it through. Once the government has set the legal precedent of forcing women not to have abortions, if at some later date it becomes expedient to, for example, control our population growth, the government will be able to pass a law that makes abortion mandatory.

Think it through, people.

Some days it feels like hope is slipping away, but then I remember an experience on my church’s prayer chain.

We received a request for prayers for a man who was terminal. Sadly and solemnly I passed this request along. Well, son of a gun if the guy didn’t perk up and start taking nourishment. He recovered and lived for several more years. It taught me a lesson: you never know. I never say anyone is terminal now.

So I’m not going to say our country is terminal. I won’t kid you - we’re in a bad way. It will likely get worse before it gets better. I don’t know how long it will take for adults to get control over these entitled spoiled brats; I don’t know what the process will be; but I think there’s life in the old republic yet. At least I hope there is.

Meanwhile, live well, laugh often, and don’t let the bastards grind you down. I remind myself every so often that if there is no joy in life, what is the point of fighting for freedom and justice and liberty for all?

Okay, you’re right, it’s good to have those things even if you are miserable, but I believe we’re in for a long haul reclaiming our country. I do not expect to live to see a victory of common sense and rational behavior. I believe that good human beings can start out with the best intentions and principles in the world and be derailed by the desire to make a fast buck and control other people. Look at where we are.

Still, I didn’t expect a lot of things that I’ve seen.

You never know.