Bijay chaurasia / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
I miss the days when social commentary required nuance and insight. I felt like I had something to offer. Back in 2008 I was explaining that Obama was raised in Kansas in a WW2 Veteran’s household. I thought it was important to point out that it’s not useful to see him as some unitary force of progressive ideals (e.g., later confirmed by his excessive use of drone killing machines). I felt like I had something to contribute from my detailed study of the man and his writing.
What can I say today? What is there to add? It is up to the people in this country to decide to unite together to save it.
I live with a government I do not support now. I’ve often lived in a government I deeply disagreed with, most vehemently during the GW Bush administration. I believed George W Bush was wrong about everything, but I knew if he lost he would leave office. I knew if an American citizen needed help overseas they could count on a George W Bush administration. I know the US immigration system has been deeply unfair and broken my entire life, but it was not a tool of overt brutality and racist apartheid until recently.
Living as a political dissident is honestly something I never thought I would do. I expected an honest fight in this county. I remember when Democrats believed the government had a larger role in people’s lives and Republicans believed the government was something to largely keep out of people’s lives. Otherwise, ideas like the rule of law, the primacy of fair elections, and the dignity of peaceful transitions of power were givens. No one disagreed about them. They weren’t political footballs to kick around, they were the playing field.
Now we have a Senator from Utah defending Trump with language that is so fascist it is self-parody:
“Rank” democracy.
To whom is democracy rank?
I voted eight days ago. Please vote as early as possible.