I am reminded of Benjamin Franklin’s reply to the woman who approached him as he was leaving the Constitutional Convention.
She asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”
He replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
Our Republic is currently in the gravest danger it has been in since the Civil War, 100% due to the domestic threat posed by the GOP cult, the Right Wing Lie Machine working in its service to brainwash the electorate with lies, and its base of narcissistic sociopaths, white supremacists, and authoritarian goons bent on nihilist power without any principles at all.
Within the GOP cult, the nuts and mobsters are absolutely in charge, just as within the Third Reich the Nazis had an absolute grip on power. And though the recent defeat of Nazi chic enthusiast Madison Cawthorn may appear to the unobservant to be a defeat for the Cult, it is no more evidence for that than the Night of Long Knives and the human sacrifice Hitler made of Ernst Rohm was evidence that the Nazis were losing their grip on power. Cawthorn was destroyed for his failure to be a Company Man. He was made an example pour encourager les autres, not because the MAGA Cult was growing that most alien of things to them: a conscience. It is an irredeemable cult of evil and death. Remedy for it will never be found within it. It must be destroyed, not negotiated with.
The good news is that we can do that. For there are lots and lots of people outside the GOP Cult who still don’t think that means the Cult should have power over the machinery of the United States, just as outside the Third Reich were found the people to smash it to atoms. It is up to us to not just sit on our hands and let these crooks, liars, and nuts win. Crush them in every election, local, state, and federal. Because they mean to destroy our democracy and institute a permanent authoritarian regime.
“At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it?– Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!–All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” – Abraham Lincoln
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5 Responses
Agree. I don’t think people realize what the F* is going on. Doesn’t help that the non-Fox media seems oblivious as well.
Glad to see you read Bulwark also. I’ve recommended you to its readers a couple of times. 🙂
>Right Wing Lie Machine working in its service to brainwash the electorate with lies, and its base of narcissistic sociopaths, white supremacists, and authoritarian goons bent on nihilist power without any principles at all.
This is your blog, so you chose the topics to write about. I have never seen you write about the role of the US Catholic Church in aiding and abetting the Right Wing.
People like Burke, Cordileone. Gomez …prominently. But it’s not just them. Almost 60% of the USCCB wanted to deny communion to Biden despite the Pope, and would have gone ahead with it, until he sent his emissary out with the stronger word.
Before that, there was Obamacare, which was almost derailed by Catholics on the abortion culture war. It benefited a lot of blacks, just because we are mostly poor. But the Catholic Bishops were ready to kill it over remote material cooperation about birth control!!!
I am not white, but Catholic and pro-life. Well, until now. I have decided to leave the Catholic Church, because what the Church has aided and abetted is existential to me because of my race. But it’s not just racism, although that is very personal. It’s the whole idea of nihilist authoritarianism that the Church is driving, abetted by 5 Catholics on the Court. The cockamamie reasons for the Obamacare/birth control form/legal fight should have taught me, but I was fooled.
Not again. The Church is racist to the core. Its deeds speak more than any of the mountains of pabulum they spew.
I am not the only one, that I know is leaving the Church, but I don’t expect a lot to do this. Most people are trying to eke out an existence and don’t have time to ponder stuff like I do. And that’s a good way to understand how Catholics ended up supporting the Nazi rule.
The fruits of the poisonous pro-life Court the Church has elevated to power should be attributed to the Church.
I have made it my mission to do the best I can to ensure that the Church cannot weasel out of that accountability. I do not want the Church to escape accountability and claim that they had no part in the doings that this Court will unleash. They built this Court, and the Right Wing Cult.
I don’t believe that you’re black or Catholic.
The US conference of Catholic bishops was indeed instrumental in helping to nurture the Trump cult and its precursor. there are still large elements within the church like that.
At least the pope is no longer on their side.
At the end of the day, we all need to do what gets us to God.
You may want to speak to your pastor of your concerns on the Church harming your spiritual health. Simultaneously, you may want to write your local bishop, and perhaps even Gomez himself. I get the sense that clergy, from priests to bishops, are getting a lot of pressure and disinformation from MAGAs, and the clergy is caving. Is the Church creating MAGA or is MAGA corrupting the Church – hard to tell, but I would hope that amidst the MAGA onslaught, your clergy would welcome a faithful, polite, intelligent, progressive viewpoint.
The Church is a “both/and” church. And rightfully so, because that is the way of virtue. We need all the goods – life, freedom, privacy, dignity, resources. That is what we need to gear our legislation towards.