I hope people can reflect deeply this weekend and think about what this nation is becoming, because in many places it isn’t pretty.
Most of the brave soldiers we honor this Memorial Day who died in battle, did so fighting against the very things that too many Americans are now openly embracing.
Fascism, intolerance, extremism and xenophobia are all rampant now in the Republican Party.
Their dogma has become interchangeable with Christofascism; the stripping of reproductive freedoms from women and the dismantling of our public education systems have more in common with the Taliban than Harry Truman.
People will place flags at gravesides and speak of solemn remembrances, then eye their fellow Americans with suspicion and contempt because they are being manipulated by some of the most venal and evil political operators this country has ever known.
Men like Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Leonard Leo - all who had a hand in shaping what Trump and the modern GOP have become.
The second tier of MAGA influencers and henchmen are even more loathsome and outright opponents of democracy - folks like Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Mike Flynn who made millions selling out America’s interests to autocrats.
If Trump, God forbid, gets a second-term, or Ron DeSantis or his ilk, their busts will surely hold pride of place in Harlan Crow’s garden of dictators someday.
I guarantee it.
If you don’t think Trump has it in him to be the world’s next big murderous dictator you have never met the man. He’s built from the same vile fiber they made Nazis out of and would give Stalin or Pol Pot a run for their money in the cruelty department.
That is who Trump has always been and what he aspires to politically, any inference otherwise is subterfuge and part of his long game con.
Trump and Jared Kusher were acting out a plan that was coordinated with Vladimir Putin to basically turn the U.S. into an oligarchy that they would be at the top of; many in the GOP were and still are more than happy to go along with the plan.
Make no mistake as to their intentions.
Honor our fallen by seeing the truth of our present circumstances clearly -and understanding deep in your bones what is truly at stake.
We are still on the precipice as a nation, in spite of the genuine accomplishments of the Biden Administration.
The fact that Biden has been able to lower unemployment and turn much of our economy around coming off of the heels of a global pandemic and the utter chaos of the Trump Administration is nothing short of a miracle.
But it should prove to you how powerful the forces aligned against him are that this is not the narrative that most Americans are getting right now.
The rancor and vitriol of the GOP and the outsized narcissism, not just of Donald Trump but of men like Elon Musk and certainly DeSantis, have been dominating the national discourse as of late whether we care to admit it or not.
The cruelty and political stunts they use to appeal to the basest instincts, and overflowing ignorance of their base, is quite effective and very well-funded by conservative billionaires and mainstream media addicted to clicks and ratings.
Or just cynical desperation to get a piece of the Fox News market share like CNN, which thankfully now has abysmal ratings and received no reward for their callous disregard of not only journalistic ethics but decency itself in airing their Trump ‘Town Hall’.
They are planning a follow-up in the coming weeks with Mike Pence and Nikki Haley, both GOP candidates, and I am sure the candidates will both go on record saying they too would pardon the J6 insurrectionists currently behind bars for attacking the U.S.Capitol.
In Pence’s case they sought to hang him to deliver Trump a victory and he won’t be able to not offer his forgiveness and a full pardon, as that issue has now become the litmus test in the Republican Party.
A development that is indicative of a very deep moral rot and a violent bent in one of our two major political parties.
A second Trump term would no doubt bring an unleashing of ‘payback’ on his perceived enemies - for the man is nothing if not vindictive - but it is hard to say that any other Republican POTUS wouldn’t crackdown violently either: that should be a sobering realization this Memorial Day weekend.
The leading GOP candidates have been fully co-opted by the Q-Anon wing of their party and the crazy freaks that think of Ashli Babbit as some sort of martyr for freedom.
Which should doubly offend anyone who lost a service member while fighting gallantly overseas to protect the very thing she and her MAGA-ilk were attempting to disrupt.
A mentally deranged woman climbing through a window to attack our elected officials is not a hero and her death should be laid at the feet of Donald Trump.
But instead CNN allowed him to demonize the Capitol Police officer who took her life in the line of duty - while protecting our democracy from attack.
Trump even called him a ‘thug’ which is of course racist red meat for the MAGA base. He keeps the base enthralled by appealing to their sense of victimhood, their weakest instincts and the racism that has become an heirloom in the Republican party.
Handed down like grandma’s chifforobe to men and women with no desire to evolve in their humanity or view of the world.
Ignorance is a comfort to some in a dynamic and confusing world; more and more the powerless are being sold a false sense of hope based on nothing more than the cheap and quick dopamine hit of what anger does to the human mind.
The heart of the matter, in the terms of the debt ceiling negotiation with the GOP, is that Republicans do not respect people who are not wealthy.
Respect and exploitation and two different things - nobody knows this better than Kevin McCarthy.
I have witnessed the denigration of lower income people from the Republican Party my entire life.
Just because one may not have the same economic fortune as those of the billionaires that fund the GOP, does not mean they are any less deserving of political representation, or the benefits a government of our size and means can bestow upon its citizens.
The working and middle class are the ones the GOP wanted to punish in their ‘negotiations’, while their corrupt leader spent his entire life cheating on his taxes and avoiding military service when he was a younger man.
Donald Trump let a ‘poor’ kid go in his place to Vietnam not once but five times.
Trump ran his business into bankruptcy six times and he now potentially faces more criminal indictments than any politician of his stature in U.S. history.
This Memorial Day let us reflect on all this and more - and take comfort in the fact that we still have the power to write the ending to this awful chapter in American history.
And let us honor those who afforded us that right.
Hi Noel- Im not on telegram. Isn't that for Russians? Im on Twitter @ElliotsWindow ; and on facebook @ Westlake Village Gallery. Can’t stand Zuckerberg or Musk but where else to go?
Thank you for everything Noel. You deserve a Nobel peace prize for all you do and speak out about for us. You are a beautiful selfless human being . It doesn’t go unnoticed. I’ve turned so many people on to you who are equally as grateful. Please keep on keeping on. Peace and love always.