If democracy lovers do everything we can for the next 14 months to defeat the ongoing attempted coup by The Former Guy and his insurrection-excusing allies in the GOP, we will be okay.

 

I know everybody is already exhausted, so first let me point you to an article about a future that you’ll want to be here for. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and take this in while you enjoy it:

 

https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/trumpism-maga-cult-deprogram-democracy?

 

The bottom line is that the Cult of Trump must deprogram itself.  And it will, as he (I predict) loses the two court cases that are coming up about his complicity in the attempted coup (Georgia, federal) and in the retention and failure to return sensitive documents upon demand in Florida. Because not even sufficient numbers of cultists can ignore facts to make the next election swing in their favor if the rest of us turn out in record numbers to uphold the rule of law and our nation’s survival.

 

So, don’t bother trying to deprogram your loved ones. That’s wasted time and energy. They will be hearing from their own circle of acquaintances, who they trust (unless they’re completely isolated) that the falling away has already begun, and that will give them their own reason to look with clearer eyes at what the rest of us have been able to see so clearly for 40 years: Trump is a racist. sexist, misogynistic conman who has left a pile of rubble behind every endeavor and interaction he has ever had, because he cares about absolutely no one except himself. The new (to them) knowledge will break some hearts (so, please, no finger pointing or “I told you so’s!” — pain is pain and it deserves respect and to be honored  – betrayal is a crushing emotion!) but then it will harden them toward him and the GOP, as they feel the full fury of having been conned for so long.

 

And don’t sit around commiserating or congratulating your associates who have been with you all along when it comes to Trump, the GOP, and their machinations. That’s wasted time and energy, too. It might feel good, but it doesn’t accomplish anything.

 

Here’s what the former Secretary of Labor under Clinton, Robert Reich, has to say about what to do next:

 

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-terrifying-road-ahead?

 

Reich is right. The road before us is terrifying.  We are the last line of defense against Trump and the GOP’s plans to turn this nation into an authoritarian nightmare capable of causing what happened in Germany in the last century. (No exaggeration. They are already priming the pump to purge from society the people they don’t like or fear: South American families seeking asylum, people of color, smart, resistance-oriented men and women, LGBTQIA individuals like me, etc.).

 

Unless we all stand firmly now and do everything possible to make sure the next federal election is a landslide victory for republican democracy (we are a democratic republic by design but can become an oligarchy/autocracy by coup unless we act THIS COMING YEAR  to thwart the white male supremacist/misogynist  GOP), we are at very real risk of losing irrevocably to scoundrels what we hold so dear.

 

I’m tired. Exhausted of the battle. But every generation to date has faced it.  Perhaps if we get this one right in undeniable numbers, it will be a very long time before anyone else has to fight this same battle again.  The younger generations are coming up in a different way than most of us we were brought up. The vast majority have diverse friends and want to save the planet. There is a great, refreshing light at the end of this tunnel.

 

Let’s help make sure we reach it in 2024!

 

My Wish List:

 

• End the Electoral College

 

• Appoint additional Supreme Court Justices

 

• Investigate Clarence Thomas and others who have been enjoying the largesse of powerful conservative people

 

• Investigate Thomas’s wife Ginni’s involvement in the January 6th coup attempt

 

• Vote Blue in every single race in 2024

 

• SEND THE GOP PACKING

 

• END CITIZENS UNITED

 

• END GERRYMANDERING AND RACIST/SEXIST VOTER PURGES

 

• Establish an alternative progressive party to challenge the Democratic Party to do even more in the future than they have done in the past for the American people. (Of course, Dems would have done more if not  for the lockstep opposition of the GOP, and if they do, it’s fine to establish a more conservative party that isn’t off the rails the way the present GOP is. But corpoate DEMS are presently too deeply indebted to their rich financiers to consistently do what’s right for the American people, even without the GOP banging on them nonstop.).

 

I’m gonna keep on fighting. I hope you will, too!