Good grief, but watching even a few minutes of The Felon Who Would Be King’s coronation in Milwaukee is painful, even while it is laughable. So much sycophancy, so much hero worship, so much myth-making and dishonesty, and so much unfettered adoration for his orangeness…and the way the media is covering it makes the felonious carnival barker look powerful, unbeatable, inevitable.
And no matter how anti-American the calls at this convention become, no matter how stringently threatening to the Constitution, to the rule of law, to the idea of America, to the people who ARE America, the media breathlessly repeats all the spewings as if they are gospel truth, and not the antithesis of everything this country has been for over two centuries.
Jeez, but it’s an intimidating time to be a Democrat, a progressive, a liberal. Which makes me wonder…
When I was but a wee lad, wet behind the ears on my first tour in Germany, I happened to end up drinking with some German paratroopers. Being young, slightly inebriated, and curious, I asked the burning question: “ How could you let it happen? How could you allow the Nazis to take over?”
Most of them shrugged, or turned away. But one guy looked me in the eye, and (to paraphrase) told me that no one planned to let it happen, that they just didn’t know they had to fight against the dark forces which were gathering, until it was far too late to fight.
I have thought about that response often over the years, and I wonder what the German people saw, when the Nazi party started to hold a raving psychopath and convicted criminal up as the inevitable messiah come to save the German people from the “vermin.” Were they complacent? Were they just too naive in politics and power to see what was coming? Or did they simply not fight against the darkness hard enough, or soon enough?
There are a lot of people in this country, a lot of people who cannot fight this fight for themselves. They are counting on US to fight for them…because who else can do it? Who else will do it?
As progressives and liberals, we tend to see making noise about what we stand for as somehow the wrong approach. We allow Republicans and “conservatives “ to shout nonsense, to define the debate, to revile the very concept of “liberal” as godless, destructive ,and outright wrong.
Well, we are not Germans in the 1930’s facing roving gangs of armed unemployed soldiers traumatized and angry over losing WWI. We have the benefit of history to guide us — and we know — WE KNOW — where Republicans are currently heading with their cult leader if they win in November.
Ladies and gentlemen, we need to OWN being LIBERAL. We need to OWN being PROGRESSIVE. We need to BRAG OURSELVES hoarse about liberal accomplishments, liberal policies, liberal ideals.
It is time to proudly wear the mantle of our ideals and beliefs and shout proudly and loudly from the rooftops that hope and peace and love and light are far better choices than despair and violence and hatred and darkness. We need to keep this up until the election is won. We need to elect Democrats all the way down the ballot; we need to remember to support our local candidates, as well as our national ones.
And for the record — Yosef 52’s excellent diary inspired me to write this one. If you have not read it, please do. Yosef did exactly what I believe the rest of us need to be doing between now and the election — every chance we get.
— — Complacency is not an option.
— — Not shouting back at these MAGA cultists only benefits the cult. And don’t think it doesn’t do any good — it absolutely does — this is not a time for being quiet.
— — Believing that just because Trump and his minions are evil and stupid they can be pushed back without ALL OF US pitching in is naive and foolhardy and certain to lead us nowhere good.
We must stand proudly as liberals! Liberalism defeated fascism before — we must do it again now. For if we do not, it is our children and grandchildren who will ultimately pay for our quiet lack of noisy action…
#proudliberal