A Straight Line From Ronnie to Donnie

How the Republic was Lost

Yes, I am depressed. Yes, I am scared. Like everyone else I am just one little human passing through this life. I am closer to the end than the beginning by a lot. And have been through some terrible times in our recent history.

We, the regular citizens, are in general focused on our own small concerns. Making dinner, going to work, walking the dog. Coffee with a friend. Holding the baby.

This doesn’t mean we are not concerned with the world at large. The two realms co-exist. We weep when the fallen arrive at Dover even if the caskets don’t contain our own children. We vote, and before we do we think. We try to buy the products that don’t kill the sea turtles.

When a normal administration is in power, we don’t think about it much. We might grumble if something we disagree with hits the news, or say to ourselves “way to go” if a bill that will help regular people is signed. We expect our social security checks. If we need the safety net we may pay more attention, especially when cuts are on the table. But mostly we tend to our own affairs.

But for the last decade, nothing has been normal. We have been pounded, day after day, with outrages and lies. We have been abused by half our government, by the press, and by the oligarchs and the corporate interests they control.

And the other half of the government has not been able to stop it or protect us.

Now the last pretense has fallen away.

I have lived through the Vietnam War era, 1968, Watergate, the lies that brought down Jimmy Carter, the onset of Reagan’s neoliberal wet dream, the end of civil society in America, 9-11, the Bush Era, and finally, the age of Trump and the MAGA.

A straight line from Ronnie to Donnie.

This is the very worst. It is tied to all that has gone before, but is different in kind and not merely degree. It is American Fascism. Even in the early days of slavery and genocide the American arc bent towards justice. That is no longer true.

If we had stopped this cancer before is metastasized, our prognosis would be better.

Now it is not a “Republic if we can keep it” as Jefferson said of our nascent country. It is a “Republic if we can win it back”. And THAT is a very big if. And, no doubt, a bloody one.

But we must try. Yes, we must still make the dinner and walk the dog. But the life of the world must occupy the lion’s share of our energy until we either win or are all dead.

No, this is not how I envisioned my “golden years”. It is just what is.