Tag: fascism

As is probably the case with many of us, prior to the current political meltdown, public advocacy and engagement was never high on my list of personal priorities. And, of course, just because there is now a full-blown existential crisis for our democracy, the day-to-day duties that I need to attend to have not abated one bit.  

It was in the performance of these duties that I recently realized a basic truth that I hope will encourage all of us who recognize the current threat facing our Nation for what it is: 

Donald Trump and his crime family are intent on obliterating the moral, legal, and ethical foundations upon which our republic has been built. They are doing so not because they seek to replace it with something that they think will be better, but solely for their own perceived personal benefit – more  power and profit for themselves and the country be damned! 

As this tragedy plays itself out daily, more and more of our fellow-citizens are starting to experience  the tragic consequences of a federal government, with its fearsome reach and unchecked authority,  when it is in the hands of an amoral felon and his self-serving lackeys. 

Arrayed against this awesome accumulation of criminally directed power, the forces of good faith and justice, which are only now beginning to gather steam and headway, may seem pitifully outnumbered and outmatched.  

One basic and enduring principal, though, that I think Trump and his MAGA-ts may have failed to even consider, will eventually prove to be the deciding factor in this struggle and the ultimate arbiter of their fate: 

People Yearn To Be Free!  

All People / All the Time / Everywhere in the World / Throughout History! No one has ever willingly donned the shackles of repression and injustice.  

There have been innumerable instances throughout history, of course, where through lies, brutality, and bloodshed, those who would deny that basic truth have succeeded in subjugating some people for a relatively short period of time. History has just as often recorded the grim fate that inevitably befalls the perpetrators of such atrocities (a fact that Trump and the likes of Miller, Noem, Patel, and Bondi, et  al., would be wise to consider). 

But – from the ancient cities of Athens and Rome, through the hamlets of Medieval England, the streets of Boston and Philadelphia, the blood-soaked battlefields of Gettysburg and Normandy, to the massive  uprisings in our own lifetimes from Beijing to Teheran, to Moscow, to Kiev, millions upon millions of “average” Human Beings, have organized, fought, bled, and died to further the cause of Liberty and secure its blessings for themselves, their families, and their nations. 

No autocrat or dictator, no matter how fearsome his power or ruthless his minions, can hope to engender that measure of devotion or permanently triumph over those who possess it.  

This is the basic Truth that Franklin D. Roosevelt recognized and harnessed when he unified Americans of all political, social, and economic persuasions and marshaled their energies to defeat the dark forces  of Fascism in the defining struggle of the last century.

Let all of us who wish our Nation well take heart from the fact that our our victory over the forces we are now confronting is ultimately grounded on that same unalterable Truth and that it is therefore just  as certain. 

This does not imply that the threats we now face will resolve themselves automatically and in our favor. On the contrary, it emphatically underscores that it is up to each of us to accept our individual  responsibility and shoulder the burdens required to bring Victory about, just as those who have come before us have had to do, before further damage can be done to our Nation and its ideals.