Surviving as a thriving democracy
We are called to overcome the forces of greed, injustice, and oppression - over and over, as many times as it takes, for as long as it takes.
Well, it’s official, or as close to it as we need to get. The 45th president will be his party’s nominee for 2024. We fought in 2016 and lost; we fought through his entire term, winning and losing and fighting on; we fought hard in 2020 and won, only to witness the ensuing lies culminating in dreadful violence of his followers attacking the people and processes at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Each time, part of me has believed the struggle is over. After all, it’s nearly a decade since he rode the escalator and officially launched his campaign by insulting our neighbors from Mexico. I still have a hard time believing that enough voting Americans willingly support someone so vicious, racist, sexist, and selfish. Now add convicted fraud and defendant on trial for felonies including attempting to subvert the vote of the people. In any other era, this candidacy would have been over before it began.
While these last nine years seem long, in the scope of history they are a relatively rapid rise to power. And while this individual person seems astoundingly ill equipped to lead, the forces that rally behind him have been powerful for a very long time. We are seeing the depth of commitment to a world view of inequality, privilege, and contempt of those who are different, and the depth of commitment to economic wealth governed only by the amorality of capitalism.
Our country will not survive at all if it does not thrive as a democracy. What will take its place is difficult to contemplate, but in many ways it is already here: look at the far right dominated counties and states, look at the paralyzed House, look at the loss of protection for human rights, look at the attacks on the vulnerable, the use of political violence, the failure to support our global allies, the threats to allow and even support fellow authoritarian leaders to “do what they want.” This is the future if we give up and give in.
In other words, it is not only the campaign of the 45th president we must fight. We are called to overcome the forces of greed, injustice, and oppression - over and over, as many times as it takes, for as long as it takes.
Thank you for being there, and fighting on.