{"id":300,"date":"2023-10-22T14:56:36","date_gmt":"2023-10-22T18:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/?p=300"},"modified":"2023-10-22T14:56:36","modified_gmt":"2023-10-22T18:56:36","slug":"saving-democracy-our-opportunity-amidst-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/2023\/10\/22\/saving-democracy-our-opportunity-amidst-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving Democracy: Our Opportunity Amidst Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chinese symbol for crisis is identical to its symbol for opportunity, and we would do well to remember that while we look at what is happening in Congress these days.<\/p>\n

The crisis is that we came within a hair last week of turning the U.S. House of Representatives over to fascists.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll get to the opportunity part in a minute, but first let\u2019s look at the disaster we barely escaped.<\/p>\n

First, it is not hyperbole to say fascists almost took over the House.\u00a0 Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, came within a handful of votes of being elected speaker of the House, and Jordan is both the attack dog and lap dog for Donald Trump \u2013 Trump, who openly reveals himself daily to be a fascist (although he calls himself a Republican).\u00a0 I detailed all the proof for that in last week\u2019s posting (The Hitler-Trump Connections<\/a>, <\/em>10\/16\/23).<\/p>\n

(Just to make sure we\u2019re on the same page here, when I refer to fascists, or neo-Nazis, I\u2019m thinking Webster\u2019s definition of fascism: \u201can authoritarian system of government under absolute control of a single dictator, allowing no political opposition, forcibly suppressing dissent, and rigidly controlling most industrial and economic activities.\u201d)<\/p>\n

If Trump is a fascist, so is Jordan.\u00a0 Jordan is closer to Trump than just being his attack dog and lap dog; he was a key ally in Trump\u2019s felonious effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.\u00a0 And he defied\u00a0 a subpoena during Congress\u2019 investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.\u00a0 He also is one of the founders of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, the group that\u2019s mucking up Congress right now.<\/p>\n

So if Jordan had been elected House speaker, Congress would be under the control of fascists now, led by Trump, and Jordan would be second in line to become president.<\/p>\n

The question is, what is happening in our society that has allowed fascism to incubate and grow in plain sight ?\u00a0 And what can we do about it?<\/p>\n

Michiko Kakutani, the Pulitzer Prize winner and longtime Book Review editor of The New York Times, did a deep dive into that subject for her book \u201cThe Death of Truth,\u201d and came up with several reasons.<\/p>\n

One reason is that some people want our democracy to fail and fascism to take over.<\/p>\n

Another is that some people just don\u2019t care.<\/p>\n

Yet another is\u00a0 that many people are being fooled, and, as P.T. Barnum made millions by understanding, many people do not mind being fooled as long as they are entertained.<\/p>\n

But a major reason is that we are worn down by the never-ending avalanche.\u00a0 We\u2019re fatigued by fatigue. Making matters worse, dictators and would-be dictators know that and they use it.<\/p>\n

Adolf Hitler, Trump\u2019s favorite mentor, knew the value of wearing people down.\u00a0 Hitler wrote: \u201cWho cares whether they like us or insult us, treating us as fools or criminals?\u00a0 The point is they talk about us and constantly think about us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lenin understood the need \u201cto disrupt the existing order of things\u201d and \u201cthus make room for the penetration\u201d of new doctrines.<\/p>\n

And Hannah Arndt, who examined the essential role that propaganda played in driving popular acceptance of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, concluded that \u201cin an ever-changing, incomprehensible world, the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to miss the connections with today\u2019s would-be dictators, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

So although the bad news is that democracy lovers surrendered to fatigue and stopped paying attention, stopped voting, and thus almost turned the House leadership over to a neo-Nazi, the good news is that word \u201calmost\u201d.\u00a0 It almost<\/em> happened.\u00a0 But it didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Democracy won that important round and is still in control.\u00a0 It\u2019s true that we barely won it, and democracy is a little shaky at the moment, but we did win it and we are in control.<\/p>\n

More good news:\u00a0 Jim Jordan\u2019s failure is also Donald Trump\u2019s failure.\u00a0 Trump badly wanted the flame-throwing Jordan to become speaker, so Jordan\u2019s defeat indicates Republicans\u2019 fear of Trump is weakening, and thus so is his hold on them.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s our opportunity.\u00a0 Maybe we can use this near-disaster to shock our sleeping allies into realizing how important it is that fascists almost took over the House of Representatives while they slept, and that fascism is a very real here-and-now in-our-face threat.\u00a0 Maybe that new understanding will jolt them into doing something about it.<\/p>\n

The ultimate \u201cdoing something\u201d, of course, will be to vote.\u00a0 The only way we can save our democracy is by using it, and the numbers show that if we have a large turnout of voters across the nation on Election Day we will win.\u00a0 But only<\/em> if we vote in great numbers can we overcome the system that is so unfairly stacked against us, such as the Republicans\u2019 strong campaign to keep people who don\u2019t look like them from voting, the Electoral College, and the Republicans\u2019 starkly gerrymandered voting districts.\u00a0 If we vote in large numbers we can send the fascists packing.\u00a0 So voting in large numbers next year will be an absolute must.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s next year.\u00a0 We need to do something now<\/em> so that we will be ready when next year arrives.\u00a0 Each of us who feels this way can use this time to talk it up with our friends and make sure everyone in our sphere understands how important voting will be and get them involved.\u00a0 We all need to think of something we can do and do it.<\/p>\n

Every county\u2019s Democratic Party headquarters needs volunteers to make phone calls, cover the desk, deliver pamphlets, stuff envelopes, handle other jobs.\u00a0 On Election Day they need volunteers to drive people without transportation to the polls.<\/p>\n

We can offer to help a favorite candidate, donate money if we\u2019re able, write letters to the editor, use whatever talents we have in imaginative ways.\u00a0 But whatever we do, each of us must do something.<\/em><\/p>\n

And we will end this nightmare.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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