Democracy’s Last Stand?

On this last weekend before the 2020 election, I have collected some of my more relevant comments, tweets, notions and commotions that apply to what may well be Democracy’s Last Stand.

First I want to discuss what is and isn’t on the ballot.

Yes, what’s left of democracy is on the ballot. We have the chance to diminish the party of corporate elites and polluters, and remove an authoritarian narcissistic sociopath from the White House. Being a tyrannical autocrat and sociopath makes him a very dangerous enemy to democracy and equality. In addition to these characteristics his racism and white nationalism don’t reveal much daylight between him and the fascists of the 20th Century.

We can vote out a totally corrupt party that has been actively waging war on democracy and equality. “Profit over people” is a warped priority that needs to be taken out of national, state, and local politics. The Republican Party’s suppression of voter rights is in itself a path to fascism.

What ISN’T on the ballot is Marxism, communism, or socialism, or even democratic socialism.

Anyone who screams “Marxism”, “socialism” and “communism” at Democrats or progressives has no idea what they are talking about, or they are a liar.

The historical background behind the warped perspective of American conservatism is not surprising. Their paranoid and delusional notions of “socialism” are traceable back to Southern white resentments after the Civil War, to conservative anger over FDR’s New Deal, and Social Security and Medicare. The word “socialism” was in use before Karl Marx developed his ideas for the “Communist Manifesto”.

“The term ‘socialism’ first appeared in November 1827 in the Co-Operative Magazine, an organ of the Association of London Co-operative Unions, and became generally used in the 1830s.”

Modern American democratic socialism is basically the same thing that was summed up in an old Republican notion. A government of, by, and for the people. It’s never been about Marxist government ownership of all land, property, industry, manufacturing, and agriculture. We just don’t want our national forests and public lands to be untaxed corporate assets for strip mining and clear cutting. Conservation and environmental stewardship for future generations are not communism. They are principles that value the natural world and human life and well being.

We don’t want unaccountable polluters and corporate and banking elites buying the government and writing the laws of our land. We want healthcare as a basic right, not a profit generating machine to fill the pockets of insurance company CEOs and shareholders.

Democratic socialism bears no resemblance to a one-party communist dictatorship. Only a cult brainwashed by fascists would believe such nonsense.

Democratic socialism is what we envision and propose for a government that works for the people, not the powerful. We cannot allow the radical Right to define democratic socialism. They will lie.

 “The wide range of interpretations and definitions of socialism across the political spectrum, and the lack of a common understanding of what socialism is or how it looks in practice reflects its complicated evolution.”

Democratic socialism is about we the people, not we the states, or we the corporations. It is about fair elections and proportional representation. It’s about a government that works for the public good, not for corporate profits. Only fair elections can rectify the imbalance of power held by economic elites over our governments and public policy.

We need to remember the Electoral College that undermines our democracy exists only because it was a compromise by the founders to bring the slave states into the new nation.

Southern white conservatism has always been a drag on the soul of the country.

Being a tyrannical autocrat, and sociopath makes Trump a very dangerous enemy to democracy and equality. In addition to these characteristics, his racism and white nationalism don’t reveal much daylight between him and the fascists of the 20th Century. The Republican Party’s war on voter rights is in itself a path to fascism.

If Trump is given a pass by voters, HE will become a far worse fascist. And the gate will still be wide open for the next one. Our Hitler must not be made chancellor/fuhrer.

The Dear Leader says if he loses, that means the election is rigged. What retaliation does he and his armed mob of thugs have in mind when he loses? The cult is either too blind to see, or just doesn't care. This is a blatant threat to our democracy.

America's worst president will soon be its sorest loser. If there's any justice he'll go to prison, like fellow traitor Jefferson Davis. Prison or not, his cult will be furious, and he will instigate more far Right terrorism. I hate American Nazis.

Trump and his cult are proof that truth and democracy have essentially expired as conservative American values. Now they are fascists. Yesterday a caravan of Trump-flagged vehicles swarmed a Biden campaign bus on I-35 outside Austin Texas.

One of them swerved into a Democrat's escort vehicle. This is terrorism inspired by Trump, and promoted by Trump. Along with gloating about it at a rally, he tweeted a video of his thugs' terrorism proclaiming, "I LOVE TEXAS".

Did I say I hate American Nazis?

Then there's the final Trump Conservative debate point: "I don’t have to listen to you. I know more about what you think than you do, and I know it is bad. I know all I need to know. I don’t care about your journalists, educators, scientists, doctors, logic, facts and evidence. And I don’t answer questions."

Just don’t call them stupid.

Woman Trump Supporter upset over Hunter Biden:

“That’s right. Nepotism needs to be looked into big time.”

Jordan Klepper: “Yes! What do you think of Ivanka?”

Woman Trump Supporter: “Oh, she’s so gracious!”

Republicans have been waging war on democracy since Reagan adviser Paul Weyrich said, “We don’t want everybody to vote. When everybody votes we lose.”

Christian Trump voters: How does Trump follow the teachings of Jesus? Are giving tax cuts to the rich, and cutting food stamps for the poor what Jesus wants? What did Jesus say about taxes and the rich? Why does Jesus want us to vote for a hateful liar and servant of mammon?

All Republicans are enemies of democracy and equality. Every Republican needs to be defeated for anything resembling democracy and equality to survive.

The US is between a rock and a hard place. As long as there are Republicans, they will wage war against democracy and equality. As long as Democrats are bound by corporate tethers, they will never suppress the Right's expanding fascism.

Without authoritarian personalities, racists, bigots, idiots and greedheads, Trump’s base would melt into insignificance.

Understand this reality: Conservative Republicans are convinced that they cannot win by fair elections, facts and reason. They will not abandon conservatism. They will reject fair elections, facts and reason. Conservatism requires none of these. Voter suppression IS American conservatism.

Authoritarian followers vote for authoritarian leaders. How can we know they are authoritarians? They vote for the leader who threatens to imprison opponents and says, “Knock the crap out of them. I will pay the legal fees.”

 

And:

 

Elections, taxes, regulation of commerce, and provision for the general welfare are in the Constitution. If the Founders didn’t like socialism and democracy, why did they put them in the Constitution?

Antifa Jesus, Socialist Pope?

 

I may be a lapsed Catholic, but my morals and values have stood firm over the decades, without guidance from religious leaders. However I’m still interested in what the Pope has to say about important issues that we all face.

Pope Francis appears to be our most socialist and environmentalist pope yet.

Here are a few of his statements from the past several years.

While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules...We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf ... has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose."

 Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.

 Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “disposable” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers”.

In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase; and in the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.

 One cause of this situation is found in our relationship with money, since we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies

 In October 2014 the Pope said, “An economic system centered on the god of money needs to plunder nature to sustain the frenetic rhythm of consumption that is inherent to it...The system continues unchanged, since what dominates are the dynamics of an economy and a finance that are lacking in ethics. It is no longer man who commands, but money. Cash commands...The monopolizing of lands, deforestation, the appropriation of water, inadequate agro-toxics are some of the evils that tear man from the land of his birth. Climate change, the loss of biodiversity and deforestation are already showing their devastating effects in the great cataclysms we witness.”

 In 2015 the Koch-funded Heartland Institute sent a team of “climate scientists” to Rome to inform Pope Francis of the truth about climate science: “here is no global warming crisis!”

 On May 16, 2015 Pope Francis told a group of diplomats gathered at the Vatican, “We have created new idols...the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal.”

 In February of this year, Pope Francis said, “Structures of sin today include repeated tax cuts for the richest people, often justified in the name of investment and development; tax havens for private and corporate profits, and the possibility of corruption by some of the largest companies in the world, often in tune with some dominant political sector.”

 

It would seem the Catholic men on the Supreme Court, and the woman recently appointed, along with all the Catholic Trump voters haven’t heard of this Pope. They certainly don’t respect his thinking, his understanding of the world, and his compassionate viewpoints.

Why do Christian conservatives vote for Republicans? It would seem their opposition to women’s reproductive rights and LGBTQ equality is their only justification. 

Jesus never preached about abortion. He never condemned people for their sexual orientation. Tax-exempt conservative church leaders do.

I recall Jesus calling out religious leaders of the time as sanctimonious hypocrites.

 

I also recall Jesus going all "antifa" with some money changers at a temple. That didn’t go over well. The "law and order" religious conservatives of the time wanted him executed. They considered Jesus an “enemy of the people”.  

Were they any different from today’s religious conservatives?

Let’s ask them.

Are there any Christian conservatives willing to answer a few simple questions?

How does giving tax cuts to the rich reflect what Jesus wants?

How does cutting food stamps for the poor reflect what Jesus wants?

How does cutting Social Security and Medicare for the elderly reflect what Jesus wants?

How is taking healthcare from the sick and poor what Jesus wants?

What did Jesus say about taxes and the rich?

How does allowing corporate polluters have their way reflect what Jesus wants?

How does turning a blind eye to racism and police brutality reflect what Jesus wants?

How does Trump follow the teachings of Jesus?

Why does Jesus want us to vote for a servant of mammon?

Conservative Christians have yet to explain to me how voting for Republicans reflects any of the values so clearly laid out for them to embrace:

Matthew 25:40-45

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

I'll be darned if I can find any Republican/conservative agenda there. Apparently none of these values can make America great, or something...

Maybe Christian conservatives can be honest for a change, and just say they don't want to discuss the answers to these questions.

Perhaps these questions make them FEEL confused, frustrated and angry. 

That confusion, frustration and anger, especially towards more progressive folks, like the Socialist Pope, and Antifa Jesus, might just be the only “answer” that matters to them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An Open Letter to Judge Amy Coney Barrett From Your Notre Dame Colleagues

October 10, 2020

Dear Judge Barrett,

 

We write to you as fellow faculty members at the University of Notre Dame.

 

We congratulate you on your nomination to the United States Supreme Court. An appointment to the Court is the crowning achievement of a legal career and speaks to the commitments you have made throughout your life. And while we are not pundits, from what we read your confirmation is all but assured.

 

That is why it is vital that you issue a public statement calling for a halt to your nomination process until after the November presidential election.

We ask that you take this unprecedented step for three reasons.

 

First, voting for the next president is already underway. According to the United States Election Project more than seven million people have already cast their ballots, and millions more are likely to vote before election day. The rushed nature of your nomination process, which you certainly recognize as an exercise in raw power politics, may effectively deprive the American people of a voice in selecting the next Supreme Court justice. You are not, of course, responsible for the anti-democratic machinations driving your nomination. Nor are you complicit in the Republican hypocrisy of fast-tracking your nomination weeks before a presidential election when many of the same senators refused to grant Merrick Garland so much as a hearing a full year before the last election. However, you can refuse to be party to such maneuvers. We ask that you honor the democratic process and insist the hearings be put on hold until after the voters have made their choice. Following the election, your nomination would proceed, or not, in accordance with the wishes of the winning candidate. 

 

Next, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wish was that her seat on the court remain open until a new president was installed. At your nomination ceremony at the White House, you praised Justice Ginsburg as “a woman of enormous talent and consequence, whose life of public service serves as an example to us all.” Your nomination just days after Ginsburg’s death was unseemly and a repudiation of her legacy. Given your admiration for Justice Ginsburg, we ask that you repair the injury to her memory by calling for a pause in the nomination until the next president is seated.

 

Finally, your nomination comes at a treacherous moment in the United States. Our politics are consumed by polarization, mistrust, and fevered conspiracy theories. Our country is shaken by pandemic and economic suffering. There is violence in the streets of American cities. The politics of your nomination, as you surely understand, will further inflame our civic wounds,

undermine confidence in the court, and deepen the divide among ordinary citizens, especially if you are seated by a Republican Senate weeks before the election of a Democratic president and congress. You have the opportunity to offer an alternative to all that by demanding that your nomination be suspended until after the election. We implore you to take that step.

 

We’re asking a lot, we know. Should Vice-President Biden be elected, your seat on the court will almost certainly be lost. That would be painful, surely. Yet there is much to be gained in risking your seat. You would earn the respect of fair-minded people everywhere. You would provide a model of civic selflessness. And you might well inspire Americans of different beliefs toward a renewed commitment to the common good.

 

We wish you well and trust you will make the right decision for our nation.

 

Yours in Notre Dame,

John Duffy, English  

Catherine E. Bolten, Anthropology and Peace Studies

Karen Graubart, History and Gender Studies

Margaret Dobrowolska, Physics

Aedín Clements, Hesburgh Libraries

Cheri Smith, Hesburgh Libraries

Antonio Delgado, Physics

Atalia Omer, Peace Studies

Eileen Hunt Botting, Political Science

Jason A. Springs, Peace Studies

David Hachen, Sociology

Manoel Couder, Physics

Jacek Furdyna, Physics

Carmen Helena Tellez, Music

Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Biological Sciences, Philosophy

John T. Fitzgerald, Theology

Debra Javeline, Political Science 

Philippe Collon, Physics

Cara Ocobock, Anthropology

Amy Mulligan, Irish, Medieval Studies and Gender Studies

Stephen M. Fallon, Program of Liberal Studies and Dept of English

Jessica Shumake, University Writing Program and Gender Studies

Mandy L. Havert, Hesburgh Libraries

Dana Villa, Political Science

Stephen M. Hayes, Emeritus, Hesburgh Libraries

Catherine Perry, Emerita, Romance Languages & Literatures

Olivier Morel, Film, Television, and Theatre.

Darlene Catello, Music

Encarnación Juárez-Almendros, Emerita, Romance Languages & Literatures

James Sterba, Philosophy

Laura Bayard, Emerita, Hesburgh Libraries

Susan Sheridan, Anthropology

Mary E. Frandsen, Music

Mark Golitko, Anthropology

Christopher Ball, Anthropology

Gail Bederman, History

G. Margaret Porter, Emerita, Hesburgh Libraries

Cecilia Lucero, Center for University Advising

Peri E. Arnold, Emeritus, Political Science

Amitava Krishna Dutt, Political Science

Julia Marvin, Program of Liberal Studies

Julia Adeney Thomas, History

Michael C. Brownstein, East Asian Languages & Cultures

Christopher Liebtag Miller, Medieval Institute

Maxwell Johnson, Theology

John Sitter, Emeritus, English

Robert Norton, German

Hye-jin Juhn, Hesburgh Libraries

Denise M. Della Rossa, German

Sotirios A. Barber, Political Science

Pamela Robertson Wojcik, Film, TV and Theatre

Jeff Diller, Mathematics

Ann Mische, Sociology and Peace Studies

Zygmunt Baranski, Romance Languages & Literatures

Robert R. Coleman, Emeritus, Art History

William Collins Donahue, German, FTT, & Keough

Sarah McKibben, Irish Language and Literature

George A. Lopez, emeritus, Kroc Institute

Mark Roche, German

Nelson Mark, Economics

Vittorio Hosle, German, Philosophy and Political Science

Tobias Boes, German 

A. Nilesh Fernando, Economics

Fred Dallmayr, Emeritus, Philosophy and Political Science

Greg Kucich, English

Kate Marshall, English

Mark A. Sanders, English

Christopher Hamlin, History

Meredith S. Chesson, Anthropology

Ricardo Ramirez, Political Science

Stephen Fredman, Emeritus, English

Dan Graff, History and the Higgins Labor Program

Henry Weinfield, Program of Liberal Studies (Emeritus)

Mary R. D’Angelo, Theology (Emerita)

Asher Kaufman, Kroc Institute, History

Stephen J. Miller, Music

Janet A. Kourany, Philosophy and Gender Studies

Michelle Karnes, English

Jill Godmilow, Emerita, Film, Television & Theatre

Mary Beckman, Emerita, Center for Social Concerns

Clark Power, Program of Liberal Studies

Richard Williams, Sociology

Benedict Giamo, Emeritus, American Studies

Ernesto Verdeja, Political Science and Peace Studies 

Catherine Schlegel, Classics

Margaret A. Doody, English, Professor Emerita 

Marie Collins Donahue, Eck Institute of Global Health

 David C. Leege, Emeritus, Political Science

 

Thanks, Losers And Suckers!

Socialized health care works great for "The Only One". He’s feeling good about that, and tweeting his triumph of the will to the world.

 "I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. (No hydroxychloroquine prescribed.)Feeling really good! (Steroid effect.)Don’t be afraid of Covid.(With drugs nobody else gets.) Don’t let it dominate your life. (Tell “No Mask” Herman Cain.) We have developed, ("We"?) under the Trump Administration, (Oh, really?) some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!" (Steroid effect again.)

Dexamethasone has been used since 1957. Remdesivir was developed in 2009 to fight Ebola. The Regeneron antibody cocktail technology was developed in 2014 to fight Ebola.

 Who was President from 2009-2014?

 But don’t panic. Relax and live with it.

“Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!”

 Not our population. It won’t  be long when a quarter of a million Americans didn’t “learn to live with it”. They will have died from it. In the US, Covid is now among the top three causes of death, along with heart disease and cancer.

Twitter removed the tweet, stating, “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.”

The Republican's health care plan is clear. Nothing but the best for the rich, and for Dear Leader.

“Let 'em die”, for the rest of us.

And Trump’s new mistress Covid is still in his bedroom.

The Worm Turns

 

Trump has Covid? 

But...But... How could that possibly have happened? 

He knew better than Dr. Fauci and those dumb scientists.

How long before Hannity and Giuliani blame Democrats and Antifa for Trump contracting Covid?

A show of hands, please. How many of you Republicans approve of Trump's handling of the Covid crisis?

Seriously, I don't want Trump to die. I want him to lose the election and face justice.

This time he and I have the same enemy. We all do. Will he and his cult figure this out?

Or will they continue to drag us all down with them? 

Enemies Of Democracy And Equality

 

The first consideration of this essay is to establish definitions of some of its most relevant terms.  Of course this should apply to all debate and discussion.

Conservatism: commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation... the holding of political views that favor free enterprise, private ownership, and socially conservative ideas... Oxford Languages

A disposition in politics to preserve what is established...a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt change, specifically : such a philosophy calling for lower taxes, limited government regulation of business and investing, a strong national defense, and individual financial responsibility for personal needs ... the tendency to prefer an existing or traditional situation to change – Mirriam-Webster

Democracy: 1a: government by the people, especially rule of the majority

b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections - Mirriam-Webster

Equality: the quality or state of being equal (like in quality, nature, or status...like for each member of a group, class, or society) - Mirriam-Webster

Liberalism: Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law. - Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics

A political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties, specifically : such a philosophy that considers government as a crucial instrument for amelioration of social inequities (such as those involving race, gender, or class) - Mirriam-Webster

Progressivism: of, relating to, or characterized by progress...one believing in moderate political change and especially social improvement by governmental action - Mirriam-Webster

Racism: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized. - Oxford Languages

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Something is going very wrong in the United States of America. Almost everyone will agree this is the case.

There are basically two versions of what ails our country. As always, the proponents of each version are blaming the other.

An easy, albeit incorrect, assumption would be the notion that both sides share the blame.

Not this time. 

This isn’t another bi-partisan blunder and tragedy like the failed and cruel war on drugs, or de-regulation of Wall Street, or invasion of Iraq.

This affliction is rooted in a long tradition.

Since the American Revolution the republic’s experiment in representative government has been suffering from a toxic flaw that is inherently adversarial to democracy and equality.

This flaw has been characterized by immorality, greed, racism and authoritarianism. In fact it is as authoritarian as the Monarchy that drove the colonists to rebellion. The new nation was founded by wealthy white men, who rightfully resented being ruled and taxed without representation.

They held progressive ideals of the Enlightenment, including consent of the governed, inalienable rights, and all men being created equal.

But there was a contradiction of those ideals that would become the most serious defect in the Great Experiment in representative democracy. Many of those wealthy white founders owned slaves. They believed in the culturally accepted superiority of white Europeans, or white colonists, over Black African Americans.  

Brutality inflicted upon slaves and native tribes became the human price for the preservation of the wealth and power of white elites.

That power was always dependent upon the support of poor white people, including the degradations of child labor and sweatshops. The elites needed to assure poor whites of their superiority over Blacks and Native Americans. They needed to convince them equality itself was a threat to them.

Racism was an essential component of early American economic power, and its expansion through its concept of Manifest Destiny.

Native Americans were removed from their homes, killed or forced onto reservations. Even after Emancipation and the Civil War, African Americans suffered terrible cruelties and injustice under Southern white supremacy and social conservatism. The Klan and post-reconstruction Jim Crow laws and poll taxes extended inequality into the 20th Century.

Institutionalized racism was built into the foundation of the republic and American conservatism. This unique American conservatism has left a long trail of oppression, strife and war.

Let’s take a moment to clarify. I’m not saying conservative values are racist. Personal values like faith, marriage, family, honesty, responsibility and patriotism are decent and worthy conservative values. It’s good that conservatives embrace these values. If that’s what they feel are conservative values, good for them. No harm done. Of course, these values are not exclusively conservative.

Liberals and progressives also share these values, despite the contrary claims of political propaganda from conservatives on the far Right. The same propagandists have been smearing and unilaterally re-defining liberalism and progressivism as “socialism”, “Marxism”, “Communism” and even “Fascism”.

Indeed, liberalism is framed as an evil threat to all that is good, while conservatism is portrayed as virtue itself.

It isn’t.

In recent decades America’s political conservatism has morphed into a blend of far Right white nationalism and cold-blooded corporatism. Xenophobia, intolerance, greed, and bigotry are its uglier elements. Democracy and equality are not its values. These remain liberal/progressive values.

Public healthcare, public education, Social Security, Medicare, environmental protections, higher taxes for the rich, corporate and banking regulations, and other progressive values are far more popular with the people than are reflected in government policies.

Conservative political methodology is to seize and hold power by any means, and to basically stomp on the downtrodden and coddle the rich.

Obstruction of Obama’s judicial appointments was elevated to extremes by Republicans.

Now Trump is filling the obstructed court vacancies held by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell with unpopular theocratic corporatists.

The Supreme Court was hijacked by McConnell through his disregard and disrespect for the Senate’s Constitutional role in voting on Obama’s selection of Merrick Garland for a Supreme Court vacancy. “It should be up to the voters”, he claimed.

That was then. Now he’s rushing Trump’s latest candidate just a few weeks before the election.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll shows 57% of Americans want the winner of the presidential election to nominate Ginsburg’s successor.

“Consent of the governed.”  How quaint. How antiquated. Conservatism overrules the will of the people by holding a disproportionate amount of power in government. There is no equality of representation. The Senate Republican majority represents a significantly smaller, and whiter, portion of the population than the Democratic minority.

The president did not get more votes than his opponent. Consent of the governed was again demolished by Electoral College.

Along with the Electoral College, a disproportionately conservative Senate, and by extension, the courts would become vestiges of conservative Southern slave states.

This is not a democratic republic that reflects the will of the people. It’s as if “consent of the governed” didn’t appear at all in the Declaration of Independence.

Ideals of the Enlightenment were compromised to entice the Southern colonies to join the United States. They weren’t as dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Equality and consent of the governed wouldn’t apply to African Americans. They were one third of the population in the South.

The Civil War didn’t eliminate racism or its horrible effects on African Americans.

Racism and inequality were still prominent into the 20th Century and beyond. Confederate flags and monuments are as popular as ever among far Right American conservatives.

The Civil War ended, but the struggle for equality, voting rights, and civil rights continues.

In their denial of this fact, the conservatives of the Supreme Court struck down provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

Today’s conservative media and Republicans engage in the most dishonest far Right propaganda since Goebbels. “Fake news” is their equivalent of the Nazi’s “Lügenpresse”, or lying press.

Journalism isn’t the only target of the far Right. Any source of information that disproves their conservative propaganda becomes a target. Scientists, doctors, educators and historians are fair game for their evidence, facts and truths that the far Right prefers kept in the dark.

American political conservatism is nothing more than the far Right propaganda and machinations required to maintain minority rule by the wealthiest of our population. The greatest threats to conservatism have always been democracy and equality.

Throughout our history conservatives have obstructed every stage of progress towards democracy and equality. They opposed independence, emancipation, civil rights, voting rights, labor rights, and women’s rights.

Conservative royalists sided with the Crown in the Revolution. Conservatives sided with racist Southern slave owners through the Civil War. They violently suppressed ex-slaves after Reconstruction. They slaughtered and removed native tribes from their homes.

They resisted women’s suffrage, and stood athwart civil rights and voting rights for minorities through the 20th Century. They have continued to engage in voter suppression well into to the 21st Century.

They are blocking and dismantling our Constitutional provision for the general welfare. They howled “Socialism” and “Statism” in their outrage at Social Security for a public safety net, and at Medicare for public healthcare. Now the Republican president is proposing the elimination of the payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare.

And throughout this war on democracy and equality, conservatives have worked relentlessly to deny women’s right to reproductive freedom.

The enemies of democracy have been ramping up their war for the last 40 years, since Reagan advisor Paul Weyrich openly stated, "We don’t want everybody to vote. When everybody votes we lose.”

Unprecedented and extreme gerrymandering was imposed by Republicans, marginalizing minorities’ access to fair representation.

Then came more restrictive voter IDs that mostly impacted poor urban Black people.

Then came purging of voter rolls that disenfranchised thousands of eligible voters.

Then came limiting voter registration drives, targeting the League of Women Voters among others.

Then came limiting poll access by reducing the numbers of polls and last minute changes of poll locations.

Then came the efforts directed at elimination of same day registration and early voting.

Minorities and especially Black communities were targeted. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that HB 589, often referred to as North Carolina’s “monster voter suppression law”, was enacted with “racially discriminatory intent" that targeted African American voters with “surgical precision.”

Then came the candidate who declared the election would be rigged if he lost. He then denied losing the popular vote, and pushed lies about millions of “illegals” voting.

Then came the sabotage of the United States Postal Service to hinder mail-in ballots.

Channel 4 News revealed a 2016 vote-suppressing propaganda scheme by the enemies of democracy and equality. They were targeting Black people to deter them from voting.

“Channel 4 News has exclusively obtained a vast cache of data used by Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign on almost 200 million American voters.

It reveals that 3.5 million Black Americans were categorised by Donald Trump’s campaign as ‘Deterrence’ – voters they wanted to stay home on election day...In 16 key battleground states, millions of Americans were separated by an algorithm into one of eight categories, also described as ‘audiences’, so they could then be targeted with tailored ads on Facebook and other platforms.

One of the categories was named ‘Deterrence’, which was later described publicly by Trump’s chief data scientist as containing people that the campaign “hope don’t show up to vote”.

Analysis by Channel 4 News shows Black Americans – historically a community targeted with voter suppression tactics – were disproportionately marked ‘Deterrence’ by the 2016 campaign.

In total, 3.5 million Black Americans were marked ‘Deterrence...The 2016 campaign preceded the first fall in Black turnout in 20 years..”

 Chuck Lindell of the Austin American-Statesman reported more recent obstructions to voting. Texas Republicans are reducing ballot dropoff points and forcing longer waits in line.

“Gov. Abbott issues proclamation CLOSING (as of Oct. 2) satellite offices where voters can drop off completed mail-in ballots. Counties can only have 1 dropoff point, he says. Travis has 4, including 3 downtown. Harris has 12.

Abbott says move, which also requires early voting clerks to let poll watchers observe ballot delivery, is an election security measure. Clerks said the multiple dropoff spots were to help voters, particularly amid questions about Postal Service efficiency.”

Also: “Texas can enforce law that ends straight-ticket voting for the Nov. 3 election.”

 Finally, after years of undermining the integrity of our elections, the authoritarian president openly declared war on democracy:

Reporter: "Win, lose or draw in this election, will you commit here today for a peaceful transfer of power after the election?"

Trump: "We're going to have to see what happens. Get rid of the ballots and we'll have a very peaceful — there won't be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation. The ballots are out of control.”

This is a rogue autocrat bent on destabilizing our democracy by constant and deliberate efforts to delegitimize our election.

During the first debate with Joe Biden, he instructed his armed militia nuts and Proud Boys to “stand by”, and to intimidate voters at the polls. He was asked, and refused to condemn white supremacists.

He did the opposite. He threatened more confrontation and lied about who the most violent ones are. "Proud Boys -- stand back and stand by. But I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what. Somebody's got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right wing problem."

FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress the bureau is putting racist violence on the same threat level as foreign terrorist groups.

“We elevated to the top-level priority racially motivated violent extremism so it's on the same footing in terms of our national threat banding as ISIS and homegrown violent extremism.”

They are Trump’s foot soldiers. His Brownshirts. His SS.

The Kenosha killer broke the law before he pulled the trigger on his victims. It was illegal for him to be carrying his weapon in public. No matter. The authoritarians of the far Right are defending this type of vigilantism. "Law and order for thee, but not for me."

Many of these brainwashed authoritarian bigots are threatening civil war if Trump loses the election. Andrew Anglin, founder of the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, heard Trump's "Stand back and stand by" as "Get ready for war."

“Not a right wing problem”.

There has never been a greater enemy of the people in the White House.

The Trump Republicans’ war on democracy has now reached the brink of fascism.

The militia nuts, Proud Boys, 3%er’s, the Klan, white fundamentalist bigots, and the Republican Party are with him all the way. Right wing terrorism will escalate if Trump can't steal the election

Conservatives do not want a democratic republic. They have always wanted minority rule.

When not in power they obstruct. They will capitalize on the Electoral College and their disproportionate representative power in the Senate, and their lock on the courts. To hold that power they will behave like authoritarians and despots. They will lie like fascist and communist dictators. They will cheat, blame, scapegoat, and falsely accuse the opposition.

They will assail dissent and call progressives or Democrats who question them “libtards”, “snowflakes”, “cucks”, traitors, socialists, and communists.

These are the fetid fruits of conservatism that have been rotting the core principles of our Republic. As far Right conservatives demonize opposition and howl about “fake news” and “Marxism”, these enemies of democracy and equality are leading the nation down the dark path of authoritarianism.

The resentment, divisiveness, willful ignorance, anger, lies, and hate from the conservative far Right have degraded our media, schools, and society. They have poisoned our law enforcement, our politics and our government.

It is difficult to exaggerate the threat they have become to our nation.  

Not since the Civil War has the republic seen a more dangerous domestic menace.

And if they don’t get their minority rule, another civil war is what the worst of them will want. 

And once again, they won’t be fighting for democracy and equality.