There is a chilling rise of fascism in America, and it is receiving the full-throated support of one political party.
The GOP has launched a full-scale war on voting rights, and it no longer respects the will of the people. Voter suppression is nothing new in this country. We have had it since the very beginning. At one time, lest we forget, only white, male landowners voted.
However, since the passage of voting rights for all Americans, all that changed. In today’s America, most everyone over the age of 18 is supposed to be eligible to cast a ballot. But now, Republicans no longer wish to continue this centuries-long correction. They want to impose dictatorial rule, and the easiest path there is by denying people of color the chance for their voices to be heard.
In other words, we the diverse people no longer have any right to choose who governs. Or that's what the GOP wants. We are all paying attention to Georgia, but Republicans are fighting to pass similar voter suppression laws in 47 states.
“Our current surge of suppressive activity includes various forms of intimidation, from unscrupulous ‘poll watchers’ to armed guards patrolling voting places, as well as lots of propaganda and disinformation to confuse voters and try to frighten them out of voting,” says Heather Digby Parton of Salon.
Parton argues that in the wake of Donald Trump's Big Lie about the 2020 election, Republicans have gone into overdrive, using his pathetic inability to admit he lost as an excuse to enact voting restrictions in the name of “restoring trust” in the electoral system.
And she is correct. Let's face it. We are in a constitutional crisis.
Given the rise of conspiracy thinking and the falsehood about the stolen election, many voters simply do not know what is real. Healthy debates about how to govern, featuring honest differences of opinion, have been eliminated with the rise of Fox “news,” and social media. No one believes anything the other side is saying, and it's destroying the ability of many in this country to think rationally.
The GOP has embarked on decades of hegemony to keep power at the top.
They can no longer do so; they no longer have the will of the majority. The only way they can maintain dominance is to cheat, lie and steal elections. As a result, we are on our way to losing our democracy entirely.
Alarmists never want to be proven correct, however, if this isn't addressed immediately, we will go down the path of complete destruction. We will no longer recognize this country.
Many know about the history of the Roman Empire and its epic fall. America was created to avoid these pitfalls.
Our democracy is hanging by a thread, and all citizens need to behave accordingly. Americans aren't willing to believe we could become a third-world nation or a failed state. But it has happened throughout history. Regimes are brought down by powerful people with bad intentions and complicit or "blind" citizens willing to accept their ultimate demise.
We look at countries like Belarus and Russia with pity and believe that what has happened there won't here. But it can and will if we don't remain vigilant and fight GOP dictatorial tactics. Otherwise, the world will look at us with sympathy, knowing what we once were and what we let ourselves become.
“Democracy can exist only in the countries where people are brave! Coward nations always live under the authoritarian regimes,” states Mehmet Murat Ildan.
Let’s be brave.
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