I always write that we must treat every single election as a referendum for democracy and our Constitution against fascism and American apartheid. It used to be that when we voted we were voting on which person we thought would be able to lead the country forward best. Both Republican and Democrats had liberal, moderate, and conservative members. The liberal Republican is an extinct species. Even the liberal Democrat is not what they used to be. The world has gone more right than left. They use to be able to reach across the aisle with the other party and things in this country actually got accomplished. From the end of World War II until I think 2000 we led the world because people and other countries wanted to follow. They trusted us to do the right thing. In my opinion, in this new century, things have changed.  Everything in the world has become more intertwined while our politics have become more divisive.

After 9/11 we had the support of the world but we lost that rather quickly. Why?  There are a lot of reasons but in today’s digital age when you are not honest with the world the world knows it. History will record the lies that got us into war with Iraq. First, Bush said they supported the terrorist that attacked us on 9/11 then the weapons of mass destruction which there were none. Thousands and thousands civilians died and in my opinion we destabilized the Middle East more than it was already. How do we improve our image? Only through open and honest leadership can that be accomplished. The world sees a divided America that appears to have no chance of unity in the near future. You can’t expect them to follow a divided America, not how it is divided today.

The press is one of the great dividers in this country. Integrity in our reporting of the news would go a long way. There is a big difference between Trump and Biden but the press has attacked them both with the same vigor. Trump lied to the nation and the world and his lies has cost us hundreds of thousands of lives that didn’t have to die if he had only been honest. Trump played politics with the pandemic and people died needlessly. There were people lying in bed dying still believing that the pandemic was just a democratic hoax. Trump caused that but the press helped cause that too. News channels like Fox are also responsible for many deaths. Because of the news our memories are very short. They sensationalize one story after another to make sure that you are buying all the products that are sponsoring them. No one talks about the millions of American lives that have been lost because of the pandemic and continue to be lost today because that is thought of as yesterday’s news. Yes, believe it or not Covid is not over yet but you wouldn’t know that by how they report the news. Just a few weeks ago Ginni Thomas was in the news because she interfered with our election process and was part of the big lie. Well that is just yesterday’s news too and now they would rather talk about Biden’s fist bump.

The world sees the mess that we have become. They see the growing White Supremacy problem. They see the problem that we are having with our mass shooting. They don’t understand the gun culture that is here in America, hell I don’t even understand the gun culture here in America. I am 68 years old and our streets are less safe than in any time of my life. Human life has less meaning than any time in my lifetime and I see our freedoms diminishing. The world sees that we are closer to the Taliban than we are a real free nation as our religion dominates our government. They see that we suppress education, we suppress gays, we suppress women, and we suppress voting. These are not things that a really free nation does but these things are being done here. I have written that freedom is just a hollow word with no meaning as long as women and minorities are being suppressed. Suppression and oppression are not part of a free nation so maybe we have to stop calling ourselves the home of the free and the brave. We are making our national anthem one big lie and we all may have to take a knee.

It starts with education. I believe that studying History we learn as much if not more about what our morals as a nation should be. You stop educating people about slavery and racism they never learn the evils of slavery and racism. Wanting to start teaching both sides on the Holocaust is just mind boggling. Like there is another side that justifies the killing of 6 million Jews and minorities. You stop teaching civics and they never learn what our Constitution actually says. A great example of that is the insurrectionists on Jan. 6^th claimed they were fighting for our Constitution even though I know what they were doing was not in the Constitution. If anything, the insurrectionists where trying to destroy our Constitution. Keeping the public uneducated makes it easier to lie and manipulate them. I don’t know about you but I would rather not be manipulated.

 

 

The war on Iraq has made moral cowards of us all | Scott Ritter | The Guardian