The bowels of the Conservative Right are rumbling. In Florida alone, School and Hospital Boards are being taken over by those wanting their freedom yet denying it to others. The books to be read in schools and libraries and medical care to be provided are all at stake. A Hospital CEO is fired because he imposed a mask mandate during COVID. The mother and family of a transgender child must move out of Texas to Maryland to seek her child’s medical care. Teachers and Nurses who are “woke” or awake to racial injustice are leaving the deep Red States. States are being defined as red and blue while purple fades away. The revolution has begun and there are many on the move for distinct reasons. Americans are voting with their feet.
The almost always forgotten threat of deadly climate change is taking a back seat to divisive political issues. Those living on the coast or by riverfronts worry about future flooding. Those living further west battle tornadoes, drought, and wildfires. As past storm damage remains and many struggle to rebuild their homes and mend their lives, most Americans hope that climate change will not affect them in their lifetime.
This week, we saw a Senate battle waged by a phony candidate in Georgia versus a man of character and experience. This staged and calculated black-on-black competition was a disgrace and was merely a scheme created to blur the decisions for voters. This kind of theatrics has no place in honest politics. Beyond it all, the capable Rev. Raphael Warnock was able to make it through the haze of political theater and was the victor in this race.
As life goes on for Americans, a lengthy line of hopeful politicians begins to form for the 2024 GOP presidential contest. We see an X-President, a current Governor, an X-VP, a White Supremacist, and an Anti-Semite sharpening their skates for the big race. Yes, like ice skating, this is a slippery field for those candidates. If you add moderate Larry Hogan, Governor of Maryland, to the list, you might finally have a candidate with some moral character and ethical sensibility.
From where we sit, 2024 seems so far away but politics has its own clock. In choosing our next leaders, we must not pick from the bottom of the barrel or from the low-hanging fruit. Now is the time to look upward for our candidates so we can look up to them when they win as we make every vote a vote for Democracy.
“If you treat others as you would want to be treated – if you do what you love and say what you mean – you will create the revolution you want to see.”
–Gloria Steinem
