We accidently turned on the wrong channel the other night and the Ohio rally came on. We watched for about two minutes as the ex-President spewed hate and lies while directing his followers in a Nazi like raised arms, one-finger salute. A narcissist who is so full of rage and, yes, fear. The basic fear of a narcissist is that of being found inferior. What we watched for those two minutes was pure fear of being found a failure. The ex’s rhetoric was full of judgement and insanity rolled into a raging ball of emotional fire. It was disgusting as were the people staged behind the monster. Do those people crave a leader like him so badly that they will never realize that the “Orange Jesus” is really the devil in a blue suit? Maybe not. We changed the channel and we were delighted that we could turn him off with a press of a button.
The reality is that things are not as easy as changing a channel on a remote. What we see today comes straight from the manual of mental disorders. What we see is that many who identify with the far right are cruel and wear this as a badge of honor. Those who call them Reptilians are not far off for many are cold and slimy and attack in a flash. They kick, they scream, and, using 1960’s tactics, they plan to take everything from progressive thinkers – hospitals, schools, books, choices for our bodies, judges, our marriages, and our votes. They will exploit migrants, force women to have births against their will, and try to force us all to live their freedoms. This is their new republic. But it is not that of Democracy!
As we watched Her Majesty the Queen’s funeral, we could see what a constitutional monarchy looks like. The monarch exercises their authority but is not alone in decision making. This is vastly different from what the far right is propagating. Their fascist flavored government is one of one party and one leader, aka China, Russia, and the like.
Florida is now the birthplace of domestic human trafficking where you can lie to people, load them on a plane, cross state lines, and fly them to a “blue” State. Thank goodness for the goodness of Massachusetts. The saying now is “In a world full of Florida, be Massachusetts.” So true! Never have the States been so far apart.
Yes, these Republican acts are cruel and show no rules of governance. One day, this may come back to bite them. But, in the meantime, we must somehow engage them. In your city or small town, there may be groups forming to help unite us not divide us. There are conversations taking place that focus on curiosity and perspective, instead of judgement, and through conversations focus on solutions. Engaging with others in these dialogues is an opportunity to share the facts. We may want to ask those who have a problem with immigrants where their ancestors originated from. If they are not Indigenous, they immigrated from somewhere. These early immigrants arrived looking for freedom, jobs, and to make a new life. Many did not speak English at the time. This is not any different from today’s migrants.
We may discover as we come together in conversation that the willingness to listen can be immensely powerful. This may also come in handy if you work the voting polls or engage in day-to-day discussions with those at opposite polls of thinking.
This is not easy work. We are not a country that is united or positive right now. But, we must determine what we want to be as a nation. Our only hope is that the answer is not something so different that we all cannot agree on the answer. We can win if we come together for Democracy. For… “In Good We Trust”.
When we change the way we look at things, this changes things.
