COVID-19 has killed over 177,000; this killer pandemic has brought out the very best in many and the very worst in others. Our first responders at all levels are proving their mettle and professionalism at every turn. I will include journalists and postal workers as our First Amendment first responders. Unimpeded voting is a constitutional right; a dedicated First Amendment right for all of us.
For those of you flying the discolored, darkened Tea Party American flags, thank you. You, too, are exercising your First Amendment rights; clearly showing the dark side of Trumpocracy, with his contempt and disrespect for our American values, decency and rule of law. Question: Is this embracing Trump’s authoritarianism and casting a dark shadow on democracy a metaphor for masking the Confederate flag? Supremacist Trump said we would “get tired of winning.” 180,000 dead. Is this just the cost of doing business or winning?
This from Alexander Solzhenitsyn: “In our country the lie has become not just a moral category, but a pillar of the state.” The supremacists’ undermining of our institutions with the Isis-like, QAnon rhetoric, behavior and smirks by Putin, Falwell, Huckabee and other supremacist leaners attempting to resurrect their ‘lost causes’ through insidious fear-mongering and deceit. Consider this: if we lose our First Amendment right of voting unimpeded, your other rights won’t matter much, will they?
All of us are welcome to protest – just do it without tiki torches, swastikas and pointy white hats. Man up – the world has changed. Lost causes are called that for good reason: they don’t work, just like the word ‘hoax.’ For those of you sitting on your over-stuffed pillows of ‘thoughts and prayers,’ Pope Francis commented that “God is good, not a magician.” I believe Pope Francis. Vote!
