Let's Talk Honestly About the Fear We Are Facing in This Election

In the morning, I will get up, feed the dog, take her for her walk while the coffee is brewing, and then, if its not too cold, I'll sit out on my balcony and drink my coffee and read the news.  I used to love thumbing through a print copy of the Chicago Tribune, and could get through the news and sports section before I had to leave for work.  Now, the print copy only takes about 15 minutes to look through and read, so the rest of the time I read some other news sources on the internet.  

I'll make the 30 minute, six mile drive to work, listening to Richard Chew, on the morning talk show on WCPT, the progressive radio station in Chicago.  All the time that I'm driving, I'm passing people in the traffic, walking along the sidewalk, riding buses.  I'll be nervous, increasingly nervous, about the upcoming election and all of the implications related to the fact that in this government of, by and for the people, we have allowed a demagogue who showed nothing but contempt for the country and its constitution by trashing it when he incited an insurrection against the Capitol for the purpose of disrupting the peaceful transfer of power, to run for the office again.  

He should be in prison, and would have been if we had cared enough to make sure the justice department prosecuted him in a timely manner.  They didn't we didn't and here we are.  

But, I'll be aware of the fact that half of the people driving by, walking by or riding by do not have a clue about what is going on, aren't paying any attention, and while many of them are of Latino and Puerto Rican descent, have no idea at all that Trump insulted their ethnicity by inviting a surrogate to speak, making vulgar, racist jokes about them at Trump's rally in Madison Square Garden in New York this afternoon.  Insult is really not strong enough of a word.  This guy called them trash and labelled them subhuman.  At Trump's rally.  His name was on it. 

Yet half of the people all around, in their cars or houses, already at work, or on the bus or train on the way, are not even registered to vote, and will not take the time or have the inclination to do so.  They know little about politics, democracy or what it means to them, and they don't really care.  So while I am wondering if I am living in the last months of the freedom I have really taken for granted all of my life, and have supported by being a registered voter, contributor, volunteer and writer, and worried about what it might look like come January 20th, half of the people I encounter have absolutely no idea of what is going on, and they really don't care.  

Not only that, but even among those who do know what's transpiring, who are registered to vote and planning to do so, the level of information about the real issues, the character of the politicians and what is at stake is very low.  Add to that the fact that relatively few people are really concerned, or care, about how many women have accused Trump of sexual assault, now up to 39 by the way, or who his dictator friends are, or his morality or his dementia, which is getting increasingly worse, or his fascist politics, and it's clear that preserving democracy in America is taken for granted.  

I usually go to church on Sunday, but this morning, I just didn't feel like worshipping in a room where half the people are too apathetic to even be thinking about where the country is headed, and don't want to make the effort to bother with it by voting, and where another fourth have been deceived into believing that this man is somehow anointed and chosen by God to be president and believe that God's will was overturned by a stolen election in 2020.  Personally, I see nothing in the vulgar, potty-mouthed, lying, immorality and open denial of any need for confession of sin by Trump that warrants the support of Christians and supports the belief that he is somehow anointed by God.  He doesn't meet the first qualification for such an anointing, God doesn't anoint such unrepentant immorality, at least, not if we trust what the Bible has to say about it.  He's just using their ignorance for his own benefit.  

We're losing our free press to the billionaire corporate culture that buys whatever it needs to preserve its own interests.  When two major daily newspapers shut their editorial staff off from making an endorsement based on their conscience, because that endorsement bothers the owner, then the model of ownership of the newspaper, as a business, is wrong for democracy.  One of those papers, the Washington Post, has, as its motto, "Democracy dies in darkness."  But the owner of the paper is the one who is turning out the lights.  

We may have, after 235 years of constitutional democracy, come to the end of a government of, by and for the people.   Intolerance, bigotry and hatred are running rampant.  When what's billed as a political rally starts off with a disgusting, sickening, vulgar, hate filled spew that people let pass as "comedy," if that's not a wake up call, then it is a death knell.  The problem is that 250 million Americans will never hear or be aware of that whole disgusting scene in MSG Sunday afternoon.  

And that's why we're in trouble.  If we do wind up saving the country for four more years, by electing Kamala Harris and a Democratic Congress on Tuesday, reform must be the first item on the agenda.  It starts with doing whatever it takes to re-educate a nation that is basically ignorant and uninformed about its democratic government, and which takes it completely for granted.  

I hope we have that opportunity.