Is This Really Who We Are? Or Who We Want to Be?

If there were any lingering doubts about the current U.S. regime’s desire to turn America into an authoritarian dictatorship, they’ve been all but erased over the last couple of weeks. It’s so blatantly obvious now that the regime itself doesn’t even bother hiding its intentions anymore.

The president has openly stated his desire to monitor and punish anyone who opposes him, without regard for the rule of law or any of the freedoms cited in the Bill of Rights. All of his minions back him up, from his staff to many of his fellow Republicans in Congress and elsewhere.

This is straight out of the fascist handbook — Page One, first paragraph. Punish your enemies. Stamp out dissent.

Here’s an example:

The president and one of his high-ranking officials recently called in U.S. military leaders from around the world to discuss the regime’s plans to post troops in U.S. cities and fight the “enemy within.” This is without precedent, goes against military protocol, and tramples all over America’s laws, constitutional protections, and tradition of defending the citizenry rather than assaulting it. The military leaders sat there in stony silence, probably wondering why they were now taking orders from a couple of dipshits.

Presumably, the “enemy within” are all those folks who didn’t vote for the president and/or don’t support his policies. Funny thing about that, though. More than half of the voting population voted against the president in last year’s election. That was also the case in 2020 and 2016. He has never won a majority of votes, or even come close.

More than half of Americans (56%) currently disapprove of the president and his policies, according to one survey. Nearly all surveys show that most Americans disapprove of him. He’s one of the least popular presidents of all time.

So essentially, his regime wants to monitor and punish more than half of the U.S. population. Think about that for a while….

And while you’re at it, think about these choice words from a bald, dorky little Nazi douchebag who serves as one of the president’s closest advisors:

“There is a large and growing movement of leftwing terrorism in this country. It is well organized and funded. And it is shielded by far-left Democrat judges, prosecutors and attorneys general. The only remedy is to use legitimate state power to dismantle terrorism and terror networks.”

This kind of threat is disturbing in countless ways – not least because the folks who hold “state power” get to define what “far left” means. You have to keep reminding yourself that he represents the same party that used to work itself into a daily meltdown over how the “deep state” wants to take away our freedoms and liberties. Now the Republican-dominated “state power” gets to run roughshod over the very freedoms and liberties the very same party once pretended to hold dear.

You also have to remind yourself that the biggest acts of domestic terrorism over the last 30 years were committed by the far-right – not the far-left (Oklahoma City bombing, Charleston church shooting, Jan. 6 riots, etc.).

Meanwhile, armed federal agents recently raided an apartment building in a predominately black neighborhood in Chicago in the middle of the night and proceeded to break into homes without warrants or due cause. Here’s an account of what happened:

“[The agents] forcibly removed residents, including children, from their homes, zip-tied their hands, and interrogated them without access to legal counsel…. Officers used flashbang grenades, broke down doors, and entered apartment in the building. Federal officers ignored requests for warrants or to contact lawyers, damaged private property and left parts of the building in disrepair. “

The government couched this as a raid against illegal immigrants, but of course that’s bullshit. Plenty of native-born U.S. citizens were also violated in that raid – including kids who will have to live with this trauma for the rest of their lives. It was just an excuse for the regime to flex its muscles and punish cities and states controlled by the opposition party.

This isn’t how a free and rational democracy operates. It’s how a third-rate banana republic operates. And yet, and yet….

A lot of Americans just keep watching it happen, in silence, without lifting an eyebrow.

*****

This blog is not about the president, or his thugs, or their warped agenda. They’re doing exactly what many of us knew they’d be doing if they ever got the keys to power.

I have blogged about this before, and probably will again. In many of those blogs I have insisted that the president and his regime will fail in their quest to destroy our democracy. I still believe they will fail – but only because the president is old, lazy, weak, demented, and in poor health, and has surrounded himself with idiots.

Decades of unhealthy living will seal the president’s fate soon enough. His arteries are hardening by the minute thanks to those thousands of Big Macs and Coca-Colas he has consumed over the years. When his aging mind and body finally render him unfit to serve, his greedy and moronic underlings will cannibalize each other trying to fill the power vacuum.

This will give the opposition Democrat party a chance to step in and grab the reins again – unless they figure out a way to fuck it up, which they have a habit of doing.

But no matter what happens, the underlying problem will still be here:  A whole shitload of Americans continue to sit silent while the regime tramples all over the rights and freedoms of their fellow citizens.

Which leads me to wonder: Is this what we are? Is this who we are? Are the things we are seeing now just part of the fabric of America, right up there with football and road trips and backyard barbecues?

*****

I have mixed feelings about what’s happening in America right now. On the one hand, I’m angered by it in ways that I cannot adequately describe.

But there’s also a part of me that thinks this needs to happen – that the United States was long overdue for a reckoning, a test of its moral character. Only when the shit hits the fan will we finally discover who we really are. Maybe we need that test.

Let’s not kid ourselves here – the United States has a long history of oppression. It oppressed Africans who were stolen from their homelands and brought over here as slaves. It oppressed Native Americans who lived as free people for thousands of years before Europeans came along and swiped their land and resettled them and killed them by the tens of millions.

The United States has oppressed women and Jews, Muslims and Hindus, Latinos and Asians, poor people and the working class — just about every marginalized sector of society, for hundreds of years, since its inception.

But….

Part of the country always made some kind of effort to right these wrongs. This part passed laws to protect the most vulnerable. They tried to level the playing field. They provided quality education free of charge, and passed laws to lift up minorities and the working class, and welcomed immigrants with open arms. They embraced the world. And much of the world embraced us back.

Now I wonder whether we’ll ever be that nation again. So does much of the rest of the world, including our oldest friends.

I’m not sure I even want to venture a guess. Because deep down, I think I know the answer. And it’s not happy, not at all.

Image: Social unrest, courtesy of Google.