01-07-2022, 03:34 AM
Classic X'er, have you listened to the introduction of Kamala Harris and the measured speech of President Biden? He ripped your idol as thoroughly as is possible for the violation of norms essential over 200-some years for American democracy. Elections beyond certifiable doubt are to be accepted, as we Democrats did in 2000 and 2016. We have always had a peaceful transition from one President to the next.
We can accept the results that we dislike not out of hopelessness but instead out of respect for the elections that define who the President is. Our elections are, for most of us, the sole expression that many of us have of democracy. Should the elections become irrelevant because their results are negated or because the elections are denied, then our elections become void and so does democracy.
One year after the Putsch and almost a year into the Biden Presidency, we still hear from some that Donald Trump is still rightly President despite the lack of evidence of any significant miscounting of the vote. We have never had that problem before.
In a despotic kingdom or an outright dictatorship, all might be about the Leader. Such was so with Nero, Ivan the Terrible, Henry VIII, Wilhelm II, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Castro, Mengistu, Idi Amin, Pinochet, Khomeini, or Saddam Hussein. It has never gone well. It would not go well here just because this is America. It would not be the America that you know. Even if the ideology and your beloved White Power are achieved, then you might be at risk if you grumble or slack off.
Donald Trump has done what all dictators have done: he has lied about everything that does not fit his idea of how the world must work. Reality may be inconvenient, but what else do we have?
We can accept the results that we dislike not out of hopelessness but instead out of respect for the elections that define who the President is. Our elections are, for most of us, the sole expression that many of us have of democracy. Should the elections become irrelevant because their results are negated or because the elections are denied, then our elections become void and so does democracy.
One year after the Putsch and almost a year into the Biden Presidency, we still hear from some that Donald Trump is still rightly President despite the lack of evidence of any significant miscounting of the vote. We have never had that problem before.
In a despotic kingdom or an outright dictatorship, all might be about the Leader. Such was so with Nero, Ivan the Terrible, Henry VIII, Wilhelm II, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Castro, Mengistu, Idi Amin, Pinochet, Khomeini, or Saddam Hussein. It has never gone well. It would not go well here just because this is America. It would not be the America that you know. Even if the ideology and your beloved White Power are achieved, then you might be at risk if you grumble or slack off.
Donald Trump has done what all dictators have done: he has lied about everything that does not fit his idea of how the world must work. Reality may be inconvenient, but what else do we have?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.