Really good piece. I appreciate that.
I tend to simplify how I think of fascism into two concepts. Outward expansion and internal cleansing. Outward expansion such as stacking the justice system with loyalist, wrestling the media under control, and assuming the power of law enforcement for personal use. Obviously Trump has been working towards those aims every day. War is an inevitability especially if that expansion within the country is successful. We already have a trade war under way.
We have a disturbing amount of the population whom think taking people's children away forever and locking them up in detention facilities because their parents crossed the border without documentation, is a fitting punishment. Destroying families and children's lives for a misdemeanor requires people to view immigrants as not human. The will to betray humanity is strong in this country. We're in a bad place.
As far as the poem, I do feel Democrats are culpable for our lack of will to be hold Republicans accountable. For instance in the Beto O'Rouke and Ted Cruz debate Beto brought up the things Trump said about Cruz, his wife and dad, and now Cruz supports Trump. Cruz turned it around and said he he put hurt feelings aside because he has a job to do for the people of Texas. The conversation ended with Cruz putting a positive spin on it.
Democrats traditionally let such issues go. Maybe they bring it up later with the same results. As a party we are reluctant to get in the mud. But the conversation shouldn't change. Their should be commercials and billboards everywhere that say "If Ted won't stand up for his own wife or dad what makes you think he will stand up for you." Its not about mud slinging. It's about holding him accountable to his lack of integrity and not allowing him to simply lie his way out of it. Their would be push back, probably vicious push back, but it's naive to expect that holding people accountable doesn't come with push back. Conversations about dignity and integrity need to be kept in the forefront because, as a country, we are failing on a human level.
AI
