Eternal Vigilance

As things to continue to spiral out of control with intolerance and fear given free reign by those in power, it's easy to become exhausted and give up hope. God knows there are times I want to puke after listening to the television talking heads microscopically examine the latest political atrocity. And I'm not just talking about the damn right-wing nutcases that daily edge closer to deifying the Orange Bastard.

I've heard a good many Liberal pundits paint a far too rosy picture of the future after he 2018 midterms. As far as they are concerned, after the November election a Democratic-controlled Congress will impeach the monster occupying the White House and restore decency to the government. A really nice idea but when you examine it further and realize that Pence would take over he gives every appearance of being a total nutcase in his own right. For now I'll ignore the possible fact that Pence is as corrupt as his boss because impeaching Trump alone will be a really difficult task even if the Russia Investigation has clear cut, blindingly obvious evidence of traitorous behavior.

Liberals have essentially walked down this deluded primrose path before during the early Obama years. It might be hard for some to remember but after eight years of Bush/Cheney many on my side of the political spectrum thought President Obama would usher in a new Golden Age. Obama was going to fix the economy, cure all social injustices, and reverse global warming all before the midterms. Not six months into his administration, Liberal whining had already started with various factions bemoaning the fact that their special interest had not been addressed. Sorry folks, societal and government problems are not tasks with easy solutions. To think they are suggests a lack of understanding that rivals the delusions of the right-wing Marching Morons. 

This is on top of the proto-fascist "Tea Party" types claiming President Obama was everything from a secret fundamentalist Muslim, radical atheist Marxist, space alien, and even the Antichrist. On a side note, Tea Party types also raised hell about the federal budget deficit that Obama mostly inherited from Bush/Cheney. Funny how with Trump now pushing it back over a trillion a year with his massive corporate tax cut they appear to have gone extinct.

So what happened when the 2010 midterms came up? Liberals largely stayed home allowing the Republicans to take control of Congress. Yes, there was some progress during Obama's years but as we now have seen it is being undone because once again Democrats/Liberals/progressives decided 2016 was a great time for a bullshit civil war about political purity.

Maintaining a healthy democracy is not a winnable war. It is a constant battle with the forces of both those who long for some simpler time when they were in charge and the elements on our own side who are self-destructive. I guess the Republicans have a reversed situation in that back when their party was sane they had to prevent government from going too far and delving into matters best left to the individual, local, or state governments. I would add that they also had to fight against the insane wing of their party that are attracted to authoritarianism, but they clearly lost that war.

So it goes without saying that we're all in some pretty deep shit. We've let a dark chaos take control of the country and unless we elect a Democratic congress next month the following two years will make the nightmare we've lived since 2017 pale in comparison. But that is only the beginning, every rational person has to continue to vote in every election no matter how trivial it might seem. There is no victory that can be achieved, keeping the American experiment alive is a battle that will never end.

 “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few. The manna of popular liberty must be gathered each day or it is rotten. The living sap of today outgrows the dead rind of yesterday. The hand entrusted with power becomes, either from human depravity or esprit de corps, the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continued oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot; only by unintermitted agitation can a people be sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity.” 

Wendell Phillips - 1811 to 1884