The King and Queen of America

Here's a sad truth that we on the Left have been sitting with for a long time: The Republican party has been trying to kill this country for decades.

And here's another sad truth -- one that has made the Left pariahs in the media: There is nothing secret about the Republican party's efforts to kill this country.  They have been operating right out in the open and leaning on their enablers and fellow travelers in the media to pretending it wasn't happening, or that however lawless and barbaric the Right became, the Left was somehow probably just as bad.  Maybe even worse!

And under this canopy provided by their enablers and fellow travelers in the media, Republicans have come close to wrecking the place many times, but in 2016 they finally succeeded. Now we are fully in the shadow of a once-in-a-century crisis. A crisis that forces us to look at our neighbors in new and terrible ways.

It is no longer a matter of repairing the country.  The country cannot be repaired.  We can no longer pretend that we can once again become a United States if we just find a Mighty Uniter who will say and do just the right things i just the right way.  Modern history has shown that when Democrats elect uniters, Republicans become exponentially more deranged. 

No, the question before us is who will get to rebuild a New America on the ruins of the Old America -- which, when you think about it, is the story of America.

Will the New America be shaped those of us who want our nation to look a lot like the old America, but with a greater explicit commitment to fairness, justice, shared prosperity and responsible stewardship of out planet?  Or will it be some grotesque parody of America?  Fascism, wrapped in a flag and carrying a Bible?

To quote the late, great Steve Gilliard from 17 years ago..

...
It's time to regain the spirit of FDR and Truman and the people around them. People who believed in the public good over private gain. It is time to stop apologizing for being a liberal and be proud to fight for your beliefs. No more shying away or being defined by other people. Liberals believe in a strong defense and punishment for crime. But not preemption and pointless jail sentences. We believe no American should be turned away from a hospital because they are too poor or lack a proper legal defense. We believe that people should make enough from one job to live on, to spend time on raising their family. We believe that individuals and not the state should dictate who gets married and why. The best way to defend marriage is to expand, not restrict it.

It was the liberals who opposed the Nazis while the conservatives were plotting to get their brown shirts or fund Hitler. It was the liberals who warned about Spain and fought there, who joined the RAF to fight the Germans, who brought democracy to Germany and Japan. Let us not forget it was the conservatives who opposed defending America until the Germans sank our ships. They would have done nothing as Britain came under Nazi control. It was they who supported Joe McCarthy and his baseless, drink fueled claims.

Without liberals, there would be no modern America, just a Nazi satellite state. Liberals weak on defense? Liberals created America's defense. The conservatives only need vets at election time.

It is time to stop looking for an accommodation with the right. They want none for us. They want to win, at any price. So, you have a choice: be a fighting liberal or sit quietly. I know what I am, what are you?

The terrible blessing of Donald Trump is that he has stripped away all pretense about the Right bing anything other than a mob of bigots, imbeciles, con men and and lunatics, and exposed the Both Siderist as the hollow frauds we on the Left have always known them to be.

You can stand with Trump and the Republicans and the monstrous, dystonia future they offer, or you can stand against them.

There is no Third Way.

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