“If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.”
~ Catherine Aird
When Trump took office, we got a simple warning from the multinational non-profit that keeps its eye firmly on the future of humanity and life, Greenpeace, that was as such, “Resist”.
The organization and Liberals (and I’m not talking centrists) immediately recognized the warning signs of a would-be dictator. It is at this moment, with that recognition, that the Bald Eagle of democracy began to awaken, and lazily turn its morning-dreary eyes to its own nest for the first time in a long time.
The news loves the spark and flare of the Trumpists. “If it bleeds, it leads.” is the saying. However, democracy, true democracy, is attentive and learning, it does not forgive dictators and powermongers, and it does not forgive forces that oppress the people. It is steady and powerful, and even if individuals forget, the whole that is created from democracy does not forget, and reminds the individuals. It’s less like a tornado of MAGA activity that rips through and destroys houses, but the slow but exponential building of community that made more houses than even a tornado can rip through. It is a slow rising giant that the likes of tin pot dictators like Trump and Putin can take pot shots at, but ultimately will fail against.
And that is what makes America great, our democracy, our people that override the tyrants and dictators. That the voice of the many drowning out the voice of the greedy.
And, for a long time, the long eye of the eagle has been turned outward, wary against tyrants, and unseating despots (granted, with sometimes questionable results, but overall the trend has been good, when you look at the overall steadily increasing rate of self-governance and reduction of war that’s been happening for the past couple centuries now).
Sadly, like a good gardener who keeps getting called on to help their friends’ gardens and eventually becomes so involved that she neglects her own, we’ve been blind to the struggles democracy has faced at home.
Thanks to Trump, this is no longer the case. This creature in a human’s guise (side note: the word ‘human’ is actually derived from the word ‘humane’. Those who named what we are realized that the thing that really set humans apart is our humane treatment of eachother. As such, those who don’t treat others humanely… well, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.) Anyway, this creature in a human’s guise began calling out racists and nazis for support. He called for riots and violence. He banned gay and trans people in the service. He shunned due process and tried to be heavy handed to everything he came across. He shunned democratic leaders and flirted with dictators, asking them for advice on how to do the same here. The moment he started to get any backlash, he’d tell people, “It’s just a joke” while tweeting to his supporters that it wasn’t a joke. He imprisoned immigrant children in concentration camps. He encouraged violence against blacks. He didn’t even earn the office, he played a numbers game and lost the popular election with an electoral college that has been skewed by the un-democratic apportionment act of 1929 that reduced the size of the House of Representatives far below what it would be, far decreasing the representation per-person the U.S. should have in congress and the electoral college. He used war and military defense (read: American lives) as bargaining chips, he turned a blind eye when his boyfriend put bounties on the heads of our family and friends in the military.
And we saw it.
We saw the writhing greedy spray-oranged worm digging up every piece of shame we had buried and bring it into the light of day. Any decent person would be disgusted by what he showed us.
And we were.
We built a resistance movement, the likes of which has not been seen in nearly a century. Even with his supporters turning out in record numbers, the true majority took action. We could not, and would not, let this stand. We voted in even more record numbers than the traitors who would attack our capitol. We donated more than the terrorists who kissed up to big oil. For every tweet that praised the would-be tyrant, there were a hundred news articles, a thousand mediums posts, and a million Facebook & Reddit posts that emphasized how this is not okay. We took action.
Sure, it wasn’t the insane capital-storming action of lunatics, it was the quiet and plodding action of people who know how things get done.
Sometimes, to clean up a filthy house, it takes a sewage break to really get our attention turned to it. And that it did, and that we did.
The eagle is now awake, but the task has only started. It’s time to get to work, and restore democracy in the U.S., and then build it into something even better. Because what made America great, what has always made it great, is the people, and our willingness to keep pushing for a brighter future, something we have finally re-awoken to, even it it took a sewage pipe breaking and spewing vitrol everywhere to do it.
It’s only just over a week till we’re rid of the angry cheeto, but we now know what we have to do. We are aware, and it’s time to roll up our sleeves.
