Thread by @jeffblack945

#RevThread #121
Off the Sidelines

1/ Yes, it’s scary to watch. That screaming, laughing, violent, all white crowd at Trump’s racist rally in El Paso -- adoring this lying gangster; enjoying his rants about non-white terrible criminal invaders; beating up journalists;...

2/..still chanting “Lock Her Up.” Their leader is a fascist, and they are doing fascism. Because they are racist.

3/ I realize again that the only thing exceptional about these Americans is the intensity of their delusion that they are the true American patriots. They are not...

4/..They are surrendering their will and their heritage as free people to a gangster demagogue whose every move assures them that they and he are superior to lesser-born subhumans.

5/ Joshua (the namesake of Jesus, BTW) says to the recently liberated slaves, “I set before you this day life and death; therefore choose life.”

6/ I ask of my fellow citizens, “Why do you choose death? Why do you insist so passionately on remaining racists? How can you be foolish enough to think this gangster actually loves you?”

7/ The second of the ten commandments is this: “You shall not commit idolatry.” Trumpsters in their MAGA hats speak of how this gangster is protecting them, watching over them. I heard them saying it. He is to them a god, a god of their own desire, a god they have made up. NO.

8/ Meantime, also in El Paso, just next door, a man with no office, a man who attempts to include everyone in his vision, has a larger crowd and speaks of our history of justice...

9/.. and of law and of discovering the dignity of all people and of giving shelter to those who flee to us for a chance at a better life. This man rings out the actual values of our Declaration.

10/ TV, of course, only covers the gangster because he is so endlessly fascinating -- the naughty man who defies all morality and gets richer and whiter as he gets older and dumber. It’s the gangster who transfixes us.

11/ Do not be fooled. Do not fall for the “both sides” crappola. A showdown is coming.

12/ Meanwhile, barely noticed, a woman stands in the storm of Minnesota, the snow making her hair whiter by the minute, announcing her intention to replace the gangster. Is this her time? Could be.

13/ The people will choose next year someone to be the rival of the gangster for leadership of our now chastened country.

14/ I’m no Joshua. But his question now comes before us. Shall we choose life in a Democracy or the spiritual death of Trump’s cartoonish fascism?

15/ It’s not enough to hope for Robert Mueller to deliver us. It’s not enough to stay on the sidelines criticizing. It’s hubris to think that Trump cannot win in 2020, the same hubris I felt in 2016.

16/ What Trump is doing now is preparing that victory. His preparation is easy: he watches TV all the time to gauge where we are. He does rallies and shrewdly notices which of his lies produces the most smiles and nods. You think he’s not good at that?

17/ There’s never been a mobster half as good at crowd manipulation.

18/ Trump considers all the accusations facing himself and says the other side is guilty of what he has done. He has mastered the art of brazenly projecting his sins on to others....

19/.. He is deliberate about doing this. It’s propaganda. So is his appropriation of others’ material, such as HRC’s “Stronger together” and Sherrod Brown’s “Dignity of work.”

20/ I listened to Trump’ recitation of “statistics” about the carnage being visited on us by the caravans of brown criminals -- this many thousand murders, this many thousand rapes, etc...

21/..There was some genuine hatred rising in his voice, some Hitlerian skill at scapegoating in what may have been a spontaneous lick. If he was indeed making this up on the spot, he’s getting more and more skilled, more abandoned, more compelling.

22/ We’re confronting an ancient human evil. Those who have already fallen under Trump’s spell need mercy beyond my poor powers to provide. But they must not have the power to finish off our democracy, which is what would happen were this ogre to be re-elected.

23/ I write in Mid February. Who am I for in the primaries? I don’t know yet, but there are plenty of honorable democrats running, and I will vote in the primaries for the one I think best understands the peril of this hour.

24/ We have been invaded by Russian pysch-ops that have lifted this tool of theirs to the White House. Who seems most capable of contending against that evil?

25/ Now is also the time to think about the fall of 2020, especially September through October. Here are some things I’m doing now about that: clearing my calendar, pondering how to help turn out the greatest vote total ever...

26/...As for me, I plan on walking neighborhoods and knocking on doors, and writing editorials. How about you? What plans are you making? Suggestions? It’s time to get off the sidelines.