Fidelis To Justice Profile picture
Jun 11 9 tweets 4 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
1/ Reconciliation and a just lasting peace, whether between nations or a divided country, requires both grace and toughness. Perhaps no leader understood this better than Abraham Lincoln. In 1865, Lincoln ended his 2nd inaugural with famous words (Cont)
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#ONEV1
2/ words:
that included, "With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up all the nation's wounds ..."

Lincoln was also tough and ready to hold traitors (Cont) Image
3/ accountable. But he also knew that unless our wounds were bound, both black and white would be worse off. Blacks, of course, would be victims of white supremacist violence and institutional racism. And many whites would suffer as the wealthy exploited racism as a means (Cont) Image
4/ of waging class warfare against them. Alas Lincoln was assassinated, and his vision of Reconstruction was screwed up by his awful successor, Andrew Johnson. An inspiring example of grace and toughness is, of course, South Africa's Nelson Mandela, who made peace with his (Cont)
5/ jailers to secure majority black rule. Today, Joe Biden is valiantly working to thread the needle between grace and toughness to heal and save America. It's a thankless job much of the time. Millions of MAGA cultists are beyond redemption, and many like me are often too (Cont) Image
6/ angry or afraid to make any effort at identifying and engaging those who might be persuadable. Hence, we often lose patience with Biden when he tries to find common ground. But he's right to try. That does NOT mean he should EVER consider pardoning Trump and his (Cont) Image
7/ minions. To do so would not be grace. It would be weakness. We, however, should understand that this can't all be on Biden's shoulders. Each of us has a role to play in healing and saving our country. That means engaging and persuading family, friends, and (Cont) Image
8/ neighbors that have gone to the dark side. It's a tall order, I know. It requires courage, grace, and toughness. It's risky. And these efforts will often fail. But many can also succeed. It's the patriotic thing to do. And it's the only way our divided house can endure (Cont) Image
8/ and continue on its journey to becoming a more perfect union.

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More from @FidelisToJusti1

Jun 10
1/This George Orwell quote from 1984 defines the GOP:

"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or happiness: only power, pure power. (Cont)
#ResistanceUnited
#ONEV1
2/We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it."

Orwell's quote is the GOP's true mission. Only difference between Republicans and Orwell's 1984 party is that they're also devoted to redistributing wealth from wage earners to their elites. (Cont) Image
3/And if Republicans prevail in 2024, they WILL NOT relinquish power in most of our lifetimes. Given that reality, merely voting yourself is NOT GOOD ENOUGH. We must all become force multipliers for democracy. Engage, persuade, and mobilize as many friends, family, and (Cont) Image
Read 5 tweets
Jun 9
1/ Fellow resisters, up to January 20, 2025, events are going to test us. Let's stay calm, always act with courageous integrity, and remain persistently vigilant. We should not overreact with irrational exuberance to good news until our democracy (Cont)
#ResistanceRoots
#ONEV1 Image
2/ is secured. Likewise, we should not reflexively assume the worst with every setback. Jack Smith's case from what we know is strong. And judge Aileen Cannon being assigned to it might actually work to our country's advantage. It's not so easy to "fix" a strong case like (Cont) Image
3/ Smith has with the whole world watching. Meanwhile, Trump/Putin Republicans won't be able to whine about the DC venue or an Obama appointed judge. Either way, we must NOT sit back and wait for multiple prosecutions to save us. Rather, we must continue to resist GOP (Cont) Image
Read 8 tweets
Jun 9
1/ At Thanksgiving in 2019, I warned my cousin that if defeated, Trump and his supporters would react as Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party did to his capture and trial in 2003. Just as there was no way Hussein and his core Sunni supporters would (Cont)
#ResistanceRoots
#ONEV1
2/ ever let its majority Shia population peacefully move on without him, Trump and his MAGA cultists would be ready to wage civil war. And we damn near had one. Trump's assclowns nearly pulled it off. Suppose Trump had succeeded on January 6th? Could you have just (Cont) Image
3/ accepted his coup and moved o with your life as if nothing had happened? Contrary to our pacifist image, millions of America's silent majority would've risen up against Trump's GOP MAGA Baathists and their AR-15s. Trump and his armed cultists would've, in turn, pursued (Cont) Image
Read 4 tweets
Jun 8
1/ Starting with FDR, we liberals became too icon dependent. Unless a political personality such as JFK or Obama inspired us, we, too often, disengaged. In 2020, we we rallied to defeat evil. But otherwise worthy and capable public servants such as (Cont)
#ResistanceRoots
#ONEV1
2/ Al Gore, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton did not benefit from the passionate activism they deserved. Meanwhile, Republicans didn't necessarily need to be inspired by an iconic figure such as Ronald Reagan to engage. As the cliche went, "Democrats fall in love and (Cont)
3/ Republicans fall in line." Yes, Gore and Clinton won the popular vote and were screwed by the electoral college. And yes, their media coverage was absurdly unfair. But the carping about their perceived imperfections by Democrats made the elections close enough for (Cont)
Read 9 tweets
Jun 4
1/ There is an entrenched history of false moral equivalences and gaslighting liberals in our politics. George McGovern is an instructive example. This dude flew 35 missions as a B-24 pilot in WWII and was married to one woman for 64 years. But... (Cont)
#ResistanceRoots
#ONEV1
2/ he also dared to promote peace and confront economic and social injustice. To be sure, McGovern was a flawed politician. Yet this patriot and family man from South Dakota was portrayed as a symbol of unpatriotic decadence. Indeed, Newt Gingrich often attacked Democrats (Cont)
3/ as "decadent George McGovern liberalals" to lead his far right political insurgency. Gingrich was a draft dodger who had cheated on his terminally ill first wife. We have seen this sort of gaslighting over and over again. George W Bush, a toxic mediocore man of little (Cont)
Read 9 tweets
Jun 3
1/ Life and career of longtime GOP Senate leader and 1996 POTUS nominee Bob Dole is instructive on the GOP's descent from respectability to depravity. Dole was someone I never liked but had at one time respected and even (Cont)
#ResistanceRoots
#ONEV1
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dole
2/ admired. Dole grew up in rural Kansas during the Depression. He enlisted in the army in 1942 and was wounded on the battlefield in Italy in 1945. As a result, he had limited mobility in his right arm and numbness in his left. Simply put, there's no denying Dole's valor. (Cont) Image
3/ And Dole overcame his injuries to lead an important and distinctive life. He joked that when he decided to run for office in 1950 for the KS House, he did so as a Republican because there were more of them in his district. Dole was elected to the U.S. House in 1960 and (Cont)
Read 9 tweets

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