Who Are We?

Democracy On The Ballot

Today is January 6th, the anniversary of the Insurrection, the attack on our Captial. I know you don’t need a reminder of how horrible that was, but watch this.

We can’t look away, we have to face it. I believe we need to make a lot of noise to stop Trump from being elected. We need to talk about it constantly, express our fears, bond over good. The New York Times today reports at the top of the front page that this election is a battle over reality. So many of Trump’s followers (and GOP politicians who are more interested in power than our country) think that nothing really happened on January 6th, 2021. Many deny that Biden was legally elected, they believe that Trump is being persecuted. If you recall, Trump did NOTHING to help stop the attack on Janaury 6th, and in fact instigated it and fanned the flames. Trump’s lies and distortions over the years since the attack are believed by too many people, his manipulations of facts over and over again are straight out of a dictator’s handbook. We can’t just sit here and ignore it.

President Biden gave a powerful speech yesterday, condeming Trump as a threat to democracy. In his speech, which historian Heather Cox Richardson wrote about in her newsletter and I quote below, Biden forcefully and eloquently states that we need to rise to this threat and stand up for what this country represents. Who are we? Don’t we stand against hate and bigotry?

People complain about Biden, his age, his lack of charisma (or whatever); they should understand this is not a normal election year. At this stage of the game, there is no Democrat or third party candidate who can beat Trump. We are past that. We know Biden can beat him. On top of that, Biden is doing so many great things for our country. Could the immigration crisis be dealt with better? yes! But we have a GOP Congress that won’t help, who only act (or don’t act) simply to hurt the current administration. Biden is doing what he can in his role as commander-in-chief with a beyond-divisive Republican party.

On this anniversary of a frightening and hateful attack on the Capitol, I leave you with one more quote from the President:

“We must be clear. Democracy is on the ballot. Your freedom is on the ballot.”

Thanks for being here and for listening to my rant.