The Year of Our Disbelief
2024 will make it near impossible to believe the USA is the same nation it was when I was born. I'm a War Baby, born just after the Nazis surrendered and before the Japanese did. I grew up in a post-war era where real patriotism was pervasive and those who had held fascist beliefs retreated into the shadows. Fascists were the enemy, our fathers, mothers and grandparents defeated them soundly.
If you haven't heard Rachel Maddow's podcast Ultra or read her subsequent book Prequel I highly recommend you do. Both are an eye-opening study in just how far fascism grew here in the States prior to World War II and a.....well, prequel to what is happening as we speak. Once again, fascism is on the rise. It is rampant in the Republican Party. It is spearheaded by a former President (a highly damaged man), something unheard of in all of American history. It is literally a plague upon our nation, one that could put an end to the democratic republic we've nurtured since the nation's founding. Let's be perfectly clear, fascism means to destroy this nation and those who are promoting it presently control one of the main political parties, the so-called Republicans. This is, to me, unbelievable. Even though I witnessed it taking place over the past years, I never thought it would become what it has, a political sickness worse than the Black Death of medieval times.
It falls upon us rational, reality-based citizens to do everything we can to make sure the fascists do not capture the White House this coming November. They absolutely must be defeated and sent back into the shadows from where they came. Let's turn disbelief into belief and bury this plague once again.