A decade of depravity by the present White House occupant has ended. Midterm election results restore the hope of the Beatles song, “All you need is love.” I’m in utter disbelief, and so thrilled about the monumental blue tsunami.
What horrendous stress we have endured. Mocking a disabled journalist (I figured that would be the end of him. But no.) Or grabbing women by their genitals (“They let you do it.” Oh really?).
As for policies, the federal budget’s reduced cancer research and elimination of USAID devastated traditional U.S. scientific expertise and global medical assistance. Plus, “a forever war” in Iran that blew up 120 schoolchildren… And so much more.
How much of the American public was twisted by cruelty for an entire decade. That’s what I couldn’t understand.
As a former U.S. History teacher, I’ve often lamented how our society assumes denial — until chaos ultimately reigns. And here we are.
Blindsided by the president’s family corruption, the Epstein Files perversion, and the illegality of masked ICE thugs who snatch American citizens off the streets (or in Minneapolis, murdered two).
Until Nov. 3. Almost unilaterally, enough finally became enough. From sea to shining sea. Most surprisingly in Midwestern states such as Kansas and Iowa, in Texas, and down South in what may turn out to be the first Mississippi Black U.S. Senate win since Reconstruction.
Gerrymandering U.S. Congressional districts didn’t save Republicans in the Midterm elections. Multimillion-dollar donations didn’t save Republicans either. Still, I can’t help thinking, it’s tragic that it took voters a decade to wake up to the near ruination of America, made complicit by mind-boggling Republican impotence.
Let’s decisively veer from the incompetent, narcissistic authoritarianism in the White House, and among his weak acolytes.
We must “liberate [ourselves] over and over and over again,” said historian Timothy Snyder at the Oct. 29 Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis. “Freedom is not natural,” plus “we don’t know who we are without the help of other people, without empathy.”
The Nov. 3 midterm elections showed us the way. All Americans require help with our lives. In the aggregate, we realized that “freedom isn’t just the absence of the bad,” said Snyder. “It’s the presence of the good.”
Changes must come quickly. For all Americans. Consider this one fact: Twenty states still use the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Onward into the twenty-first century!
Power to the people!
