Friends of Padre Steve’s World,
Hannah Arendt wrote: “When evil is allowed to compete with good, evil has an emotional populist appeal that wins out unless good men and women stand as a vanguard against abuse.”
She was right. We are seeing a populist appeal that is embracing evil and it is happening before our very eyes.
I cannot shake the deep sense of foreboding I have regarding the country and the world after President Trump’s repeated attacks on NATO, his shredding of the Paris Climate accord, and the threat of war on the Korean Peninsula are enough to concern any right thinking person. Likewise, the swirl of allegations concerning what appears to be treasonous activities by his closest advisers and his apparent attempts to have them covered up by the FBI and various intelligence agencies. There is something very wrong going on and it almost feels that I can see the disaster unfolding before it happens.
If it was Trump alone it would be an anomaly, but most of the Republican Party has decided to support his unconstitutional abuses of power and his base, which is made up mainly of Evangelical or other Conservative Christians have anointed Trump’s Presidency as ordained by God, and opponents as not only opponents of Trump, but also of God. That my friends is as toxic of political combination as is humanly possible.
I am not the only one to notice, leading conservative writers, foreign policy experts, and constitutional scholars have pointed out the same things that I have been saying for over a year. I do try to be positive and to believe that things will work out for the best, but the more I observe the more my confidence in our leaders and for that purpose many of our people to do the right thing is diminished.
That being said I do not give in to the feelings of foreboding or intend give up without a fight. I want my country to live up to its ideals, I am concerned about the real world, our alliances, our environment, and the real threat to freedom. I believe in a particular universal ideal enunciated in the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence that All men are created equal, and as such that I must continually stand for what is right, what is true, and what is enduring.
I am worried about our democracy and I agree with Timothy Snyder who wrote:
“Democracy failed in Europe in the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s, and it is failing not only in much of Europe but in many parts of the world today. It is that history and experience that reveals to us the dark range of our possible futures. A nationalist will say that “it can’t happen here,” which is the first step toward disaster. A patriot says that it could happen here, but that we will stop it.”
It can happen here, and if we are patriots and not simply nationalists we must stand for principle and work for a new birth of freedom even as it seems that freedom itself is in danger. So as I write about some of the notable events of our history that we commemorate over the coming days please know that I take inspiration from them as I hope you will. I am a patriot, and in my heart I believe we must stop it. As the German General and resistance leader against Hitler said:
“We have to show the world that not all of us are like him. Otherwise, this will always be Hitler’s Germany.”
We must stand together, or this will always be Trump’s America, and we will hang separately. A word of warning to dissident Republicans, and Democrats or Progressives who if their candidate is not the Democratic Nominee threaten to sit out the election or vote third party. Such a choice is suicidal, it only helps Trump. If he is re-elected Civil rights and free speech will be rolled back, the Constitution itself be trampled, and the United States, however imperfectly imagined by our founders will pass into the dustbin of history, to be replaced with a racist and authoritarian theocracy, which will last than the 12 years of Hitler’s 1000 year Reich.
That my friends is the hard Cold truth, from a historian, military combat veteran, and a man who spent 32 years supporting the Republican Party and its candidates.
Peace
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