First of three articles from Salon.com here (October 4, 2021) with
my rather long introduction. I combined three excellent Salon articles into one
to fit the blog – each one is linked for the readers to follow in full detail.
The first Salon story headline:
“In the coming second American Civil War, which side are you on?”
The second Salon story (September 26,
2021) seems to be Trump’s basis and drive for all out Civil War II. That headline:
“Behind Trump's push for civil war: A deep
history of white supremacist paranoia”
The main story follows from this third Salon story (October 9,
2021) which comes from their earlier article but the same topic with this
headline:
“A New Confederacy: Trump and the
Republicans have already seceded”
All three are truly great articles …
The introduction is from
the first article with pieces and links from the others and combined into the one.
Again, I hope it’s not too confusing, if so, please read them separately at
each link – thanks:
A few facts regarding
Voting Rights, Abortion Rights, Healthcare, and CoVID Vaccinations:
· Nineteen states have enacted 33 laws that make
it harder for people to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
· Fifteen states made it harder to apply for a
mail-in ballot. Four states limited mail-in ballot drop boxes.
· Four states imposed stricter mail-in ballot
signature requirements.
· Eight states imposed harder voter ID
requirements.
· Seven states made it easier to purge voters from
the rolls.
· Three states reduced the number of polling
places and voting hours.
· Three more states reduced the number of days or
hours of early voting.
· Five states made it harder to vote for people
with disabilities and two states made it a crime to hand out water or snacks to
voters waiting in long lines to vote.
· Nineteen states have enacted a total of 106 new
laws restricting a woman's right to choose to have an abortion, according to
the Guttmacher Institute.
· Twelve states enacted outright abortion bans,
and Texas enacted a law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, which is
effectively a ban on abortion since most women don't even know they are
pregnant at six weeks.
· Twenty-five states require a waiting period,
usually 24 hours, before an abortion can be performed.
· Twelve of those states effectively mandate that
women must return to a clinic twice over a two-day period before obtaining an
abortion.
· Eighteen states require counseling before
abortions, including notices of a purported link between abortion and breast
cancer, the alleged ability of a fetus to feel pain, and the unproven long-term
mental health consequences of abortion.
· Twelve states have refused to expand Medicaid
coverage under the Affordable Care Act, leaving as many as two million people
without health insurance.
Three of those 12 states have DEM governors who have
attempted to get their legislatures to go along with Medicaid expansion. However,
they have been stymied by the GOP-run state legislatures.
Six states that recently expanded Medicaid coverage did so
only after citizens forced the issue with ballot measures. All had governors
and legislatures that had previously refused to extend coverage.
All of the states that refused Medicaid expansion and have
passed restrictions on voting and abortion are controlled by the Republican
Party.
Many of those same states have also passed bans on mask and
vaccine mandates, and nearly all of them have endured more cases per capita of
COVID-19, more hospitalizations and more deaths from the virus.
In effect, without any
states (yet) seceding from the Union, we already live in two Americas.
One of those countries-within-a-country, is in the words of the esteemed
lawyer and Harvard Professor Laurence Tribe: “Has no set of
constraints, no belief in the norms, no commitment to the Constitution or the
rule of law, while the other side is trying to observe the rules.”
A large percentage of Republicans (at least for those who
watch, listen, read, and follow the news with an open mind) see their larger
white right actually believing that they are in an existential struggle for
survival against:
1. Black
and brown people
2. Illegals
who want to replace them
3. Sinister
secularists who want to outlaw Christianity
4. CRT
aimed at brainwashing their children
5. The
liberal media that deliberately lies to them
6. A
cabal of elites and socialists
They say all of them are treasonous and determined to
destroy the “real” America.
These right-wing
white-identity fever dreams show no signs of breaking – if anything, the
collective pathology is getting worse.
Law enforcement and
terrorism experts continue to warn that the country is at great risk
of a violent right-wing insurgency inspired by the events of January 6 and the
Trump-Republican “Big Lie” about the 2020 election.
A 21st Century American Civil War would make the struggles we are currently suffering over elections and distribution of wealth and between races and ethnicities seem like the good old days when we all got along.
An American Civil War will mean that we don't merely disagree with one
another or dislike each other. It
will mean we kill each other.
None of us has an inkling about how horrible it would
be. If we are to have a future then we'd better get more of a clue than
the woman in the MAGA hat in IA who recently seemed to casually look forward to
a Civil War between her side and the side she was told to hate.
A short message for
her and those like her: “It will be hard to see who or why you hated them when
death comes to your door.”
What role will Donald J. Trump play
in such a conflagration?
In a recent essay for Tom Dispatch, historian Alfred McCoy
offers these observations:
“Whether it's a poor
country like the Philippines or a superpower like the United States, democracy
is a surprisingly fragile construct. Its worst enemy is often an ousted
ex-president, angry over his humiliation and perfectly willing to destroy the
constitutional order to regain power. No matter how angry such an ex-president
might be, however, his urge for a political coup can't succeed without the help
of raw force, whether from a mob, a disgruntled military, or some combination
of the two…”
So, in 2024, as the continuing erosion of America's global
power creates a crisis of confidence among ordinary Americans, expect Trump to
be back, not as the slightly outrageous candidate of 2016 or even as the former
president eager to occupy the White House again, but as a militant demagogue
with thundering racialist rhetoric, backed by a revanchist Republican Party
ready, with absolute moral certainty, to bar voters from the polls, toss
ballots out, and litigate any loss until hell freezes over.
And if all that fails, the muscle will be ready for another
violent march on Washington. Be prepared, the America we know is
worsening by the month. There are many expert voices who are sounding the alarm
about the potential of a second American Civil War, and marshaling
reasonably evidence why it likely will not happen.
But even the fact that so many public voices, and so many
ordinary Americans, find themselves in a moment where such an eventuality
must be seriously considered indicates how dire the country's democracy crisis
really is.
At its core,
these discussions of a possible second American Civil War reveal that “the
rise of Trumpism, and the full-on embrace of fascism by the conservative
movement reflect a nation in existential crisis.”
The distinction
between “nation and country” is critical here: A country is an agreed-upon
set of laws and governing institutions, but a nation is the symbols, ideas,
stories, shared values, beliefs, and other intangibles that give a people
a sense of community and shared destiny that is distinct and different
from other people in other places.
“Trumpworld” and the MAGA verse, and those fellow travelers who have pledged loyalty to the Republican-fascist movement, have a fundamentally different conception of the nation than do other Americans. “Who owns the country? Who are its rightful heirs? Do some Americans have a special and privileged birthright status as compared to other Americans?”
If America succumbs to a second Civil War or other
widespread political violence, the answers to those questions will become the
dividing line.
As the truism goes: “No one hates like family.” The American
people — that is, our American family, which has endured, with
considerable difficulty, for close to 250 years — may soon be
reminded of that truth on a brutal massive scale.
My 2 Cents: First of all I hope these three Salon articles laid out
above are not too confusing in my reconstruction to make it fit this blog post
today, if so, simply read each full article at the link for each provided above…
yes, it’s long but boy-oh-boy it's worth serious reading and thought.
I do not put anything past
Trump and his effort to return to the Oval Office anyway possible. Now he shows
it every day and has now for nearly a full year since the 2020 election ended
and Joe Biden won. Plus, all the Trump challenges – all of them – have fallen flat yet
the man cannot and will concede the fact that he lost.
Great men and women,
whomever they are who ever lost an election all conceded – Trump is the
first in history who never has.
This probably will (or may) get nasty, ugly and yes, even bloody in the end.
But I also think as a
whole we are stronger than allowing any group or number of persons in any group(s)
to overthrow our government – yes, our government – the one that belongs to “We
the People.”
But, this wing of Trumpworld is totally wacked out. Rough days lie ahead for sure. So, hold on tight
Thanks for stopping
by.
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