Democracy is not a spectator sport. Keeping it takes more than a WAR budget approaching $1T and almost 800 USofA military bases around the world. As citizens/voters, we have powers and responsibilities too for protecting and empowering our fragile form of government!!!
Billions Spent to Distract/Discourage Voters
My Saturday morning started off with talking heads on MSM bloviating about supporting our troops. Troops who are using our vast WAR arsenal to ‘defend’ our freedoms from the enemy de jour. At the next break came a jingoistic, July-fourth-weekend, commercial for sun glasses based on technology used by our troops. Of course, the ad used the Bald Eagle and the USofA flag effusively. It reminded me of all the ever-present, disaster/breaking-news de jour to which we are subjected. They are diverting our focus from what is really important – our fragile form of government. As long as right-wing authoritarians distract us and point to our fellow citizen for what pains us, this authoritarian minority has a good chance to take our government from us.
Who Identifies Our Enemies for Us?
But remember this during this holiday/spending weekend, our children in uniform are under civilian command. The Executive branch of our federal government puts them in harm’s way. Whoever holds those Executive positions decides which threats we need to neutralize through our children. They decide, now with minimal Congressional oversight, what enemies our children must kill. They will also ‘inform’ all of us to gain our support for killing their defined enemies.
Voters Must Chose These Executives Carefully
That means we must be very smart about making sure who serves in those Executive positions. The unbounded power we put in their hands can be used to fight a defined ‘enemy de jour.’ This power could also be used to define and attack an internal ‘enemy.’ Defining who and where our enemy IS depends greatly on the worldview of those who occupy the Executive positions of our federal government and command our gargantuan WAR machine. They also impact our national guards and our local police.
Voters Must Prepare For More Election Interference
We have a long history of peaceful Executive leadership change after presidential elections. However, we’ve just seen, 1/6/2021, how fragile that transition has become. In addition, rich and powerful authoritarians are taking steps to completely break that peaceful change process.
What do you see in our future and what should we be doing to make it happens or to prevent it?
Andy Hailey