Guardians of The Realm “The Troubles”

...killing Democracy –by a thousand little cuts

Guardians of Truth

Journalists

The day the former guy slithered down that escalator his MAGA flying monkeys were released.

Trump used Twitter to set and announce policy, and to go around the press, something never done before by a president. “The power of the president’s tweets is unprecedented,” former White House communications director Dubke said. “The press does not know how to handle them. They are reported as ‘breaking news.’ They are much more effective than a press release.

He could spread lies with impunity, stoke his base all while dodging questions or criticism from the press.  He didn’t need them. He had direct and immediate access to his supporters.

One legacy paper had a “lie-counter” just for him. The lies started on his first day in office on January 21, 2017, he lied about the crowd size attending his inauguration. Even after comparisons photographs of his and Barack Obama’s inaugurations crowds on Washington’s Mall proved otherwise. In true Trumpian fashion his then-press secretary, Sean Spicer, at his first news briefing angrily accuse reporters of “deliberately false reporting” the inauguration crowd size. To follow-up the media assault, the very next day on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, his presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway was asked why Spicer would “utter a provable falsehood.” She said Spicer was providing “alternative facts.”

And it went downhill from there.

Guardians of Life and Liberty

Healthcare Workers

When Trump took office in 2017, he tossed the new federal regulations created during the Obama Administration, to require the health care industry to prepare for an airborne infectious disease pandemic like COVID-19 in the trash.

Under Obama’s Administration, OSHA took six years creating step by step guidelines, and by early 2016 had new infectious disease regulations ready and scheduled to be implemented in 2017.  After the 2016 presidential election, the republican agenda was focused on deregulation and the healthcare lobbyists were happy.  The impact was devastating.  The federal effort to protect health care workers from COVID-19 was abysmal.

Teachers & Librarians

Teachers and Librarians Guardians of knowledge and basically the universe to a kid. The anti-vax movement found new life and exponential growth during the pandemic.  Moms for Liberty, a newly formed (right-wing funded) organization played a pivotal role in fomenting the new anger and outrage confronting teachers, librarians and school board members. MFL started by opposing mask mandates in schools then quickly became the driving force behind excessive book bans swiping the nation. The foot soldiers of the Conservative Christian Movement, their goal is to destroy the public education system to form centers of indoctrination rooted in their religious and political ideology.

Guardians of Democracy

As our nation’s Commander in Chief, then President Donald Trump repeatedly degraded servicemembers and their families. It began with besmirching gold-star families devolved to calling those who had made the ultimate sacrifice —losers and suckers. At the Helsinki Summit, he told the world he believed Putin over his own US Intelligence Agencies. He fomented attacks on public servants of all types and stripes: civil servants, lawmakers, judges, and election workers.

We The People

In this Democratic Republic, we have a duty to protect our democracy, a two-century old work in progress.  A political expression of a spiritual ideal.

“Democracy is not guaranteed.  It is the hardest of human undertakings because it requires us to see each other not as rivals, but as neighbors.  Preserving democracy is a human and moral commitment.” ~Jon Meacham, Presidential Historian

His said the strength of our democracy rested with five key elements: the Presidency, Congress, Courts, Press, and the People themselves and that as long as 2-3 of them were working well, rowing in the same direction; it could withstand tumultuous moments in history. We are at a precipice. The former President stacked our Supreme Court with right-wing compromised judges, who for the first time in history took away a fundamental right. He instigated an auto-golpe (self-coup) that struck at the heart of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power.

As we approach the 60^th anniversary of the March on Washington, I’m reminded of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  on the “fierce urgency of now.” He reminded a divided nation that we need one another, and that we are stronger together.

“We cannot walk alone,” he said. “And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back.” This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”   ~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.