Rally for the Republic
"He wasn't a patriot. He wasn't a flag-waver. But when the Communists took over, he knew what he'd lost, even though he loathed Batista."
I wasn't a flag-waver. I wasn't a patriot. I took my liberties for granted. I thought this country into which I was born would always be what it was. I was wrong.
For the past almost-four years, we've been treated to a lesson in what happens when liberty takes a breather. When liberty sleeps. We've been treated to a lesson in what happens when we don't have vigilance against enemies both foreign AND domestic. Thomas Jefferson, flawed as he was, was right. Liberty has a price, and we didn't pay it.
We are at a point where Republican vs. Democrat doesn't matter. Where conservative vs. liberal doesn't matter. We are at a point where the choice is between freedom and tyranny. Between liberty and fascism. And this crosses traditional ideological boundaries.
We have people calling for a "red-brown" populist alliance. And we have people, who traditionally are our adversaries, calling for all those of good will to vote for Joe Biden to stem the tide of tyranny.
Don't doubt for a second: Our country is ground zero in the contest between democracy and autocracy. It is ground zero in the eternal battle between freedom and slavery. I'm not being hyperbolic. As one of my treasured mentors is wont to say: It is what it is.
People to whom we would have turned our noses four years ago are in the Army of Light. (Babylon 5 reference.) And those whom we would have considered natural allies are willing to burn it all down. Because after the flood, so they think, they'll take over.
The Crisis of 1860 was as much sectional as it was ideological. A civil war between two discrete sections of the country has a neatness to it. Now we have Confederate flags flying in the states of the Union. Our conflict today is purely ideological, between those who love freedom, and those who wish to impose a draconian, fascist order.
I, for one, will fight for my neighbors who are people of color. I, for one, will fight to provide a future for my precious Black grand niece. I have no other choice. Here I stand; I can do no other.
But here's the thing which gives lift to my weary wings: We're the majority. Poll after poll indicates an utter repudiation of the hatred unleashed for the past few years (few decades). This country is not the same country it was twenty years ago, or even ten years ago. Statues will be erected to the martyrs like George Floyd of blessed memory. The fascists are losing the fight. People are tired of fear and division. The Before Time is gone; no one of good will wants to return to that. They want to progress to a truly perfecting Union. And those who don't will be consigned to history's dust heap.
I do not claim any prophecy. But I will tell you this: The next few months will be unlike any this Republic has ever faced. And woe betide those caught on the wrong side of the whirlwind. For it is coming, and it is bearing down on the evil and the malefactors. Their time is gone; they just don't realize it.
Stay strong, brothers and sisters. We're on the right—and winning—side of history. And those who tried to upend this Republic will have the whirlwind to reap. Pity them, but put your boots on their necks, and never again let them rise.