freedom – Susan Feathers

“Sell not liberty to purchase power.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Freedom loving Americans feel the crumbling foundation of what generations of Americans strove to create and preserve: a republic founded on principles of freedom and fairness. A governance structure that protects the rights of everyone and works for the betterment of its people and people everywhere.

We are not a naive people yet even the most politically active citizen and public servant is in a state of shock as we watch the brazen violation of our laws to achieve another kind of society with autocratic governance. A nation not conceived in liberty but rather for control of the individual by the powerful.

There are no words to describe how I feel at this moment. It is like watching someone you love being drawn and quartered. Our collective screams and sobs are everywhere now as the full impact of destruction becomes apparent.

To listen to Donald Trump rant and rave, burble and goo, to witness his making a travesty of our seats of government, throw off and denigrate our allies and alliances bought with the blood of Americans, is simply a horror.

Behind him are the men and women doing the hacking and imprisoning: Steven Miller, Kristy Noem, Pam Bondi, and the king of it all, Russell Vought. Like automatons with weapons they bow and scrape in front of the menace while checking off their list of targets. Vought is the man behind the Project 2025, their Playbook of Terribles. Developed with the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 intends to create what it believes was the true America. But it has been corrupted with Christian Nationalism and white male supremacy and turns its blade to people it perceives as enemies and to the “other”.

There is only this now: rise and go forth and join the growing throngs of Americans willing to lay down their lives and livelihoods for Liberty. Rise and never rest until the whole lot of the MAGAs are removed. Then we must rebuild all that has been destroyed and with greater energy and purpose.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. We know that now.

Democracies are bustling often raucous spaces. A country founded upon principles of freedom and the law is a marketplace of ideas, of groups grieving for freedom denied or improvements to the quality of life of groups overlooked by legislation. These strivings, using the principles and legal mechanisms for their lawful dispensation to all, in the Constitution of the United States, have resulted in a people generally welloff and generous of heart.

Our generosity extends to countries across the Earth. We have helped protect people who wish to live by a similar creed as seen through the NATO alliance and our strivings to bring peace in the Middle East. We stand by the people of Ukraine as they fight for the freedom the Russian oligarch strives to deny them.

Where we see one man (or woman) act only on his or her behalf in making decisions for all the people under his rule, we understand anew the value of democracies.

How to recognize antidemocratic forces …

Generally speaking, people who speak about themselves more than their citizens, and strike down laws and protections that are beneficial for all citizens to favor only one demographic or religious tradition, are antidemocratic forces.

No leader is perfect as no person. We all make mistakes but we expect of each other that we are striving toward the laws that govern our way of life. We look at the person over time to discern what their true intention may be. Is this leader one who works together with other lawmakers to protect democracy and enact legislations that expands freedoms to the People?

Does a potential leader have a moral compass that guides him or her during very difficult times? Does a candidate tell the truth, admit mistakes, and generally collaborate “across the aisle” in our nation’s deliberative bodies, in Congress and among world leaders similarly devoted to freedoms worldwide?

Isolationism, demogoguery, lying and cheating, and above it all hoodwinking to reach personal power over some of the people–these is not the charater traits we must have in a leader of a free and just people.

What Does Democracy Promise?

Being an American takes work and devotion to protect and grow democracy. A good thing always draws an equal and opposite force. The work of democracy is the refinement and constant reconstituting by assertion and practice the verities of our founding fathers and all the people of America who have been able to maintain its sweet elixir of liberty for 247 years.