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Jane in NC's avatar

As Jon Stewart said back in 2010, "We live in dark times, not end times." The times have been growing darker since a backlash against our first Black president erupted in republican ranks and produced the proto-MAGA movement called the Tea Party - filled with the same sense of white grievance, coated in racism, dipped in white Christian Nationalism and wrapped in an American flag. Back then, many now NeverTrumpers were riding that wave nativist resentment. What emerged from that sewer was the filth we're dealing with now, led by an orange carnival barker who rose to prominence pushing a racist lie called birtherism. So, a little humility and self-examination wouldn't go amiss when talking about how we got where we are today. I believe people can change, and many of those who brought us to this place have done so. I welcome them to the ranks of those of us who never needed that lesson.

Things never looked darker than they did in the early days of the American Revolution when our rag-tag Continental Army suffered defeat after defeat and retreated into fields west of Philadelphia to overwinter at Valley Forge, knowing they were outmatched and outnumbered by British forces. During that bleak winter, Thomas Paine produced the first of a number of pamphlets called The American Crisis which jolted a dispirited country to stiffen its resolve. He began by saying this:

"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated."

This is MY country, and I love it. I will not surrender what our ancestors fought for to a bunch of phony, performative patriots who only love the show of patriotism but not the work of it. Happy Independence Day, fellow pro-democracy patriots! Today, we remember and celebrate what our founding generation gave us. Tomorrow, we resume the fight. Until we win!

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Linda MacDonald's avatar

STOP with the doom! Your words are no help. As Judge Luttig has said, "the republic was lost on 6 January 2021." The situation now requires real courage, facing reality, and organizing for the long struggle that will eventually reclaim Independence and our Constitutional Republic. We as a nation have been sliding for a long time. So it will take a long time to rebuild what has been left to take care of itself. So, yes. The gop is full throated fascist. The oligarchs have their hands on the government. But the story of this time is still being written and lived. The language of defeatism, which is what I hear in your words, never serves anyone but the very forces that intend to win by sapping the courage of the people standing up for freedom, democracy, and the constitution. Get on the right side of history. This crowd will not succeed unless We the People let them succeed.

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