Which Truths Do We Hold Self Evident?

“I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.” Abraham Lincoln 1858

“I See A Civil War Coming” Donald Trump 2021

A country lawyer from Illinois and a real estate developer from New York City, 163 years apart, see a nation in turmoil.?Their perspectives and hoped for outcomes could not be more different, yet their ability to read the pulse of the nation is undeniable.

Lincoln believed his responsibility was to save the nation and uphold the Constitution. He would build a Cabinet of the most able men of the time, and he would deliberate and obsess over his comments and actions to save the union.

Trump, through word and deed has little respect for the Constitution or the institutions of government. He constructed a Cabinet that served his purposes and believed strongly in patronage and nepotism as he divided the nation.

Very different men, very different times. One allowed for, even encouraged, a national election to take place during a Civil War, one put the full muscle of his office into stopping an election (and future elections) from taking place. One called for our “better angels” the other called for the arrest of his enemies.

Will the United States continue its great experiment in self-government, or will it become the vestige of a “strongman” style dictatorship??As we head toward midterm and then a presidential election, everything is on the table, and the threat to our democracy increases every moment the nation is in flux.

Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican elected president of the United States. There was a party platform. There were principles the delegates and candidates stood for.?Donald Trump was the last elected Republican president. He subsequently abolished the party platform and called for his delegates and candidates to be loyal to him, not the party, not the nation.

As we face our future as Americans, and as Americans face the future of the free world without America, we must ask ourselves what the future holds for us, and those who will follow?

For those who put their interests above all others, many essential to the survival of humanity, they must forego them until democracy is saved. For if democracy goes extinct, those fighting for the environment, individual rights and freedoms, education, social justice, religious freedom, or drinking water…will vanish along with our right to vote, to assemble, to pray as we desire. The world our founders imagined will once again find our imaginations the only safe haven for human rights and self-government.

A world without the American Constitution is a Russian Europe, a Chinese Asia, a world in even greater turmoil than the one we find today. It will be no easy feat to save democracy as it hangs from a thread, but a world without it will be harder to survive in.

Do we have the inner strength to put ourselves second in defending democracy, do we have the courage to do what is needed to stare down tyranny? The lines have been drawn and one side is playing to win while the other suggests things have not changed. No former president, not even during the Civil War, wanted a civil war…until Donald Trump.?

The struggle for universal healthcare, for essential services must be suspended as we challenge those who no longer believe in a free, democratic nation of voters.?Mitch McConnell, Oath Keepers, Nazis, Trumpists, Ted Cruz, Fox News, are not discussing issues, they are moving their supporters to overthrow the government and the governmental systems of these United States.

?As they push to destabilize, we must do all we can to strengthen the structures that bind us together. As they push to diminish, we must build unity, and as they discredit, we must ensure truth and justice are undeniable. There is little room for error. Even a ragtag operation like January 6th nearly accomplished its goal. They have not stopped perfecting it since then, while we argue amongst ourselves. This is not about Republicans and Democrats; this is about the future of our planet as it will be if the dangers are not met head on.

There must be bold actions, not simply words. The insurrectionists, especially those in office, must be held accountable now. The soldiers of another Dark Age are on the march and the people of the Enlightenment have yet to raise their hands and recognize the challenge.

To change current events, we must be a Martin Luther King, Jr., an Eleanor Roosevelt, Lincoln, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, Suffragette, and Freedom Fighter. If democracy is to survive, we have to find our inner Joan of Arc and Statue of Liberty. The time on the environmental clock and the democracy clock winds down as we contemplate. Contemplation will never take the place of action. ?

There is time to ensure a brighter future. Open your window and door and start yelling that you are “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore”, make everyone listen to you…take to the streets, inspire the convincible and challenge those who oppose our democracy. ?The choice is still ours, not theirs. Freedom to rally goes both ways…call for a Bolder Biden, a bolder opposition to tyranny, a bolder response to ignorance and repression.?Everything depends on it.

Robert Kesten/October 11, 2021

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