THE FOURTH HORSEMAN – Aim For the Plump One With the Tiny Hands

Here we are, mired in a compound national crisis of historic proportions. It’s occurring on four fronts.

First, there’s the COVID 19 pandemic, which promises to challenge the devastating 1918 Spanish flu pandemic for its worldwide death toll. The U.S. is, through our shameful inaction, soaring past the rest of the world in both cases and deaths.

Then there’s the generation-defining paroxysm of outrage and self-examination over systemic racism, rekindled by the indefensible Memorial Day killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police—a reaction fed in part by the fears and frustrations of the pandemic.

Third, if we can even pretend to one day gain the upper hand on the both of these afflictions, our worries will be far from over. We’ll still have to face the dire threat of global climate change. The impact on lives, health, economies, cannot be overstated—and it’s already occurring.

Finally, as if that weren’t enough, while all three of these calamities threaten the security and the very lives of every single American, we find ourselves struggling to face any of them, gasping in a suffocating vacuum of national leadership. Oh, and did I mention the Trumpublicans’ continuing, full-on assault on democratic institutions?

      Others have had to step up and show us
      the way, kicking aside the shattered pieces
      of American exceptionalism.

THE ENVY OF NO ONE
So here we sit, those we wish would lead so consumed in their hubris that they no longer see beyond the reach of their own thieving grasp. So jealously hunched over what they insist is theirs to possess, that they see not, care not, that the states and the rest of the world—even places these ugly Americans love to diminish—have had to step up and show us the way, kicking aside the shattered pieces of American exceptionalism.

Leading the heroic effort to get ahead of COVID 19, cooperating to at least try saving the planet, delegitimizing hatred, reclaiming truth, defending freedom, fostering a vision of peace, love and happiness…all are opportunities our gutless, amoral president and his republican enablers have pointedly refused to seize.

These now represent ideals our country can no longer pretend to espouse. Values that, for nearly two-and-a-half centuries, have distinguished the United States of America, and stood as the envy of the rest of the world.

       It’s a mistaken idea of liberty as the right
       to do what ever they want…period.

THE FOOLS-GOLD EMPIRE
Here we sit, abandoned by our own president, who, having sold his soul to the devil by the time he was ten, still prizes wealth above wisdom, loyalty above respect, rumor above reality, the approval of dictators above the honor of his nation.

And his equally soulless disciples keep begging to be in on the deal, cheering on the hate and intolerance they’d inflict themselves if they thought they could get away with it. Howling for a piece of his vapid, fools-gold empire.

All so they can enjoy their mistaken idea of liberty as the right exclude anyone not like them and simply do whatever they want…period.

A FUNCTIONING ADULT
Of these four desperate crises, three will require years, perhaps even decades, of smart, vision-driven work. There will be more heart-rending sacrifices. And staggering investments.

The fourth disaster, the hijacked presidency of the United States, begs for a much easier resolution (and thank God this remedy has not yet fallen victim to the republican party’s wrecking ball approach to our Constitution): The presidential election just four months hence.

       It will not be enough for us democrats to
       simply get to the polls on election day.

Though I appreciate the lawn signs I’ve been seeing which read: “Any Functioning Adult - 2020,” we do have a better alternative than that to oust the man who’s brought America to its knees. Former Senator and Vice President Joe Biden, while he has his flaws, is still a capable, accomplished public servant, and, perhaps even more important right now, a genuine, thinking, caring…yes…functioning adult.

With the all-but-certain interference of Russia and other adversaries in the November election, and the republicans’ dogged efforts at voter suppression, it will not be enough for us democrats to simply get to the polls on election day.

Each one of us who cares about this country’s true, time-honored values must find a way to leverage our own power of the vote and convince at least one or two others who might not yet know which side they’re on, or who are considering not voting at all, TO VOTE!

• Talk to people.
• Write letters through VoteForward, the organization mobilizing a massive, ten-million-letter, get-out-the-vote mail blitz right before election day.
• Join up with the League of Women Voters, Let America Vote, Fair Fight or another fair-voting advocacy group.
• Inform older or more vulnerable family members and acquaintances about easy alternatives to in-person, at-the-polls voting.
• Do something!

 Please! We may not yet have a whole lot of power over COVID 19, and it could well take a generation to quash congenital racism or mitigate climate change, but for the small-hand, small-mind, big-ego traitor now infecting the presidency, there is a timely, sure-fire cure.

VOTE…and help others to vote.