We Need to Stand Up

I still think this may be John Mellencamp's nobest song: You've Gotta Stand For Something. 

Thing is we got people standing for things that are detrimental to American democracy:

But the most curious aspect of Douthat’s column is that he managed to write an entire essay about liberal “alarmism” over the prospect of “civil war” without once mentioning the expanding body of writing and statements from Conservatism Inc.—and even some elected Republicans—which openly pines for . . . civil war.

Rep. Madison Cawthorn: “If our election systems continue to be rigged and continue to be stolen, then it’s gonna lead to one place and that’s bloodshed. And I will tell you: As much as I am willing to defend our liberty at all costs, there’s nothing that I would dread doing more than having to pick up arms against a fellow American.” 

Ross Douthat's Civil War Blame Game

And this HuffPost op/ed piece It's Time For Democrats To Accept That Norms Are Dead stakes out the problem from the Democrat side:

The Biden administration’s poll numbers are lagging, and there are already rumblings of a tough midterm election for the Democratic Party. Part of the reason why is that the Democratic base is feeling abandoned by the people it elected. Instead of fighting fire with fire, Democratic politicians seem determined to let the GOP define the rules. Why should the party that doesn’t believe in anything beyond owning the libs and serving its donors set the parameters for politics and society?

In How Civil Wars Start by Barbara F Walter review – sounding the alarm, a history of how democracies fail, this point is made:

She notes that on the scale researchers in her field employ, the US in the last few years has slipped into the range of anocracy. The slide commenced in the 1990s with the emergence of partisan television networks; it continued with the efflorescence of Facebook, Twitter and weaponised talk radio. And then: “Into this political morass stepped the biggest ethnic entrepreneur of all: Donald Trump.

Stand for all people being created with certain inalienable rights, or fall for a despotism of the minority.

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1/16/22