MORE PROMISE OR MORE PERIL?

 I write this as much to strengthen my own peace of mind and my resolution to fight on for the protection and extension of democracy as for anything, or anyone, else.
What I try to do with this post is to come to as accurate an ascertainment of the peril and promise of this present moment as I possibly can. And being who I am, I'll start with the perils.
1) 186 of our national legislators--143 in the House and 43 in the Senate--have basically given an affirmative nod to our homegrown Fascists to do whatever they will including murder and mayhem in the service of White Male Patriarchy. These false swearers have indicated their readiness to see democracy destroyed in this country and perhaps worldwide!
2) Many state GOP Parties seem to be in a Lunacy Race to see which one can pick up radio signals from space with their tinfoil helmets first or maybe to see who can get to Mars first by flapping their arms.
3) Wealth and income inequality on an almost feudal scale fuels this sort of insanity, be it racially and/or religiously based. And many of our 21st century dukes, earls, counts and barons quietly support these lunacies as their wealth and power silently grows greater and much more menacing to We The People and to the democracy which a majority of us still seek to preserve and extend.
4) The Democratic establishment and too many Democratic politicians still don't seem to understand how we need to STOP being nice-nice hall monitors and get bare-knuckle with the GOP over the consequences of their 'programs' and of the evil they do in letting even this pass simply because it's done mostly by white males! I could be wrong about this, though; time will tell.
5) I'm still bitterly ashamed over this: a majority of my 'fellow' palefaces voted for more fascism in the election just past. We owe democracy's preservation to our fellow citizens of African, Latino and/or Native background along with we palefaces who are 'woke' to varying degrees.
And this feels like this post's pivot point. Because enough blacks, Latinos and Natives were roused and registered and because they showed that they have what it takes to be free citizens of a free country (to a much greater degree, I suspect, than we pale people) by resisting all efforts to 'legally' disenfranchise them and for waiting for hours in order to be able to vote--they are the people who saved democracy and, thereby, the best in this country. Kudos above all to the brave and beautiful African-American women who were the foot-soldiers of this victory. They ought to be more of both the field officers and the top commanders from here on in and this is written by an Anglo-Saxon straight married paleface who becomes eligible for Medicare on his next birthday this August! And so to the promises:
1) As mentioned above, our communities of color are roused and mobilized to an unprecedented degree. Maybe more of us palefaces are a little more 'woke' as well. Especially those of us who tend to be 'green' (and not NIMBYs) to varying degrees.
2) Many former GOP contributors have now washed their hands of that Trumpery death cult, having recognized it as such. I don't know how to encourage this trend but probably there are those that do know how.
3) The young people. They are more open to those who are racially, religiously and/or sexually oriented 'different' than themselves than has yet been the case in this country. And the Stoneman Douglas high school alumni, along with other mass-shooting survivors, stand out especially in this group! David, Emma, all of you, I love you all and look forward to seeing you and your colleagues put and set our country on a brighter road than it's yet travelled!
4) This might be as much wishful hoping as anything else, but maybe mentioning it will impress more people how necessary it is: more of us seem aware this is a fight and a long one. I hope more of us are ready to fight, whether we're armed only with God's Truth and His justice or also with the kind of weapons we know our Fascists are itching to use on us. My opinion is, let's train non-violently first but also have guns and ammo (and know how to use them too) if and when it becomes necessary.
5) The depth to which democracy, as a habit, is embedded in our national life, however incomplete it's been till now. When we turn our gaze away from Washington and the loony state capitals, we might be surprised by what we see. We might also be dismayed by how many mini-despotisms there might be in this land such as John Wallace had in a Georgia county (watch the film Murder in Coweta County) but maybe the scale is more evenly balanced than we dare to hope.
I wouldn't call these lists 'complete'; they're just what occur to me right here, right now. If any reader has anything they'd like to add to either side, feel free to tell us all about it. In the meantime, friends and allies, stay awake, organize, organize, organize! And resist all fascist efforts at disenfranchisement especially their lie about 'wanting to make sure only the right people vote'. I hope y'all know what that is code for! Don't forget it and bring the truth about it to the unsure! And of course, vote and keep on voting in ALL elections from school board on up to presidential! That's how we'll wind up going for the road of promise and avoid the road of peril!