By Robert Field
The visceral direction of the Right is a call to return to the USA of 1850, a nation of total white supremacy. Today we have a very different nation comprised of a citizenry and norms that were unimaginable back then. (And for white elders, it is hard to recognize and emotionally accept even now.)
But it isn’t a question of whether people like the change or not. It has taken place.
The indiscriminate shootings may be a vanguard of future attempts by force to return to the long past. Is this a latter day war over Kansas?
Those with rifles rule over those without rifles and even those with hand guns. Members of the extreme Right have the rifles and military type arsenals. We have already seen Donald Trump, then President, call for insurrection and the majority of Republican senators and congressmen support it by a vote to reject the valid Presidential election returns. To me that vote was treasonous, despite the trappings of simply calling for delay.
We need to install military leadership at the top and throughout the officer corp with a deep and learned commitment to our Constitution. We can no longer depend on elected national and state governments supporting such values. And the courts may prove ineffective, either through vacillation or the Administrations unwillingness to enforce its rulings. Elections in 2022 and 2024 loom.
As I have long warned, we seem to be retracing the 120 years that led to the end of the Roman Republic.
And the world is gyrating away from democracy and towards authoritarian governments. A warning?
Of course the newer generations may have acclimated to, accept, and defend the changes that have taken place. I pray that be the case.
But precautions are necessary.
Robert
