Do You Believe?

The Kamala Harris speech was rousing…and took me back to a significant event in my life some years ago.

She concluded with, “Do we believe in the promise of America…and are we ready to fight for it? And when we fight, we win! God bless you and God bless the United States of America.”

I was having a discussion with a coworker before Trump was elected trying to explain why Trump would not be a good President. I thought it was in good faith but when he asked me, “Do you believe in America?”, the light bulb went on and I realized nothing I said would make any difference to him because he was essentially stating I was NOT an American. Not his idea of an American. He was unmistakably othering me.

There are those who “believe” in the tribe and nothing else. There are those who do not believe in tribalism….that reject the principle that the group you identify with has all knowledge and authority and “others” not in your group are enemies. In Fascist ideology this is a necessary feature called “othering.” The three primary features being 1) the absolute authority of the Leader and the State ideology, 2) absolute loyalty to the Leader who embodies the State, and 3) the demonization of those identified as not part of, or not fit to be, a subject of the State. One of, or a group of, the “others” that must necessarily be destroyed. Because the individual cannot choose to be a subject of the Leader and State without some valid reason to do so. An existential threat is really the only valid reason to suspend all independent thought and “believe.” A promise is something hoped for, that must be traveled to with independent thought, not something taken as it is on the authority of celebrity or a cult of personality, not something that was, in the past. We must not go back. The threats American democracy faces are to its very existence, but unlike fascism, we must NOT suspend individual thought.

When Kamala Harris is asking us if we believe in the promise of America, she is asking if we believe in the freedom of the individual, she is NOT asking if we are in a tribe. Those that demand belief in and submission to a Leader and an ideology and absolute loyalty to that Leader are not referring to any promise of the greatest good for the greatest number of individuals. Only the power of their tribe embodied in the authority of their Leader. Not about truth as a primary feature, only the authority of the Leader, not about the rule of law, only the authority of the Leader, not about the good of the people, only the destruction of those not submitting to the authority of the Leader, who embodies the power of their tribe. Only the Leader can save us….is the lie.

That Trumpists are willing to ignore reality, to call lies the truth, and to change the meaning of words to make them serve the fascist ideology of their Leader. The single most glaring example is the idiotic statement that “America is not a democracy, it is a republic.” America is both in the same way countries are a monarchy and a kingdom. A direct democracy does not delegate authority to elected representatives. The citizens are the representatives and vote. A republic elects representatives who vote on laws that make up the rule of law that limits the authority of direct voting to do things like make people kings and start wars. The representatives, elected by direct democracy to ensure the greatest good for the people, discuss and decide and vote on acting on these issues and enact or repeal the laws limiting or enabling action. If the representatives do not create the greatest good possible, they are democratically voted out of office and new representatives are democratically voted in. A republic is a democracy. Checks and balances, limits, “limitarianism”, is what changes direct democracy to representative democracy. A mob does not understand that this is what democracy actually is, whether direct or representative as in a republic.

Trumpism is a mob being conned by a demagogue to enable him to take power as the autocrat of a fascist state. There are other terms that blend into this such as kleptocracy, plutocracy, authoritarianism and the terms just explained are also often defined in slightly different and very different ways to the point where they can be completely different except in name. That is the world we live in. And the predators who want to take absolute power use that ambiguity and manipulate emotions and grievance to control the mob.

The next few days will decide the future of America. We the People will either continue as a democracy….or what has been America will end. We must fight and win.