One of my favorite TV shows in the 60’s was Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone. Each show had a hidden message which asked the viewers to be wary of bombastic leaders and snake oil salesmen who drifted into town. At the end of each show, Mr. Serling would explain that the stories were fictional and not to be taken literally.
Almost 60 years later, anyone who had been comatose all those years would believe that they had entered one of those episodes unwittingly. The visitor would see a political party spouting fear and hatred daily from several “news” channels, with the anchors using their positions to convince the audience that our country was being invaded by “vermin” of the darker persuasion.
The main proponents of today’s hate message comes from white political leaders of a certain major party. Supposedly “educated” governors, Congressmen and US Senators claim that each man, woman, and child coming from Central and South America are dangerous terrorists. These same politicians ignore the statistics that the deadliest threats to our safety come from homegrown domestic terrorists who are responsible for hundreds of yearly mass shootings and deaths at schools, malls, churches, and movie houses. Elected officials refuse to ban semi-automatic assault weapons because of the sacred 2nd amendment. They offer meaningless “thoughts and prayers” after every massacre, but no meaningful legislation.
The unwitting visitor to today’s Twilight Zone would not believe that a criminal defendant facing four separate indictments with 91 felony charges would be the overwhelming favorite for their party’s presidential nomination. They would be dumbfounded that a Texas governor would proudly invite a criminal defendant to a political rally in South Texas and have the state police (DPS) be served tacos to these troopers and to bask in the adulation of a governor who proudly endorses him for the top office in the land. Were the DPS troopers invited to this criminal’s rally, or did they have a choice?
If this authoritarian hate monger is elected again, how will he have time to serve as Commander in Chief and attend countless criminal trials and civil cases and depositions? Will he ask “his” Attorney General to dismiss all his criminal cases because he will be too busy sharing classified documents with his dictator cronies? When will he have time to go golfing? There has never been a criminal defendant in my lifetime who believes he has the absolute right to disparage each judge, prosecutor, and court staff daily after each and every hearing. These judges are silent because they fear backlash from his supporters.
He will not be silenced by gag orders and tells his incompetent and unpaid lawyers to appeal each and every order during a trial. He has not insulted one particular Federal judge in Florida. There must be a reason. His childish name-calling and attacks against anyone who dares stand up to him is frightening, yet millions of our fellow citizens remain unmoved and want him back in office. He has been very clear about his nefarious intentions should he be elected to another four-year term. He will continue to be vengeful and seek retribution against all his perceived “enemies.” Since no fellow Republican has stood up to his crimes, except for a handful, he will have total control to set up a one- party dictatorship. If he loses by millions as in the last election, he will again claim the election was rigged and stolen. Our democracy is clinging by a thread.
The new Speaker of the House wants a theocracy and to tear down the separation of Church and State. He wants to install only Bible believing Christians at all top government posts.
Rod Serling always ended his frightening Twilight Zone scenarios with a warning for the future. In a segment on dictatorships, he eerily predicted the following: “It has patterned itself after every dictator who has ever planted the ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of history since the beginning of time – it has refinements, technological advances in a more sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom. But like every one of the super states that preceded it, it has one iron rule: Logic is an enemy, and truth is a menace.”
The frightening scenario I have just described need not become a reality. It is time for cooler heads to prevail. Would-be dictators must be held accountable in a Court of Law. We must refuse to accept hatred, fear, and a constant barrage of lies from demented individuals. We must return to a semblance of normalcy in the greatest Democracy on Earth.
The only way to prevent it from becoming a reality — a second Trump Presidency — is to continue to call out the hatred, the racism, the xenophobia; all the things that mark a person as truly un-American. As imperfect as the U.S. is, the striving for a future of equality of opportunity and the freedom to develop one’s talents and pursue one’s happiness in safety and security from hatred, racism, sexism and xenophobia is what makes this country great. Going backward to some non-existent time of past greatness when less Americans had rights, when whole classes of people were disparaged or worse only denigrates those who fought for this ‘more perfect union’. No one wants to be called a racist (maybe xenophobe is something they can live with) but how to describe those who will whole-heartedly support one continues to vex me. Trump has shown us exactly who he is: self-absorbed, ignorant, and filled with personal grievance that he sells to his followers as some type of magical elixir. Trump does not believe in democracy; it is unbelievable that Republican leaders and their voters are fine with that.