DEMOCRACY SURVIVES WHITE HOUSE BETRAYAL

        "The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history."

Covid-19 in Los Angeles County, California,  is continuing to surge as those who may have contracted the virus during the Christmas season holidays begin to experience the infection, needing to seek medical care.   Medical "triage officers" have been established in the event beds, doctors, nurses, staff are inundated to the extend service cannot be provided to all patients as needed.  

Countdown dates:                         2020 Presidential Election - Nov. 3rd 

January 6, 2021                U.S. Electoral College vote finalized, accepted in Congressional joint session -- as truth, law and order finally prevailed following sedition/coup attempt.

   ? ? ?                                Current Lame Duck President Exits the White House following unsuccessful sedition/coup attempt in Capitol. 

January 20, 2021 at noon:  President Joseph Biden is inaugurated.

Personal POV

I feel compelled to express my thoughts and opinions about the dangerous assault on our democratic republic January 6, 2021.   Be forewarned in the event you want to avoid reading what I have to say.  Likely you have had more than your share of feelings and thoughts about this situation, too, and may feel overloaded with it all.

I was repulsed, angered and saddened by the criminal actions evolving from the phony protest march turned mob in Washington D.C. that I viewed on television news coverage this past week. Our Congress was conducting their constitutionally required business when they were violently disrupted.  

Knowing how democracies are weakened, witnessing how this now Lame Duck President (LDP) for four years has been following steps to subvert our government to an autocracy, history has shown a violent coup event could be a very predictable possibility at some point.  I did not want to believe such would actually ever occur in my United States of America.  

I am heart-broken that our nation has been so dishonored by some misguided individuals who violated the very values they claim to be defending.  In fact, their violent actions served to undermine our democratic republic.   Perhaps some were seduced to act with extremist groups dedicated to destroying our form of government.  This now LDP promised years ago he intended to change our form of government, but did not some of his cult-like followers understand what this meant, or do they truly not believe in our democratic republic?   

These extremist groups care nothing about those mislead citizen's values if they were in fact seduced into their mob.  All continued to be incited by actions and words of our LDP.   His chaotic methods  have intentionally and systematically been  designed to position himself to become an autocratic leader who they blindly support.  

There are others who must share blame for the violence that occurred.  All those who the past four years enabled this now LDP are accountable for the Capitol Hill events Wednesday, January 6, 2021 and also have blood on their hands including for five people who died in this melee.  Voters should, at the very least, see that these enablers are not returned to serve in our government come election day, if not sooner.  

Regrettably, one political party in particular must bear the brunt of responsibility for not having reined in this LDP.   Too many of them failed to present as a needed trusted, respectable group, clearly not fulfilling their oath of office to protect our democracy and the best interests of the American people.   

Deserving to be removed from office are those who put forth LDP's repeated lies, false conspiracy theories, knowing they weren't true.  Some even continued to propagate those same lies that night after the failed coup attempt, as some legislative leaders persisted in debating acceptance of some certified votes for President-elect Joseph Biden's and Vice-President Kamala Harris' election.

Surely, the cult-like followers of this LDP must now realize he does not offer a democratic form of government, represent true patriotism, support our constitution or law and order.  Even in this LDP's current rhetoric about cooperation for transition to the newly elected administration his words are false.  

His promises to continue a drive toward authoritarianism is semi-disguised in a false claim that he is supporting our democracy and constitution.   If this LDP's four years of efforts to undermine American citizens trust in our system of government so we would turn to him as our savior was his expectation, he has failed this time.  Even if he doesn't return to try again later, there will be others who may be much more subtly adept at doing so in the future so we must be on guard.

Countries around the world have witnessed the strength of the majority of our people to preserve our values, democracy, republic, constitution, freedoms and way of life.  They have also seen first-hand our government's weaknesses which we are now especially challenged to rectify.

Those autocratic governments who oppose democracies will attempt to continue belittling and undermining our own.  Surely we have learned we must take much greater care in the future about who we vote into Congress and the White House to represent our nation's values.  We need to monitor well those we vote into governmental offices beginning at our local, county, state, national levels.  We must hold them accountable once in office.

Democracy is fragile as has been dramatically revealed by the end result of this LDP's actions and that of the mob he cultivated for four years.  He has periodically incited, then finally ignited them into an act of insurrection, sedition, a coup attempt.  While he did not succeed, the monied forces behind this leader, using him and he using them, including even those claiming to be religious people of god acting with the atheists, can be expected to continue their efforts to acquire power.

The intent to take over our government persists, to form into their mold in the years ahead -- ultimately jeopardizing individual rights and freedoms as occurs with all authoritarian governments such as Russia, China, North Korea, Iran (theocracy), Saudi Arabia (monarchy), Turkey,  numerous others including various European nations.  History shows us, too, how democracies devolve into autocracies such as occurred in the 1930's culminating in WWII necessitating a desperate but successful effort to preserve some freedom in the world.  

Americans dedicated in actions as well as words to following our constitution as a nation of laws and order in a democratic republic must exercise our responsibility to ensure we keep this system.  We do this by how we conduct our individual lives, tolerate and respect our differences.  None of the authoritarian governments have the individual freedoms we do.  I don't believe any Americans want to give up our freedoms but that would be the result of losing our democracy to such extremists as those who attempted the January 6th coup attempt.

We need to support The Fourth Estate -- our Press -- discern those who follow high journalistic standards to keep us informed with truth, facts.  This means exercising critical thinking to eliminate attending to those who pander in undocumented gossip, conspiracy theories, disinformation, alternate facts, fail to differentiate opinion from actual fact.

We would be wise to take as a grain of salt all we read or hear on social media sites as it is little more than gossip one might hear on any street corner or over the backyard fence -- a mix of fact and fiction, often warped and distorted, that must be later verified for viability through reliable respectable documented sources.  To do otherwise leads to wasting time and effort, confusion, anxiety and false beliefs, often leading some users to ill health from needless worry.  If we choose to focus on such sites with information disseminated unchecked, we do so at our own risk of being misinformed or worse.

Perhaps the day will come when these social media sites claiming they simply offer free speech will become more responsible purveyors of allowing primarily factual truthful information rather than mostly being exploiters of users to enhance their company's bottom line.  These social media sites do seem to have finally made some effort since the Jan. 6th assault on our nation to recognize they bear some responsibility for moderating what is allowed to be dispensed given the influence and power of the medium.  

We must recognize some of us, more than I ever imagined could possibly exist in this country, hold extremist views contrary to the values, beliefs, hopes and goals of our constitution and the majority of American citizens.  We must be ever more vigilant in the years ahead to protecting our democratic freedoms.  To preserve this nation and our rights we must continue to educate ourselves, then vote -- instill in the generations coming after us the critical importance they do the same.

Questions I ask myself and you probably have some of your own .....

--will those responsible for actions and enabling efforts to cripple or to destroy our democratic republic be held accountable?

--will we prevent such horrendous events in the future?

I believe our nation is poised for a golden opportunity to renew our nation's promise with our core ideals for self-government with liberty and equality for all as we seek happiness.