It May Already Be Too Late
Do you ever visit a place in which you lived, or maybe visit where you grew up, only to not fully recognize the place anymore? This has been happening all too often lately. During my last visit to San Francisco, a place I lived for many years, I realized I could never live there again—at least not in its current state. Same thing happened when visiting New Mexico. These places, and many others, have changed so much as to not give off “this is home” vibes anymore.
As I’ve had these thoughts, I wonder is it the fact these cities have changed, or is it me that has changed, grown older, grown wiser, sought more stability? In reality it is both me and each city that has changed. I’ve changed in that I will no longer tolerate living in a place with high crime rates, where the cost of living is astronomical, not in an un-inviting energy.
I also don’t want to live in a place anymore in which good government doesn’t exist. Where social services are extremely lacking. Where people and neighbors don’t want to get to know one another. Sadly, I’m not sure there are too many places left in which one isn’t thrust into one or all of the above circumstances. These circumstances make me wonder how we’ve gotten to where we are nationally and locally.
A couple of weeks ago I think I may have found the answer to my wonderings.
While scrolling through my social media a month of so ago, I came across a post in which a book was mentioned, Saving Democracy. As you know, I’m a fan of saving democracy so I had to find out more about this book. Turns out the author, David Pepper, has written several books and is a Buckeye like me. In seeing his other books, I decided to get two of them, the one above and the one before it, Laboratories of Autocracy. It is the latter that I started reading since it was the first of the two. Let me tell you, I’ve read many enlightening, maddening, and downright frightening books about the direction of our great country towards its downfall as a democratic republic. Laboratories has been one that hits all three of those buttons.
Pepper leads the reader, using Ohio as an example, of how, while many of us worry about what is happening at the federal level, it is actually the state level we should be most worried about. Think Florida, think Texas, think Georgia, Arkansas, North Dakota, Iowa, North and South Carolina, Louisiana, Idaho, and so many more. Many of these states mentioned have always had a less than stellar culture in terms of taking care of all of their citizens, but it has gotten worse. Worse in states that used to be, using the media label, purple. There was a nice mix of Republican and Democrats in office overseeing the well-being of Ohioans in the not too distant past. But, no more!
When I lived there, the schools were pretty good overall, lots of industry and jobs, vibrant downtowns in towns big and small, people got along and watched out for one another for the most part, and legislators mostly passed laws to help and were held accountable if they got out of line.
This has all changed. A gradual slide into one of those, what the hell happened, kind of change. Schools are abysmal in their expectations and student achievement, with funding at very low levels. Private education forces are raiding the coffers with no accountability, and apparently a lot of “legal” kickbacks to politicians. Social services are down causing more people to live on the streets with little supports to help lift them back up to more than survival mode. Industries have left with no supports either privately or publicly to help displaced workers. Opioid usage has increased dramatically (no where else have I traveled where signs of who to call regarding drugs are along the roads). Ohio has become a place where big money means more than serving constituents, bringing about the fall of a once powerhouse of a state, a once leading state to one in which many of quality of life indicators rank at or near the bottom.
What happened you ask? The hunger for power and money caused too many Ohio politicians or power/money greedy people to run for office backed by people with so much money they believe themselves to be gods. That the common good is a lost cause, but pillaging a state for all its worth is now the goal.
These “gods” wanted to redraw district maps such that only certain people would ever be elected again and they have achieved that goal. The districts aren’t even competitive; they are to the point where once you’re in, you’re in until you decide to not be in. It is rigged so badly that good people, even if they wanted to run, don’t because it is such a lost cause with the excessive gerrymandering and shapes of districts. With state legislators having the true power, especially when the gerrymandering ensures a super majority that can overrule a veto by a governor with ease, they believe they can do what they want with no accountability. Which, so far, has proven to be correct.
Gerrymandered districts allow for politicians to be accountable to no one, no one that is except their rich benefactors to whom they let the rich, through their power of money, have the spoils of a state—Ohio in this case. There is no accountability because even if an entity or agency with oversight abilities tries to exercise accountability measures, the legislators just change the laws to take that power away, thus allowing for corruption in perpetuity. And since the state legislators get to redraw district maps after each census, as a supermajority, and having written laws to give themselves even more power, the ability by those who want to change the system, to bring back democratic rule, is almost a lost cause. It’s a never-ending cycle of legalized corruption and a “democratic” autocracy because elections still happen. With elections being held, it provides the illusion, as it does in Russia and other autocracies, that the people have put their state representatives and senators in office over and over again, when really, the outcome was already decided before a single vote was cast.
It can be easy to fall into the trap they want, one of feeling it is hopeless, nothing can be done so why even try. As author and expert on how authoritarians come to power, Timothy Snyder (On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century), says, “Don’t obey in advance.” Don’t give up as this is what they want us to do—give up, feel hopeless, not vote, believe it is what it is and will never change. That is obeying in advance.
I truly believe if we, the every day common people, vote as one to save democracy, we can save democracy. But, to do so, we have to give up the notion of a perfect candidate as there is no such thing. No one person, even the president, has the power to change everything unilaterally. They can influence, especially when the public wants something bad enough, but not unilaterally change things. We can take back our statehouses and bring back civility, collaboration, and people who truly care about serving the PEOPLE, not the rich oligarchs.
Many people believe what happened in Europe during WWII, or what happened in Russia, or in China, can’t happen here.
My friends, it has already happened here, just not at a national scale (yet)!
There is still time, but not much, to change things around to preserve our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Essentially to live a good life in which we get to make the choices about how we want to legally (and for some who don’t mind the consequences, illegally) in our country.
November is coming. Local, state, and national elections are coming. Good candidates are battling bad candidates. Those who believe in democracy and those that don’t who are on the ballot. If you don’t want someone to more fully dictate how you live your life, who controls your body, and who tells you what to believe, when to believe, and how to believe, then you’ve got to get your soul to the polls. You’ve got to vote Democrats into office, from dog catcher to President. To do otherwise will cause our already rough and challenging lives to become even more rough and challenging for those of us in the 99%. This does mean that all of us have to come together as one to send a message to those who are up to no good that we are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!
I invite you to join me in the cause for democracy. Vote! Vote Blue! Vote for Democracy and Freedom.
See you at the polls!
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 