End of an Era

We all pretty much want the same things. Peace and a safe nest within which to feed and raise our children to be self-supporting moral adults. This is now, forever has been and forever will be.

Four-hundred years ago, in 1620 Pilgrims fleeing an English King and his enabling Priests abandoned everything but their culture to flee first to Holland, where they were free to practice their religion but soon found Dutch culture too different, then on a leaky ship named Mayflower to what is now The United States of America.

They were seeking peace; economic freedom and freedom to worship in ways that brought them solace and joy. Before coming ashore each Pilgrim signed the Mayflower Compact which defined Protestant Work Ethic.

Each man was free to own property and to benefit from his worthy
endeavors and frugality. They set the stage by electing leaders
and pastors from among themselves.

It was from Pilgrims our Founding Fathers inherited a culture based on Protestant work ethic and freedom of religion. As population grew in the New World it became necessary for the thirteen colonies to unite, formalize relationships and separate from England. First they wrote the Declaration of Independence, then they won the Revolutionary War.

They were cynics. Having just sacrificed everything to win the war men from thirteen independent colonies, who had just united to win the war reverted to selfish prewar behaviors. Distrust of human behavior is why our Founding Fathers created an independent Executive, an independent Congress and independent Supreme Court. Each branch is supposed to check and balance bad behavior in the other two branches.

The Constitution of The United States of America is Liberal in that all male citizens were allowed to participate, democratic because all free men were allowed to vote, a republic wherein citizens elected senators to represent them instead of having to attend congress in person to represent themselves. They did not want a King like the one they had just shed.

"A republic, if you can keep it" replied Benjamin Franklin when asked what form of government Founding Fathers birthed during the 1787 Constitutional Convention. "If we can keep it" is what every American should now be asking themselves right now.

The 2024 election campaign was a contest of opposites. Conservatives, want to continue improvement of the republic inherited from Founding Fathers and campaigned on "Joy and freedom for everyone to become the best they can be". MAGA (Make America Great Again), wanting to replace our republic with a plan named Project 2025, campaigned on "Hate and retribution". MAGA won.

Most nations are governed by Dictators and that is a MAGA goal.

Dictators physically claim political power, and mystical validation from whatever god they worship that it is their right to rule. Dictators dominate by controlling what people know, concentrate power around them self, eliminate fair elections, force people to do exactly as ordered, use surveillance to oppress resistance and use civilian police and soldiers to suppress dissent.

Campaigning to be President MAGA told everyone "I only want to be a Dictator for one day" and told Christian Nationalists that if they elected him "You won't have to vote anymore". The MAGA transition team is at work today to politicize courts, quiet the press and reward favored oligarchs.

MAGA plans to throw out the most valuable inheritance
any nation ever received.

The United States of America flourished like no other nation ever has because its Protestant work ethic based liberal democratic republic government frees everyone to make their dreams come true by becoming the very best they can be. If MAGA has his way this nation's liberal democratic republic government will be replaced by an autocracy with him as Dictator.

Americans have always coexisted with rapacious oligarchs, fascists, white and Christian nationalists, communists and other religious zealots of all stripes. Until now miscreants were controlled by Republican and Democrat statesmen, businessmen and were quietly made irrelevant by mainstream religious leaders. Not this time.

Republicans embraced MAGA because they wanted to win. Angry voters were motivated by MAGAs Hate and retribution message so Republicans that wanted to win caught the same fever. That our unique governance system fathered an economic colossus twice the size of the second largest economy (China), recovered faster and with less disruption from the Covid-19 Pandemic and economic collapse than all other nations, and was best at controlled inflation, was one reason angry citizens voted for MAGA.

Flaunted income inequality always eventually creates social unrest. While median 2023 household income grew to more than $80,000; a 4% increase over 2022, that was not enough. While families with incomes exceeding $100k were able to live well families making less were angry because they were having a hard time paying their bills. They wanted change and MAGA was their only other choice.

Wealthy businessmen embraced MAGA. He listens to them because he needs their money. They voted for him, and financed his campaign, because he has promised to remove limiting government regulations freeing them to do whatever they want to do and to lower their taxes so they can become wealthier.

Two different religious groups embraced MAGA. Catholic led Heritage Foundation drafted Project 2025, MAGA has confirmed that is the governance plan they intend to implement so they have embraced MAGA. Evangelicals support MAGA for reasons like believing he is reincarnate Jesus to believing he is a strong warrior who will mandate everyone adhere to their dogma.

Project 2025 is about much more than religion.

Trump and many Republicans speak admiringly of President for Life Viktor Orban of Hungary melding religion and government into an "illiberal democracy". Project 2025 details replacement of all civil servants with political appointees loyal to MAGA, establishment of a "warrior board" of retired military officers to replace military officers more loyal to The Constitution than to MAGA, probably because among others General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff helped thwart MAGA's first attempted coup.

Culture is invisible. Living within a Protestant work ethics based liberal democratic republic has shaped what people living here consider "normal". Americans have created the most dynamic economy in the world, and are among the most religious people in the world, because our way of life made it possible for them to do that. Americans believe working hard with honesty will result in them earning rewards they value.

Living in a land of equals we consider everyone equal in the eyes of God and we bow down to no one. We consider it our right to earn enough money, food and goods to care for our families. Americans are like that.

We believe anyone should be able to benefit from the profitability of honest entrepreneurship. Americans are like that.

Americans believe owning property is a way to accumulate wealth. Americans are like that even though investors have increased the cost of housing and rent so much it is a difficult goal for middle-class Americans to attain.

Pilgrims wrote laws everyone was expected to obey, chose police to enforce those laws and hired educated judges to legally resolve disputes. Americans are like that.

MAGA represents a culture entirely different
from that created by Pilgrims, advanced by Founding Fathers
and enshrined in The Constitution of the United States of America.

Conservative me values honesty, entrepreneurship, selfless service, expertise, equal opportunity, freedom of religion and equal administration of law. MAGA morality looks like the sort of people MAGA is choosing for his cabinet.

The ideal Cabinet Member is an ignorant, self-assertive, combative, vengeful man whose only job is to say "Yes" to the boss. He is a self-loathing man who revels at scorning the elite and goes out of his way to show his contempt for them. He is a man with contempt for traditional democratic institutions.

Scandal-shrouded nominees are best Cabinet Members because being loathed by polite society they are not going to write a tell-all memoir, or bash the administration because it is unlikely they have anywhere else to go. A scandal-shrouded Cabinet member is not going to care if he is scorned by competent civil servants who staff the agency he has been hired to dismantle. In MAGA world norms and rules that counsel and enforce propriety, restraint and deference to institutional authority are vices, flouting them is considered a virtue.

There is a lot to lose. Because our governance system works we take it for granted that our electrical power grid is dependable, that we can safely drink water that flows from faucets, that we can travel to and fro without being robbed, that we will not be stopped by police and made to pay them bribes and that anyone willing to conform to minimal cultural norms has a safe place to live and enough food to eat. This is a nation so rich even poor people get fat.

Our liberal democratic republic is fragile. A liberal democracy, where everyone gets to vote, is always susceptible to takeover by a charismatic charlatan who knows how to entertain and enthrall the electorate. John Adams, second President of The United States and a man very involved in designing our government, was Ambassador to England in 1787 and missed the Constitutional Convention during which our Founding Fathers created The Constitution of The United States of America. In a letter he wrote "Remember, democracy never lasts long, it soon wastes, exhaust and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

Complacency is dangerous. Most citizens are too busy taking care of personal affairs to pay attention to public affairs, and government services are easy to take for granted as long as there are few complaints or delays because government offices are staffed with competent public servants who provide good customer service. It is important to remain vigilant.

Elections have consequences. After the 2017 White Supremacist riot in Charlottesville Economist Researchers found only about one in five Americans pays serious attention to politics. Most Americans consider political news nothing more than a boring reality show. Others considered political news no different than watching a football game that ends with winners and losers.

We must do a better job of responding to voter needs,
making sure they know they have been heard,
and that their needs are being addressed.

MAGA may become our first Dictator. This was MAGAs second attempted coup. Mussolini, Hitler, Castro and Chavez also led failed first attempts then used what they learned to launch a successful second coup, became Dictators for life and left most of their followers destitute or dead.

Project 2025 is the plan. MAGA is encircling himself with political appointees eager to bring Project 2025 to life and more loyal to him than to the Constitution.

Checks and Balances may not hold. The Supreme Court is stacked with a majority of Heritage Foundation Judges who believe in a "Unified Executive" (Dictator) and have ruled the President is above the law as long as in office and performing executive functions.

MAGA will be the first President of the United States
to have Supreme Court authorized Dictatorial power.

Republicans control both Congressional houses. Since Party members usually vote as a unified block this may nullify the ability of Congress to Check Executive or Supreme Court excesses. At this stage the Senate's rule that two-thirds of the entire body must agree before a Bill can be considered is the only Check still in place.

Abraham Lincoln echoed John Adam's suicidal sentiment seven decades later when he said "Never, all the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up among us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves, must be its author and its finisher. As a nation of free men, we must live through all time … or die by suicide."

It is quite possible our 237 year-long Protestant work ethic
based liberal democratic republic government will
be replaced by a Dictatorship. If that happens
we will have done it to ourselves.