How Democracy Dies

 

Democracy dies when an autocratic demagogue subverts democratic institutions such as the Constitution or the Rule of Law.

Democracy dies when an autocratic leader punishes those who dare to tell the truth and protects those who assist in hiding the truth. 

Democracy dies when the free press, the defender of truth, is called the enemy of the people.  Thomas Jefferson once stated that the free press was essential to a functioning democracy. It is an organic necessity of democracy itself.

Democracy dies when political opponents are labeled human scum and threatened with imprisonment, or worse.

Democracy dies when fear is stoked which leads to the encroachment of extremism into the mainstream of an established political party.

Democracy dies as Nationalism, Racism, and Xenophobia, etc. rise.

Democracy dies when religion and government are intertwined.

Democracy dies when a an autocratic leader appoints friends, associates and family members to government positions and uses governmental power and authority to protect each other from accountability.

Democracy dies when corporate wealth and power are protected and enhanced while labor power is suppressed.  When the rich get richer and the poor get poorer democracy is weakened.

Democracy dies when asylum seeking refugee families, fleeing persecution in their homeland, are turned away or separated, parents from children, and concentration camps are created to house the children.

Democracy dies when the right of people to peacefully protest against injustice is squelched by force and intimidation.

Democracy dies when an autocratic leader lies to the people with such regularity that a large percentage of the people believe the lies, facts become fiction, and,  as Orwell stated it, “war becomes peace, freedom becomes slavery, ignorance becomes strength” in the eyes, hearts and minds of those who follow the leader.

Democracy dies when a large percentage can be lead to believe that free, secure, democratic elections are fraudulent or corrupt.

Democracy dies when a demagogic leader refuses to accept the results of a free, secure election and refuses to abdicate power.

Democracy dies, when in the face of evil, good people become apathetic, stand by, say nothing, do nothing.

 

 

Why Is One Not Like The Others?

An Algebra teacher walks into a classroom at the beginning of the school year....hands out a syllabus and says to the students, “The first test is next Wednesday.  I expect you to pass it.  If you don’t all pass this test it will not be my fault, it will be your fault.  Maybe it will also be your parents fault, because it is up to them to see that you study,  but it won’t be mine.  I take no responsibility for your failures.  Good luck,  you’re on your own so get to it!”  Wednesday comes and everyone fails the exam.  Eventually students and parents complain to the school administration.  The teacher boasts to the administration about his superior teaching methods and he says many people have told him that he is a great teacher.  He says that if the students failed it was because it was due to their lack of effort and inferior ability.  He says he should not be expected to teach algebra to such stupid kids. The teacher is fired.

A football coach holds a team meeting prior to the first scheduled practice, hands out equipment, but there is a shortage of helmets, shoulder pads and mouth guards.  The coach says not to worry, protective equipment is overrated anyway. The coach tells the team, “Here’s the schedule.  We play Central City in two weeks, on the 25th.  I’m expecting you to get yourselves in game condition and I expect you to win that game.  I’ll see you on the 25th!” The night of the game the team is unprepared and they lose 72 to 0.  Seven players are carted off the field with concussions  or shoulder injuries due to lack of proper protective equipment.   The next morning the coach is bragging about the great coaching decisions he made the night before, but blames the loss on the game officials and on the opposing coach for cheating.  Before the next Friday night the coach is fired.

A President of the United States, in the time of a growing, worldwide pandemic deals with the situation in virtually the same way as the teacher and the coach, giving inconsistent directions, or none at all as to how to survive and overcome the disease.  He claims no responsibility and blames others.  He refuses to listen to, or support, the medical experts.  He refuses to supply front line workers with the equipment that they need to protect themselves.  He downplays the threat and boasts of self perceived achievements while more and more people become infected and more and more people die.  He is adored by over one third of the people, and supported by the people with the power to remove him.  The rest of the people have only their fears and anxieties to guide them.

Why is one not like the others?

The Cult of Trumpism

I've been giving this some thought today and I'd like to make a point. I've seen a few memes on Facebook in the last two days, and I've re-posted a couple of them, that deal with this issue of Trump vs Dr. Fauci, asking the question, "Which one do you trust for information regarding the pandemic?" It is amazing to me that there are large number of people who trust Trump to give better factual information on the virus and how to handle the pandemic more than they trust Dr. Fauci to do so.

It would surprise no one that I have tremendous respect for the integrity and the intelligence of Barack Obama. In fact I have had respect for most of the Presidents that have served during my lifetime. Some more, and some less than others, but I can say with complete sincerity that I would not have trusted President Obama or any other President in my lifetime more than I would trust Dr. Fauci or any other medical/science expert to give the best factual information available to proceed with life in our present day situation.

Now we have Trump and the White House staff going after Dr. Fauci trying to convince the American public that Dr. Fauci has been wrong and Trump has been right throughout the ordeal of the last five months or six months and there are many who believe what they are peddling. And so, to me the evidence is clear that we are dealing with cult mentality here.

A cult can be defined as a group of people joined together by a common ideological system fostered by a charismatic leader who has fostered the belief in the followers that "we have the truth and you do not." If you study the more famous cults of recent history, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, Jim Jones and The People's Temple (Jonestown), Marshall Applewhite and Heaven's Gate, several things are clear and consistent, the unyielding loyalty and support for the cult leader, the total rejection of factual information that contradicts the cult leaders message, opposition to critical thinking, belief that they’re being offered solid, absolute answers for questions such as good vs. evil, etc., and an "us' vs "them" mentality.

Again, there is no way that I, or any of my more progressive, liberal leaning friends would ever have taken President Obama's word over Dr. Fauci's word regarding public health information, but today we have, and I know a few personally, people who have rejected the expertise of Dr. Fauci, the Center for Disease Control and other medical and scientific experts while buying totally in to the messages that Trump and his minions are selling. That's why we have diminishing numbers of people wearing masks, increasing numbers of people rejecting social distancing, large gatherings of people not following the guidelines put forth be the real experts, promoting "COVID parties, and who knows what else.

Trumpism is a cult just like the Branch Davidians and the people who drank the Kool Aid at Jonestown. The difference is that it is negatively effecting far more people this time, a whole country. A country that today has 3,506,453 cases of COVID19 and 138,700 related deaths all brought to you by a cult leader, perhaps the most dangerous cult leader of our times.

History Lesson Unlearned

Today I was moved to deliver the following history lesson, since it is a pretty significant day in the history of Europe as well as America.  We faught so long and hard to defeat fascist oppression in Europe and helped to liberate so many souls. I have concluded the lesson with what some might call a “rant” with my own opinions and concerns about the significance of tomorrow’s historical remembrance and just what lessons I think we can learn....or better said....SHOULD HAVE LEARNED...from it.

This past Monday, January 27, marked the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of the notorious Nazi death camp, Auschwitz. Over 1.1 million men, women and children lost their lives there. Auschwitz was one of a network of concentration and death camps operated in Poland by the Nazis during World War II. The first of these was established in 1933 at Dachau shortly after Hitler’s appointment as Germany’s Chancellor. It originally housed political prisoners, those who had opposed the fascist Nazi movement. As time went on more camps were set up for the primary purpose of housing those who were deemed undesirables by the Nazi party, including Jews, homosexuals, foreigners, people of other than German ethnicity, and various types of political prisoners.

The main purpose, originally, for these camps were to incarcerate people whom the Nazi regime perceived to be a security threat. Eventually the camps came to be used to eliminate individuals and small, targeted groups of individuals by murder, away from the public and judicial review, and to exploit forced labor of the prisoner population.

Eventually the Auschwitz complex was built and became part of Hitler’s “Final Solution “. The term “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” was a euphemism used by Nazi Germany’s leaders. It referred to the mass murder of Europe’s Jews. It brought an end to policies aimed at encouraging or forcing Jews to leave the German Reich and other parts of Europe. Those policies were replaced by systematic annihilation which resulted in the death of over one million human beings at that camp alone. It should be duly noted that Auschwitz only played a part in this “final solution”. The Holocaust museum puts the total number of murdered during the Holocaust at 17 million: 6 million Jews and 11 million others, including foreigners, political opponents or dissidents, homosexuals, and people with disabilities.

During the time that these concentration and death camps were being built and, then in full operation,  the vast majority of German citizens continued to go about their daily lives seemingly oblivious to the atrocities being carried out around them. A large majority of them were fully taken in by the lies being told to them about the danger to their way of life that the Jews and other “undesirables” presented.  Hitler’s support among the German citizenry was massive and as it grew no one who opposed it was safe to express their opposition. Hitler would hold rallies regularly to preach his evil agenda to the willing ears of his faithful followers who, because of the fears and resentments that he had stoked within them, began to worship him almost as if he was God. They came to view him as the Savior of the German people.

When I see how the Trump supporters in America today react to the lies that Trump tells them through his tweets and at his rallies, it is easy to be reminded of the lessons I’ve learned from studying the history of the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany. Trump stokes the same fears, resentments and hatred in the hearts and minds of his followers today as Hitler did to the German masses 80 some years ago. Trumps followers, including the most fervently, self proclaimed “Christian” people in the land have bought what he is selling 100%. Some believe he was sent by God to save America’s soul. The blasphemy is astounding to me. The one thing that we have working in our favor is that the percentage of the citizenry in America today who support their tyrannical, demagogic leader, seems to be around 40%, which pales to the 90% of Hitler’s cultish followers.

Still, whether it be 40% or 90%, isn’t it just as evil to support evil in either case? When those first individuals were packed off to Dachau in 1933 the German people seemed either unaware or uncaring, for the most part, and some, I’m sure were in full support. How is that any different than today’s America where we now have, on any given day, over 2,000 children, of all ages, infant on up, separated from their families and housed in concentration camps? Our government is careful to call them detention centers, but history tells us what they really are. Only 40% of our people claim to support Trump, but by my best estimate, based on the blatantly abhorrent lack of outrage and protest against it, over 90% of Americans just... don’t ....care...that this is happening in America, and far too many are in full support of it.

How is that different from Germany 80 plus years ago? The answer is, it is not, it is the same. Shame on us! Are we not better than this? Evidently not! Are we not America, the home of the free and the brave were liberty and justice prevails? The shining city on the hill, and a refuge for those yearning to be free?  Evidently not anymore! If this is what we have become today, what are we to become tomorrow.  I must tell you, it scares the hell out of me and it should you too.

~ Dane Knutson, Progressive, Christian, Patriot.

Keep Your Dobber Up!

One evening in late May of 1962 I had gone with my Dad to watch an amateur baseball  game at Island Park in Windom, Minnesota.  I had just finished my freshman year of High school and about one week earlier I had played my last game of the high school baseball season (Minnesota high schools sponsor a spring baseball season in April and May).  As a freshman I had played centerfield that season on the varsity baseball team, which sounds impressive until you realize that Heron Lake (my hometown) was, and is still, a relatively small community and the junior class that year was completely devoid of athletes.  I don’t remember how many seniors we had, but the majority of the team was made up of freshmen and sophomores.  We didn’t win a lot of games, but we did have fun.  At least, I know I did.  I loved baseball and I had come to love playing centerfield.  At that time in my life I still had dreams of making it to the big leagues someday, and in May of ‘62 I thought I was on my way.

Early that evening I noticed that Dad was talking to a man that I thought I had seen before back in Heron Lake, but I didn’t really know.  A little later my dad and the man walked over to where I was sitting and my dad introduced him to me.  His name was Don Steen. Dad said he was the coach of the Heron Lake American Legion Baseball Team.  Don shook my hand and told me that he had been watching me play that spring and that he was impressed with the way that I played centerfield. He asked if I had planned to play legion ball, as he would like to have me patrolling centerfield that coming summer.  Being a farm boy back in the ‘50s and ‘60s I hadn’t even been aware that Heron Lake had a Legion team.  I’m not even sure that I knew what American Legion baseball was, but I did know that I loved playing baseball and if this was a chance to play all summer long, I was all for it.

That was my introduction to Don Steen, a man who was to have a profound influence on my life.  I played Legion Ball for Don for the next four years.  From Don I learned many things.  Always pay attention, always give your best effort, always run all out to first base, even if it’s a pop fly on the infield because you never know if the ball will be caught, never give up on anything, always throw to the right base, keep your head in the game, and, if you make an error, strike out, or make a bone headed play, “keep your dobber up!”

That was Don’s favorite expression.  “Keep your dobber up”.  It meant shake it off, stay positive and keep your head in the game.  Just think about the life lessons that can be learned from those four little words.

When I turned 18 and graduated from High School my American Legion playing days ended too.  I was off to college that year with plans and dreams to become a teacher and a coach.  One early spring weekend during my freshman year of college I ran into Don and as we talked about my future coaching aspirations he asked me if I would like to consider taking the job as Heron Lake City Recreation Program Director in the coming summer.  It would involve leading the town’s kids in various activities each day, including coaching the “mites” and “midgets”, Heron Lake’s version of Little League Baseball.  He told me that he thought I would be a perfect fit for that job and he emphasized that it wasn’t just because  I wanted to be a coach, but it was also because he felt that I had the right maturity and sense of responsibility to handle the job.  I was pretty shy back then and I had never had anyone tell me such things.  In retrospect, I think Don had the ability to see something in me that, up until then, had been hidden from everyone else.  Don promised to give me as much help and advice along the way as he could, but the day to day job directing the program was mine. 

He also told me that he was going to make me a co-coach of the Legion team, which he did.  There were several times those two seasons when Don would say that he couldn’t make a game or practice due to other commitments and I would have to run the practice or manage the game myself.  That always made me a little nervous because a number of the kids that I was coaching in Legion Baseball had been teammates of mine just a year or two before.  Again, thinking back, I know that Don did that on purpose to just give me those experiences.  The confidence that he showed in me by doing that was priceless.  No one before that had ever put so much trust in me.

Eventually I graduated college and came back to Heron Lake in the summers and played on Heron Lake’s newly formed Amateur team, the Heron Lake Lakers.  I never had enough confidence in my ability to play college baseball, so I never tried, but when the Lakers were formed I felt like giving the game a try again after four full years of not playing organized baseball of any kind.  The first time I stepped into the batter’s box in a Laker’s game I recalled everything about what Don Steen had taught me about hitting.  Hold the bat at about chest level, not too high, only big strong big leaguers can hold the bat high, keep your weight evenly distributed, keep your eye on the ball, when you start to swing stride toward the ball with your lead foot, shift your weight to the back foot, level swing, try to hit it up the middle.  On the second pitch that I saw I hit a line drive past the pitchers ear and into centerfield.  That was my welcome to Amateur baseball.  I played two and a half seasons  with the lakers and hit over .300 each summer batting lead-off and playing mostly at 2nd base.  A younger, faster guy was now patrolling center.

Early in that third summer I decided to go to grad school and eventually met my wife, got married and never played baseball again, but I would see Don from time to time when I’d get back to the Heron lake area.  The last time I saw him he was in his 90’s and in failing health.  I was at the reception after my Nephew Logan’s high school graduation and Don and his wife, Laura (who had been my 7th grade English teacher) were there.  I spent some time talking with them and had a chance to tell him what he had meant to me.  I told him that he was the best coach I had ever had in any sport.  That, though he had been a stickler for details and had been intense and demanding, he had also been positive and encouraging.  I also told him, that at a time in my life when I needed it most, he had encouraged me, supported me and believed in me.  I let him know how grateful I was for that and I am equally grateful that I had that chance to tell him so.

Don passed away due to complications of heart failure Wednesday night, at the age of 93.  Since hearing that news it’s been hard for me to “keep my dobber up”, but I’m giving it an all out effort and I’m trying as hard as I can.

Wake Up and Care Americans!

American's need to wake up, and when they do they need to start caring about what has happened to this country. Our Democratic Republic stood for well over two hundred years, but in recent times the democratic principles upon which it was built have eroded faster than the polar ice caps. There is no democracy when our congressional, two party system functions only as the paid servants of the moneyed interests that control them, and there is no democracy when the voice of the people falls on the deaf ears of the people that were elected to represent them.

America has become an oligarchy, run by the NRA, the Pharmaceutical Industry, The Military-Industrial Complex, the Banks and Financial Institutions on Wall Street, and a few others. 

When our founding fathers established the United States of America back in 1776, they established America as a Democratic Republic. Central to the Constitution that they created was a system of representative government. A system in which people elect their lawmakers (representatives), who are then held accountable to them for their activity within government. Representative government has, from that time onward, been widely accepted as the only practicable form of democracy.  The key is that the elected officials in a Democratic Republic are to be held accountable to the people who elected them.  In other words, they are to represent the needs and the desires of those people.

Clearly that is not happening in America today, and I'll give you a few examples.  Let's take the whole issue of gun control.  As I stated earlier, the NRA is one of the moneyed interests that are currently running this country by buying off politicians.  Here's why I say that.  According to the NRA's own figures, the NRA has a current membership of approximately 5 million people.  The adult population (people over the age of 18) of the United States in 2016 was approximately 250 million.  So the NRA membership, if you do the math, represents around 2% of the adult voting population.  According to a 2017 Quinnipiac poll 68% of Americans favor a ban on assault rifles in America and 74% say that Congress needs to do more to prevent gun violence.  So why is there absolutely no Congressional action ever taken to curb gun violence by our Congress, even after mass shooting upon mass shooting?  Why aren't our elected representatives acting on the needs and desires of the majority of the very people who elected them? Could it be the millions of dollars that the NRA distributes to those representatives each year (98% of which goes to Republicans) to protect the interests of the NRA?  You bet it does....and that's not democracy.  When an organization that represents just 2% of the voting population dictates the laws of the land by buying off the people who were elected to represent the majority, we do not have a functioning Democratic Republic anymore.  Not at all what the founding fathers had intended.

The pharmaceutical industry is another one of the major moneyed interests that are really running this country these days.  In America we have the highest health care costs in the world and much of it is due to the extremely high cost that we pay for medications.  I can vouch for this myself as I currently take a medication for Crohn's disease that retails for approximately $1800 for a one month supply.  Being on Medicare I currently only have to pay just under $700 per month, out of pocket, for that medication.  Big bargain?  Not when you realize that in Canada, or Mexico, or anywhere in Europe, that very same drug retails for under $250 without health insurance.  With health insurance in those countries it is virtually cost fee to the consumer. 

It's easy to understand, then, why in America medical expenses account for approximately 62 percent of personal bankruptcies, according to a recent Harvard University study. We are the only modern, industrialized, technologically advanced country in the world without a universal health care system despite all of the studies that show that universal health care works great with much lower cost to individuals and to the respective governments of Canada, Australia and virtually all of Europe.  Additionally, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducted on June of 2017, 57 Percent of Americans favor a Medicare for all type of health care system.  Why are health care costs so high here and why, if the majority of Americans favor a move toward universal health care, are we not moving in that direction in the United States Congress?  Could it be the huge amounts of lobbying money that big pharma puts into the pockets of our elected officials in exchange for allowing them to continue to profit off of our sick and elderly populations.  You bet it is!

We can begin the process of taking our country back by voting out the vermin in Congress this November. Do some research and then make informed voting choices on election day. Research the campaign contributions made to our elected "officials", and don't vote for anyone who has taken large sums of money from the NRA, Big Pharma or Wall Street Bankers, etc. Start writing letters to those "officials" and let them know what you plan to do in November. Urge them to support legislation to overturn "Citizen's United", the Supreme Court decision that has allowed this oligarchy to take root. (If you are not familiar with Citizen's United...Google it...now!) Make the voice of the people rise up again. Don't ignore what's happening anymore and don't let them ignore you anymore. 

All that it takes for evil to win is for good people to say and do nothing. That is more true today than ever before. That's why we're in the shape that we're in today. That's why America is no longer the "shining city on the hill", the beacon of liberty, the most respected Democracy on the planet. The rest of the world is watching. It's time to restore Democracy. Now! In 2018. You can't just "sit this one out". This is WAY too important.

Support Peaceful Protest - Support America

 "What makes America great is peaceful protests and exercising your constitutional rights."   -  Mathew Dowd


The current person who holds the highest office in the land wants to make saluting the flag and standing for the National Anthem mandatory.  Here are some countries, past and present, that enforce(d) such a rule: Nazi Germany;  The Empire of Japan (WWII vintage);   The U.S.S.R.;  The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (That's North Korea if you are unaware of their official title); The People's Republic of China.  This is just a partial list.  

What else do they have in common besides compulsory obedience to their flag?  They are all totalitarian governments, some fascist, some communist.  Their people have no freedom and they pay a heavy price for non compliance.  Is this what we want for America?  I believe Trump does and he has given so many indications in the last nine months that this is the kind of America that he seeks.  His insistence that NFL players stand for the flag and anthem is just the latest and just as egregious, if not more-so, than the others.  

Our Constitution guarantees the right to free speech and peaceful protest.  And, never forget that our country was created out of protest and made greater along the way by brave patriots who were courageous enough to stand up to injustice. 

Instead of channeling our anger toward those who protest against injustice should we not be directing it toward those who would take their right to protest away?  Should we not, as  citizens of a, still free, nation be listening to their call for justice, seeking to understand their grievances and joining them in seeking ways to alleviate them?   If we truly believe in liberty and justice for all, as stated in the Pledge of Allegiance, can we, should we, just ignore the oppression of any individual citizen or group of citizens in this nation?

I keep hearing from those who tend to be a bit too caught up in nationalistic mentality, the kind that believes in the "my country right or wrong" mantra,  that the athletes who are protesting are playing a game and making millions of dollars doing it.  Why should they protest?  The people who question this just don't get it. The athletes protesting are not doing so for themselves, they are representing a race of people who have been oppressed in this country since before it was a country.  Recent events, many detailed in news accounts and on social media,  have shown that the progress that we once thought we had made in ending racial discrimination has regressed dramatically.  Perhaps we never did make any progress at all. As representatives of people of color in this country these athletes, because of their fame and notoriety,  have some influence that others might not have to call attention to these injustices, and they have stepped up to do so. 

We must respect the rights of those who would "take a knee".  To do otherwise is to disrespect the rights of any citizen to speak freely and protest any grievance peacefully.  We can either do this or we can follow Trump's lead and move closer and closer to becoming a totalitarian state.  We can go one direction or the other,  we cannot go both ways.