Okay, I cannot be inactive anymore.
I am, by virtue of Official Proclamation and my intelligent, enthusiastic, decision, a citizen of the United States of America. I have the Authenticated hard copies. I am also an expat. I am domiciled in the country of my birth, my native parentage, and my early upbringing.
As an expatriate I am watching, in helpless horror as my country is being transformed from the homeof the free, and the land of opportunity, (because, y’know, all men are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights), into a citadel for the religious oligarchy and their might is right theology.
That finger pointed, I must admit that my inaction has played a part in that ascendancy. Prior to 2016 I simply ignored the doings of the body politic. OH, I made time for the process of voting in the quadrennial presidential dance, but, didn’t pay much, or any attention, to the down ballot candidates; a cursory glance at party affiliation, biased towards the Democrat and Independent parties. This, as it turns out was an inattention of monumental proportions. Evidence of that inattention is in the makeup of the Legislative, Executive, and sadly, the Supreme Court of the United States. That inattention, predicated on a delicacy in bringing religion into the public discourse that inconvenient truth was left unattended. I paid little, not to say scant, attention to the holier-than-thou proclamations made by faith infused candidates in their candidature for offices ranging from small town mayor to local and state legislatures. This, as it turns out, is akin to ignoring the red light blinking a warning that systems necessary for the efficient functioning of a complex machine are in need of maintenance and care. The, I’ll deal with it when I get a chance impulse can, and often enough does, mandate the need for expensive repairs, or sometimes, replacement. Both options expensive, hurtful, and with remedies that can take decades to be effective.
The vulgar crowd is taken in by appearances, Machiavelli opined. And on Nov 5th 2024 a sufficiency of the American electorate elected a whole slew of vulgarians into the halls of governance. Across the height, the length, the breadth, and the depth of the land, that electoral sufficiency, pastored by Prosperity Gospel spouting opportunists, a particular segment of the Christian faith preferring symbol to substance, found an idol, a golden idol, in Donald Trump. More importantly that blind faith segment also elected into the Offices of Governance acolytes of that gospel found in Donald Trump as useful an idiot as could be pra…hoped for.
The result of all of this, as separated from the headline grabbing ones, is that Religion, Corporate Religion, is dismantling the wall the Constitution of the United States built between the Church and the State. A sensible, well considered decision given the role religion has played in every conflict in the history of homo not-so sapient. In fact, when reviewing the efficacy of the Constitution in its initial adoption and making the adjustments necessary the People realized that it needed to be made clear that the imposition of personal faith could not be a part of governance. The importance of that reasoning is manifest in the fact that the very first amendment to the Constitution that constrained the Government from the establishment of any religion. This constraint has been adopted by every state in the Federation; in short guaranteeing the Right to the freedom of worship, or, not worship, as one chooses.
So, is the United States of America on its way to becoming a theocracy Are we, the American people to be governed by Divine Edicts as interpreted and broadcast by folks who hear voices that tell them what to do? I note that some of those folks have gods whose voices are terrible. Voices that threaten and in the blood soaked history, past and present, of theocracies, actuated. Is this the future for my granddaughter? Is this the consequence of my ignoring the local political tides?
The damage Trump and his manipulators and enablers – read, the Republicans in both the House and the Senate – are doing to the Constitution of my country bodes ill for the future and it could well be my fault.
