Cynicism in the Time of Covid-19

The cynicism on display during this crisis has been truly illuminating, and horrifying, to observe. Not only from Trump himself, seemingly more interested in campaigning and touting his ratings, settling some grudges, providing false information and a sunnier picture than reality - but across his administration, the conservative media and far too much of the Republican Party in general. To wit:

1. Texas, Arkansas and Ohio, among others, have tried to use the Covid-19 crisis to make abortions practically illegal: The Guardian
2. And these states and others run by a GOP Governor ignored the crisis or actively fought against doing what was necessary, killing 100s, or maybe ultimately 1000s, including in Mississippi (The New Yorker).
3. The Trump administration, without any real justification, is further gutting environmental regulations during the crisis: Reuters. 
4. In a similar vein, they are pushing to get the Keystone Pipeline XL started again while protesters are stuck inside: NPR. 
5. Speaking of protesters in general, legislation continues to be pushed to make protesting itself illegal - a trend that started before the Coronavirus crisis. And many in the GOP are trying to use it to further suppress the vote, as in Wisconsin, with the absurd choice now facing citizens of the state - vote and risk my life or let others decide my fate: TNR. 
6. Betty Devos decided now is a great time to try to again push school privatization, underly the newly minted micrograms program (aka vouchers): NPR.
7. The Trump administration plans to pull out of the Open Skies Treaty, one safeguard to avoid war between the West and Russia: The Guardian.
8. Businesses, who had their biggest tax cut ever less than three years ago, were given more by Republicans who also get oversight of the huge amounts of money they gave to big corporations during the Coronavirus stimulus, should not be overseen by Congress. And, as one could have predicted, Wall Street is again sucking at the government teat they otherwise hate so much (The Nation). 
9. Many individuals and businesses have shown community spirit by going out of their way to help those in need. At the same time, price gouging on online sales sites has been so bad eBay eliminates the sale of anything with Coronavirus in the title and Amazon has had to suspend tons of seller accounts and items. There are also ongoing investigations across the country about scammers claiming cures: The Guardian. Of course, Trump himself could very well end up on the list. 
10. Some Republicans, capitalizing on their penchant for rewriting history to serve their interests, actually used the narrative that “Democrats were impeaching Trump when the Coronavirus was spreading” to do some heavy fundraising: TNYRB. 
11. The right-wing media, who has been pretty consistently horrible throughout the crisis, now seems to have a target aimed at the back of the only voice of reason in the administration at present: The New Yorker. 
12. Maybe most troubling of all, the Supreme Court today voted 5 to 4 to allow Wisconsin to overrule their own governor and a Circuit Court and allow the election to go forward , essentially asking people to risk their lives if they want to vote (The New Yorker). As the Nation argues, this could be the latest parry in the Republican plan to essentially steal the election later this year by suppressing the vote as much as possible, as they did four years ago and have been doing for at least 50 years: The Nation. 
13. But to make it a baker’s dozen, it has just been revealed that Trump has a business interest in the company that produces hydroxychloroquine, the unproven “miracle drug” he’s been pushing on the American people: Salon.

These are just 13 examples of the endemic cynicism and corruption at the heart of the conservative movement and corporate culture today and really a signal to anyone paying attention that there is a better way forward for the country, its political institutions, healthcare, economic structure and general collective conscious. Will we heed the call to change? 

Trump Will Always Be Trump

While Trump has finally taken some steps to address the Covid-19 crisis, realizing his reelection depends on it, he can’t help reverting to form, as he did in the press conference today. Just a few examples of the good ole Trump unable to cover up his tendencies:

1. Thought not as explicitly as he has in recent days, he still blamed China for covering up information that could have got our doctors there (though one wonders if that would have happened anyway). China, by the way, is saying the virus started here, which seems highly unlikely. But a war of words and pushing blame onto others, as Trump is want to do on a regular basis, does nothing to actually alleviate the problem. 
2. Attacking reporters, and NBC and “Con”cast in particular, thus delegitimating the very institution that could keep people informed and acting appropriately. He then went on, along with others who took to the podium, to excoriate them for the “fake news” they spread, from an administration that has spouted lies, among other things about the novel coronavirus itself, at historic levels. 
3. Blaming the Obama Administration for not preparing them, even as the Washington Post reported two years ago that the Trump Administration disbanded the task force and folded it into another department (WP) probably watering it down in the process. It is, of course, his obsession with Obama that led us down the path to him eventually becoming President but one wonders what it is, exactly, he has against the man beside a small slight many years ago. In a broader sense, has there ever been a President who has gone out of his way to spend so much time blaming his predecessor? Even Obama, who had every reason to do so, did not!
4. Congratulating himself and his administration on multiple occasions for the great work they are now doing, even though his ignorant refusal to admit the looming crisis made it substantially worse (WP2).
5. Again taking the opportunity to talk about immigrants and the ways we will quickly send them out of the country to anywhere that will take them (okay, a bit of an exaggeration, but it was interesting to hear him talk inaccurately about what is happening at the moment).
6. Undermining doctors and his own expert in claiming the very preliminary anecdotal evidence that a malaria drug might work both to mitigate the effects of the virus for those who already have it and potentially even block it in others is now a viable solution to the problem, which fits the administrations anti-science discourse from the first days of his presidency.
7. Go out of his way to call the Senators who cashed in on preinformation of the Coronavirus threat by selling stocks “honorable people,” and making sure the public knew one of them was a Democrat. 

There were other examples throughout, but the point is that this is the most unpresidential President in history and a stain on our collective history that hopefully people will start to see for who he really is. Of course, they should have been able to see it almost four years ago, so maybe my hope is misplaced. But a boy can dream …

Romney Deification Just Slightly Overblown?

Not too long ago it was the posthumous encomiums to George Bush, who one shouldn't forget gave us his son, that spread across far too much of the mainstream media. Earlier it was the son who found renewed respect after what was, arguably, the worst presidency in history. Now the love affair for conservatives not quite as bad as Trump has spread to Mitt Romney for an op ed that stated the obvious with some pretty serious caveats segments of the media seem to be ignoring. So let's, as George Michael used to say, go to the "video tape." 

“It is not that all of the president’s policies have been misguided,” he wrote. “He was right to align U.S. corporate taxes with those of global competitors, to strip out excessive regulations, to crack down on China’s unfair trade practices, to reform criminal justice and to appoint conservative judges. These are policies mainstream Republicans have promoted for years. But policies and appointments are only a part of a presidency.”

Then the critique so many loved began. But lest us forget that this is the guy who is essentially part of the same cabal. Maybe a little more seasoned and polished, but still someone who took 1000s of jobs to feed the Wall Street machine, who pushes the same pro-corporate agenda that has squeezed the middle class and increased poverty. The same one who continues to try to stuff the courts with conservative ideologies who no longer even pretend to not be "activist" judges litigating our private and public lives. And who ramped up the anti-immigrant rhetoric that had largely disappeared from the mainstream of the party with the turn of the new century (at least his omission of a critique of this component of Trump made sense).

So let's respect that someone is willing to stand up to Trump who happens to be a Republican not retiring from the Senate or dying, but forgo the overly exuberant veneration of that conservative, particularly when we disagree with almost everything he stands for ... just a thought. 

Facts vs. "Trump Truth:" Polling Data

Classy Trump decided the funeral of President Bush (I) was the perfect day to tout his new approval rating: 

Beyond the poor taste, of course, is the reality that his approval ratings are not even close to 50%. “The president is citing a poll from @Rasmussen_Poll, which said that Republicans would win the popular vote for the U.S. House,” said FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver, who once described Rasmussen as “biased.” “Instead, Democrats won it by 9 points.” (WP)

According to FiveThirtyEight, which has been updating its calculation of the president’s approval rating from all major polls, Trump’s aggregate approval rating is around 42 percent, as of Wednesday. The aggregate average is almost the same on RealClearPolitics, where Trump is at about 43 percent, according to polling conducted between Nov. 14 and Tuesday.

Fact vs. "Trump Truth": Immigration Edition

As is the new normal on an almost daily basis over the past two years, there is the truth and the then the "truth" as told through the heavily refracted lens of Trump and his supporters' magic alternative reality universe (the Washington Post has kept a helpful running tally for the less truth adverse amongst us: Counter). As a new feature to the blog, I will occasionally highlight the large chasm that currently exists between the two:

The respected, non-profit Pew Research Institute has come up with a new study that shows the lowest levels of "illegal immigrants" in a decade, in 2016, with the steepest decline coming from the much-discussed border with Mexico: Pew

On the same day this report was released, we hear from Trump that he has a Plan B if Congress fails to authorize the $5 billion he is requesting to build his wall. This comes on top of the unnecessary dispatch of troops to the border to help Republicans in the just past election, fake stories about the caravan being led by conservative bete noire George Soros, absurd claims about caravan child grabbers, and the general fear mongering that appears to have little relationship to the reality that less people are coming to the U.S. these days (including foreign students and tourists, if you hadn't heard).  

Gun Violence in America

It is extraordinary sometimes to consider how easily ideology gets in the way of the collective future of our children. Whether it's global warming, educational funding, excessive corporate power, insane governmental debt or, of course, gun control, the ideological firmaments that many refuse to pass blind them to the effects their actions not only have on children in general but even their own.

Exhibit A in this myopic worldview is current debates around gun control and those inured to their position on the premise that no legislation, as benign as it might be, should pass to address the alarming increase in mass shootings over the past two decades. To wit, is the latest numbers from the Washington Post showing that over 200,000 students have been touched by gun violence since the Columbine shooting in 1999. Here is a visual representation of that reality (each dot is 10 students, click on image to enlarge).

Democracy in Retreat

Trump and the Republican Congress continue to abrogate their responsibility to actually represent the people who elected them by passing, or trying to pass, extremely unpopular legislation. This was true of the Obamacare overhaul that fell only one vote short, the tax cut for the wealthy that passed last month and now the attempt to dismantle the Dream Act, that has caused the government shutdown we are currently mired in ...

To be fair, the majority of Americans are not supportive of either Trump or the Republican-led Congress, but that is little salve for the majority of Americans suffering through the first year of this dysfunctional, Russian-sponsored, administration. 

The Rampant Cynicism at the Heart of the GOP

As we near a potential constitutional crisis over the alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives, the Republicans are trying to shove through a tax bill that hurts the vast majority of Americans to help a chosen few. Together with earlier failed attempts at healthcare “reform,” their complicity in Trump’s attack on our environment and democracy and the shoving through of cabinet members clearly unqualified to run the agencies they now do, this latest bill lays bare the cynicism at the heart of the Republican party today, not only on the fringes but straight through to the mainstream and even more moderate members.

The bill cuts Medicaid, which provides healthcare to poor children and adults, by over $1 trillion over the next 10 years (costing 15 million Americans their insurance). It cuts Medicare, which provides healthcare to the elderly, by $473 billion. And it includes huge cuts to education, nutrition programs, affordable housing and transportation (of approximately $200 billion). And why? To give tax cut to our wealthiest citizens and corporations still hording their record profits, rather than passing them on to their employees. Eighty percent of the cuts go to the top 1 percent of wage earners and a full 40 percent of that to the top 0.1 percent. This includes ending the alternative minimum tax, which will hand $400 billion in tax cuts to that group, and repealing the estate tax yet again (handing $240 billion to the the richest .02%). And it gives another huge handout to corporations (cutting the corporate rate from 35 to 20 percent, which translates to $2 trillion in lost revenue they then have to make up), many that pay little to no taxes to begin with. The middle class? They might actually see a tax rise.

Remember that healthcare bill that would have taken health insurance away from about 32 million Americans and only failed by a single vote? This bill is much worse. It is symptomatic of a party that has ceased to cultivate any new ideas or substantive policies beside lowering taxes on the rich, cutting services to the poor and serving the interests of corporate America, no matter at what cost to the environment, workers, our children or our collective future.

With each of the bills introduced by the Republicans since taking control of all levers of the federal government, there has been an attempt to release the bill’s details in relative secret, avoid the criticism of the media and their constituents by any means necessary and then slip it through, though those efforts have largely failed to date. As with the healthcare bill, which was even less popular, they appear to care little that only 25 percent of Americans support it or that they continue to push an agenda that is detrimental to the average (and majority) of Americans.

One could argue that the Republican party today, with an assist to politicians like the Clintons and other DLCers from the 90s, first cultivated the rampant cynicism that has spread across the country like a plague and are now attempting to capitalize on it to further hurt average Americans, in the process only further propagating that cynicism. This is accomplished through a number of avenues, but the most important might be the uber-partisanship that now reigns in Washington. When they are out of power, they simply block as much of the agenda as possible, and then speak to the fact that nothing is getting done. At the same time, they attack government in general, based on this “policy blockade,” further perpetuating the idea that government can’t solve any of our problems. And they simultaneously attack all of the other social institutional that could hold them accountable for their cynical actions, from the media and universities to our schools and unions.

As a final piece to the puzzle, they play on the fears and anxieties of average Americans, distracting them with fake news (aka propaganda) and conspiracy theories and then stoking the flame of their racism, sexist, homophobia and xenophobia, to avert attention from the real source of so many of the problems in this country – too much economic power in the hands of too few, the continued growth in power and size of our biggest multinational corporations and the dramatic and growing inequality in the country.

“Make America Great Again,” feel more and more like “corporate fascism rocks!”everytime a new policy agenda item comes to light.   

Fake News Hits the Holocaust

Fake News, as I argued in an article here last year, is not a new phenomenon, as many in the media (and Trump) seem to imply. And yet the acceleration of “counternarratives” (aka lies) accelerate and proliferate across our fiber optic and airwaves, the truth has become more tenuous than at any time since science came along to challenge the hegemony of religion, mythology and old world traditions. The latest parry in this ongoing war on knowledge, beyond the daily barrage by the Trump administration, comes thanks to one its former members, Anthony Scaramucci.

In an online poll on his twitter account, the Scar (my nickname), asked the following question:

How many Jews were killed in the Holocaust?
o Less than 1 million
o Between 1-2 million
o Between 2-3 million
o More than 5 million

Holocaust deniers are not new, either, of course, but is this really a question we have to continue to debate in the mainstream of American politics – or at least the new “mainstream?” Beyond the absurd response that they were simply “testing people’s knowledge” of the tragedy is the fact that it was 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust, which is substantially more than “more than 5 million.”

If you’re wondering, the results as of the time of the Washington Post story was 69 percent for the theoretically “correct” answer, 7 percent who thought it was 2-3 million, 4 percent who believed 1 to 2 million and an astounding 20 percent who claimed “less than a million.”

With global warming, past presidential phone calls, Iranian nuclear weapon activities, the real beneficiaries of tax cuts and Russian interference in our election all up for debate just the past week, is it any wonder we return to perpetuating one of the ugliest lies repeated over the past 60 years? Not with our current Commander and Thief in charge of the public dialogue …

The Absurdity of Our Insularity

One of the biggest problems facing America today is the insularity that appears to spread across the political spectrum, or at least outward from the center with increasing magnitude as it nears the dual poles. There are arguably many reasons to explain this insularity from the echo chamber offered on digital and traditional media platforms that allow one to only receive news and perspectives that reinforce what you already believe to the increasing segregation in society in general. Both conservatives and liberals are both guilty of abiding this new paradigm, existing in blissful ignorance of arguments that might differ with their own.

The costs of this insularity are profound, from the inability to engage in political discussion and debate across ideological lines to the very real and deleterious ways it has created an uber-partisan environment in DC that undermines compromise and forward movement on issues that affect our lives. It has led to increased violence, though predominantly from the right-leaning end of the political continuum, and an inability to even consider confounding evidence or arguments. Maybe most troubling to our long-term prospects, is the ways it has cut off the critical thinking facilities essential to the effective functioning of democracy.

One way in which we see this new political insularity is exposed is, of course, through those who continue to support President Trump, and those who blindly reject everything conservatives do from one day to the next (though one has to admit that has become more reasonable in recent years). Another way is the reactionary fervor that seems to sprout out from every corner of our cultural landscape, often more fervent and fiery than an Evangelical sermon.

The latest example emerged just yesterday, on the heals of the absurd imbroglio started by Trump himself, as he tweeted a video of him body slamming and punching CNN, followed by claims that CNN blackmailed the adult reddit user that made that video. The latest event to cause an Internet uproar? Well, that most offensive of American documents, The Declaration of Independence.

That’s right. A group of Trump supporters thought that NPR was tweeting propaganda, as it used 113 consecutive posts over a 20-minute period to convey the entire 1776 document to its followers, a tradition, one might mention, that has been going on for 29 years now. Some just thought it was spam, but others figured lines like “He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary power” and “A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people” were a reference to our current Commander in Thief. And they were not going to take those remarks from the very media outlet they are hoping to defund as soon as possible.

While this is a minor example, and some even took the time to apologize for the reactionary posts, it does show how quick many are to apoplectic frenzy any time anyone writes, says or posts something they disagree with. It is a troubling trend that only seems to worsen with each passing year. On the left, activists seek to silence anyone who says anything offensive to their social justice agenda, which I do largely ascribe to I should admit, while on the right confounding perspectives are attacked like the words of Beelzebub himself.

I don’t believe the answer is simply more civility in the public sphere, as many have argued, as there is nothing wrong with being impassioned about your positions and arguing for them vigorously. In fact, one could argue the Democrats tendency to try to stand above the fray of political disagreement has cost them dearly, maybe none as clearly as Hillary Clinton. Others call for increased tolerance, but as Zizek so cleverly points out it too has its limits. Maybe the answer instead resides in finding ways to cross ideological boundaries, to talk to one another without the generally held notion that whatever your beliefs, those who disagree with you are just less intelligent, and to seek to stem the inflamed passions that have stoked the insularity toward silos of identity that are immune to all outside influence.

More than anything, we need to return to public spaces that are diverse, whether in our schools, our media or our daily interactions with others. We need to learn to actively listen, rather than simply wait for our turn to talk. We need content producers to stop feeding the flame of partisanship and violence. Ultimately, we need to find ways for those with different values, beliefs and cultural traditions to live harmoniously together. Easier said than done, one must admit, when one of the two founding documents of our country sends those who claim to love it most into a fury, on the very day we are celebrating its birth … 

Trump and GOP to America: Democracy is Overrated!

You might have heard that Republicans voted to break 200 years of Senate tradition a couple of weeks ago and changed the rules that uphold our democratic process—simply because Trump’s right-wing Supreme Court Nomination Neil Gorsuch was unable to meet the 60-vote threshold necessary to confirm him. That same Neil Gorsuch, a friend of business and enemy of the vast majority of Americans, used his first act in his new position to allow Arkansas to go forward with an 11-day killing spree in a state that hasn’t executed anyone since 2005; against the advice of advocates across the political spectrum.

It was just the latest example of Republicans placing party over country and Trump over the American people. Apparently, Trump and the GOP are unmoved by the 7 in 10 Americans who opposed a rule change, the over one million citizens who signed petitions to block Gorsuch and the thousands of letters and calls poured into Republican offices (Vox). It didn't matter to them that their constituents took to the streets and passionately rallied in opposition to a Supreme Court nominee that is a threat to our rights.

The most damning example of the GOP’s aversion to the central tenets of democracy is a strategy they have employed since the 1990s, blocking as much of the Democratic agenda as possible when they are out of power, using that gridlock to then win midterm elections (where the GOP generally outperforms its returns in presidential-year elections) and then pushes through their agenda whenever they have the majority. This was true with much of what George Bush did after “winning” the 2000 election, aided by 9/11, and is starting to happen with Trump, though his general

Equally troubling to the future of the country is the advanced gerrymandering the GOP has engaged in for the past couple of decades, seeking to gain dramatic advantages in the electoral map while undermining the minority vote and, by extension, the general will of the people. This effort has only accelerated in recent years and even with some judicial setbacks, they continue to dominate state government and will use that power to skew the political map as much as possible. The simple reality is that Republicans can’t win in a lot of places unless they stack the decks to help them do so, and they are increasingly good at stacking those decks.

A third major area where our democracy is being challenged relates back to Thomas Jefferson and his contention that democracy fails if the populace is not both educated and informed. The “fake news” trend, while not new, has accelerated to the point that the entire Trump administration feels little compunction about lying as the major mode of communication. A new Salon article, in fact, argues they take great pleasure in their constant stream of lies to the media and have no plans to slow down. In an interview just last week, Trump again felt the inconvenient truths are best combatted with outright lies, delivered without even a scintilla of compunction. Of course, most troubling of all is the Russian story that just won’t go away, as hard as some conservative representatives try to quash it.  

Fourth is the continued efforts to undermine the minority vote, with Trump’s fallacious claims of millions of illegal votes tallied in the election emboldening Republicans across the country to institute new voter ID and other requirements that will suppress the democratic vote (as with Iowa  just last week). Republicans have known for some time that they can only win elections if they stop enough people from voting and that was again true this year, when the Democrats won more votes in the Senate, House of Representatives and, of course, Presidential races only to lose all three. Beyond the growing critiques of the Electoral College, which has allowed Republicans to win two races where they lost the popular vote in the past 16 years (and win the popular vote only once since 1988), and the gerrymandering discussed above, is the ways the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been undermined by recent Supreme Court decisions that appear to have < suppressed minority votes > beyond what the popular press reports. As to those claims of illegal voting, North Carolina might serve as a great example of how absurd the charges are, as the State Board of Elections did an extensive, objective audit of the 2016 Election. What did they find? Of the 4.8 million votes counted, exactly one would have been dismissed with the voter ID law State Republicans have been pushing for years (and only failed because it was overturned by a federal appeals court, who said it targeted black voters with “almost surgical precision.”).

And this leads to the final major way that Republicans have undermined popular sovereignty and the will of the people, very effectively utilizing the judiciary to push and solidify their agenda. The seeds of this strategy go back over a century, when the corporation first gained citizen rights. Yet is the 2010 Citizen United decision that has served them so well, their only loss since its inception being the 2012 victory for Obama. In every other election at the local, state and national level, they have made gains, including the victory of a jackass over a flawed, but much more capable alternative. Spending on elections has skyrocketed in the wake of that absurd decision and the super rich like the Koch brothers are not only starting grassroots movements like the Tea Party, but spending big in local races that all but guarantee victory. The record of the two Supreme Court Justices of George Bush and of Gorsuch indicate a turn toward corporate interests that is terrifying to the general public and includes consummate efforts to undermine democracy and labor power at every turn.

As Masha Green warned before Trump even took office, the seeds of autocracy are already present in the U.S. and, most clearly, in the movement Trump leads. The playbook we have seen in the past includes the following elements, which we see beginning to take shape in just the first 100 or so days of the Trump Administration: 1. Use racial/religious animus to cultivate a scapegoat mentality that defers responsibility from those causing economic decline (namely corporations and the one percent our president is an ardent member of), 2. Create a corporate state where the differentiation between government and corporate interests become almost indiscernible (see his cabinet selections so far), 3. Discredit the mainstream media, allowing propaganda to build a mythological reality that serves the leadership and that same corporate state (just check out Trump’s twitter account, or read the news on any given day), 4. Cultivate militarism as ideology, picking fights everywhere to build up a massive military and then use it whenever possible (see the hotspots that could very well lead to World War III under Trump’s watch), and 5. Build a government that serves your interests more than those of the people (too many to mention here, but here are two examples from just today: Emoluments and Gift to Kids).

The Trump presidency has been a disaster and sideshow of missteps and failures so far, but that neither means that he has not had some success in pushing his radical agenda   or that more will not follow. Dramatic tax reform could be on the way, Obamacare is still not safe, the environment is in real trouble at a time when we might be approaching the tipping point to global destruction, war seems more likely with each passing day, corporate interests are trumping the publics in multivariate ways and Trump and his family appear to be enriching themselves on our tab while doing little to keep the promises they made during the campaign (thank god, with many).

In considering the future of our democracy and the long, arduous task to save it from the iniquitous grasp of the GOP and corporate forces that would like to replace it, Green’s six points seem particularly important. To reiterate them here: 1. Believe the autocrat (a point the mainstream media has failed to do from the beginning of his political ascendancy), 2. Do not be taken in by small signs of normality (again, the mainstream media is guilty of this on several occasions since November already), 3. Institutions will not save you (see #1 and #2 above), 4. Be outraged (the good news in this story so far, as the people are making sure their voices are being heard and it’s having an effect), 5. Don’t make compromises (so far the rather craven Democratic Party has largely followed this advice, even as they fail to acknowledge the failings of their leadership and the DLC/Neoliberal model), and 6. Remember the future. We should be emboldened by the resistance so far, but must be vigilant for the entire four years of what one hopes is a one-term president. But we must be equally vigilant against a party who has abandoned any real dedication to the central tenets of democracy and their role in preserving both it and the will of the people. Democracy only works when people fight for it and the threat of its demise is currently staring us in the face.