Ukraine is in a fight for existence, not just existence of a people and a culture, but for the right to self-determination. A fight for freedom! This is the same fight that the United States Capitol Police were in on January 6, 2021. The fight to preserve democracy. In that moment, it was every bit as existencial as facing Russian tanks driven to attack by an autocrat with a megalomania messiah complex… Putin, believing that he can change history and reverse the will of the Ukrainian people. This is not about a threat that Ukraine posed to Russia, this is about raw naked aggression and power and his threat to use his nuclear weapons to keep others from interfering. He justifies his actions with his own big lies, he justifies on the basis of power. This is a cousin of the autocratic, lying, megalomania that was Trump’s attempt to stay in power and banish the will of the people in democratic America. You wonder why Trump idolizes Putin…. well you see it on display right now. Anti-democratic autocrats hate government of and by the people. We should be learning a great lesson right now.
God Help Ukraine! God Save democracy!
Tag Archives: January 6
January 6 Commission is a Requirement for Democracy to Survive
We must have a commission on the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol. The truth must come out and be displayed for our democracy to survive.
We had an assault on our government, with the expressed intent to stop our elected officials in the execution of their duty to certify a free and fair election. The intent was to keep a man in power with truly autocratic tendencies. His party, the party of Trump, with only Republican outward trappings, not surprisingly, does not want to get at the truth of how this happened. They do not want their lies and potential criminality exposed.
We need two viable parties. Our democracy depends on two or more competing platforms and multiple ideas. The Republican Party cannot opt out of the process. But if they continue to sell the lie that the election was stolen from Trump; and if they continue to sell the lie that there was no threat to our democracy on January 6th, then they are disqualifying themselves from the democratic process.
I’ve heard many say, they all lie. Nope. Not like this. These lies are fundamentally un-American and un-democratic. This is an attempt to acquire and maintain power, not on the strength of ideas and character, but on the strength and use of force, backed by lies, and by creating rules that make it difficult for those they do not care for to vote.
I’m still a Republican, but I’m embarrassed by what I continue to see happen to the party of Lincoln.
Power for the sake of power and wealth and no other purpose is not honorable, and not what we should expect of leaders.