Listening to President Biden's speech at the cliffs of Normandy, in memorial of those who died in the epic invasion that turned the tide of World War II, leading to the defeat of Nazi Germany, I was struck by his repeated use of two words...freedom and democracy ...and how so many sacrificed for the United States to survive with those values. Those two words are used so much that they become platitudes when we forget their meanings. They can then easily be abused by those who have no clue of what they mean other than somehow they just sound right by those who think they are righteous.
Those who lost their lives in the Normandy invasion were not suckers and losers, as Trump called those who died in service to the defense of our country. I was 6 years old then. My uncles fighting in both Europe and the Pacific were my heroes. I remember my parents (dad was in charge of local strategic telephone services) dreading any telephone call or telegram arriving in our house because it could be bringing news of their death or injury.(we were fortunate; that news never came) I never could imagine there would ever be those who could use it to mean the opposite of what we fought for, but now I have seen it happen.
So here is what it means to me and what I am hearing from those who have turned it to mean the opposite. These values of mine once got me scholarships from the Daughters of the American Revolution and the regional winner of the American oratorical contest in 1956. While I did not always vote for Republicans and had many public policy differences, I always felt both they and their Democratic opponents saw democracy my way, up and down the ballot, without even thinking any American could believe anything else. That is until Donald Trump came to political prominence. How many things have changed since then?
MAGA in these following credos and comparisons refer to what I am hearing from their partisan leaders, media and elected officials, legislative and administrative spokespersons, and their most loyal supporters of Trump who believe he always speaks the truth. Whatever he says, they, too, must approve and do. There are many who support MAGA candidates for business reasons or political advantage, who know better, but ambitions and wealth take precedence over the values of freedom and democracy. They belong in a different category, sad, but they contribute with money and words, nonetheless, and not unexpectedly. It was Hitler's alliance with such b as well as Putin's and Orban's, who were and/or are theirs and Trump's enablers.
Freedom is not just the freedom enjoyed by one political party or loyalists to their leader; the same rights and the system protecting freedom apply to all, even to MAGA's opponents.
Freedom then and now to me means my country is free from some foreign domination or control of my country. by an enemy or adversary. It does not mean following the same rules of dictators and adversaries or opening the door to them in determining the outcome of our own elections, as MAGA means to do in slavish praise of Putin and Orban and their leader lusts to have the same kinds of power. It does not mean appeasing such aggressors works or ever has, just we once tried before they attacked us in December 1941. Aggressors see appeasement as a sign of weakness or a lack of resolve to resist.
Freedom means everyone enjoying the protections of the First Amendment and human and civil rights. It does not mean freedom for one group alone, able to suppress and dominate another group, as MAGA wants to do to control all of the power levers of the judicial system that determines their application and enforcement.
Democracy, even in its Greek form, means the rule of the people. To our founding fathers, it meant rule by and for the people. It does not mean rule by one man, of, by, and for him, a dictator, an autocrat, as MAGA wants to have.
Democracy It does not mean that loyalists to the dictator control all the levers of the process of voting, only calling fair when their leader wins, and corrupt when he does not, so the results can be ignored or changed by loyal actors or overturned by violence. It does not mean those who used violence on January 6 deserve to be pardoned for crimes the committed that day. and called patriots, as MAGA believes.
Democracy It does not mean the autocrat in control should be immune from breaking criminal laws, as MAGA believes. It means that no man is above the law and ignores the law as the legislative branch intended, the branch elected by fair and free elections.
Democracy does not mean truth and evidence are meaningless if they do not justify their autocrats' wishes to govern.
Democracy does not mean media or press should be silenced or delicenced that does not support their dear, but MAGA's leader promised that if he has a chance to be elected again.
Religion: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/09/opinion/presbyterian-church-evangelical-canceled.htmlNot my Presbyterian church. This one went rogue. I am a lifelong Presbyterian. There was a split years ago, and Presbyterian Church USA continued with the values I hold dear: inclusiveness and caring, holding high the Sermon on the Mount and the Golden Rule. Not this one. Donald Trump, when asked his affiliation, says Presbyterian. Ask him what kind.
No comments:
Post a Comment