Why we need to stop worrying over political purity and vote blue

[Aribeth Zelin]

Swiped this off of Facebook. Nothing here surprises me, really. Heinlein warned about this in several stories, most notable being Stranger in a Strange Land [though it isn't as dire as the warning in one of the novellas in Past through Tomorrow['I can't remember the name of the specific one - I think Second American Revolution]

Anyway, worth a read.

This really frightens me. I hope you will read it and ponder what he is saying..
Pastor John Pavlovitz
Somber warning from a Pastor about the intentions of Evangelical "conservative" Christians in American politics.
“I’ve been a pastor in the church for over two decades, much of that in predominantly white churches in the American South.
I’ve spent countless hours in church staff meetings and men’s Bible studies and youth pastor conferences.
I’ve stayed connected on social media with thousands of people still there in those churches. I read what they share and post and amplify and I know how they think and what they believe.
I need you to understand something and I say it without any hyperbole: white Evangelicals need to be stopped, now.
If the 2022 midterms elections allow Republicans to gain control of Congress, Conservative Christians will decimate this nation, and LGBTQ people, Muslims, women, people of color, and non-Christians will never have equality under the law again. We will all be at their mercy—and they will no longer have use for mercy.
This is not alarmist, sky-is-falling histrionics, it is the clear and sober forecast from someone who knows these people better than anyone. Over the last decade and a half, as my theology shifted and my beliefs grew more and more progressive, I’ve been a kind of undercover Liberal in an increasingly extremist movement, that while once relegated to minor fringe noisemakers is now at the precipice of Roman Empire-level power. They are less than two years away from having a dominance that they will wield violently and not relinquish.
I watched it all unfold from the inside:
I was at a North Carolina megachurch when Obama was elected and I saw the shift take place firsthand. I saw the fear slowly being ratcheted up and the agenda become solidified and the prejudices leveraged.
I was speaking regularly at the Billy Graham headquarters when Fox News reporters and Republicans like Sarah Palin started walking the halls with frequency.
I saw the messages at pastor’s conferences grow more incendiary and urgent, and heard the supremacist dog whistles become louder and more frequent.
While many decent people around this nation celebrated the progress of a black president and the many civil and human rights victories and gradually let down their guard—the white Conservative church set off the alarms and prepared for a holy war.
Yet, they were still a largely powerless, dying dinosaur until 2016, when Donald Trump acquired the presidency and gave the Evangelicals the perfect amoral partner to serve as the biggest bully pulpit they’ve ever had. Combine that with a fragmented Left, a general fatigue by the larger population, a ceremonial victory in Congress (thanks to Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema), and Republican attacks on voters’ rights— and we are now a hair’s breadth from the subjugation of diverse humanity here.
These are not followers of Jesus despite the trappings and window dressing. They are Jesus-less extremists: blind zealots for nothing but power. They have been conditioned by decades of polluted theology and FoxNews alternative facts to see diversity as a threat, to see progress as attacks on America, and to interpret more people being treated with dignity as oppression of white people.
Trust me when I tell you that we won’t recover from the theocracy Evangelicals are constructing once it is established. If we fail in 2022, they will have a political power that will render every election null and void, and we will never have a voice again in our lifetimes.
Women will lose autonomy over their own bodies.
LGBTQ people will have the rights to marry and adopt taken away.
People of color will be fully squeezed out of the electoral process.
Immigrants will be denied access to opportunity and refuge here.
These are not creative projections. They are precisely what Evangelicals have repeatedly stated as their intentions, and they’re closer than they’ve ever been to having a rubber stamp.
We can still stop it, though.
We just need a unity and coordination that transcends theirs.
We need a sustained, passionate, dedicated defense of humanity that rivals their relentless assaults on it.
I hear many people say they’re terrified, but being terrified alone doesn’t do anything but help these people.
Be terrified and get angry.
Be terrified and get busy.
Be terrified and go to work.
Be terrified and fight like hell.
I wish more decent people in America remembered they are among the vast majority instead of acting as if they are helpless victims of Republican Christians. We could defeat them, and we need to. We just need to stop lamenting how much damage they are doing and start doing something to oppose them.
We’ve seen this play out throughout history and we know how it ends. We know what unchecked religious extremist is capable of and we know the cost of the silence and inaction of good people. We also know what people are capable of when they refuse to accept fascism and white supremacy cloaked in the Bible and wrapped in the flag, when they fight for something inherently good together.
As someone who knows just how much these Christians have lost the plot of their faith tradition, believe me when I tell you that they cannot be allowed to steer this nation. It will not end well for the disparate people who call it home or who one day wish to.
Love and equity and diversity are in the balance.
It’s time we made a choice.
It may be the last one we get.”
Pastor John Pavlovitzhttps://johnpavlovitz.com/2021/06/05/im-a-christian-pastor-evangelicals-have-to-be-defeated-in-2022/

 

[bubblesort]

Swiped this off of Facebook. Nothing here surprises me, really. Heinlein warned about this in several stories, most notable being Stranger in a Strange Land [though it isn't as dire as the warning in one of the novellas in Past through Tomorrow['I can't remember the name of the specific one - I think Second American Revolution]

Anyway, worth a read.

If this was TV, that would end with something like this:

... Joe Manchin approves this message.

 

[Sean Gorham]

We are almost certainly past the point of no return. We're riding this plane all the way to the crash site, baby!

Brynn Tannehill's book American Fascism: How the GOP Is Subverting Democracy covers in great detail how we got to this point and how we might be able to fight it. I highly recommend reading her book. (Not all at once, though — it's heavy stuff.) The only reason the United States isn't already an illiberal democracy like Hungary or Poland is the covid pandemic and 45's bungling response to it. At this point it would take a huge number of overwhelmingly positive outcomes politically and socially to stem the fascist tide. In a few years, there's two likely outcomes as I see it: America becomes an illiberal democracy, or the country balkanizes and descends into a second civil war. And civil war might actually be the best of all the bad outcomes. We need to be ready for both of them.

If civil war seems unlikely to you, Brynn Tannehill (I really can't recommend her work enough, she has her finger on the pulse of all this) posits the US headed toward a modern version of the Dred Scott decision that precipitated the American Civil War:



Should we give up, though? Hell no! But voting alone isn't going to cut it, not when the GOP has rigged voting mechanisms at every turn. It's going to take direct action to change anything now. Strikes, both general and wildcat. Mass protests and demonstrations. Civil disobedience. And finally, if necessarily, defending ourselves on a personal level. I'm not going to get into specifics about that bit though.

If you are any kind of minority — a person of color, a member of the LGBTQ community, what-have-you — and you possess sufficient economic means, start making plans now. Update your passport, or apply for one if you need to. Put together a bug-out bag. (That's a good idea anyway, for natural disasters if nothing else.) Get copies of all your important documents and identification. Squirrel away some cash if you can.

I live a few hours from the Quebec border, so I'm looking into options there. I should have taken more French classes in junior high...



I know this is scary stuff. Heck, I'm still heavily in denial myself! (Perhaps I'm at the bargaining stage.) The idea of dropping everything and fleeing the country terrifies me. I have to force myself to take any measures like what I've outlined above. That, and talk to my therapist. A lot.

So yeah. Start preparing now. If by some series of miracles we avoid the impending dystopian hellscape looming before us, fantastic! We're prepped for a nice little vacation or something. If not... we're ready to bug out and make the best of it.

Rule 3 of surviving autocracy: Institutions will not save you. Don't wait.

 

[WolfEyes]

Apply for a credit card? Only credit cards poor people qualify for are the prepaid ones.

You have to have credit before anyone will give you credit. I have none and the chances of ever having any in the future are zilch.

Running away isn't a solution. It just leaves the rest of us behind to have to deal with the crap others were too chicken shit to deal with.

I won't get into the millions that are stuck on reservations.

Sorry but that it how it looks to me. People really have no idea how it feels to be left holding the bag while others traipse off to another country. They're leaving us here to die rather than staying put and fighting. The people being left behind are the ones who can't fight!

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

We are almost certainly past the point of no return. We're riding this plane all the way to the crash site, baby!

Brynn Tannehill's book American Fascism: How the GOP Is Subverting Democracy covers in great detail how we got to this point and how we might be able to fight it. I highly recommend reading her book. (Not all at once, though — it's heavy stuff.) The only reason the United States isn't already an illiberal democracy like Hungary or Poland is the covid pandemic and 45's bungling response to it. At this point it would take a huge number of overwhelmingly positive outcomes politically and socially to stem the fascist tide. In a few years, there's two likely outcomes as I see it: America becomes an illiberal democracy, or the country balkanizes and descends into a second civil war. And civil war might actually be the best of all the bad outcomes. We need to be ready for both of them.

If civil war seems unlikely to you, Brynn Tannehill (I really can't recommend her work enough, she has her finger on the pulse of all this) posits the US headed toward a modern version of the Dred Scott decision that precipitated the American Civil War:



Should we give up, though? Hell no! But voting alone isn't going to cut it, not when the GOP has rigged voting mechanisms at every turn. It's going to take direct action to change anything now. Strikes, both general and wildcat. Mass protests and demonstrations. Civil disobedience. And finally, if necessarily, defending ourselves on a personal level. I'm not going to get into specifics about that bit though.

If you are any kind of minority — a person of color, a member of the LGBTQ community, what-have-you — and you possess sufficient economic means, start making plans now. Update your passport, or apply for one if you need to. Put together a bug-out bag. (That's a good idea anyway, for natural disasters if nothing else.) Get copies of all your important documents and identification. Squirrel away some cash if you can.

I live a few hours from the Quebec border, so I'm looking into options there. I should have taken more French classes in junior high...



I know this is scary stuff. Heck, I'm still heavily in denial myself! (Perhaps I'm at the bargaining stage.) The idea of dropping everything and fleeing the country terrifies me. I have to force myself to take any measures like what I've outlined above. That, and talk to my therapist. A lot.

So yeah. Start preparing now. If by some series of miracles we avoid the impending dystopian hellscape looming before us, fantastic! We're prepped for a nice little vacation or something. If not... we're ready to bug out and make the best of it.

Rule 3 of surviving autocracy: Institutions will not save you. Don't wait.

Oh, sure - I think we passed the point of no return with '16, but I am very stubborn. Also, I won't live my mom in a hell hole when she's got wealth, but is living alone - not after Alito's opinion, not at her age.

Also, unless everyone can get away, then I don't want to abandon those who might need my help. It might not be much but every little bit helps.

Also, see point one - did I mention I'm stubborn?

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Apply for a credit card? Only credit cards poor people qualify for are the prepaid ones.

You have to have credit before anyone will give you credit. I have none and the chances of ever having any in the future are zilch.

Running away isn't a solution. It just leaves the rest of us behind to have to deal with the crap others were too chicken shit to deal with.

I won't get into the millions that are stuck on reservations.

Sorry but that it how it looks to me. People really have no idea how it feels to be left holding the bag while others traipse off to another country. They're leaving us here to die rather than staying put and fighting. The people being left behind are the ones who can't fight!

Hell, we're not poor but apparently I can't get a credit card - only my spouse can, even though my credit rating is higher.... But also, you're right - this is only a part of a global problem and with two near peers already full authoritarian [well, Russia might not really be a near peer anymore], if the US goes? The whole world is kinda screwed. Because it would literally take every other country in the world to stop the US and China if we decided to team up to enforce authoritarianism on everyone else. We -have- to fight, better now than later when its worse.