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Democracy at the Crossroads

By Gabe Ignetti

A dark cloud has descended on America and we stand at a crossroads.Our present situation brings to mind the story about BenFranklin when he was walk-ing out of Independence Hall after the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and someone shouted out, “Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monar-chy?” to which Franklin supposedly responded: “A re-public, if you can keep it.”That burning question of whether we can keep that republic and ultimately finish the democratic revolution that was started in 1776 is very much on the front burner in todays news as America moves from crisis to crisis.The coming Presidential ballot is, in reality, a referendum on exact-ly that question.Make no mistake about it.The end game of Donald Trump is to be President for Life and, if he is elected, then this election might well be our last.While, it can be argued that Trump is no Hitler there can be no better example of the fragility of free-dom and democracy than in the sinisterNazirise to power in Germany and that has not been, by far, the only example of the descent of great nations from de-mocracy into autocracy.While so many sad and mis-guided souls on the Left continue to promote the fable that there is no difference between the political parties they fail to see the forest for the trees.Least we forget that it was that same sort of rhetoric from the German Left in the 1930s that accused the Social Democrats of their day of being “Social Fascists” that enabled the rise of Hitler.Failure to learn from history could con-demn us to fall into the same trap in 2020.It is quite true that the Democratic Party has fallen short and even that the Neo-liberal policies of past Democratic Presidents has, in some ways, paved the way for Don-ald Trump but their program is far more progressive than people give them credit for.When people ask how we could trust such a party to pass this progres-sive legislation they are really asking the wrong ques-tion.It is not simply a matter of whether continuing to depend on the politicians is the way forward but rather a question of whether we able to stand up on our own and mobilize in the street regardless of which party is in office. What the ultra Leftists fail to grasp is that the modern “Grand Old Party’s ” is banking on this election to provide a mandate for repression our movement with an iron fist by appealing to the dark side of our nature by a promoting the fear of minorities and Left along witha false flag of phony patriotism and an emp-ty appeal to religion that makes a mockery of the teachings of Jesus.To make matters worse too many of our same mis-guided friends on the Extreme Left are under the illu-sion that their support of and participation in rioting and looting will not bring forth the “revolution”. All it is really accomplishing is to provide red meat to Fox News and the Right wing talk radio circuit that contin-ues to use these events as a political weapon against the Black Lives Matters movement.Sadly, this has escalated into gun violence and yet more deaths.This course of event could easily end up becoming an ex-cuse for Donald Trump to declare a State of Emergen-cy and get to his end game without an election.To those who would play at revolution it is, again, worth learning from history.Least we forget that the same Russian Revolution, that they celebrate, was able to break the yoke of Czardom, not through vio-lence, but through the course of protest that stood up, peacefully and persistently against hails of bullets and that it was exactly that peaceful act of courage that ultimately led to mutinies as the army ultimately joined the protesters and toppled the Czar.Our forefathers of the Greatest Generation faced the same choice that we face today. They took the high road of unionizing, electing a progressive President for four terms and beating back Hitler into an early grave.The signs at the crossroads are the same today as they were then: Democracy and Progress or a Fascist Law and Or-der.We can and we must rise to the occasion yet again.The old order is slowly crumbling.The only way left is forward.

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