It’s like a scene in a movie. The car is speeding up a winding, mountain road, and you see The Curve ahead, maybe there’s a close-up of the rickety old guardrail, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. You’re thinking back, wondering what you could have done differently. Could this have been avoided? Would slowing down have helped? Up until now it felt like we were going slow. Did we miss a turn? Why don’t we just stop? Aren’t the brakes working? Did anyone even try the brakes?
The car doesn’t stop. Time doesn’t stop, but we have the strangest sensation of time slowing way down. We see every mistake, every wrong turn, unfold in vivid detail as it happens, and we still cannot do a damned thing. We speak up in real time, “No! Please! Can’t you see what is happening?!” We’re looking around us wondering why everyone else can’t see what we see. Our families and neighbors, everyone we love, is piled into our pretty, fast car, the special one we picked out all those years ago, the one we’ve been paying on, the one we’ve spent all this time and effort and love maintaining, waxing, buffing, could crash? Just like that?
And then time speeds up just long enough for it to happen. We feel our own feet pushing against the floor, trying to find the brakes, but we cannot reach them. We hold our loved ones close, trying to protect them, as our beloved, shiny automobile smacks into the guardrail and barely shifts as it bursts through and over the edge. Time slows again as it sails off the cliff, all four tires leave the pavement, and we watch in disbelief, helpless to do anything about where or how we’ll land. The camera view changes back and forth from us inside the car, tossed about in the seats, to the aerial view where we can see just how bad it really is. For the first few weeks the arc of our descent became clear, and now we look desperately for a way to keep any more bits from flying off as it tumbles and rolls, some way, any way, to prevent more damage and more dents, to stop this terrible momentum.
Even when we feel helpless, we aren’t. And we aren’t the car, as much as we love what it is, or was, what it stood for. We’re still here. The vehicle is damaged. Knowing better, we gave the keys to reckless and ignorant fools, but we will survive this. The way others see the car is damaged, and they might forget about us, the passengers, but we steer our destiny. We are all secure, whether we respect this fact or not, whether the driver sees it or not, in our First Amendment rights and our Constitution. As long as we continue to maintain and respect our basic security system, we will be fine. It might not be easy, but we can fix this.
E pluribus unum.
(This flashback campaign and election episode of Hate Speech brought to you by the Ku Klux Klan, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party), David and Charles Koch, Evangelical “Christians,” the Tea Party, the Republican Party (aka Grand Old Party), various lobbyists/dictators/ignorant douchebags of America. . . Stay tuned to the Republican’s Incompetence Parade channel (aka NumptyVision) for ALL your news because obviously the free press is BAD! BAD, I tell you! FAKE!)
Link: “At G-20 summit, it looks more and more like Trump against the world” – By Damian Paletta and Ana Swanson at The Washington Post (Democracy Dies in Darkness)
Link: “Pressure builds on Trump at home over pledge for closer Moscow ties” – by James Reinl at Al Jazeera
Link: “The Time I Got Recruited to Collude with the Russians” by Matt Tait at Lawfare
Link: “Rattled by shooting, lawmakers want more personal protection” – by Seung Min Kim and Rachael Bade at Politico
Link: “Betsy DeVos Suspended Rules Shielding Students From For-Profit College Fraud. Now 19 Attorneys General Are Suing Her” – by Collin Binkley / AP
Link: “McConnell Downplays Prospect of Passing Health Care Bill” – by Leigh Ann Caldwell and Kasie Hunt at NBC News
Link: “Women are no longer allowed to wear sleeveless attire in Paul Ryan’s House of Reps” – by Noor Al-Sibai of Raw Story
Link: Slippery Slope – by E. Brooks at Gray Matters