The Direction of Intention

Dear maga-nation: After the events of this week it occurs to me that, although you voted – a sign that you believe in democracy – you actually have no idea what a democracy is or how it works. You voted for dictatorship – a sign that you don’t believe in democracy. Do you see my confusion?

Start here: in our democracy there are three co-equal branches of government. Co-equal means that no branch has more power than any other branch and that is by design. Each branch is meant to serve as a check-and-balance to the other two branches. By design.

Each branch has an assigned duty relative to the law: Congress, the legislative branch, makes the laws. The executive branch, the president, enforces the laws. The judiciary interprets the laws. “Interprets” means they clarify the laws – and have the power of putting on the brakes when one of the other branches strays out of bounds. The law is central. That, too, is by design: in our democracy no man is supposed to be above the law. The creation, enactment, and interpretation of law is meant to be protection against the rise of a king. The enshrinement of the law places power in the hands of the people. That’s why it is called a democracy.

This week you puffed with indignation when a judge put the brakes on the executive when he went out of bounds. You called for the impeachment of the judge. That’s akin to being outraged that your car started when you touched the ignition. Your car did what it is supposed to do so you are infuriated?

Your friends at fox encouraged outrage that a judge would dare challenge the authority of the executive. And, rather than throw a rock through your television and swear never-again to plug into a channel promoting the dismantling of democracy – something you would do if you understood how a democracy works – you puffed up with righteous misinformation. You did as you were told. You raged for the dissolution of checks-and-balances.

Again, do you see my – our – confusion?

You either do not understand why you are puffing up – or you do. And, if you do, it makes me incredibly sad. Sad for you, since you claim in loud voices to be the champions of democracy, to be avid supporters of America’s greatness (democracy) – yet you clearly have no idea how our democracy works.

Or, you do and willingly throw it away. And that makes me sadder still.

This week a judge did his job as defined in the Constitution and you acted offended. Please understand why those of us who believe in democracy – those of us who understand how the system is designed to work – are beyond rolling our eyes. Please understand why we are running out of adjectives to describe the crevasse between your angry rhetoric and your actions. You are either the very definition of ignorant: without knowledge, unlearned – or you are corrupt.

The executive, aided by an oligarch, is circumnavigating congress in an obvious destruction of the system of checks-and-balances. Circumnavigate means “to sail around” it.

In your indignant fox-fueled-puffery, you are gleefully encouraging the circumnavigation of the Constitution. You cheer the blatant disregard for the law. Disregard means “to ignore. To overlook or forget”. Disregarding the law is called corruption. Corruption means “dishonesty, fraud, criminality”.

You either don’t understand what you support – which means someday there may be hope for us to once again meet on the common ground as defined in the Constitution. You may someday wake up, unplug from the fox-cult-of-non-sense-and-anger-exploitation. I hope so. I mean that sincerely. It’s hard to watch how willingly you participate in your own fleecing. It’s impossible to understand how easily you swallow propaganda-swill.

Or, you do understand what you support. And, in that case, you are a knowing participant in fraud, a champion of corruption, a dedicated racist*, a proponent of authoritarianism – a knowing participant in the dismantling of our democracy – and, in that case, there’s nothing more for us to discuss. There is – and never has been – common ground. And I find that terribly sad.

*As I was writing this post, the despot-wanna-be resurrected segregation from its moldy grave. This comes in the wake of a dedicated – and continuing – effort to scrub the achievements and contributions of African Americans, women, people of color, LGBTQ…from our history.

read Kerri’s blogpost about SAD

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