In 1935, Sinclair Lewis published “It Can’t Happen Here,” a fictional dictator in America. In 1949, George Orwoll published “1984>” Smug Americans discounted much of this. Authoritarian rule can’t happen in America, because Americans believe in democracy.

Events of 2015-2021 [-???] now cast doubt on this. We’ve had a Hitler wanna be; we’ve discovered millions [14%] of Right-Wing Authoritarians waiting for him, eager to listen [and be told what they want to hear] and follow him.

Germany had its “Kristallnacht by Nazi thugs. America had its Capitol trashed by Trump-encouraged thugs. Germany had its persecution of Jews and “untermenschen.” America has had persecution of non-whites. Germany put “enemies of the people” to death. Death threats are issued to Trump’s critics and opponents.

Hitler said “I’m the one who can save Germany.” Trump said”I’m the one to save America.” Hitler acquired all powers, became dictator. Trump wanted, tried, to rule as dictator. Germans were expected to be loyal to Hitler. Trump demands loyalty. Hitler cult followers willingly persecuted Jews. Trump cult followers follow orders.

Nazis had much “coded” language [“Final Solution”]. Trump’s “coded” language included “law and order” and “religious liberty.” Hitler was vindictive to opponents; delighted in watching filmed torture of them. Trump has often spoken about delighting in “getting even;” delights in hurting people.

Hitler had many Nazi Party enablers; many who eagerly carried out his orders. Trump has benefitted from various enablers his entire life; many Republicans eagerly carried out his orders. Germany saw street battles between Hitler’s thugs and their opponents. America has witnessed street battles between Trump followers and opponents.

Hitler was financed by “conservative” businessmen who feared communism. Trump has been supported by “conservatives” who fear “socialism” [meaning they’ll have to pay reasonable taxes, treat workers with respect, follow American laws]. Connected Germans got rich. Connected Americans got rich [including reverse Robin Hood tax cuts].

Hitler specialized in telling the “BIG lie;” telling it often. Trump specializes in telling the “BIG lie;” telling it often [between 20-25,000 by one count}. German “true believers” got their “information’ from Dr. Joseph Goebbels. American “true believers” get their “information” from Fox echo chamber and Rush Limbaugh.

Germans lived in an atmosphere of fear and terror; had to be careful what they said to whom. Trump has stoked an atmosphere of fear [of “them”]; Americans have to be careful who they talk to honestly.

Hitler’s “economic miracle” was the militarization of Germany. America has been militarized domestically – one could be shot at any time, any where; this “right” is so important to Trump’s base that gun stores – in the midst of a pandemic – were declared as “essential businesses.”

Germany had two sets of “justice,” one for Aryans and one for Jews. America has exhibited two sets of “justice,” one for whites and one for non-whites. Germany had the “justice” of the infamously rigged Nazi kangaroo courts. America has the “justice” of the Republican-appointee dominated Supreme Court.

The Nazis had the support of fundamentalist churches. Republicans have the support of fundamentalist churches. The Nazis opposed abortion, persecuted gays. The Republicans oppose abortion, persecute gays.

There were numerous heroic attempts by Germans to oust Hitler. There has been multiple incidents of Americans trying to restrain Trump – in official testimony, in private actions by members of his administration.

The rest of the world was horrified by Nazi Germany; eventually united against it. The rest of the civilized world has been horrified by Trump; American has become isolated {before January 6, 2021 – America, and Trump, polled lower than Putin!]

Hitler led Germany to ruin. Trump has led America to disunity and danger. Hitler denied defeat. Trump denied defeat. Hitler committed physical suicide. Trump committed political suicide.

Coincidence??? Vanity Fair [1990] reported his first wife told her lawyer that Trump had a collection of Hitler’s speeches which he periodically read.

Is Donald J. Trump the exact clone of Adolf Hitler? No. The American system restrained his ignorant and incompetent, corrupt and cruel behavior. There’s no doubt Trump’s example will be a staple of future analysis and discussion. We’ve had bad presidents before; even good men who failed. But – Donald Trump – is important for what he revealed about us. He held a mirror to America – and we don’t like what we see.

As John Dean and Bob Altemeyer say in “Authoritarian Nightmare [2020], the real danger is that of a future “Trump.” A smarter Trump might not shoot himself in the foot.Steven Hassan in “The Cult of Trump” [2019] explained and detailed how Trump used mind control techniques to influence behavior.

In 1787 Philadelphia, Ben Franklin gave this famous answer to a question on what the recently concluded Constitutional Convention had created: “A republic, if you can keep it.” “..if you can keep it.” sounds much more urgent in the wake of 2015-2021.

The Founders had four main fears” abuse of power, slavery, religion, and mobs. 2015-2021 have now dramatized these fears way too much. The anti-George Washington managed to become president – and then unleashed the other 3 fears.

One final, oft remarked upon point – in 1933, Germany elected Adolf Hitler. In 1933, America elected Franklin D. Roosevelt. Character counts. Wanting democracy to succeed counts. Emphasizing hope over fear counts. Policies to help the common man succeed count. Love over hatred counts.

John Adams [1798]: “The declaration that our People are hostile to a government made by themselves, for themselves, and conducted by themselves, is an insult.”

Grover Cleveland [[1894]: “The Ship of Democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those on board.”

Henry S. Commager [1954]: “If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent.”

Calvin Coolidge [1924]: ‘The governments of the past could fairly be characterized as devices for maintaining in perpetuity the place and position of certain privileged classes, without any ultimate protection for the rights of the people. The Government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.”

James F. Cooper [1838]: “The American doctrinaire is the converse of the American demagogue, and, in his way, is scarcely less injurious to the public. The first deals in poetry, the last in cant.”

Helen G. Douglas [1946]: “A vigorous democracy – a democracy in which there are freedom from want, freedom from fear, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech – would never succumb to communism or any other ism.”

Alexander Hamilton [1787-88]: “It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of society against the injustice of the other part.”

Robert M. Hutchins [1954]: “The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”

Otto Kahn [1918]: “The deadliest foe of democracy is not autocracy but liberty frenzied.”

George F. Kennan [195l]: “And so the chauvinists of all times and places go their appointed way; plucking the easy fruits, reaping the little triumphs of the day at the expense of someone else tomorrow, deluging in noise and filth anyone who gets in their way, dancing their reckless dance on the prospects for human progress, drawing the shadow of a great doubt over the validity of democratic institutions. And until the peoples learn to spot the fanning of mass emotions and the sowing of bitterness, suspicion, and intolerance as crimes themselves – as perhaps the greatest disservice that can be done to the cause of popular government – this sort of thing will continue to occur.”

Sinclair Lewis[1935]: “Cure the evils of Democracy by the evils of Fascism! Funny therapeutics! I’ve heard of their curing syphilis by giving the patient malaria, but I’ve never heard of their curing malaria by giving the patient syphilis.”

H>L>Mencken [1920]: “The most popular man under a democracy is not the most democratic man, but the most despotic man. The common folk delight in the exactions of such a man. They like him to boss them. Their natural gait is the goosestep.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt [1940]: “Democracy can thrive only when it enlists the devotion of those whom Lincoln called the common people. Democracy can hold that devotion only when it adequately respects their dignity by so ordering society as to assure to the masses of men and women reasonable security and hope for themselves and for their children.”

Benjamin Spock [1968]: “Democracy appears to me potentially a higher form of political organization than any kind of dictatorship. But if it turns out that America, which could afford a decent living for everyone, the comfortable majority is willing to condone the misery and abuse of a minority for an indefinite period, the exploitation by the majority becomes as repugnant as exploitation by an oligarchy, and democracy loses half its supposed superiority.”

Henry D Thoreau [1849]: “There will never be a free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.”

Virginia Declaration of Rights, June 12, 1776; Section 13: “That a well-regulated militia , composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty…”
Section 16: “That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.”

***note: the above quotes have been supplied by The Harper Book of American Quotations, by G.Carruth and E. Ehrlich


Those of us now privileged to be living in the United States in January, 2021 – might be well advised to reconsider what we think our “rights” are. And perhaps to reflect on what our “responsibilities” are instead.

There are now two “Days of Infamy,” December 7, 1941 and January 6, 2021. The first occurred because of an attack by foreign fascists, the second because of an attack by American fascists, some waving Confederate flags. The U.S. Capitol has now been trashed twice. Once by the British in 1814, once by “Americans” in 2021.

Our president warned us, 1938-1941, of fascist danger, to no avail. The president, 2016-2021, incited authoritarian, cult-like behavior, to much travail. 1938-41 we were plagued by Silver Shirts, German American Bund, and America Firsters. 2016-2021 we we’ve been plagued by America Firsters, armed hooligans in streets believers in various crazy conspiracies, religious zealots, and Trump Cult zealots. Tragically, many of these later group have been grievously and flagrantly lied to and misinformed.

Post- 12/7/41, America rallied behind our president to defeat Asian and European fascism. The urgent 2021 question: will America rally to defeat domestic fascism?

Post-12/7/41, the right wing insisted our president had set up America at Pearl Harbor, a plot to drag America into foreign war [ neglecting the fact that Nazism was/is the most evil philosophy ever]. Post-1980, the right wing is insisting YOUR government has set up America for failure. This plot of “THEM” – commies, pinkos, liberals, gays, Jews, non-whites, socialists, immigrants, “big government,”…..”must be stopped” at all costs.

Post-1980, forces on the political-economic-religious-social “right” have declared war on America. In the past, they’ve murdered doctors, trashed buildings, blown up buildings, paraded in streets with guns and flags, terrorized people who disagreed, corrupted government and courts. On January 6, 2021, some of these people staged an insurrection that had been planned for some time, many were armed.

In September, 1787, Benjamin Franklin answered a Philadelphia woman’s question about what the Constitutional Convention had produced. His famous answer: “A republic, if you can keep it.” “..if WE can keep it. Do WE want to?

On January 27, 1837, Abraham Lincoln said: “At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” So – do WE want to endure, OR, allow domestic fascists carry out that suicide?

Since 1980, Republican “leadership” has given us Iran-Contra, S & L bailouts, an immoral invasion of Iraq and subsequent war crimes, the 2008 Crash and bailouts for the Wall Street perps who CAUSED it, and, the Trump corruption and cruelty reign.

Government subversion was intentionally done by Nixon, Reaganism, Newt Gingrich, Bush II, the Tea Party, Trumpism; appointing Cabinet people opposed to their job’ opposing public health and environmental protections’ opposing minimal gun control [we’re #1 in deaths!!!]’ reverse Robin Hood tax cuts for the rich [blowing up the national debt]’ the entire corrupt Trump reign.

Much knowledge of this sabotage and corruption is public. Confessions by ex-right wingers and Republican workers added to it. Read 25-year staffer Stuart Stevens’ “It Was All A Lie” or 25-year staffer Mike Lofgren’s “The Party Is Over.”

After the 1933-45 Nazi horrors, Germany rejected all aspects of Nazism. The pivotal question for post-2021 America: will an America, shocked by the January 6, 2021 insurrection reject Trumpist fascism? Consider: pro-Trumpers in other American cities cheered on reports and visuals of the anti-democratic Washington events. Do we WANT to preserve American democracy???

1933-45 German minds were poisoned by the propaganda of Joseph Goebbels. 198-2021 American minds have beeb/are poisoned by the propaganda of the “Fox echo chamber [and all the untaxed reactionary billionaire wealth behind it]. A 2018 Gallop Poll showed the most biased people in America, in worsening order were listeners of: MSNBC, One America News, Fox, Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh. Fox viewing Republicans had more extreme positions than non-Fox viewing Republicans!!!! This propaganda also comes from other right wing sources, especially government-hating corporations and the top 1%. Read Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money” or Nancy MacLean’s “Democracy in Chains.”

Economic inequality is a major source of American discontent. Read the international bestseller, “The Spirit Level” by Wilkinson & Pickett or Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz’s “The Price of Inequality.” 2021 American economic inequality is NOT an accident.

The great tragedy of 2016-2021 America, revealed again on January 6th, is how many good Americans have been grievously deceived by the propaganda and mind control efforts of Trump. the most troubling question is WHY did so many become followers of such an obvious con man? Even basic facts, known and accepted world wide, have had little effect on people trapped inside THE TRUMP CULT.

Steven Hassan’s “The Cult of Trump” supplies many answers, from the perspective of a man trapped for 2 1/2 years in a religious cult. Hassan discusses Trump’s mind control techniques in context of other known cult leaders. Hassan also describes the power of various right wing groups behind Trump, especially the “religious right.” Hassan’s description of Weyrich and Lind’s “Fourth Generation Warfare” is chilling. It is a deliberate “5th Column” effort to subvert and permanently America.

John Dean and Bob Altemeyer’s “Authoritarian Nightmare” spends half the book discussing Trump’s followers – most especially their motivation to support, their motivations to continue following Trump despite all evidence to the contrary. In fact, solid evidence that a person’s candidate is destructive don’t work – their minds are already programmed. Without agreed upon facts, democracy is impossible.

For more perspective, please consider this” Vanity Fair’s 1990 report that Trump’s first wife, Ivana, “told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, “My New Order,” which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed.”

And this, from “A Warning” by “Anonymous,” a Trump White House ‘political.’ Page 202″ “Trump revels in the herd-like behavior of his followers. He uses his social media presence to inflame public debates and to despatch supporters to attack politicians who’ve criticized him..” Page 197: “..pandering to common prejudices with false information.. when he does, the ‘false’ part gets ignored by his followers because of their confirmation bias. The ‘information’ part gets absorbed. They are willing to march lockstep if what he says validates what they already believe.”

We didn’t get to January 6, 2021, by accident. 40 years worth of right wing propaganda laid the groundwork. The fuse was deliberately lit by the worst president in American history, the very person the Founders feared.

The Founders had four major fears: abuse of power, slavery, religion, an mobs. The demagogic Trump reign has illustrated them all. But his loyal followers don’t believe this. THIS, more than the disgraced Trump, is America’s biggest problem.

Not all of Trump’s followers are racists [but very many are]. Not all of his followers are religious zealots [but very many are]. Not all of his supporters are top 1% greedheads [but their money, power, connections supported, created, much of 1980-2021 America].

Millions of Trump supporters are victims of lies and misinformation. Many are also victims of the top 1%’s efforts to cut their jobs and wages. The tragedy is that Trump followers actually believe that one of the most egregious top 1% victimizers cared about them – because, his virtual entire pre-presidential business career was filled with cheating people who had worked for him. Trump used their votes to gain the business opportunity of his corrupt reign.

Without considerable changes – meaning sharp reductions in top 1% privileges, incomes, and tax cuts – there will be another January 6th – by a smarter demagogue. That would not be a first. Jules Archer’s “The Plot To Seize The White House” documents the 1933-34 right wing plot to remove President Roosevelt. The plotters were top 1% members and corporations. Their mistake was trying to recruit double Medal of Honor recipient General Smedley Butler. Butler was supposed to lead the “boots on the ground.”Instead, Butler contact Congress. A 1934 Congressional report details the failed plot.

PLease also remember, as detailed in Charles Higham’s “Trading With The Enemy,” an expose of the Nazi-American money plot of 1933-1949. A who’s who of American corporations actively aided Nazi Germany, including during the war. Edwin Black’s “IBM And The Holocaust” documents how IBM made the Nazi machine work – which included killing American soldiers.

The next January 6 plot, carried out by a much smarter demagogue might not fail. If up to 50 million Americans have been deceived by somebody as ignorant and incompetent as Donald J. Trump – what could a real, competent-appearing future American demagogue accomplish?

This is getting old I had a note to give credit to the above authors of The Harper Book of American Quotations for my above blog: “Patriotism – Some Thoughts.” Not enough. Even the excuse of short memory failures won’t cover this, not again. Sorry gentlemen.”

Ambrose Bierce [19060: “Patriotism, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of anyone ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.”

John Brockenbrough {1807]: “Patriotism is a mighty precious thing when it costs nothing, but the mass of mankind consider it a very foolish thing when it curtails their self-indulgence.”

Henry S. Commager [1954]: “Who are the really disloyal? Those who inflame racial hatreds who sow religious and class dissensions. Those who subvert the Constitution by violating the freedom of the ballot box. Those who make a mockery of majority rule by the use of the filibuster. Those who impair democracy by denying equal educational facilities. Those who frustrate justice by lynch law or by making a farce of jury trials. Those who deny freedom of speech and of press and assembly. Those who demand special favors against the commonwealth. Those who regard public office merely as a source of private gain. Those who would exalt the military over the civilian. Those who for selfish and private purposes stir up national antagonisms and expose the world to the ruin of war.”

Helen Gahagan Douglas {1982]: “You can’t prove you’re an American by waving Old Glory.”

Albert Einstein [19210: “Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.”

Robert G. Ingersoll [1882]: “He loves his country best who strives to make it best.”

George Jean Nathan [1931]: “Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.”

Carl Schurz [1872]: “Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right.”

Benjamin Spock[1968]: “I feel that this do-or-die, my-country-right-or-wrong kind of patriotism is not merely out of place in a nuclear armed world, it is criminal egotism on a monstrous scale. The world won’t be safe until people in all countries recognize it for what it is and, instead of cheering the leader who talks that way, impeach him.”

Adlai Stevenson [1952]: “I venture to suggest that patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.”

E. B. White [1947]: “The principle of demanding an expression of political conformity as the price of a job is the principle of hundred percentism. It is not new and it is the blood brother of witch burning.”

An encyclopedia definition of “fifth column: “The agents..may work in an army, political party…Their activities include..economic subversion, propaganda, agitation..and even assassination, terror, and revolt.”

Consider the following article from Patricia Roberts-Miller in the March 1 ,2019, Washington Spectator ; “Deconstructing Trump>’ These excerpts:

“What surprises a lot of people is why Trump’s perpetual and perhaps compulsive inaccuracy and dishonesty don’t undercut his credibility with his fans…Trump uses demagoguery, and it works because we’re in a culture in which demagoguery is the normal way for people to argue….

“..the rhetoric scholar Kenneth Burke identified Hitler’s main rhetorical strategies….and argued that Hitler’s rhetorical effectiveness came from his relentless repetition of what Burke called the “bastardization of religious forms of thought…..

“What Burke identified wasn’t just how Hitler rhetoric worked, but more broadly, how demagoguery works and is rewarded. Demagoguery displaces policy argumentation with praise of “us” and condemnation of “them,” and it is a prevalent now as it was in Weimar Germany.

“Trump relies on the same rhetoric, and that’s why it should be no surprise that conservative Christians would support Trump. Conservative Christian German overwhelmingly supported Hitler..and conservative Christian Americans previously supported slavery, segregation, and lynching.

As Burke noted, Hitler projected all of his, and all of Germans’ flaws, unto the people of Jewish faith or ethnicity. The famous quote from “Mein Kampf,” that it is better to tell a big lie, and stick to it, is something Hitler accuses Jews of doing, even as he is doing exactly that……Demagoguery depends on the notion that everything can be reduced to “us” versus “them.”………

“Burke argued that Hitler bastardized the principle of inborn dignity by asserting that such dignity was born only to certain people. That same bastardization surfaces in the notion of Christianity being racially determined and is behind the the rhetoric of Christian identity, conservative Christian defenses of slavery and segregation, and the kind of right-leaning Christian groups that support Trump.”…..

In fact it’s fairly easy to look at Trump’s rhetoric and find parallels with the rhetorical strategies of demagoguery that Burke identified. Trump repeats the same points, regardless of whether they’ve been debunked; intermittently claims that faith in him is all we need; promotes economic policies that have never worked, but if you believe in the will, should work; materializes evil in Democrats..; projects his own failings onto his enemies…; insists on the entitlement of his in-group to everything; and promises to make America great again….

What matters about Trump..isn’t actually that he uses demagoguery. What matters is that his rise to power was fueled by a demagoguery that reflected the racist, xenophobic, misogynist, and authoritarian values of the GOP – values that previously had surfaced only in dog whistles…the GOP media machine didn’t condemn him for it. They justified it, promoted it, and repeated it. *******************!!!!!!!!**********

“I spend a sad amount of time in anti-liberal media zones, and it’s striking to see how talking points seamlessly disseminate from Trump through his water-carrying friends at Fox and the hate media to the various Facebook pages and sub-Reddit threads in social media…What is clear is that Trump can count on a supportive media machine that will justify anything he does.”

“What happens in a culture of demagoguery is that people think in zero-sum terms about politics: whether our country ends up with a good policy matters less than ensuring the winner is “us”[our faction] – or at least we can make them lose…That is the objective of Trump’s rhetoric and the rhetoric of his loyal media.”

***For perspective, consider this: “Vanity Fair’s” 1990 report that Trump’s first wife, Ivana, “told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, “My New Order,” which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed.”

*****For perspective, consider this from “A Warning,” by ‘Anonymous’ – a Trump White House “political”, page 202: “Trump revels in the herd-like behavior of his followers. He uses his social media presence to inflame public debates and to dispatch supporters to attack politicians who’ve criticized him…”
…..page 197: “..pandering to common prejudices…When he does, the ‘false’ part gets ignored by his followers because of their confirmation bias. The ‘information’ part gets absorbed. They are willing to march lockstep if what he says validates what they already believe.” ****************!!!!!!************

The above post “America, some Thoughts” were words from “The Harper Book of American Quotations” by Carruth and Ehrlich. Sorry.

Pearl Bailey {1976}: “In America, we have people who are too rich, people who are too poor, people who are hungry, people who are sick, people who are homeless, people who are imprisoned, people who are bored, people who are strung out, people who are lonely, people who are exploited, people who lose and can’t find their way, people who give up on life. America, we better live as sisters and brother. Let us take care of our land. We cannot stand up for every other land. Stand up for ourselves.”

Jimmy Carter [1976]: “All I want is the same thing you want. To have a nation with a government that is as good and honest and decent and competent and compassionate and as filled with love as are the American people.”

India Edwards[1977]: “Every generation of Americans has wanted more material wealth, more luxury for the next generation. In my opinion the time has come when we must hope our children and their children ad infinitum will want more from life than material success. They must have enough of that to ensure a roof, clothing, food and some recreation, but, if we are to survive for another two hundred years, we must change our way of life.”

Dwight Eisenhower [1953}: “Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must fiLyndonme to pass in the heart of America.”

Ralph W. Emerson [1867]: “The office of America is to liberate, to abolish kingcraft, priestcraft, caste, monopoly, to pull down the gallows, to burn up the the bloody statutebook, to take in the immigrant to open the doors of the sea and the fields of the earth.”

Waldo Frank [1919]: “We go forth all to seek America. And in the seeking we create her. In the quality of our search shall be the nature of the America that we created.”

Hubert Humphrey [1964]: “We are the standard bearers in the only really authentic revolution, the democratic revolution against tyrannies. Our strength is not to be measured by our military capacity alone, by our industry, or by our technology. We will be remembered, not for the power of our weapons, but for the power of our compassion, our dedication to human welfare.”

Lyndon Johnson[1947]: “I pray we are still a young and courageous nation, that we have not grown so old and so fat and so prosperous that all we can think about is to sit back with our arms around our money bags. If we choose to do that I have no doubt that the smoldering fires will burst into flame and consume us – dollars and all.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. {1967]: “Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten…America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay. If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element of greatness – justice.”

Gerald S. Lee [1913]: “America is a tune, It must be sung together.”

David Lilienthal [1949]: “We are a people with a faith in each other, and when we lose that faith we are weak, however heavily armed. We are a people with a faith in reason, and in the unending pursuit of new knowledge; and when we lose that faith we are insecure, though we have never been so heavily armed. We are a people with a faith in God, and a deep sense of stewardship to our Creator, the Father of us all; and when that is no longer strong within us, we are weak and we are lost, however heavily armed with weapons – with atomic weapons we may be.”

Abraham Lincoln [1837] ; “At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

Meyer London [1916]: “To me Americanism means…an imperative duty to be nobler than the rest of the world.”

Reinhold Niebuhr [1962]: “We find it almost as difficult as the communists to believe that anyone could think ill of us, since we are as persuaded as they that our society is so essentially virtuous that only malice could prompt criticism of any of our actions.”

Adlai Stevenson [1954]: “Throughout its history, America has given hope, comfort, and inspiration to freedom’s cause in all lands. The reservoir of good will and respect for America was not built up by American arms or intrigue; it was built upon our deep dedication to the cause of human liberty and human welfare.”

Stewart Udall [19710: “It is painfully clear that the United States needs its Indians and their culture. A society increasingly homogenized and mechanized – a society headed toward ant-hill conformity and depersonalized living – desperately needs the lessons of a culture that has a deep reverence for nature, and values the simple, the authentic, and the humane.”

George Washington[1789]: “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”

Walt Whitman [1856]: ‘O America because you build for mankind I build for you.”

Mark Twain: “The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.” [read Sandel’s “Justice Whats the Right Thing to Do?]

Benjamin Spock: “Man is a spiritual being in that – unless he is badly corrupted – he responds powerfully to nonmaterial stimuli: the beauty in nature and art, the trust of children, the needs of helpless people, the death of a friend even though long absent.” [read Ellis’ “American Dialogue The Founders and Us”]

America, 2021, may be at a pivotal crossroads. COVID-19 has held a mirror to America. It revealed the vast majority willing to “do the right thing,” some die doing it. The reign of Donald Trump also held a mirror to America. It revealed a scary minority capable of greed, cruelty, ignorance, selfishness, misinformed stupidity.

Who are we? Are we who we say we are? Are we truly “all in this together?” Do we WANT to live up to our professed ideals? Do we believe”all men are created equal; do we WANT to “love thy neighbor as thyself; do we WANT a government that will “promote the general Welfare;” a “government of – by – FOR – the people?”

We have many problems – that COULD be solved by rational, fact-based thinking Do we WANT to do this? The first step is admitting/understanding the problem. The second step is arriving at what most Americans/the rest of the world understand as the “truth.”

Accepting fact-based truth has been a major part of our 2016-2020 ills. 40 years of lies and propaganda have poisoned some people’s mind, creating a public divided against itself. The Founders created a system that assumed rational ,informed, thinking – thus the post office, free speech, free press. In the internet era, lies, rage, falsehoods, rumors overwhelm the truth. This cannot continue in a healthy America.

Do we WANT to be healed? We are entitled to our opinions. We are NOT entitled to our own “facts, acquired from some “echo chamber.” If this doesn’t change, America is doomed – as is any form of democracy. Please consider the following steps to heal.

1] end the ‘war on drugs.” This is a proven failure. Learn from other nations. Medicalize the drug problem. Arresting ourselves out of this has created vast criminal empires in America, and many nations south of us. WHY are people doing drugs?

2] end the Electoral College. The Founder’s rationale no longer exists. This should be easy: the person with the most votes wins. Period. Why continue a nightmare where political maneuvering in a handful of states overturns the numerical vote?

3] end political gerrymandering. Racial gerrymandering is illegal – why is political gerrymandering allowed? Divide each state into squares/rectangles. not voter enclaves. No objective judge has ever supported this. Why guarantee political jobs?

4] overturn “Citizens United” – one of the worst, most destructive Supreme Court decisions EVER. The stupidity of this illustrated by the ever increasing billions spent on elections. “Free speech” is corrupted – the richer you are – the more “free speech” you can buy. This has now corrupted American government, economy, society. [read Jane Mayers” “Dark Money”]

5] end America as 37th best in health care. Learn from other nations. COVID-19 has revealed public health IS national security. The corrections are well known: government negotiates drug prices; reform or eliminate private “health insurance;” regulate hospital charges; end health monopolies and consolidations. {read Bartlett & Steele’s “Critical Condition” or T>R>Reid’s “The Healing of America”]

6] enforce existing anti-trust legislation. The American economy is stifled by rent-seeking monopolies in all industries. Customers routinely overcharged. {read Lynn’s “Liberty From All Masters” or Teachout’s “Break ‘Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom..”]

7] reform American tax policies. One table for ALL income, based on progressive taxation. Limit inherited wealth. End corporate ability to hide income. Why should billionaire Warren Buffett pay a lower tax rate than hissecretary?

8] return to the “Fairness Doctrine” of broadcasting, that was ended in 1987 by the Reagan Administration. American airwaves belong to the public. Broadcasting SHOULD serve us all, not feed “red meat” of hatred and fear. Why should media personnel earn $30 million yearly for dividing America, poisoning minds, creating division?

9] restore Glass-Steagall priciples. Separate investment banking [legalized gambling] from regular mainstream banking. End “too big to fail” banking. [read Phillips’ “Bad Money”, Ferguson’s “Predator Nation” or his Academy Award-winning film “Inside Job”]

10] end “share holder supremacy.” “American” corporations must be MADE to legally respect all American stakeholders: public, consumers, workers, environment. “Share holder supremacy” only enriches the top 1%, impoverishes Americans in many ways {read Hatcher & Pierson’s “Winner-Take-All-Politics”]

11] correct massive post-1980 “income inequality,” which is destroying America. If Joe Sixpack earns $50,000 for 50 years, his TOTAL lifetime earnings are $2.5 million. Can he thrive, support his children, retire with dignity? {read Wilkinson & Pickett’s famous “The Spirit Level,” “Pulitzer Prize-winner Johnston’s “Divided The Perils of Our Growing Inequality,” or Nobel Prize-winner Stiglitz’s “The Price of Inequality]

12] prohibit legislators and their staffs being employed as lobbyists; enhance strict lobbying rules. [read Kaiser’s “So Damn Much Money The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government”]

13] all American legislation must have author’s name in print on bills; bills must pass Constitution’s premise: to “promote the general Welfare.” Reverse Robin Hood tax cuts for millionaires; unneeded military weapons don’t pass. [read Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine” or P.C. Roberts’s “How The Economy Was Lost”]

l4] return to the First Amendment’s original intent of strict “separation of church and state:” no church dogma put into law; no tax money to religious organizations. Why should a church you DON’T attend have any say on YOUR life??? [read Kimball’s “When Religion Becomes Evil,” Palmer’s “Thy Kingdom Come,” Epp’s “Wrong and Dangerous,” or Levy’s “The Establishment Clause”]

l5] return to the Second Amendment’s original intent. Google the “1792 Militia ACT.” See former Republican Chief Justice Burger’s “fraud” statement. See a grammar teacher on how to read a sentence!!! What does “A well regulated Militia ” mean to the Framers? See 4 consecutive Supreme Court rulings against a “constitutional right to own a gun” [read Levy’s “Origins of the Bill of Rights”]

16] protect voter rights against suppression. Overturn the asinine “Shelby County: Supreme Court decision – an INCREDIBLE denial of reality. Make it easy to register and vote with ordinary records [utility bill, rent statement, drivers license, tax statements, etc] Read Overton’s “Stealing Democracy or Anderson’s “One Person, No Vote.”

17] end becoming an American by birth here. Parents must be legal American citizens. End sale of American citizenship to rich and tourists.

18] bailouts. If any industry is bailed out, taxpayers own part income until “bailout money” is repaid. No executives/employees get “bonuses” from taxpayer money.

19]Adequately fund Social Security and Medicare. 100% of all income is taxed, no “caps” This ends the “problem.” The idea millionaires “get no benefits” from paying full tax is an insult. They “get no benefits” living here, no benefit from absence of threats to themselves or their wealth? Do you believe in the tooth fairy???

20]U.S. national debt. This is now a national security issue. Solution: end Reagan-Bush II-Trump reverse Robin Hood tax cuts for rich; wealth surcharge until debt under $l trillion as was pre-Reagan This is a major morality issue: ordinary Americans suffer so rich can live in obscene wealth.

21] education K-l2. America doesn’t invest enough in its children’s future. We’re below international standards. Educators paid less than no-college jobs. Tax money siphoned off to private schools [lst Amendment violation by pre-Rehnquist/Roberts Court standards] Read Ravitch’s “Left Back” or “Reign of Error;” or Owens” “Confessions of A Bad Teacher.”

22] education post-high school. Why doesn’t America provide advanced education for all? Who is the next Einstein? Why does 2021 tuition cost 10-20 times what it did pre-1970? We’re importing foreigners because we don’t do this. [read Kamnetz’s “Generation Debt” – how student debt is radically changing people’s lives, hurting our economy]

23 begin elimination of “outsourcing” American jobs. We won WW ii and Cold War because we outproduced our enemies {by American companies] Read Quart’s “Squeezed” or Pulitzer Prize-winner H.R. Smith’s “Who Stole the American Dream?”

24] world-wide democracy depends upon America being an active, positive, participant. We will not survive going it alone – tried that up to December 7, 1941. We won WW ii and Cold War with friends and championing democracy.

25] have rational immigration policies based on fact and national interest – not fears and rumors. Have policies tom attract needed skilled workers and a controlled humanitarian immigration/asylum system. Do we still believe in the Statue of Liberty? [read H.G. Buffett’s “Our 50-State Border Crisis” or Bacon’s “Illegal People”}

26] have rational environmental policies, based on science. We will either stop global warming or it will destroy the earth, and our children and grandchildren’s future – as it already is doing. Invest heavily in renewal energy [as competitors and enemies are doing]; eliminate plastic pollution. [read Oreskes & Conways’s “Merchants of Doubt” or Klein’s “This Changes Everything”]

27] regulate the internet for the benefit of all – or return to 1865-1901 “Robber Baron” age. We apparently love “Amazon” – but without regulation “Amazon” will own America. Why don’t Facebook and Google pay YOU for the use of YOUR data??? [read Mayer-Schonberger & Cukier’s “Big Data,” or Lanier’s “Who Owns the Future?”]

28] 2016-20202 America didn’t happen by accident. We’ve been heading for it for decades. In 1963-4, Pulitzer Prize-winner Hofstadter’s “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” discussed extremist fringe groups. More recently MacLean’s “Democracy in Chains” and Levitsky & Ziblatt’s “How Democracies Die” detailed recent extremism and deliberate corporate planning to own America. Michiko Kakutani’s “The Death of Truth” discussed falsehoods.

In 1787 Philadelphia, a woman on the street asked Ben Franklin, “What do we have, doctor?” His famous reply: “A republic, if you can keep it.” Do we WANT to keep it?

29] For perspective, read James Michner’s “The Quality of Life” or Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture.”

30] Year after year, the happiest people on earth are usually Scandinavians – WHY????? One central COVID-19 lesson has been that nations exhibiting common purpose and mutual trust fared better than those who didn’t. America has not been one of these rational nations. Do we WANT to heal America? Do we WANT to learn and change? Can we handle the truth?

[note: Twain & Spock quotes from The Harper Book of American Quotations – Carruth & Ehrlich].

After 2 hours of laboring on the “religious liberty” posting of today, just above, i was rather exhausted. I closed too quickly and obviously missed an early major misspelling. Worse – I neglected to give credit to two sources in particular, even much came from multiple public sources. They are Leonard W. Levy’s masterful “The Establishment Clause Religion and the First Amendment” and “The Harper Book of American Quotations” by Gorton Carruth and Eugene Ehrlich. Sorry gentlemen.