Oh, wow, thanks!!!!! That means a lot to me! Seriously, if I can help anyone else find their inner citizen that's the best thing I can do!
And, seriously--- I've been thinking a lot about, not only how the other side jumped the gun, but also about how the framers of the Constitution left US citizens so many tools to FIX IT when our democracy starts to get broken and we just have to PICK THEM UP NOW and USE THEM.
I mean. On the one hand. The US as a nation is a Thing because the people who made it declared war for "certain inalienable rights", and the founding documents of the nation basically have "let's give people a means other than killing each other to express their needs for expansion of who gets which rights" built in. And on the other hand, the one time that completely broke down--- that would be the Civil War--- is also the result of the framers deliberately and consciously making decisions about sacrificing the rights of African-American slaves. And this is still screwing this up. Possibly at least in part precisely because they were so good at framing the structure of government, for better or for worse.
But it also means that WE HAVE TOOLS. We have tools to resist foreign influence and tyranny and the erosion of our rights that are part of the fabric of our nation. They're imperfect. But they're there. And we have to pick them up now. And not put them down until we've expanded our rights and their protections that much further this time.
Re: There are more of us than we know!
And, seriously--- I've been thinking a lot about, not only how the other side jumped the gun, but also about how the framers of the Constitution left US citizens so many tools to FIX IT when our democracy starts to get broken and we just have to PICK THEM UP NOW and USE THEM.
I mean. On the one hand. The US as a nation is a Thing because the people who made it declared war for "certain inalienable rights", and the founding documents of the nation basically have "let's give people a means other than killing each other to express their needs for expansion of who gets which rights" built in. And on the other hand, the one time that completely broke down--- that would be the Civil War--- is also the result of the framers deliberately and consciously making decisions about sacrificing the rights of African-American slaves. And this is still screwing this up. Possibly at least in part precisely because they were so good at framing the structure of government, for better or for worse.
But it also means that WE HAVE TOOLS. We have tools to resist foreign influence and tyranny and the erosion of our rights that are part of the fabric of our nation. They're imperfect. But they're there. And we have to pick them up now. And not put them down until we've expanded our rights and their protections that much further this time.