I’ve been watching a lot of soccer lately. I’ve also been reading a lot. I’ve even checked in on Amazon Prime.
What I haven’t been doing is obsessing over politics. I think that’s true for many millions of people, especially on the left.
Why? Because it doesn’t matter until it matters.
The result is an assumption in Washington that fascism is about to take over. They see progressives isolated within their own lives, confusing that with acceptance.
This is true around the world. Ukranians feel isolated. Chinese feel isolated. Religious minorities are isolated everywhere.
But facts are stubborn things. In a technology age it’s the country that delivers the greatest degree of liberty – political, social, economic – that wins the markets. Money doesn’t come out of the ground. It rains down from the clouds. You can’t get the best work from an imprisoned mind. You can’t tell what container great talent may come in. Free countries are going to dominate the 21st century economy.
This has long been America’s secret sauce. It’s why America’s GDP is $22 trillion and Russia’s barely $1 trillion.
Yet even here in America, liberals and progressives feel isolated, besieged. We’re told to fear, that we’re about to lose it all to fascism’s inexorable victory. By our own leaders.
I’m calling bullshit on them. Prosperous nations don’t commit suicide. You don’t get to call a 250-year experiment with democracy “Weimar Germany” and watch me stand quiet.
Here’s the truth. There is a silent majority in this country. We’re tolerant, we’re moderate, and we’re trying to get by. We’re more frustrated than supportive of the Administration, which appears weak against the fascist onslaught.
But the Republicans now transforming Florida, Texas, and other states with their intolerance, and who are seeking to overthrow 100 years of work by legislators and executive leaders through judicial activism, know they’re not the majority. I can’t think of a single major issue where most people agree with Republican leaders. Whether it’s social policy, economic policy, or foreign policy, we’re a left-center country when you look at the issues. Young people are overwhelmingly tolerant and progressive in their outlook. No governor, and no legislature, can force that to change.
They can, however, force that into the closet. That’s where progressivism is right now. It’s closeted, it’s mainly keeping quiet. It’s like being in a hurricane, or being under COVID, or being a civilian in a war zone. It’s hard. We’re hunkered down.
But I’m not feeling hopeless. We’re not doomed.
Remember. You don’t have to kill anyone to make a difference this year. You don’t have to march. You don’t have even have to sign a petition to make your voice heard. Just make sure you’re registered. Make sure you vote when the time comes.
If we all do that, we’ll be happy with the results, whatever they are.
It’s only if we fail in the basic test of citizenship that we can lose.
