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[THREAD]: When historians look back at this era, they will perhaps say the following:
The United States was at a crossroads at the beginning of the 21st century. What had been a primarily white ethnic nation was becoming much more diverse in many ways...(1/17)
The United States was at a crossroads at the beginning of the 21st century. What had been a primarily white ethnic nation was becoming much more diverse in many ways...(1/17)
...White heterosexual men, frequently without a college education, and their wives - those who had previously been considered the backbone of the American dream - were being challenged by Hispanics, Blacks, women, LGBTQ persons, and by science itself....(2/17)
...Before this time, the white heteropatriarchy had based its entitlement in its view that God favored them and that the United States was a blessed, exceptional nation.
This all changed with the diversification of the American populace,...(3/17)
This all changed with the diversification of the American populace,...(3/17)
...and the tolerance and acceptance that came with difference, progress, and the realization that not all was as it had been previously taught and believed. Indeed, all the vaunted "progress" that came with a capitalistic society, generating tons and tons of emissions...(4/17)
...that were destroying the environment, was becoming unmasked. This unmasking itself was a threat to the ruling class.
While "one man, one vote" seemed to be the legal standard and was taught and embraced in the schools, when it became clear that this would mean...(5/17)
While "one man, one vote" seemed to be the legal standard and was taught and embraced in the schools, when it became clear that this would mean...(5/17)
...loss of power to those who held it, the vote became something to thwart. And with it, democracy itself.
The question was whether democracy in America - purportedly the gold standard - could survive this test.
Donald Trump was the chosen,...(6/17)
The question was whether democracy in America - purportedly the gold standard - could survive this test.
Donald Trump was the chosen,...(6/17)
...or perhaps de facto, stress test of this world view that had evolved from entitlement into fear. Trump was a narcissist, a man with no morals or qualms with running over any and everyone in his path. Perhaps it took this sort of bulldozer mentality to have...(7/17)
...the nerve to test the system in this way. Anyone with an ounce of morals would surely be tentative at SOME point in their destruction, with even a twinge of guilt or sense of hypocrisy along the way. But not Donald. He was the one person who could do the unthinkable...(8/17)
Blatantly threatening and upending the integrity of the system that he inherited. No one else would have been able to fit the bill. No one else had the ability and amorality to overtly plow over democracy as citizens knew it.
And his approach appealed to millions...(9/17)
And his approach appealed to millions...(9/17)
...It promised them what could never materialize. A world unbothered by pandemics, climate change, demographic change, educated elites. This recipe sounded great to the disaffected. They could hold on to their righteousness, their entitlement, their perceive birthright...(10/17)
...To hell with the foundation of their inheritance. The very democracy that ironically made America great.
This stress test came and Americans ... those who understood the damage that was being caused by this charismatic snake oil salesman ... stood up and said no...(11/17)
This stress test came and Americans ... those who understood the damage that was being caused by this charismatic snake oil salesman ... stood up and said no...(11/17)
....They rose to the challenge. Their principles mattered. Ethnic minorities came out in droves to restore and preserve the system of government that would give them the same chances that the aggrieved white people had once enjoyed...(12/17)
Educated and compassionate white people came out and put a stop to Trump's shenanigans as well...because they had pride in a system that valued equality and free speech and association and pursuit of knowledge, ethics and integrity...(13/17)
A government that wasn't mired in the past filled with wayward religious mythology but was focused on truth and facts and forward-looking progress.
These cobbled-together groups - composed of people who had previously been numerical minorities in the country or who...(14/17)
These cobbled-together groups - composed of people who had previously been numerical minorities in the country or who...(14/17)
...had been oppressed over time by the ruling classes - saved America. Grassroots leaders like Stacey Abrams generated the willpower and drive to make it happen. The people came together and showed that even severe tests of American democracy can be shaken but overcome...(15/17)
This test, in fact, made America stronger by exposing the gaps in the institutions and the egregious personalities who previously benefited from the oppressive regimes.
Democracy and integrity was stress-tested in America and it survived...(16/17)
Democracy and integrity was stress-tested in America and it survived...(16/17)
But the experience showed that the experiment in democracy can, if not nurtured and respected, come perilously close to disintegration. (17/17)
