First let me say emphatically that Trump is a national and historical tragedy which vitally threatens the continuation of our democratic form of government■

Second, I have always been left of many Democratic politicians but have continually voted and worked strategically for Democrats. However, I have been consistently vexed by the apparent inability of rationality, facts and plain common sense to win out over the fear card Republicans have been playing since Barry Goldwater. Fox News amplified and capitalized on the inherit capacity humans have for gossip and drama to overcome reality. Don’t forget Rupert Murdock made his money on a tabloid like our National Enquirer called The Sun. In our country, Murdock was able to eliminate the word ‘tabloid’ from his media enterprise, attach the word ‘News’ to it, eliminate the need to read and made his media absolutely passive. He gave folks the same gossip, the drama, and unlike real gossip he totally controlled the message. He called this enterprise, Fox News. In effect, Murdock made Fox News the World Wide Wrestling of politics. His 24 hour barrage of highly charged negativity fueled with a nostalgia for a non-existent past was a drug for those who needed to make life bigger than reality. Far right dogma was a marriage made in Hell for Fox News. It is hard for people to get worked up over facts and reality.

Since 50% of eligible voters in our country do not vote even in a presidential election, the new right of Barry Goldwater over the decades was able to increasingly dope up enough folks to offset the quarter of folks which like to vote on facts and reality – the non-addicted folks. There actually used to be Republicans like the Rockefeller Republicans which would nowadays be called Democrats by the new right. In any case, this produced a stalemate in elections which kept both parties in reciprocating power over the decades. Democrats from the 60s tend to have real ideals that do not change like diversity, civil rights, equal rights, democracy, etc.. The new right, in spite of their raucous insistence as the Party of Lincoln, increasingly gave up on the Lincoln which opposed slavery and held steadfastly to the U.S. Constitution. Their thin veneer of equality in the ‘inherit justice of capitalism’ increasingly became harder to justify as they pushed harder and harder to maintain their voter equity with Democrats – even as their highly ethnic and aging voter base was shrinking. Democrats always suspected that their intensely defensive protests against racism was more propaganda than sincere. As minorities have inevitably become main stream, Americans have seen more and more attempts by Republicans to suppress the vote, drastically reduce or stop immigration and political asylum guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution and keep control of women and their reproductive choices. Democracy became hostage to the dictates of their rage. With Trump, the value Republicans gave lip service to honesty has become a “well that is just the way he talks” thing. For several years, any sincere Republicans have been dropping off the ranks of the new right thugs. So, how has this desperate, gun toting and violent desperation helped the Democrats?

Fox News controls the message and the ‘truth’ emphatically. However, they cannot control the free press. They can sophistic-ally call the free press ‘fake news’ while they watch their tabloid news but they are frustrated in their desire to autocratically control all media in our country. Trump would have all the media flatter his ego endlessly like any other common dictator but that is where they failed. The fact is there are many folks which do not need the increasingly desperate sugar high of negativity and a nostalgic past that was not their past or even a real past. These folks tend to be just fine with a non-manufactured past, warts and all. Increasingly, the far right screech has become a screed. However, their noxious poison is quickly becoming the antidote for our politician’s hallucinatory machinations. IF our democracy can withstand the current detoxification of the new right, we will proceed to a more mature and functional culture and statehood. If we, as a country of diversity, can allow the dying gasp of what histories have amply demonstrated to be catastrophic and tragic failures, we will have earned the right to grow up; to cast off the all too typical need for autocratic shepherds which end up eating their sheep. There is only one catch, NOW we need the 50% of eligible non-voters to tip the inevitable decline of the delusional and come to the rescue of their own best interests. No eligible voter is excused at this critical time! If Republicans, Independents and Don’t-Cares do not step up and vote on Tuesday to end Trump’s devotee’s raging haze we will all fail together. Trump has taken over the Congressional and the Judicial branches of our government. The checks are all gone except the voters. If you want a future for hope, freedom and democracy get off your ass and vote – wake up please!