Since I have no intention of making this a history lesson, I’ll assume you know the back story of how we got here. Our election/government process had boiled down to basically a two party system since that first wide-open, three week long election back in 1788/1789. It would appear at a casual, shallow glance that the stable, entrenched two party system is now engaged in its every four-year rivalry, but it isn’t what it appears to be to outsiders or to those who really just don’t care. On careful, comparative examination, it becomes obvious America is on the verge of dying.
For the first time in over one hundred years, one of the traditional parties that developed and flourished in our political system has failed. It has been subverted by a new party. The old concept of a two party system consisted of the Federalists and their opponents, who years later became the Republicans. Through the convulsions of political and economic growth, both have been liberal and conservative, depending on when you looked at them in history. The Republicans under Lincoln were not labeled conservative as they are today. The Republicans under Trump are not conservative, either. They are in fact Radical. The traditional Republicans have ceded their name and their honor to a new party that is intent of subverting the Constitution to conquer the Democracy, or actually the Republic. It is the Christian Nationalist Party.
If the Republican party is to survive in American politics, it will have to join forces with the Democratic party to protect the common values they share together. Republicans and Democrats share a love for our Constitution and the rule of law, however, the Christian Nationals believe in a deity that they themselves have created. Rather than a country where a citizen is free to be a Christian, they demand a Christian country where all citizens must follow their religious dogma.
The true Republican stalwarts were not even in attendance at the 2024 National Republican Convention. The Cheneys, the Bushes, the Romneys, They were all excluded by a power grab that has been years in the making. The Christian Radicals have simply taken another party’s mantel. They have a masthead in front of them, the incredibly well-timed Donald J. Trump. But Donald is expendable, and he knows it. The ominous blood bath both Trump and the Christians have ominously and publicly predicted will be between themselves and not the Democrats. Trump is known to be supported by as yet unseen foreign forces and the Christian Nationalists will be faced with another dilemma: Cower down yet once again to the demigod and play the long game, or engage in outright confrontation and civil war for control.
When I first voted back in the last century, I simply voted the way my parents voted. I reflected their values and prejudices when I mailed my first absentee ballot from Germany. I was twenty-three years old and was finishing my first four year tour in the U.S. Air Force. I grew and learned the party of my parents did not reflect my values. I decided to become an Independent. That way I would appear neutral to all around me, freeing me from some embarrassing assumptions and contradictions. Today, as I prepare to vote in my 16th Presidential election, I realize more than ever, those who can not or will not speak their minds, will silently either save my beloved America, or destroy it.
