This week marked a very concerning turning point in American history. The unprincipled and anti-democratic Republicans in The Senate have de facto declared Trump to be an unstoppable, all-powerful autocrat who is above the law and can commit whatever criminal acts he chooses if he simply claims it’s to help his re-election. Trump’s Attorney General, William Barr, has crushed multiple investigations into Trump’s criminality and issued a new order preventing any new investigations into Trump unless he first gives approval. And the courts have been perverted with a massive influx of unqualified, right-wing extremists and ideologues who already have protected Trump from Congressional investigations.
We have passed the rubicon, we are no longer in a true Constitutional democracy with checks and balances on the president and co-equal and independent branches of government. The weight of that reality doesn’t seem to have registered with most Americans yet but the replacement of democracy with autocracy is the real decision voters will face in November on Election Day.
We can’t let American democracy continue to be pulled away from right under our feet without recognizing that and fighting against it. We need to remember what America stands for, what America has been and really is, a land of the free, home of the brave and the greatest democracy in the world. So this weekend’s music thread is about America, songs about the country, cities and towns, protest songs, things that have been wrong and things that have been right in this country…reminding us of the character of America as a true democracy.
Share songs that speak to you about the America we believe in and about our determination to fight for the democracy that those before us, fought and died to protect.
Of course I’m putting this in! A San Francisco College grad of ’68, organizing peace marches.