My Soul Is Stirred . . . This is How Dictatorships are Formed
It’s like a scene out of a Hollywood video. The leader sits in the Oval and gives the order. “Go out there and create chaos so I can be the calm after the storm.” Like idiots who are caught up in the false reality that they’ve been conditioned to accept - they go. The military and police who follow the orders approach the peaceful protestors who simply want to be heard and throw tear gas and rubber bullets at someone’s daughter, son, brother, sister, husband, wife, grandmother, grandfather. The sting of the gas, the clouds of smoke, the screams and yells all deliver on the scene that he seeks to create. Here’s the chaos. And he’s the calm. This is how dictatorships are formed.
The message of law and order in this time of chaos lulls the loyal. The conditioning we’ve all had to accept and look past his lies means he’s lying right to our faces. He’s telling us that he supports peaceful protest and that he’s here to protect them and their rights. And at the same time his military is burning their skin with tear gas and bruising their faces with rubber bullets. But don’t believe what you see because my words tell you something different. This is how dictatorships are formed.
He invokes an old act from 1807 to deal with insurrections that gives him the “power” to deploy the military on US soil. And he threatens cities and states that they have no sovereignty and he will assert his power and dominance in their stead. He then travels through the path created by tear gas and rubber bullets for a photo op at a church across the street from his home that he’s only been to once since moving there 3 years ago, holding a Bible that is not even his own. He is the Commander-in-Chief and this is how dictatorships are formed.
It was my child out there. It was your brother or sister. Bible carrying Americans should be offended. Those who love democracy should be sickened. Because this is not just about the threat of black and brown lives, this is about a threat to our democracy. Believe what you see. This is really happening. Don’t turn away. We can’t wish it away and know that this is how dictatorships are formed. And this is America.