Civil disobedience run amok

A curious thing is happening in America today. The democratic, free election process has given us a new leader with an agenda supported by the majority. There was no court intervention in making the decision to elect this man. Promises for progressive policy initiatives, made during the campaign, are now being fulfilled, yet the other team is now crying foul. He said what he would do, and is now doing what he said. Whether you agree with the outcome or not, that equates to integrity.

It has become increasingly difficult to comprehend the American right-wing's vocal, mean-spirited and counter-productive wailing. They have chosen to become disenfranchised by continuing to throw their support behind representatives and issues not aligned with America's future needs and our common goals for the  betterment of society.

Obstructionism has become de rigueur for Republican politicians. Entertainment TV, posing as news, has whipped up fear and animosity to a state not seen in America since the times of the civil rights legislation battles and McCarthyism. After Harry Truman left office, referring to the influences of McCarthyism, he said "It is the rise to power of the demagogue who lives on untruth; it is the spreading of fear and the destruction of faith in every level of society.". and so the politics of fear continues in this latest ugly chapter.

Small groups of active and very vocal opponents, in this media-fueled frenzy, are starting to act out violently, spitting and shouting obscenities at elected officials, committing acts of vandalism and issuing death threats. Carrying guns to protest gatherings and targeting public official for election defeat by using cross hair symbols to identify their marks, are a couple of the scarier elements of the trending loss of civil discourse in our society.

This behavior, these displays, these angry, angry people want their country returned to them. The irony is that they are demolishing all that is cherished about America, and the things that make it great. It's not clear what they want it back from or where they want to take it to. Despite the fear, we are clearly not on a road to socialism, communism or fascism. Allowing the angry mob outlaws to bully their representatives undercuts the very process that they seek to preserve.

Rather than achieving a pendulum swing in the upcoming mid-term elections the screamers, the spitters and the vandals are likely to suffer increasing defeats as a deeply troubled electorate seeks to push their voices further into the fringe wilderness from where they came. Their best chance to enact desired changes, regressive or otherwise, would be to act civilly and to utilize the democratic process. Fat chance!