election results
election results. well, hell, we are good citizens, no? so when election results do not go our way, what we do is suck it up, stick out our chins, and go on as if civil discourse were going to continue. yes, we have to put up with legal setbacks for a couple of years, but we can sweep our guys and gals back in in two years, right? except some of us remember the Gracchi. they were reformers who meant to make Rome live up to its own ideals (my interpretation) and the Roman Senate killed one and sent a mob against the other, who suicided. all I mean is that standing up to bullies who have been elected properly is a good way to die. just to check my "lessons from history" we leap forward twenty-two centuries and look at the Nazis. yes, they were elected normally, properly, and turned out to be just the bullies they had said they would be. yes, people opposed them. you may know that didn't work out well. okay, one last look. in the United States in 1968. we assassinated Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. it worked. both movements didn't exactly die, but they sputtered ineffectually. more importantly, I think, the angry people, the resentful people, the hating people got the message that the government would look away. hippies died. leftist agitators either died or got beat up so much they couldn't remember what they were fussing about. I had longish hair and a full beard, and people on the sidewalk felt free to threaten me. so am I trying to discourage you? I am not. but I want you to go into the Trump years warned. yes, our fellow citizens can be dangerous. they have been storing up their resentments since 1972 and I suspect Trump has released them. resist, pursue your dream, stand for what you think is right, and know what may be coming. courage! and please universe, let me be wrong.
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