The Resistance and the New Civil War

The Resistance and the New Civil War
By Thom Palmer
November 12, 2016

I CAN'T SLEEP
It's 3am, Saturday the 12th. For the last four nights, I have woken up with a frown on my face.  I'm tired and depressed.  I don''t think there is any shaking it, but I know what I need to do to mitigate it.

We went from the real PROBABILITY that we would have someone in the White House that was the most prepared, well rounded, and most intelligent person to ever seek the Presidency.  One with a vision of peace and prosperity for everybody, and an actual plan to accomplish her goals. Instead, what we got was the exact opposite. Where I really thought that Tuesday November 8th would be the last day I would ever have to type the word "Trump", letting all of the toxic slime that flowed out of his mouth drop into history's septic tank, never to be smelled again, I'm still stuck typing that dirty 5 letter word. 

Every day I've been sinking deeper into depression about this election, but I'm working on it.  I was 99% sure that the people would reject hate and fear, and allow history to take a greatly needed positive turn. There was really little doubt that the Trumpmania group wouldn't be able to muster up more than 35-40% of the vote, and that Democrats and Independents would overwhelmingly support Clinton.

WHY THE RESISTANCE?
On day one after his win, he chose a climate change denier to head the EPA. Day two, Mitch McConnell advised us that the first thing on his agenda is to finally get the Keystone Oil Pipeline approved and built. Paul Ryan's smug grin, spiking the football on Wednesday and Thursday, essentially telling the nation to expect an all out assault on the middle class and environment by House and Senate Republicans, since they now control the House and Senate along with a veto-proof White House.

ONE LAST HOPE - "WE WILL RISE"

There is no such thing as a "one last hope", but it sure seemed like that to me. The opportunity to put clean energy advancements into overdrive, to save and secure our environment for future generations and tens of thousands of animal species, making great strides in equal pay and in leveling out the playing field for middle class families, knocking down some of the hate and prejudice that divides our nation, and using brains over brawn in dealing with terrorism, finally making progress toward the world peace that we've all prayed for since we were small children.

SHE LOST.... LET IT GO!
I've received calls and messages from friends and family, asking me if I'm okay. I tell them "ya..I'm fine..it was always a possibility", but in reality, I am not fine. I am angry....very angry.  Through slander and general misinformation, espionage and interference from a foreign foe, and internal election tampering from our FBI, and a massive conspiracy to suppress the vote by the GOP, seven million Democratic voters failed to show up at the polls. Through my eyes, the blame is equally shared between Republican leaders, Trump's Russian ties and espionage, FBI election tampering, Democratic and Progressive voters failing to vote, Bernie or Bust people, protest voters, and above all, MAINSTREAM MEDIA PROMOTING TRUMP'S HATRED, RACISM and MISOGYNY on a daily basis, 24 hours per day, with very little push-back to the lies that were told throughout the campaign. Media put the guy over the top. That's another article, which I will get to at a later date.

People tell me "She lost...let it go". Then I look at the final popular vote totals. Given everything listed in the above paragraph, this result is pretty amazing when you think about it.

She won the popular vote after 25 years of false information being pumped into the electorate.
She won the popular vote after the multiple hearing by Republicans trying to hang her.
She won the popular vote after Trump's campaign worked in tandem with the Russian government.
She won the popular vote after Trump's campaign worked with Wikileaks to steal private emails.
She won the popular vote after media allowed equal time to lies and hate.
She won the popular vote after the GOP and FBI conspired to tamper with the election.
She won the popular vote after Republicans enacted many voter suppression measures.
She won the popular vote after MEDIA promoted the false notion that she could be indicted after all.

So, don't tell me "She lost...let it go". The Constitution of the United States was trashed in this election cycle, and the beasts are in charge of the government. Love DID trump hate, but unfortunately we have this thing called the "Electoral College", and plans to use the Constitution of the United States as the Founding Fathers intended in this case, to prevent a fascist, non-representative government from seizing control of the nation are underway. On the very slim chance that this was successful, it would only throw the election into the hands of the House of Representatives.

The result would still be a Republican in the White House anyway, but the message will have been sent, and there would be a fairly good chance that the President would not be Trump.  If enough of the Electors refuse to cast their electoral vote for Trump and switch to Clinton, Hillary would certainly REFUSE to accept the Presidency at this point, since nothing but obstruction and false hearings would dominate the next four years. This is understood, but not the point.

NO ILLUSIONS
I harbor no illusion that this will change the results, but without the effort, we invite the same political gamesmanship and corruption to continue, and it WILL happen over and over, because it was successful this time. Democracy isn't easy, and sometimes requires intervention by the majority of Americans who believe we can do better.

There is a difference between what Republicans did over the last 8 years with Obama, obstructing every job creating bill and environmental protection that the President tried to enact, and the obstruction we need to do with the GOP over the next four years. We cannot accept the ugly future of humanity that the Republican party and Trump are now promising. We just can't. It's not about political gamesmanship.... It's about saving democracy.

WE WILL FIGHT .... WE WILL PROTEST ....  That's just the way it is.  

One bright spot is that it takes 60 votes (60%) to pass something in the Senate. Republicans now control 51 seats, so as long as Democrats stick together, many of the horrible changes can still be avoided, but we MUST stick together.....

VOTE ON NOVEMBER 6th, 2018
VOTE IN YOUR LOCAL ELECTIONS

And one more thing to think about ........

*KAMALA HARRIS / CORY BOOKER 2020*

THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

NOT DEAD YET - ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTES 12/19/16