I won’t be celebrating our Independence Day this year. Or any year, for that matter. Our Independence Day, the Fourth of July, was a day celebrating the founding of a new country – a country that no longer exists on this planet. Oh, sure, you can go to a map and find a landmass outlined in heavy black ink with the words ‘United States of America’ carefully stenciled in the middle. But the United States wasn’t the land. It wasn’t the people. It was the Constitution, and, clearly, the US Constitution no longer applies.

I submit that one cannot find even a single aspect of the US Constitution that remains in place. Some will say, “Oh, the 2nd Amendment” but even THAT is corrupted from the original intent. Some people decided that only half of the sentence “counts.” The other half of the same sentence is some distant, unknowable thing.

One might point to the very structure of government. THAT still exists, right? I’d say no. It still LOOKS like we have three separate, but equal branches of government, but they all toady up to the one branch. The whole point of the three-branch government was checks and balances, but the “checks” part has been willfully abdicated and the only thing that matters to the GOP is making one branch happier and more powerful.

I peg the end of the United States of America of the founder’s dream to the corrupt Citizens United “decision” handed down by the Roberts Supremely Corrupt Kangaroo Court in 2010. It was couched in all kinds of legalese but once all the b.s. is burned away, it basically said it was okay for rich people to buy the government – and they did. We’re no longer living in the nation “of the people, by the people, and for the people” that Lincoln described. Now we live in something else – and it sucks. MAGAmerica more closely resembles the country the founders fought a war to get away from.

Hell, the reason the Democrats won’t come up with any effective response while actively sidelining other Democrats who actually have ideas for change is because the Democrats are being paid by the same people who pay the Republicans: the rich. If they do as they’re told – talk tough but lose – they keep their jobs. If they stand up to do the honorable and moral thing, they’re out.

I had hoped for more. I had hoped that as people saw the reality of our descent into authoritarianism, they would hit the streets the way the French hit the streets to protect their own lifestyle. I had hoped that when faced with a choice of fight or acquiesce, we would fight. Sadly, we chose acquiesce. Like most of the world, I’ve been very dismayed. Americans used to pride themselves on their revolutionary spirit.

But we became complacent. Ironically, we became complacent through voting. All of my life, I’ve understood that if a “mistake” happens and we get a bad politician, we just vote him out in the next election. We could put up with just about anything because we had a next election. We “get him at the ballot box.” All of my life, that worked. As of this writing, that is, FAR too late, I STILL hear people suggesting this is an anomaly that will be corrected by election. It’s automatic. They can’t help themselves.

“What do the Democrats need to do?” “Oh, we’ll come out at the mid-terms and change the makeup of Congress. THAT will stop it.” “Oh, Donny will have done his second term. He can’t run again, so we’ll fix it then.” Quaint. Elections in this once-great nation haven’t been honest since the introduction of voting machines and the “election” of 2024 was corrupted and manipulated in ways American citizens (ARE we still citizens?) aren’t used to.

From that point (2024) going forward, the outcome of “elections” will be dictated by the wealthy who benefit. Every decent, right-minded person in the nation will come out to change the makeup of Congress in the next mid-terms – but nothing will change. Astoundingly, the GOP will retain control of Congress. In fact, I predict (always dangerous) that the GOP will increase it’s control, despite the damage they’re about to inflict on the vast majority of Americans through Donny’s Big Barfy Bill. I can’t TELL you how much I hope I’m wrong about that – but I’m not.

Worse, if he’s still alive, Trump will “win” the next Presidential “election,” too – very likely with something like 94% of the vote. (Dictators always seem to think that winning by 94% shows they are beloved and popular. In fact, it always proves the votes were manipulated.) Even as you read that, you think to yourself, “No, only two terms.” You can’t help yourself. It’s the way we were raised. But it doesn’t apply anymore.

Waiting for the next election means time passes. We sit on our hands, outraged at the trespasses, and time passes. But while we, the people are awaiting the next election, the powers that be are consolidating and perfecting their control. Our patience, our faith in our system, facilitates our downfall.

I referred to some of this as a “prediction” but it isn’t really a prediction. I’m not looking forward. I’m looking back. I’m looking at history. This is an old story. We just didn’t expect it here, in the US. History says bloodshed will be the inevitable result. The only real question is: how long?

The Nazis so-called ‘Third Reich’ lasted twelve years – something less than the one thousand years they had promised and expected. But in those twelve years, they did unimaginable and unconscionable damage. It took 60 million to 80 million deaths to correct THAT error. We have that as our exemplar. We KNOW how this plays out. What are we waiting for? Yeah, the next “election.”

The US is, after all, the most well-armed nation on the planet. We may be the most well-armed nation in the history of the planet. So, how long will it be before people get angry enough to rise up and take back their power? The One Percent are betting it will be a long time. I doubt even out-of-control greedheads would seize absolute power if they knew that in, say, 18 months they would meet a guillotine. Sure, they know that SOMEDAY, their progeny will face guillotines, but they don’t think it will be them. THEY get to enjoy the good life, the life of aristocracy.

“For the love of money is the root of all evil.” (1 Timothy 6:10) I mention it because, when all is said and done, this is and has been about greed. Avarice, if you’re looking to the Seven Deadly sins. Greed for money, greed for power. Pure, unadulterated, uncontrolled greed. MAGAmerica is made up of three levels: the rich and powerful on the highest level, their toadies and bootlickers on the second level, and the rest of us – those of us on the bottom level, the vast majority of the American people – are victims.

So I’m going to take a pass on celebrating our Independence Day for a lost nation and look to the NEW Independence Day, the day we shuffle off this abomination and return to a rule of law and democracy. Yes, it was messy, but it was better. Much, much better…