National Fascist League in Musings

It is both scary and mind-boggling that we are living in a time where a professional sports league is forcing its players and personnel to stand for the national anthem. And even MORE scarier and mind-boggling that our Vice-President tweets “Winning” in response to it. What are we “winning” exactly? The rise of authoritarianism, the silencing of legitimate avenues of protest, and an all out assault on our democracy and the Constitution?
Our nation was founded on the principles of free speech and the right of the citizenry to peacefully petition its government. A nation that can’t tolerate a few isolated cases of silent protest as a way to bring attention to the blatant inequality that is still rampant in our society, is a nation that has turned its back on the Founding Fathers.
This authoritarianism streak is filtering down to the local level. There are two local town/city governments in my area that have limited or eliminated the public comments portion of council meetings in the past month. Just like the National Fascist League, these local officials are taking their cue from the wanna-be dictator “running” our country currently. Any dissent is to be squashed, or labeled as “fake”. The people and press can only praise their elected representatives, or else be barred from their rightful democratic participation ( see Scott Pruitt/EPA.)
We are at a dangerous inflection point for our democracy. The charlatan-in -chief and his right-wing echo chamber have waged an all out assault on truth, facts, open government, and our American way of life. When the leader of a country is an unabashed liar , con man, and all around POS- and wants nothing else but to be treated like an American Putin- all of that banana republic strongman sleaziness trickles down. It trickles down into our very culture and all the way into our daily lives. It’s a shocking time to be an American.