Ark of the Lost Angels

“Rise – Night Version” _{(Credit: yuumei on DeviantArt)}

“Decisions are made by those who show up.” – Josiah Bartlet

America was founded through revolution, or so the common parlance says. In actuality, the American Revolutionary War was more of a war of secession than a revolution. But it happened because the overwhelming majority of the population stood up and said, “We want a change.” And when the authority rejected the people’s request, the people chose to stand up and fight. The American Revolution founded a nation built on ideals which have never been lived up to, but they were lofty enough to inspire generations.

America is a promise. A land of opportunity. It a place which has taught its citizens that America supports liberty and justice for all. That the nation’s responsible for protecting the rights of its citizens at home and abroad, and extended the shelter of its laws to everyone standing on its shores, even if they were just visiting. A land where all are equal. A superpower which supports freedom, democracy, and the right of self-determination for all peoples and nations. The idea of a nation in its founding documents stating that its government exists as a manifestation of the will of a people who believe that everyone has the right to choose their own paths and should receive a say in their leadership had never been written down quite that way before the United States was founded.

Thomas Jefferson understood the Constitution to be a temporary measure, with the idea that each generation would dramatically rework the document to suit the challenges of their time. That the Bill of Rights was just a starting point. That the hypocrisy of their time would be undone by subsequent generations carrying on a task which would never be completed. The American Revolution was not a revolution in the normal sense, it was the opportunity to build something new, a nation the likes of which the world had never seen. A republic if we could keep it.

We’re losing it.

The Power of Choice

Americans have forgotten that they have the power to choose what America will be. Thomas Jefferson stated in the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

America can never be one size fits all. The diversity of people and opinions creates the culture of a nation unlike any other. People all over the world choose to come to the United States for the freedoms and opportunities it provides, which comes with a burden: it is the responsibility of every American to build the Great Society the country claims to be.

Alan Moore said in V for Vendetta, “People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.” Americans have forgotten to make their government afraid. Americans betrayed their principles for easy wins. The people elevated self-serving, egotistical maniacs to positions of authority and enabled insecure cretins with sinister designs to hurt people for the thrill of it. Most Americans think too little of themselves, both individually and as a collective. Far too many Americans think too little of others. Far too many lay blame elsewhere instead of at their own feet. They often choose the easy path in their politics, giving into fear and division, rather standing for honest principles.

America has given the reins over to people who loathe what makes this country wonderful. People who would pillage and ransack the nation’s cultural treasures to enrich themselves and let loose a plague on the majority of the population out of hatred and cowardice. Donald Trump and his administration are traitors to the nation. The president’s hatred of minority groups has echoed Hitler’s speeches since the first ride down a golden escalator in Manhattan in 2015 to declare he was seeking the highest office in the land. Donald Trump debased the idea of seeking the presidency, and the American people debased the office by choosing him to lead. Willing to murder Americans on the street for standing up to their neighbors, this is a fascist regime.

Leaders must answer to their constituents, not the other way around. The fundamental part of a free and democratic society is that the electorate has the ability to tell those elected leaders to pack their things and leave when they cease faithfully executing their duties. The electorate have to be willing to take part in order to do so. When despots ignore the will of the people as expressed at the ballot box, it is the duty of those people to bring their leaders to heel. Otherwise it emboldens authoritarians into pressing their authority. The institutions have failed, but a dictator without control over the population never remains in power very long.

Everyone has a voice and too many are either scared to use it or believe it’s pointless to try. Authoritarians rule through fear, and they seek to inspire fear and disillusionment in the people. They understand that their rule only exists on the basis of their power, and their power only comes from the perception of their power. Pointing the population at an enemy is easier than doing the hard work of governing. It is easier for cowards elevated to leadership positions to skate through by playing to the cheap seats instead of being held to the proper standards. The second rate will always hire the third rate. Loyalty is prized above competence. A lack of morals is desired. Intelligence and principles threatens a dictator, so they ensure their lackeys possess neither. This creates the perfect storm for harm to befall the people of a nation. The only accountability in an autocracy is to the autocrat.

A significant number of people are wrapping themselves in the American flag, and saying they love this country more than anyone while they work to destroy it from within. They are traitors pretending to be patriots. They will massacre everyone they see as undesirable: first it is the immigrants and transgender people, then they will exterminate racial minorities and other members of the LGBT community, and then they will kill anyone who disagrees them or is politically inconvenient. This is how every dictatorship has functioned. The Soviet Union under Stalin, Nazi Germany under Hitler, Ba’athist Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and so on and so forth. The chosen enemies are extinguished and new ones are identified to take their place until everyone is dead. If left to their own devices, these regimes will eventually eat themselves but not before consuming everyone else first. These traitors cannot be allowed to decide what makes a ‘true’ American.

America owes it to the people it has never properly protected to fight for their safety. To fight for everyone’s safety. To fulfill the promises it has so pathetically rejected throughout its history. America owes it to the generations of Americans who sacrificed in hopes of building a better tomorrow. It would be a dishonor to their sacrifice if we were to let all the hard work of the American experiment be for nothing. The struggle for the future of the nation must be the top priority, and it begins with ensuring safety for everyone in the nation.

Right now, a rogue government is trampling over the constitution and executing American citizens in the streets for no reason. The America spoken of in poem and song is dead. Its last act was executing Renée Goode and Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis for the crime of being there. The destruction of due process and the wanton killing of American citizens is not an issue of conservative vs. liberal, or any of the other petty arguments which have fueled national politics for years. It is the end of the republic. The country is hitting a flashpoint, the institutions and safeguards are completely dissolved. The only thing Americans have left are ideals and the willingness to stand together.

It is possible to love the United States of America while constantly pushing it to be better. Patriotism isn’t believing that one’s country is wholly perfect, that it cannot be improved, and anyone who says otherwise is an enemy. Patriotism is fighting tooth and nail for the country one loves to be the best it can purely because they love it. Patriotism is not only recognizing the nation’s shortcomings but spurring the nation to fix them. Patriotism is pushing a country to achieve its potential out of love of what the nation can be.

How A Regime Falls

A regime falls the way a vending machine or a large cabinet does: by rocking it back and forth for so long that eventually it tumbles over. For every “overnight” fall of some longstanding dictatorship like Bashar Al-Assad ouster as President of Syria in 2024, is a protracted period of upheaval, often with bloodshed.

Genuine revolutions come about as part of massive societal issues. When substantial portions of the population disagree with the leadership in dramatic fashion and they stand together, many governments fall. However, revolutions are not inherently a positive thing when tossing an authoritarian regime. They frequently provide an avenue for the type of people who oppress to gain power and influence before any ‘fair’ government is formalized. Revolutions most often cost the common people the most due to frequently being led by the aristocratic/upper middle class overthrowing the ruling class. A revolution cannot happen without the masses, but they are often quickly subjected to similar terrors by the new regime. The most intense ideologues often feel compromise is a problem and see everyone who disagrees as a threat to the revolution. The power-hungry find ways of playing on the heart strings of revolution to secure more power and influence for themselves.

Many people believe that the French Revolution ended when King Louis XVI was deposed and executed. Maximilien Robespierre took charge and executed scores of people in the name of the revolution until he was seen as too excessive and put to death himself. The squabbling which took place afterwards – in which the revolutionary government spent more time fighting to determine who would lead rather than attending to its people – led to the rise of Napoleon. Napoleon was effective, efficient, and his military victories inspired confidence. His successes built the idea of competence which is why he held the nation’s support when he overthrew the government and proclaimed himself emperor.

In the Russian Empire, Tsar Nicholas II was seen by his people as incompetent (he took direct command of the military struggling in World War I and they began doing worse), brutal (thanks to the secret police), and distant (his family lived mostly in seclusion outside of the capital Saint Petersburg). When he was overthrown in the February Revolution of 1917, mass demonstrations by the people urged much of the military to switch allegiance from the tsar to the Provisional Government being declared by members of the State Duma (Russia’s legislature). When the Provisional Government refused to exit the war and could not manage to make any changes at home, they were overthrown by the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin that October. Lenin went to work imprisoning many people deemed anti-revolutionary, created a new secret police to enforce revolutionary ideology, still struggled to feed the population, and sparked a civil war which left hundreds of thousands dead and cities across Russia destroyed. Just after the communists won and established the Soviet Union, Lenin died. Lenin’s successor was Joseph Stalin, a tyrant whose greatest achievement was fighting Nazi Germany with the allies while committing many of the same atrocities on his own people.

Another noteworthy revolution is in Iran in 1979. Years of oppression against the population and the destruction of the economy while spending outrageous sums of money on lavish lifestyles meant most people in Iran saw the Shah and his supporters as being out of touch with their population. Eventually people had nothing left to lose, and they took to the streets in insane numbers. They were a loose coalition of republicans, Islamic fundamentalists, socialists, communists, and other groups. People pushed to the brink like the Iranians will throw their lot in with whoever offers a change. In times of great upheaval, the worst amongst us rise to the top by betraying everyone who has gotten them to that point. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a strict Islamic fundamentalist, was chosen as the leader of the revolution. Once he grew influence, Khomeini purged the revolutionary government of anyone other than Islamic loyalist figures, creating the modern Islamic Republic of Iran which just murdered thousands of its own citizens protesting against a government which cannot feed its population and only offers more pain and fear.

Deposing dictators is not enough. The neoconservatives of the early 2000s were wrong. Democracy does not automatically flourish in absence of autocracy. To build a population capable of maintaining a strong democracy requires earnest leaders, thoughtful opinion-makers, and time. People must first understand what their situation is and how they can affect the outcomes of decisions which shift the path of a nation. That is the work which waits on the far side of toppling a dictatorship. In many ways, ousting the dictator is the easy part, and it is far from a simple task.

Outlasting a regime is an ugly affair. There will be deaths. There will be nightmares. Families will be torn asunder. It is impossible to save everyone, and even more disgustingly, death is a mercy for some. The regime will cause more pain and suffering in an attempt to break the people’s spirits. The regime can only exist so long as the people do not stand up and refuse to suffer one more moment of tyranny.

It is an awful truth that the world continues operating because of people doing unspeakable things to each other in the name of something ‘greater.’ Whether these actions are for better or for worse is immaterial. It is the unfortunate reality, and acting like there is a magical alternative which keeps one’s hands clean is a folly. Attempting to remain above it all to stay morally uncompromised just enables the monsters at the top. This world is built on moral compromise. It’s an ugly thing, and flies in the face of every profound dream about a better world, but it’s a simple fact everyone must accept. There is no perfect world. To reproduce an oft-truncated quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” It is up to everyone, especially those who have the least to lose, to pull it harder in that direction.

Persisting despite the cost is not callousness, it’s necessary. Remember the names of the fallen, honor them in your deeds. Speak. Act. Stand tall. The regime will come for all of us at one point or another. Their existence is predicated on throwing others into the fire to keep themselves warm. Everyone one of us is suitable as fuel for their fire.

The Time to Act is Now

History moves faster than people believe. It is easy to lose perspective when events happen so very quickly and intensely. It is extremely draining to try and keep up with a daily assault on everything. The unjustified, unprovoked, and cold-blooded executions of Renée Goode and Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis must be a wake-up call to everyone who has remained sleeping. Donald J. Trump and his followers represent an existential threat to the United States of America and everyone living here. The Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is a rogue agency operating far outside of its originally intended, flawed purpose. ICE is being used as Trumps’ equivalent to Hitler’s Sturmabteilung (Storm Battalions or SA), most commonly referred to as the Brownshirts. The SA was a paramilitary force which stoked violence against the undesirables during the rise of the Third Reich. When the Nazis gained control over the government, the SA was officially incorporated as an apparatus of the state before it was gutted during an internal purge known as the Night of Long Knives. Those that survived this purge were merged into the Schutzstaffel, or the SS. The SS was originally created as Hitler’s bodyguard. They became another paramilitary unit, holding parity with the German military, and fanatically loyal to Adolf Hitler personally rather than Germany as a nation.

Trump is using ICE to carry out his pathetic anger against immigrants. People who sought a better future in America for themselves and their families. They use the same justifications as the Nazis for harassing Jews and other ‘undesirables’: that they are criminals, they harm the community, and they are not true Americans even if they are natural born citizens just because they don’t have the right skin color. ICE is not keeping the community safe, but they are targeting people they hate and anyone who opposes them. The entire Department of Homeland Security must be dissolved, and the majority of its operational leadership and field personnel must be prosecuted for their barbarity towards the American people. Cold blooded execution of American citizens in broad daylight is the mark of an authoritarian regime, especially when the head of government spreads lies about the situations and refuses transparency.

The best way to fulfill our duties as Americans is to continue talking with one another. Make our opinions known through protests, speaking to our Congressional representatives, writing, posting, engaging with what’s going on. And voting in the midterm elections this November. The regime wants us to destroy the objectivity of the elections or find a justification to cancel the midterms outright. They want to be able to hold power indefinitely and do away with the last vestiges of our Republic. On this, America’s 250^th Anniversary, that cannot be allowed to happen.

Look for the facts beyond the fear. Seek the honest truth, and stand with conviction in your beliefs, not because someone else told you to follow their words, but because you decided for yourself what you believe in. Then, remember that the will of America is the will of its people. The only group capable of fulfilling the promise of America consists of all of us. This is our nation, and it is up to us to stand up with a clear voice and declare that we will not stand for this hatred and aggression against Americans or anyone else.  As President Josiah Bartlet said, “Decisions are made by those who show up.