We’re in a dire moment. That’s for sure. We all can agree; right?
Left…right? You right wingers have to admit: right? that this is something you’ve never imagined. Bad or good – whatever.
So, I think it’s imperative that we try to discuss with a high regard for honesty and reality. This essay is for us in The Valley. I know that the majority of us are loyal Democrats. I know also that there are a significant minority of us, who are Trump voters. I kind of believe that I know who reads The Valley Reporter. So, I’m talking to you, the VR readers in the Mad River Valley.
Here’s my concern:
The Democrats and Republicans have historically agreed that the rich should govern, and that the U.S. should dominate the international power structure “the rules-based international order.” Both parties agree that we have the right to destabilize other countries’ governments to benefit our oligarchs. So, if you’re not white Euro-American, you must prove that you are us.
The Trumpist Republicans are beyond redemption. They’re deporting and criminalizing our fellow immigrant comrades. (My family came here from Germany in the mid 17th century. We had no entry papers.) They’re starving our fellow humans in other lands, thinking that we, the U.S., has the right to dictate their behavior. They’ve become monsters. They brag about their atrocities (Palestine, Cuba, Ukraine, and Venezuela).
But the Democrats are in a weak agreement with the Republicans. They’re deporting and criminalizing our fellow immigrants. They approve of starving other people so “our” corporations can make profits on their backs. They just don’t want Trump to advertise our oligarchic domination of the world: our law, our reality. They want to pretend that we have moral superiority, that we’re there for the “rule of law.” They brag about their atrocities (Palestine, Cuba, Ukraine, and Venezuela). They’re monsters.
So, we have one monster against the other monster.
And at that point I want another alternative. Otherwise, I become that monster.
The Democrats and Republicans are totally lacking in morality.
They’re figuring out how to win, regardless of morality.
This is capitalism.
I want socialism, a system that is about striving for democracy and justice: a system that’s striving to allow all of us, and each of us, our growth as individual human beings, understanding that we owe our community. I didn’t choose to be a socialist, I realized that I was a socialist. Socialism is the expression of our need for community control. We need each other to survive and thrive. But I’m open.
Respond!
This is the beauty of The Valley Reporter. FPF wouldn’t ever print this.
Here we get a chance to discuss our differing views of reality.
Please respond, left, right, or radical center, respond!
Robin Lehman lives in Warren.
