Outrage fatigue is not an option

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/5/1908898/-Outrage-fatigue-is-not-an-option

Outrage fatigue is not an option
Laurence Lewis for Daily Kos
Community
Sunday January 05, 2020 · 4:00 PM EST

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Beyond the scandals and crimes and cruelty and general mayhem, Trump's basic political policies also are tearing the nation apart. He's exploded the wealth gap, done nothing about the gun violence crisis, and is making all Americans less safe by destroying decades of environmental protections. But it’s even worse. Much worse. At the end of a year that featured the hottest month on the global record, was among the three hottest years on record, and concludes what was probably the hottest decade on record, Trump helped scuttle the Madrid COP25 international climate talks. Of all his many outrages, what could be worse? It's only the most important issue humanity has ever faced, and he is actively making the crisis even worse. Have no doubt that future historians will consider this, too, a crime against humanity.

Every bit of this is an outrage. Not one bit of it should be forgotten. And none of it should be accepted as normal. Even within the previous range of the Republican Party's decades of drift into far-right extremism, none of this is normal. Republicans used to try to hide what they really were doing. They no longer do. Trump has torn off the mask of their extremism, just as he has torn off the mask of the racists, misogynists, and other multilayered bigots who have become the base of the Republican Party.

It’s overwhelming. The major media outlets are mostly too incompetent or compromised to keep up. Even when individual reporters expose important information, the big picture inevitably is lost in the toxic fog. And then there is their reflexive, habitual need to bothsidesism anything and everything, to create a balance even when the facts don’t provide one. Especially when the facts don’t provide one. But all persons of intelligence must remain alert. All persons of conscience must remain determined. The nation is under attack. Democracy is under attack. The republic is under attack. The future itself is threatened in unprecedented ways, to unprecedented degrees. This is not a time for despair. This is not a time for fatigue. This is a time for focus and determination.

One fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats want to make the world a better place for everyone, while Republicans want to destroy all with which they disagree, including that which they don’t understand, which is a lot. Donald Trump received neither a majority nor even a plurality of the votes in 2016, and his unpopularity has been consistent and historic. This is not sustainable. It is not acceptable. This is not the will of the people.

Republicans are trying to destroy democracy and the republic themselves. From gerrymandering to voter suppression they are ramping up to lock democracy down. Even as Russia ramps up its efforts again to attack the very basis of American governance, Trump and Republicans are trying to open the doors to welcome it. That was what last summer’s Trump/Ukraine scandal was about. That was what the 2016 Trump/Russia scandal was about. Republicans will lose a fair election, so they welcome even a hostile foreign power’s assistance in ensuring that there won’t be one. But knowing this should not leave anyone daunted or discouraged. Far more corrupt and repressive regimes all around the globe are being challenged by brave popular uprisings. That is the real tide of history. That should leave everyone inspired.

After millennia when they didn’t even consciously exist, the yearnings for self-determination and democratic governance are now fundamental to modern human consciousness. Some fear it, and the most debased and depraved see it as a threat. And those who do want to destroy it. But they are in the minority. Know that. You are not alone. Know that. The tide of history is on your side. Demographics are on your side. Basic human decency is on your side. This nation is at a historic crossroads. Outrage fatigue is not an option.