The devils of despotism have come out of the closet in America.
We now know that many Americans have only been pretending to love representative government, always referring with pride to “our democracy” and to our wonderful “liberties,” and praising veterans who serve and even die to protect and defend them.
We see clearly that many of these people secretly have longed for a very different system of government: a despotism, a dictatorship, an autocracy, an authoritarian system that aims to take away those same cherished freedoms of speech, assembly, press, civil rights and religion.
It is true that the evil system they seek has been championed by means of the base emotions channeled by their political party leader. However, the disturbing truth inside these folks has always been lurking there, ready to explode into hate and violence as it has done before in American history.
We have seen it during and after our civil war and our two world wars in the racial superiority expressed relative to African Americans, Chinese, Germans, Japanese and, today, against Central and South Americans.
Today this new party of divisiveness and hate does not want to just subtract from what many Americans currently have, but to add materially to what they themselves have. They would take away a much larger chunk of the earned income of working Americans in order to support the unearned income, and fabulously luxurious lifestyles of the wealthy and super-wealthy.
This faction of the population will not hesitate to go to civil war to install the degeneracy they seek, once again on the wrong side of right. They have been hoarding not just ordinary guns for self-defense, but military guns for domestic use in order to be in a better position to impose their will.
When these hypocrites go to church on the Sabbath day, they just pretend to love the neighbor sitting next to them in the pew. They pretend to love God and Jesus Christ, whose views about the inherent strengths and abilities of all human beings have been made well known in the scripture. None of that matters to them. They are just fine extolling what is good, while at the same time, saying and doing what is evil.
These so-called Americans now see a clear pathway to installing themselves as local rulers over their neighbors and enforcers of brute strength in their communities and states.
On the other hand, those who have true hearts for good living and good government turn out to know little about how to maintain such a system. They have seriously fumbled the ball and now live in panic from day to day, some running hither and some running thither, all in great alarm and all with little knowledge and little resolve about how to restore ethics and balance and goodwill in government.
They are clearly losing to those who have less intellect, less conscience and less heart than they do.
Some of the champions of despotism, perhaps, have been tricked into their present posture by a poser, a promiser, an amoral evil genius who is skilled in organizing not only the errant minds of supposedly educated high school graduates but also their feeble bodies.
Some of these merely fear for their own futures should they stand up as true and courageous champions of American political tradition. They could be true and courageous Christians, Jews, freedom lovers, and believers in opportunity and free expression for all, but they fear wrongly that such a stance will bring ruin to themselves and their families.
They would do better to correct their course of action and do what is right. That will bring everlasting benefit to all those they love and will help elevate those they are too afraid to love.
Robert Kimball Shinkoskey is the author of books on democracy, religion, and the American presidency. He lives in Woods Cross, Utah.
