BRATTLEBORO — At last, alarm bells are ringing.
Most sentient Americans are beginning to realize what is at stake in the November midterm elections and the 2024 election that will follow - unless by then they are cancelled.
That's because unless you're a devotee of Donald Trump and his ilk, it is now clear that we are in the early stages of full-blown fascism and the death of democracy in the United States of America.
It has become blatantly clear that what's happening here, right now, is an American version of Hitler's playbook and other dictators' power plays. It's a strategy being embraced by governors, state officials, Republicans in Congress, white supremacists, and their followers eager for a fight - literally, on the streets.
How else can you describe or explain the terrifying events that have taken place as a precursor to what is coming at us, rapidly and unbelievably?
Here's what is already occurring, all of which parallels Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, a time when Nazi ideology also threatened our own country.
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We have entered a pro-natalist period in which women's only role and value is seen as childbearing and child rearing to ensure an indoctrinated population in the country's future.
The fact that a child of age 10 can be forced to carry a rape baby, or that a woman may be made to birth a non-viable fetus to the point of her own death, makes abundantly clear how devalued women are and how little their lives matter.
The very idea that a fertilized egg has more rights than a real human being and that funding for programs that aid children in need are being cut should be proof of a nation in the grip of madness for the good of the mad.
Censorship is rampant in schools and libraries, and book burnings have already taken place. School curricula are being revised and grossly dumbed down by hand-picked school boards at such a rapid pace, they go largely unnoticed unless a short segment of the news tells a story or two.
Teacher training is so dramatically broken that there is already a critical shortage of well-trained, motivated, devoted teachers who are leaving their profession in droves, only to be replaced by unqualified, untrained teachers, even in some places without so much as a college degree or specialty certification.
The media, mainstream and otherwise, are walking on eggshells, increasingly frightened at the prospect of what they may be confronted with as owners and editors become more conservative and controlling.
The ultimate nightmare is the threat of overregulation or nationalization of media with the arrest of journalists who, along with protestors, have already been arrested in violation of their First Amendment rights.
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The health care system in this country, already broken in many ways, is now at enormous risk of political interference that can literally kill people.
Across the entire range of caregiving, practitioners have been threatened with lawsuits, loss of licenses, and jail time, and in some states, they face the threat of life sentences if they perform or enable abortion. One state legislator in Texas has called for the death penalty for anyone who conducts an abortion.
And it's not only clinicians who are at risk.
Women who miscarry have already been sent to jail, and in the most repressive states anyone who helps or enables a woman in any way to access abortion is also at risk of long-term imprisonment.
That includes friends or family who help women receive abortifacients via mail or who drive them across state lines. That's how horrific things are right now, with more restrictions to come. (Can you imagine having to get government permission to drive or fly to another state? Would that mean pelvic exams at roadblocks or airports?)
Others have lost their jobs because they don't march to the drumbeat of local functionaries handpicked by autocrats in powerful places while people are rewarded for spying on and outing their neighbors, friends, or family members.
All of this is happening here and now. What's next? Curfews? Loyalty oaths? Assassinations? Public humiliation? Late-night knocks on the door? Yellow stars and Kristallnachts?
Think it can't happen here? That's what good German people thought, too.
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So what do we need to do beyond voting, donating, signing petitions, marching, striking?
Perhaps the most important thing is to recognize how real the threat is. Name it, and educate others. Pressure media to stop Trump news and start focusing on the trials and testimonies of those who are suffering and afraid. Call your congresspeople into action if they want your vote.
It isn't the economy or inflation that will bring this country down. It's losing the freedom to make our own life decisions, to love whom we wish, to be educated free of misplaced ideology, to have quality health care in partnership with practitioners, not politicians.
It is a life without fear and oppression. Most of all, it's about living a safe, self-determined life enhanced by diversity, intellectual curiosity, and mutual respect. It is a life grounded in the belief that human and civil rights, kindness, and caring for each other are foundational.
Outside of autocrats, dictators, and oligarchs, who would want to live in a place devoid of those values?
The time to imagine and plan a new American Dream is upon us. Do we have the courage, vision, motivation, and energy to do so in this crucial moment? Because surely the old adage is truly upon us.
It really is now or never.