Unalienable Rights

I’ll wave no flags today.

Today is the Fourth of July, marking the day in 1776 when the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence.

There will be the usual fireworks displays, barbecues, and all sorts of talk about freedom and liberty, but I’m not really feeling the Spirit of ’76 today-not when the country my father and so many others fought to offend is crumbling beneath our feet.

Last night I watched the New York Times special report about the January 6 insurrection where a mob of deranged Trump supporters tried to destroy the democratic process.

I’ve seen plenty of footage of that horrible day, but the Times report gets right into the heart of the disaster.

The attack was bad enough, of course, but Republicans are compounding that atrocity by refusing to approve a committee to investigate the incident—the same people, by the way, who held 10 investigations of the 2012 Benghazi attack—and are repeatedly downplaying the severity of the January 6 invasion.

There’s talk that the FBI was behind the assault, or that it wasn’t Trump's people defecating in the Capitol Building, but actually Black Lives Matter and Antifa supporters in disguise.

We even had one member of congress seriously suggest that the bloodthirsty mob that rampaged through the halls of government and assaulted police officers resembled a “normal tourist visit.”

That same congressman, by the way, was photographed helping to barricade the doors on the house chamber and cowering behind a security officer.

But wait, it gets worse.

The Big Lie

After Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in a free and fair election—sorry, Trumpers, but it’s true--Republican lawmakers have enacted new voting restrictions in at least 11 states to make sure we never had free and fair elections ever again.

They cite Trump’s “Stop the Steal” lie, and use phrases like “voter integrity” in an attempt to cover up their real purpose: preventing Democrats, particularly those of color, from voting.

Things have gotten so bad that it is now illegal in Georgia to hand out food or water to people standing in line to vote.

Yes, this is actually a law on the books in the United States of America. What do you think the Founding Fathers would have to say about that?

I know what my father, a World War II veteran who fought to defend this country would say: Go fuck yourself.

A few days ago, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Arizona’s voting restrictions and pretty much gutted most of what remains of the landmark Voting Rights Act.

Arizona Republicans have stripped the secretary of state's office — currently held by a Democrat — of the right to defend the state's election laws in court, or choose not to, a change enacted as part of Arizona's newly signed budget.

It appears that some truths are not self-evident. I never thought I would see voting rights under systematic attack in 21st Century America, but clearly, I was wrong.

And please don’t hand me that “both sides do it” bullshit. Only one political party in America is hellbent on destroying the electoral process.

I’ve had serious conversations with my siblings about moving to another country.

I don’t want to leave America, but America is clearly leaving me.

The right to vote is the building block of any democracy and it’s being taken away from us.

And all the flag-waving and fireworks in the world isn’t going to change that.