Ms Greene is the vocal voice of the mind-blowing conspiracy theories that QAnon
espouses. She is villainous. Yet many Americans subscribe to her dumpster vitriol, which has more to do with who we are than who she is.

What Marjorie Taylor Greene believes in, is concerning. More alarming is that 75% of the Republican voters in the 14th Congressional District believed enough in her to sweep her into office!

Extrapolate the Georgia vote to the national election and we count 73,000,000 Americans who voted for a candidate who willingly solicited the QAnon community and exhorted its members to assault the Capitol on January 6. The word “terrifying” doesn’t begin to describe the ominous portend of a democracy poisoned beyond restoration.

I looked long and hard at the videos of the assault on the Capitol. And this is my dilemma: prior to the attack I thought it would be possible to co-exist with ‘fellow Americans’ on the other side of the political spectrum. Precisely because they were fellow Americans, I thought it would be possible to come to a compromise on issues that affected us all, infra-structure, housing, education, environment and healthcare.

But now that seems naïve.

Clearly – at least to me – Trump followers continue to see MAGA as a rallying cry for Make America White Again. The mentality is to divide the world into “us versus them,” vilifying the latter, i.e. ethnically diverse, increasingly foreign-born citizens who will outnumber whites by 2045.

How do I relate to this segment of society?

Literally a few weeks ago after the president’s inspiring inaugural address I rallied behind the clarion call, “We must end this uncivil war.” As I listened to his speech, I felt hopeful and positive about the future. Amanda Gorman’s inspiring poem, “The Hill We Climb,” dissolved the fear that had sunk into my bones after four years of the Trump administration. I even wrote a poem of my own, optimism replacing the despair. The thought was, our President believes in an America United and I will join him in working toward that goal.

And then… the impeachment trial. I felt revulsion as I watched never-before-seen scenes of the insurrection; anger at a time-line of invective clearly indicting the instigator posing as patriot; loathing for the cynicism of Cruz and Hawley; disgust at the two-faced duplicity of McConnell; frustration at the acquittal that never was in question; disbelieve of the polls that report 76% of self-identified Republicans accept the assertion there was “widespread fraud in the 2020 election.” You read that right: three in every four Republicans responding to the Quinnipiac University poll agreed with the idea that there was “widespread” wrongdoing in last November’s election!

A few weeks ago I said I would subscribe to President Biden’s words, and leave my fierce anger and disdain behind but I’m taking a Mulligan on that declaration.

In school I was taught about a democracy that served the people, all the people from all levels of our society. But the Republican party has become the Trumpian party, representing constituencies with ideologies that falsely claim to uphold the tenets of democracy while carrying Confederate flags and giving voice to murderous threats that became real on January 6th.

This post is skewed from my blog’s central theme, ‘how to add years of joy and meaning to life.’ But life takes on meaning when you stand firm for what you believe in strongly.

If it is “us versus them” that defines the refrain Trump followers continue to put in play, I’m compelled to leave the sidelines and work to make sure the righteous side comes out on top.