Change Comes From “We”…not Us.

I am so damn tired. You are too. Tired of the noise. Tired of the hate. Tired of the misery. We all know where it all comes from. And while it is mundane to observe the obvious: The Ruling Parties and the Media are behind it all; it must also be stated in clear terms that we ultimately have only ourselves to blame. Afterall, we elected these people. All of us, every last voting eligible American citizen is responsible for this situation. Not just the voters; the non voters too. If you think that by not voting, you somehow removed yourselves from the calculus of the two ruling parties, you are mistaken. They use you anyway. You spread their messages because you don’t live in a vacuum. You have lives. You speak to reds and blues every day of your life. Your apolitical self assessments are an illusion. In truth, you have a point of view. You agree with ideas that resonate from one side or the other. It’s unavoidable in the matrix-like political America we now live in. So you have an influence on red and blue voters who are on the fence. That makes you a pawn on the board to both parties. But you also have an interest in living in a prosperous and free America. So does everyone else, but they all voted. Because the ruling parties know and understand you, they adjust their strategies accordingly by sending you the message that you are right, voting is pointless. The end result? You don’t cast a vote for the opposition and you compel other would be voters to do the same. You have gravity, and they use that gravity to their advantage. In other words, if you aren’t voting at all, you are a free tool to use in an effort to compel other fence line voters to not vote as well. They do this by hyper focusing on the worst parts, real or manufactured, of each other. That’s the game. They can’t actually DO anything, because they are so codependent on one another that they must siphon democracy off of the actual people to keep fueling the tire fire that is government as we know it across the board. The end result is this never ending cycle of “Us Vs. Them” that has spread out across our country and thus our lives, like The Blob.

Masks?  Us vs. Them. Vax? Us vs. Them. Education? Us vs. Them. Race? Religion? Free Speech? Guns? Abortion? LGBTQ? Police? Big Bird? US…VS…THEM! We have literally been corralled by the ruling parties into one big copper top fuel source for their never ending war for supremacy.  Long ago, the Republicans and the Democrats forgot how to do their jobs as elected officials. They have a long and storied history of rewriting the rules of governance to suit their interests. That is to say that the rules must always work for “US” and against “THEM”. But in that two party calculus, they must both rely on the mutually destructive strategy of pitting their loyal troops against each other to hold a stalemate for all eternity. And that puts the burden of propping up these two ruling dinosaurs, squarely on the shoulders of “WE”...the people. So yeah, we’re tired. We’re all tired; for good damn reason. 

“We” is a more powerful framing that accurately states our first need than Us. We do things. We make things. We have faith in one another. We share the responsibilities and the rewards. We love. We defend. We prosper. We…not Us. Things happen to Us. Blame Them, never Us. “Us” is passive. “We” is powerful. The parties know this. They also know that smaller cults of Us can be made to believe they are the true We, fighting for the party of America. When in truth they are fools, serving only to dilute and confuse the people and keep the “Us vs.Them” status quo. “We” means transcending the limitations of the two obsolete parties. “We” means taking back our government from the two parties and returning it to ourselves. “We” is real, honest patriotism. Because in acting as “We”, the true American experience is reborn through the lens of true democracy. All of the problems we are forced to face daily in the media of both parties can be resolved. “We” can do that. But why should we? Here are just a few good reasons.

The Supreme Court. They serve for life. Let’s start there. If we truly want this nightmare to finally end, we have to neutralize the Supreme Court, literally. We have to force the court into a position of neutrality that can only be achieved through legislation. That means Congress. That means removing the entire existing bodies of both houses and replacing them entirely. There is only one way to do that. Everyone votes. No shit. That’s the only way. The real power of that elegant tool is only fully understood if we do. We need to completely replace them all because they are so deeply entrenched that no one, no matter how MAGA Moronic, or Squad Obsessed, no one gets into office without getting contaminated by the ruling parties' never ending fight to survive each other. We must do this to send a message: “We expect the government to work from now on.” If a working congress actually passed laws that We want, then the Supreme Court would no longer be the overpowered weapon of abuse that the parties have turned it into. Why? Because Congress makes the laws, not the court. But laws tend to be more final than court rulings. The Republicans and the Democrats know this. This is why we are still fighting over Abortion in this country. The parties both use the courts as the place to control the government because it is easier to rule through decree than by law. For the reds and blues, an unresolved issue is the gift that keeps on giving.  A working Congress that revered it’s population would work to resolve such issues and finally put them to rest. Thus rendering the political power of the court null and void. Leaving the Supreme Court to do the one damn job it has, making sure the laws of this country are upheld and enforced according to the Constitution. By voting en masse as voters, not partisans, just citizens casting ballots, “We” can render the Supreme Court of little use to the Ruling Parties. Sure, that stymies the Republicans that have worked so hard to hijack the courts over the last few decades, but it also makes it of no strategic value to the Democrats for the same reason. “We” get back our court and our congress with one action. But let me be clear, this is not an overnight fix, or a magic bullet. This is a duty. Yours and mine. “We” must vote. “We” must vote for the sake of voting. “We” must vote en masse. “We” must vote often. “We” must show the power of a fully engaged citizenry to the ruling parties if we are to beat them into proper submission.

China, Russia, Iran, North Korea. They’re still there. They still hate us. And they’re ready to exploit every crack in our democracy like an infectious disease. We really don’t have a choice but to stay united in our country, and yet the two ruling parties carry on every day as if that has nothing to do with their divisive war. They want their media hyper focused on their enemy, so that we don’t see the larger problem. Neither party is working very hard to address outside threats anymore. They care more about whatever message of hate they can sell today to get a vote, or block a vote tomorrow. If we let it all fall apart when we could do something as simple as voting to stop it, then what does that tell the rest of the world? “We” can vote to protect ourselves by demanding a level of service to our collective security, that the current elected officials from both parties are incapable of providing due to their current domestic war. Democracy is the strength of the people. The reds and the blues do not demonstrate strength at all anymore. “We” can. We look weak under the decrepit rule of the Republicans and the Democrats. But, by showing our collective will to gain control of our government through the power of voting, “We” send the message to the rest of the world that our enemies fear the most, the message of freedom, the message that true power comes from the people to the government, and not from the government to the people.

Civil War, again, and again, and again. At this point in our political hellscape, the Republicans are now essentially claiming that they cannot and will not obey any government that has Democrats in power, at any level, and the Democrats are trying to pass federal laws that they know the Republicans won’t follow at the state level. So the war just widens beyond Washington DC and floods the entire country with misery and conflict from the top all the way down to the school boards and the city councils and the local sheriffs, and on and on until no place of government is functional anymore. It’s an “Us vs. Them” free for all in America today, and everyone of us is suffering because of it. “We” can end that by voting to take our power to govern away from the Ruling Parties. “We” can end this war.

There’s also, the Economy, Global Warming, Healthcare, Societal Degradation, Infrastructure…the list is never ending, because the Ruling Parties don’t want the list to ever end. If it ends, they have no conflict left to stoke. And if they have no conflict, then they both die together. We can do that to them. But if these arguments do not interest you, I have one last reason for you.

Because…”Fuck These Guys!”  Sometimes it’s OK to just be pissed off. It’s OK to feel hurt. It’s OK to unleash rage and fury at those most deserving assholes who have forced upon you the burden and the pain of having to see nothing good happening in your country on a daily basis; because the only people running it are reds and blues who are more occupied by attacking each other than serving the people. So, if you’re just looking for a way to channel that rage and fury at someone who desperately deserves it. If you want to seriously fuck a bitch up for messing with your good time. If you just gotta beat a mother fucker for being such a dip shit asshole that the only way you’re gonna feel relief is by bringing them the pain, all the pain. If you really want to blow shit up, and wreck the system, and bring it to the man, and burn it all down, and destroy the establishment, and bring anarchy writ large crashing down upon their heads, and blow open a hole that leads straight to hell, sucking them all down into it with the ferocity of a rabid honey badger with it’s ass on fire. But you also have a life, and bills to pay, and personal responsibilities, like most real life Americans do…remember… “We” can still burn it all down, with a Vote. 

Then, maybe we won’t be so damn tired anymore. Wouldn’t that be nice?