Hey There, We Have Been Here Before and We Know How to Fight

Hope for the fight ahead from recent history

It was 1981 and Ronald Reagan was elected the 40th president of the US. Slicker and more poised than 45, his administration none the less began the deep slide into divison we are now reaping. I was just a kid then, 17, couldn’t even vote against him but somehow I knew he was a con man of sorts.

The problem is not just that Americans can be conned by social media and our own isolated wind tunnels of self congratulatory nonsense, the problem is that one party has systematically destroyed faith in the institutions of our Government and therefore allowed corruption to rein free. We are reaping this now. Did the other party help the demise? Yes.

Surely and we can trace wrong steps towards our current oligarchy (or the new American Brolagarhchy) we now live in. Democracy is already gone, she was already assassinated by greed while most of us were busy trading memes or simply believeing the center would hold. The question is do enough Americans have the courage to bring her back?

I am going to write out my memories of those early days of fighting against the Religious Right over the next few months to demonstrate how the moderate Dems and Republicans and old hippies and humanists did fight the good fight in the 80s and how we can fight on and win today.

We have been here before, we have fought the denial of AIDS, the running of illegal proxy wars in South America, Iran Conta Cocaine deals, the closing of all State Psychiatric facilities that created a homeless epidemic overnight and many other inhumane and outrageous things done in the name of freedom and democracy.

We can fight to win, and we really have no choice.