When I look at America, I see this wonderful idea at work…the idea that a government can be ruled for the people and by the people. Put simply, it is a belief that everyday people actually have a say in the decision-making process that determines the rules and laws we must abide by and in this country. But what sets us apart from other types of government rule is if we make mistakes or need to tweak something then there are non-violent mechanisms in our system for correction. And that is what we have been doing for 246 years; even the Civil War propelled us toward a more rights for more Americans…the North won. For 246 years, we have been growing, at times struggling, at times surviving, and always moving forward usually using our democratic and constitutional processes. It has by no means been a perfect journey, but it has always been a journey charted by we the people. We have never returned to the ways of the countries so many fled to come to America…lands ruled by kings and queens with no mechanism for correction by the people other than war, fleeing, or submission. We have rarely reversed our march toward more freedoms and more opportunities for every citizen to have an opportunity to realize the American dream. Until recent years we had experienced years of progress toward a more inclusive entity…the expansion of civil rights, women’s rights, voting rights, etc.

I know my America is not perfect, but before Trump, MAGA and Project 2025, I knew exactly what to do to attempt change. And, now I see changes happening that I or more importantly we have absolutely no control over. I knew how the Supreme Court worked and trusted the justices would understand the sanctity of their oaths and grow into their robes as so many before them had done…just something about that robe. I trusted the newly appointed judges at a minimum would uphold their public declarations to respect the principle of Stare decisis…I was wrong. Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans completely obliterated the integrity and balance of the court beginning with the refusal by the Senate Republicans to consider President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland in 2016 more than ten months before the end of his presidency…and later by hypocritically filling the Ruther Bader Ginsberg vacancy four months before the end of Trump’s term. All of this setting up the current rogue court who seem hell bent on ensuring Project 2025 is fully implemented.

We are at a crossroads in our America. Almost eight years ago, a lot of Americans went to the polls and cast their vote for former President Donald J. Trump, and a substantial number seem ready and willing to do so again. Almost four years ago, voters decided Trump was not the leader for our country and again, many have cast their lot with our current President Joe Biden again. Although some Democratic voices are hesitant about their choice, I am sure they will realize a few cannot circumvent the results of a free and fair election because of their fears and will get about the task of winning this race.

When it is all said and done, we will have once again decided the course for our America. I don’t know what America will be, I just know that we the people will decide.

Perhaps we will have a more isolationist country than the one that embraced free trade and immigration. Perhaps we will have a country that is less generous to the poor and more supportive of the wealthy.

Perhaps we will relegate truth and fair dealing to a backseat in favor of tax cuts, abortion rights, women’s rights, civil rights, voting rights, gun rights, someone else’s right to choose who one loves, freedom of religion or simply winning. I happen thing truth and fair dealing are paramount to all of the other battles. Without the truth and fair dealing you just don’t know what you’re going to get after an election…maybe Project 2025.

Perhaps we will let our environment fend for itself rather than listen to those who have provided preventative measures that might leave our home planet a better place than our current path. Perhaps some of us will have a status more like that of the past rather than that achieved through years of struggle.

Perhaps we will surrender our First Amendment rights and kneel to the minority. Perhaps we will give up on our usually peaceful existence in our everyday lives and embrace the ever-increasing fearmongering and weaponizing of our communities…something some would surely see as simply protecting Second Amendment rights.

Perhaps we will allow the sustained attacks on our executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government to become more like those in the countries from which the framers of our Constitution sought so desperately to distinguish and protect us.

Of course, I could go on and on with this list. I could tell you the end is coming, and America will likely not survive this moment in her history. It would simply be fearmongering and although I am a flaming liberal, I am not willing to say that this GOP ruled time is going to be the fall of our America…although I fear it might very well be.

America has quite a few very wrong turns and more than a few bad politicians in its history, and this is certainly not the first time the bedrock of our Constitution has been under attack. Although progress may have been slowed and remnants of those battles remain even today, our democracy, our America survived. That said…I don’t think our Constitution has ever been under an attack like this.

One thing is for sure, Supreme Court withstanding, whatever path we choose, U.S. citizens will have collectively chosen our own path because today we are a democracy. Tomorrow is not promised but today we still have a vote that matters.