The end of democracy

It is now the days after the 2022 mid-term elections in the United States. If the Republicans experienced a number of victories over the Democrats, you can expect your life, as you know it, to be over. It is the end of democracy in America. Thus, saith prominent Democrats just prior to last Tuesday.

No less a prominent figure that Joe Biden, President of the United States, offered a passionate prime time speech aimed at the voting public and informed them that a Republican victory would spell the end of democracy.

Standing on a platform displaying more American flags seen by Democratic politicians in years, the President demonized nearly every Republican running for office. All this around the same time that Biden was promising there would be “no more drilling” (for American oil) and declaring that the coal mines would be closed. We certainly can’t have oil, gas, and coal in a democracy.

Not to be outdone, Former President Barack Obama threw in his two cents implying that if the GOP candidates took control, the nation could expect book banning and Americans being told what to think. In an article in the New York Times by Katie Glueic, Obama is quoted as saying, “I understand that democracy might not seem like a top priority right now, especially when you’re worried about paying the bills. But when true democracy goes away, we’ve seen throughout history, we’ve seen around the world, when true democracy goes away, people get hurt. It has real consequences.”

Glueic also quoted the former President as saying, “This is not an abstraction… Governments start telling you what books you can read and which ones you can’t. Dissidents start getting locked up. Reporters start getting locked up if they’re not toeing the party line. Corruption reigns because there’s no accountability.”

Speaking of past generations who “fought and died for our democracy,” including “suffragists, civil rights activists and labor advocates,” Obama said: “They understood that when democracy withers, it’s hard to restore. You can’t take it for granted. You have to work for it. You have to nurture it. You have to fight for it.”

But according to the Glueic article, “The good news, he told the audience, is ‘you get to make a difference, as long as you turn out to vote.’” Solution simple. If you don’t vote for Republicans, democracy is saved.

Lesser lights such as Michael Moore and Rob Reiner also weighed in on this threat to democracy. Moore, who has racked up a fortune under the capitalist system he pretends to despise, said that 80-90% of voters are “not very bright,” said mediaite.com. He wasn’t just referring to Republican voters, either.

Reiner, who played Michael Stivic, a.k.a.“Meathead” (a derogatory term referring to a person who is dead from the neck up), on the Archie Bunker TV program, according to outkick.com, told “MSNBC host Joy Reid that Republicans are ‘literally killing’ people to win the midterms.” Good grief — that explains all the killings in Chicago and in most of the rest of America’s big cities!

So, if the Republicans had a good night last night, then all is lost. The American experiment is dead, killed by people that are deemed unpatriotic, un-American, and a danger to the nation.

But if the Republicans had a bad night, then take heart! In this now free and democratic nation, we can rejoice that the Chinese, the North Koreans, the Russians, the Iranians, and all our other adversaries who have no fear of the United States will continue to have us in their cross hairs. Thankfully, the southern border will remain a sieve for untold millions more, the 87,000 new IRS agents will still have jobs, trillions more dollars will be printed, and inflation will be our happy companion. At least democracy was saved.

But what about gas and food prices, rising taxes, the price of literally everything going up, and what about those shortages of essential items? Fear not. There is a solution for high food prices. According to an article on freebeacon.com, “Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D., N.Y.) has a suggestion for families struggling with rising gas and food prices: Eat Chef Boyardee.” There. Problem solved. Viva democracy.

[David Epps has been a weekly opinion columnist for The Citizen for nearly 26 years. He has been published in a number of magazines, periodicals, and newspapers. He is a past recipient of a Georgia Press Association Award. He may be contacted at [email protected].]