Democracy vs. Dictatorship, Independence vs. Individual, Future vs. Fascism By Michael Blake

[View this email in your browser]( Democracy vs. Dictatorship, Independence vs. Individual, Future vs. Fascism By Michael Blake As I awoke this morning in New Orleans, a city that embodies Black excellence and liberation, we celebrate the essence of our culture and American liberty. I encourage all of us to reflect on Freedom, Democracy, and Independence that the 4th of July observance embodies. Independence Day reminds us our Liberation from a King. Yet, earlier this week, six Republican U.S. Supreme Court Justices extended immunity to any “official acts” our commander-in-chief commits. As a Black man who has endured police brutality, the prospect of this monarch-like power sends a chill down my spine. It removes all accountability from state-sanctioned acts of violence and seeks to erase the democratic ideals underpinning our Republic. America is not Russia or China or North Korea. We should not revert our Democracy into that direction. As a nation, we are free to disagree, to engage in civil protest, and to exist without fear of being subjugated for rejecting poisonous rhetoric from a despotic leader. During last week’s debate, millions of American households heard former President Donald Trump call the United States a “seriously failing nation right now” that is “closer to World War III than anyone can possibly imagine.” Fear-mongering aside, Trump delights in painting the nation as a dystopian land from which only he can deliver the American people. While his white nationalist propaganda is more commonly compared with the tactics of Adolf Hitler, Trump’s rhetoric aligns more closely with the victimhood Italy’s Benito Mussolini adopted to justify his Fascist rise to power, culminating with his infamous “Call to Arms” speech in which he justified global war with nations to avenge perceived past injustices. Mussolini exterminated the opposition party before aligning with Germany in World War II, and his meteoric rise to power took only six years. It has now been nine years since Trump rode down that escalator to seek control of our country, and he has never once pretended that the interests of the American people eclipse his own insatiable thirst for power. Yes, the debate was rough. Yes, it created uncomfortable conversations about our future, but our Democracy is stronger than the powers attempting to establish a dictatorship. I prefer a future with a democratically elected President who has empathy and values instead of a convicted felon who believes that Latinos are murderers, that "Black Jobs" are low wage jobs, and that he can shoot someone on Fifth Avenue with zero consequences. Our Supreme Court’s recent rulings will embolden that divisive rhetoric, but the American people still have choices come this November to prevent these tyrannical trends from usurping 248 years of independence. We should choose Freedom over Fear. We must choose Democracy over Division. We will choose Independence over Ignorance. At KAIROS DEMOCRACY PROJECT, we celebrate the storytelling of race, policies, demographics, and Democracy. We choose KAIROS over chaos, redirecting the national conversation to how and why race and issues should implore us to voting. There is not a perfect candidate, nor a perfect Democracy, but let us not have the pursuit of perfect lead us into peril. Two weeks ago, I was invited to The White House to celebrate Juneteenth, our national holiday commemorating Black liberation. As I stood steps away from a house representing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, I paused to reflect on the moment. Cobbled together from the bonded hands and ingenuity of plantation slaves, The White House represents a promise to Americans: The Freedoms we have are often delayed but never denied if we protect and preserve them. Abolitionist, orator, and statesman Frederick Douglass, who believed the “conscience of a nation” must be roused and startled to abolish slavery, proclaimed in “What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July”: “There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery.” During the Juneteenth ceremony, I was in the company of Black poets, vocalists, instrumentalists, journalists, comedians, religious leaders, the President and the Vice President. We stood, sang, and celebrated actions and words led by hope, rewarding us for what Douglass dubbed our “sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom.” Four years ago, nearly 80 million Americans — Black, Brown, White, young and old, rural and metropolitan — elected President Biden to replace Trump and reclaim our freedoms. The former president repeatedly undermined our Constitution and wielded the Oval Office like a weaponized marionette, stringing voters and governing institutions toward Democracy’s destruction. Trump’s return to power is more likely unless Democracy’s champions succeed in reminding the American people what life without freedom looks like. When George Floyd was murdered, we organized and marched in the sweltering summer heat to denounce police violence. When the Republican-led Supreme Court overturned Roe, we rose to our feet and demanded individual agency as a constitutional right. Now, we must rise again to ensure a November election is not a rejection of freedom but a full embrace of Liberty and Liberation. As a Black man, I understand that freedoms have often been delayed. As a man of faith, I must “let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete.” Trump, who has openly called for televised tribunals to prosecute his enemies, once stated in an eerily Mussoliniesque interview, “Revenge does take time, and sometimes revenge can be justified.” We, as a nation, must call out this dangerous fascist threat and launch a truth barricade against these insidious encroachments on our freedoms. So ask yourself: What country do you want and deserve come next Fourth of July and act accordingly! Instead of just focusing on a Debate, let us focus on DEMOCRACY. [Facebook icon]( [Instagram icon]( [Website icon]( [LinkedIn icon]( [YouTube icon]( [X icon]( Copyright (C) 2024 Atlas Strategy Group. All rights reserved. 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