Indig-Nation

     We are no  longer the 'Can-Do' Nation.  We are now the 'Indig-Nation'.  Outrage and animus are our common currency.  So-called leaders recognize this fact, and exploit it, in their efforts to gain and retain power.  As long as they speak to their crowds, and repeat and amplify the umbrage, the victim status of their tribe, they can say and do almost anything, without regard for consequences, for truth, or for country.  And they do.  It used to be so, that being caught in a lie was potentially fatal to a politician.  It used to be so, that there was honor, there were rules, there were guardrails, and there were political consequences. But no more.  Just speak the lie louder, more boldly, attack the people calling it out, and whip up a frenzy in the tribal mob, and the truth fades instantly from collective memory.  We do this to ourselves, of course.  Tribal members openly admit they don't care if their dear leader lied about elections, paid for sex, and paid for silence, or paid no taxes, as long as he continues to give his fat middle finger to the opposition, to 'own' the Lib-tards.  The Libs, ever helpful in enabling their own demise, continue to trot out caricature memes of 'Wokeness' and 'Cancel Culture', setting up easy targets in the political shooting gallery.  But they fail to see the long game.  The game is votes.  Voter turnout.  Voter suppression.  Gerrymandering.  All these are wrought at the local level.  They fail to push forward viable candidates for the small game, for school boards, for town councils, for State Legislatures, for State Governors and Secretaries of State, and finally for the House and Senate.  Ralph Reed, Newt Gingrich, and other Republicans recognized this in the 80s and 90s, and have been playing the bottom-up, small-ball game ever since, to enable the big game of minority rule we now have. Until actual majorities rise up and elect actual candidates, this mismatch will continue.  Minority rule will embed itself more deeply into the fabric of our politics, and two generations of progress, from when we were the 'Can-Do Nation', will be lost.  Worse, our Democracy will fail, as Autocrats devise legalistic means to retain power, and suppress the will of the people. Two more generations may yet pass, before we might get a Democracy back, if we ever manage it at all.  In reality, there was a 'Steal', and there is an ongoing 'Steal', but the perpetrators are screaming it was stolen from THEM, even as they stuff the spoils of their thievery into burlap sacks and escape.  A whole lot of aggrieved, denied, repressed, and robbed people had better realize this, and rise up and vote.  They have the numbers.  They CAN take the power, but not by complacency, not by inaction, and not by cowardice, or sloth.  Righteous INDIG-NATION is called for.  Action is required, and they had better fight like hell, or they won't have a country anymore.