(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . "Friends and Family" Republicans, a binary choice: Constitutional society OR fascist disaster [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-05-31 Over the last twelve hours, I received many texts, emails, and phone calls, not because of “The Guilty Verdict” but because of our events regarding a long-term medical issue facing our household and family. After catching up on our immediate family members' health circumstances, we fell into discussing our nation’s current event: TRUMP-GUILTY-34 Counts. Most (not all) of my family are suburban Republican-leaning voters, while on my wife’s side, they are wholly suburban Democratic voters. I was once a renegade presidential Democratic elector from Colorado in 2016 who sought to challenge Trump’s Electoral College vote, so naturally, I once had “skin in the game” but no more than every other American. BLUF: Each Republican-voting friend or family is facing the prospect of an unwanted binary choice of whether to vote and support a Constitutional form of flawed American democracy OR vote to install fascism. It concerns their emotional identity more than a logical or principled political decision. Two of them voiced the prospects of having the pain or audacity of voting “for a Democrat President!” OR, as I added, you would “be voting for a convicted felon, perjurer, sexual predator, and a financial fraudster.” When objected, I replied in my father’s famed deadpan realism: “All found within a court of law and established by juries.” Deep signs of resignation. Each Republican voting member had a varying degree of what I call an apologist's perspective (although not supportive, I do suspect, a few hardened spouses like Alito’s household) where they are attempting to frame the issue away from the devastating obvious. Our deceased father was once a highly respected attorney. Specifically the principle and importance of a jury verdict as the foundation of a citizen government for the people. It’s the people who judge. He would say getting twelve ordinary Americans to agree on anything, including the weather, was as often as successfully farmyard herding cats and a unanimous jury verdict is the ultimate fail-safe in our society. When I reminded them of this often repeated concept, each of my Republican-leaning family members stopped in their defensive in their tracks, defending any idea that the case was rigged. Our family is unique because we were raised in a household where judges of all types were our family’s friends, some very close, like two godparents. They included a neighbor who was a State Supreme Court, Chief Justice, State Appellate Justice, Circuit Court Justice, and two Federal District Court Judges, one of whom was an esteemed senior justice. Respect for the rule of law is deeply embedded in our family’s makeup. Each of us has been in some small business or investment enterprise where litigation took place, and collecting damages or debts was made possible because the law was eventually executed. We have extended family members who were in law enforcement, so it is ultimately the constitutional form of this democracy that protects all of us, the NON-ELITE. In each of those conversations, I concluded that, unfortunately, they are faced with the decision to divorce themselves from the personal identity of a Republican. It is more than partisan policies; it is about their identity. They possess identities that entail sports franchise fan affiliations, residences, statehood, career and profession, sexual preference, lifestyle, religious affiliation, parent and grandparent status, education status, or our family’s ethnic heritage, but overall, all that is condensed into a political voting identity in this mostly binary choice political society. Now, they are lost in a political wilderness without a moral or ethical compass. One particular conversation this morning asked me how I would feel if it were a Democrat, Biden, was a convicted felon. I responded the same way I felt when Bill Clinton was impeached. I wrote in an op-ed that he should resign and leave politics. But it is not Biden who is convicted, and he is not currently indicted by three grand juries in different jurisdictions of ordinary, responsible Americans waiting for different criminal trials. He was not impeached twice and was saved only by political votes. Then she said, what if I vote to save the country from going way over the top to the Democrats? So you are thinking of not voting for something but against the other side, getting too much power when your side is lost and corrupted by this Trump movement, of revenge intimidation and retribution. Even your own Ted Cruz, a supposed legal scholar and Supreme Court clerk in his youth, came out against this jury. Is that what you want in your Republican Party? You and your constituency are at a moral, ethical, philosophical, and political crossroads. She discussed all her opposition to Democratic policies, i.e., undocumented immigration in her home state of Texas (which I told her Colorado or many other states are also affected), and her deep aversion to voting for Democrats. Why? “It’s just not me.” “OK, are you a Constitutional citizen or a fascist apologist?” Not fair. “OK, I know you know your history. In 1776, were you a Patriot or a Tory?” “In 1860, were you a Unionist or a Confederate?” “In 1941, were you an American or supporting the Nazi-fascists?” At first, she thought the framing was unfair, but then she called back and said after his press conference that this was a choice of a Constitution defense or something really bad. Go ahead and have conversations with your Republican-voting family and friends; let them figure it out. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/31/2243986/--Friends-and-Family-Republicans-a-binary-choice-Constitutional-society-OR-fascist-disaster?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/