I don’t get to disenfranchise you—
when I don’t agree with your ideology.
And you don’t get to cancel me,
Just because, we don’t see “eye to eye”.

Besides, what makes you think
you can dominate me?
I’m my own person, just like you’re—
your own whatever!

Why do you believe, I’m not worthy
of sharing the same world-view with you—
weren’t we all created for equality?
 
Our Creator didn’t reject us
because we disobeyed him.
He gave us all free agency,
so that we could make up our own minds.

If you can’t play nicely—we both lose,
and our community ceases to exist.
So what gives you the right
to become a hostile participant?

Is it because you think
you’re superior to me,
or is it because you’re concerned
about my well-being?

I bet it’s the former.
Oh it’s the latter,
so why aren’t you a liberal, man?

By: ElRoyPoet © 2023

Why I look left and expectations

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist [I am a capitalist].
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist [I am a white-collar worker].
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew [I am an American].
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.” By: Pastor Martin Niemöller

How the “Greater Good” is Used as a Tool of Social Control

“The reason the MAGA republicans keep repeating the big lie, even though they know that the elections weren’t stolen, is because it’s a big joke to them—they do it to ‘own the libs‘ (mock the democrat voters who still believe in democracy). Ironically trump has ignited their ‘disgust for democracy’ reflex with his constant barrage of grievance rhetoric bombs.” By: A. Freeman

“But if the story is about Republican candidates who say in absolute terms that they have no business running for public office; that they don’t believe in democracy; that indeed they have contempt for the very idea of normal people manifesting their destinies; […] With that, citizens know what to do. That paradox is, of course, this: Republican candidates who are hostile to democracy are asking voters to entrust them with democracy. They are saying, ‘I can’t be trusted.’ […] When you allow anti-democrats to sit at the negotiating table of democracy, little gets done, because the table’s been depoliticized. That, of course, is the ultimate objective of these Republican anti-democrats. They strive to make democracy unworkable, ungovernable and unbearable, hoping to drive republican citizens into despairing whether they can manifest their own destinies. Fortunately, they are telling us who they are.” Excerpt from Republican anti-democrats are telling us who they are. Are we listening?

“In every encounter, we either give life or we drain it; there is no neutral exchange.” By: Brennan Manning

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán cut right to the chase. He said that Hungary had been “completely healed” of anything smacking of liberalism, and he was crystal clear about how to do it: Control the media. In Hungary, as Szelenyi explained in her TNR essay, this was accomplished first through the takeover of the state media and second through generous loans from the state bank to allow Orbán’s cronies to buy up most of the private media. “Have your own media,” Orbán told the conference. “It’s the only way to point out the insanity of the progressive left.” Oh, and this: “We have to take back the institutions in Washington and Brussels. We must find allies in one another and coordinate the movements of our troops.”
The military metaphor is telling, and overall, they couldn’t have been more straightforward with us. The American right, from Trump to CPAC Jefe Matt Schlapp on down the line, celebrates and seeks to emulate a racist, neofascist anti-democracy. They want to turn the United States into Hungary.
And swing voters, that small percentage of people in the middle who decide elections, live in their bubble, committed to the notions that they’re all corrupt anyway and that the Democrats are just as extreme to the left as Republicans are to the right. They’re concerned about inflation and baby formula, as well they should be, but they need to wake up and think about all this before it’s too late.
By the time those formula-starved babies are playing Little League, they’ll be living in what’s effectively a one-party state where contraception is illegal. Where gay couples have to travel to certain states to marry—if they’re allowed to marry at all. Where the local library won’t stock books on slavery. Where the rich are paying taxes at a lower rate than middle-class people and the federal government has no money (and perhaps, given the Supreme Court we have, no legal authority) to enforce its laws. And where the right-wing, anti-democracy media has more power than the mainstream media (I think we already live in that country). And where election results can be overturned if they came out “wrong.” Excerpt from American Conservatism Just Threw a Party for Hungarian Fascism

“Though liberty is established by law, we must be vigilant, for liberty to enslave us is always present under that same liberty. Our Constitution speaks of the ‘general welfare of the people’. Under that phrase all sorts of excesses can be employed by [authoritarian] tyrants—to make us bondsmen.” By: Marcus Tullius Cicero

“The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.” By: Mahatma Gandhi

“Ignorance breeds fear. We fear those things we don’t understand. If we don’t put a lid on that fear and keep that fear in check, that fear in turn will breed hatred because we hate those things that frighten us. “If we don’t keep that hatred in check, that hatred in turn will breed destruction.” By: Daryl Davis

In order to explain why we have systemic racism and a culture of ethics violations within our institutions, we need to understand that all systems in government rely on people to do their jobs in good faith. All it takes is for one key player to cheat, and the system fails. No system is self-moderated, no matter how much we audit and try to regulate it; it is up to the civil servant(s) to do his job to the best of his abilities. All the systemic problems we find are to be blamed on the people in power who are acting slick—not on the system. Blaming the culture is unconstitutional; an individual(s) in that system who is unwilling to support it, is literally breaking his oath of office. This is why a democracy can’t survive without a free press—to force transparency on the government—so that if it is discovered that a corrupt public official(s) is gaming the system, it can be brought to the citizens’ attention, so that the bad actor(s) can be impeached by the checks and balances in place.

Commentary: The culture wars are waged by powerful republican politicians and right wing media propagandists. It’s a form of manipulation, it’s a way to keep us divided, to control us and to trick us into aiding and abetting their corporate donors—so that they can continue to covertly redistribute wealth from the bottom to the top. If citizens ever wake up to the fact that they’re being pigeon holed as useful idiots for the elites, then we will finally get some community cohesion. Ironically too many MAGA patriots believe, that if they carry water for the elites, they in turn will also become members of the upper class. They are deluded, once a carrier pigeon, always a carrier pigeon. They are just being played for fools!

Definition: “Owning the libs” is a political strategy used by MAGA republicans in the United States that focuses on upsetting political liberals. Users of the strategy emphasize and expand upon culture war issues intended to be divisive to provoke a reaction in others. Hatred of liberals is all that’s left of conservatism, the “owning of the libs” has pushed aside all policy goals, previously central to conservatives—such as smaller government, lower taxes and a commitment to democracy and patriotism.