In school, we all studied Germany in the 1930s heading into WWII
The National Socialist German Workers Party won an election in 1933 that placed Hitler in the leadership position, and he proceeded to consolidate absolute, totalitarian power
German citizens with eyes to see understood what was happening, but they failed to stop it…and we all know the events that followed
Looking back, it appears inevitable that the USA entered the war against fascism, but there was a lot of pressure for US to side WITH Hitler—even among members of Congress (Hitler is reported to have hung a portrait of Henry Ford in his office)
Looking back, it is hard for us to understand how Germans could have let that happen within their own country, but all you have to do is LOOK AROUND HERE NOW to see that “all that is necessary is for good people to do nothing”
Trump is weak, unpopular, and vulnerable now—even as he strives to make his success appear to be inevitable…but history that we are making today is not yet set
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Every ten years following the Constitutionally mandated decennial population census, each state legislature sets its Congressional districts to determine the contours of their Congressional delegation
Many state legislatures employ blatantly partisan tactics to slant the delegation one way or another (ex: voter registration is 39%D/41%R/20%I, but the delegation is 30%D/70%R
Other states (e.g., California, New York, Massachusetts), in the interest of the principle of good government, have instituted non-partisan processes to generate districts that produce delegations that more accurately represent the views of the population
Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, yet they have completely given over their power to Donald Trump—they no longer represent their own constituents but do only as Trump asks
Texas is already gerrymandered to under-represent D, and Trump pushed them to re-district in the middle of the cycle to create in the next election 5 more R representatives in Congress
In response, California is asking voters to approve a new 5-seat D-advantage state map that reasserts a commitment to non-partisan maps but temporarily over-rides the current district maps with maps that would likely create 5 more Democratic seats in the California delegation to balance Texas’ blatant power-grab that further deflates fair representation of Democrats in the Texas delegation
Many people contend that if the Republicans hold a majority in both the House and Senate after the 2026 elections, it will be many decades before the American people will be able to re-assert their will on government
They say that Democratic control of the House (and maybe Senate) after the 2026 elections is the only thing that can put a stop to our slide into an authoritarianism that will strip you of your freedom and will suck out the animating principal of your being
Power to the People
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In 1994—five years after the Soviet Union fell apart and Eastern European countries were released from the authoritarian bondage from Moscow—I visited the Romanian capitol of Bucharest
The people there appeared to have been recently awakened from a long, drug-induced slumber…they walked the streets like zombies still in a semi-trance
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Young people of California… DO NOT SLEEP NOW—you do not want to want to wake up in a daze when you are 70 and wonder why you let your life be stolen
Register and VOTE for Proposition 50 in the upcoming election—vote as if your life depends on it … … … because it does