
What Would Nellis Say?
Democracy Is Not A Crapshoot!

Democracy Is Not A Crapshoot!
By Rick Stiller
Anyone who has read my essays over the past few years or any of my fourteen novels understands my belief that our country depends on each of us accepting the responsibility to defend the most basic concept of our democracy against attacks from without or within.
We are facing an election that will institute a dark autocracy built on outrageous lies seeding fear and anger in those who are gullible or racist or both.
The MAGA propaganda blitz is focused on convincing white “Christian” voters that they are somehow being victimized by “those people” (substitute the most desperate minority or immigrant population of your choice) who are “invading our country” or “poisoning our blood” or “destroying our economy and stealing your jobs” or “they’re going to come into your kitchen and slice your throat” (Really? Do sane people actually believe this tripe?)
My fictional character, Republican Presidential Candidate Mac Murphy, compressed the current Trump MAGA Republican philosophy into one sentence, “Hate’s an easy sell.”
The radical right-wing extremists in Congress have held the gavel for two years and have yet to propose any solutions to the problems facing our country. The current crop of Republican candidates and their surrogates scream and yell, point fingers, and create outrageous lies to sow fear in their constituents…but they offer no answers to the challenges American families are dealing with every day.
After nine years of Trump, Americans know that if his lips are moving, he’s lying. His unqualified and thoroughly bigoted Vice-Presidential choice, J.D. Vance, admits that he “creates” outrageous and disgusting stories to grab media space and deflect attention from the fact the next Republican administration will not be elected to serve the people of this country. The richest few are funding and directing this sham, intending to take and hold power for their personal enrichment without regard for our citizens' needs or honoring our society's foundations. (see Project 2025)
Haitian “immigrants are eating pet cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.” Mayor Rob Rue debunked these claims and stipulated that legal immigrant Haitians were invited to the community to fill job vacancies, which caused no problems in the town.
“Illegal immigrant Venezuelan gangs have taken over buildings in Aurora, Colorado.” Aurora Police Chief Heather Morris said there is no evidence of a gang takeover in her city.
“Crime is rampant and big cities with Democratic administrations are hellholes.” The highest crime rates are found in: St. Louis, MO, Little Rock, AR, Minneapolis, MN, and Kansas City, MO. All of these cities are located in red states.
“Doctors are performing abortions after the child is born.” “No one is performing abortions up until the moment of birth. There is no such medical procedure.”
Rapist-convicted felon-twice impeached and disgraced former president Donald Trump proudly proclaims that his Supreme Court nominees overturned Roe vs Wade and sent decisions about abortion rights to the states…where twenty-eight MAGA legislatures immediately passed draconian laws, many asserting that life begins at conception and banning abortion with few exceptions for rape, incest, or saving a mother’s life, resulting in a 24% increase in maternal deaths.
In recent speeches, boastfully misogynous Trump asks women voters to believe that he will protect their rights when he’s elected. Is that until he signs a national abortion ban and his Supreme Court outlaws IVF and contraception, repeals gay marriage, or rescinds voting rights for women and minorities?
Trump claims Biden-Harris destroyed the “perfect” economy since he left office. When Biden was inaugurated, our financial system was in a dumpster with the highest unemployment since the Great Depression, the Markets in freefall, the country in lockdown, and a million dead. Many of the deceased were foolish enough to believe his self-serving lies about the COVID pandemic and the vaccine.
Distinguished economics professor and columnist Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times: “America has…experienced robust growth combined with falling inflation.” The Markets are at all-time highs, unemployment is at fifty-year lows, salaries are increasing as inflation falls, interest- rates are dropping, and the outlook is promising further economic expansion.
Most of our population is completely oblivious to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, ‘The Republican Presidential Transition Project’ - more than nine hundred pages of detailed plans to dismantle the Federal Government and eliminate many of the services and protections it provides, including disregarding the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and our democracy. The plan was produced, starting the day Joe Biden won the election, at a cost of $22 million, paid for by a Koch-financed PAC, and written by 140 “Conservatives” with ties to the former Trump administration.
It calls for granting the next Republican President broad powers over the Executive Branch to dictate policy by ending departmental independence; defunding the IRS, the FDA, the National Weather Service, and dispensing with the Department of Education and the Department of Commerce; weaponizing the Department of Justice and the FBI to pursue political enemies, and deploying American troops in our cities to round up millions of immigrants and political enemies who will be detained in concentration camps until they can be deported. These are just a tiny fraction of the radical objectives for the next Republican administration.
They published their plan for everyone to read and made no secret of their intention to rescind every right and privilege granted to women and minorities since the Civil War. Pay attention! If the fascists are elected, they will follow through with everything they proposed in Project 2025.
We can argue amongst ourselves if and when the threat has passed, but we must man the barricades against those who would destroy the system built over centuries to ensure our rights and liberties. Election day is less than a month away, and it could be the last free and fair election in our lifetimes.
Step up and vote for all that America might become if we stand together as a people united against the hate, lies, and bigotry being peddled by MAGA Republicans. Your vote is critical to preserving all that we hold to be right and true and November 5th could be the last day that America can claim to be a democracy!