Beware of shiny things
In the midst of the daily, almost hourly, hate, ignorance and vitriol being spewed by the current inhabitant of the Oval Office, I find it hard to not been drawn in: look, a new "shiny thing" over there. That shiny thing being the latest “alternative fact,” dangerous cabinet appointment, anti-American executive order, or his most recent attack on (fill in the blank) group.
While our attention is drawn to the latest hateful buffoonery — right wing, democracy-haters are working in state legislatures, governorships and Congress to build their extremist agenda on all fronts. Proposed racist, misogynist, classist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist legislation, (much of it written by the American Legislative Exchange Council) that we thought could never become law in our nation — are moving forward state by state — some at lightning speed.
For those of us who believe in democracy, in civil rights, in the values that made America shine as a beacon of freedom to the world (instead of an embarrassment in the world), we’ll have to work hard to ignore those shiny things. They are brilliant, purposeful distractions to prevent us from paying attention to the puppet-masters like Pence, Ryan, McConnell, other Congressional and state extremists.
The work to restore democracy, civility and just plain kindness has just begun. That means staying in for the long haul and not letting them distract us with shiny things.
