"CIVIL WAR - WILDCAT GROWL"

“CIVIL WAR – WILDCAT GROWL” 

“All along the watchtower

Princes kept the view

While all the women came and went

Barefoot servants, too

While, outside in the cold distance

A wildcat did growl

Two riders were approaching

And the wind began to howl”

Bob Dylan wrote this song in 1966, and then Jimi Hendrix took it over, but I still like Dylan’s version.  It seems appropriate for the times in which we live – the wildcat is growling and the wind is howling.

I had intended to pause the series on the possibility of a modern civil war, but provocative comments in response to the series and the opening of the January 6 Congressional hearings have compelled me to continue it for this week.  The hearings are revealing a concerted right wing effort to take over the government by throwing out the results of the 2020 presidential election and installing Donald Trump as president in 2021 and perhaps for life.  With President Biden’s ratings dropping and dropping, it is not hard to envision a scenario with the Trump Republicans winning both the House and the Senate in this fall’s elections. Then Trump would run again for President in 2024 and in winning, would give the right wing complete control of the mechanism of the federal government.  Whether Trump runs again or not in 2024, the autocracy of Trumpism is now central to the Republican party, and whoever wins the Republican nomination will be steeped in it, and will, I think, be favored to win in 2024.

Here are some powerful comments from our friend and colleague, the Rev. Dr. Greta Reed, now retired in Florida.  These are from an email exchange in regard to my two previous blogs on Civil War.

“I actually agree with you that the most likely scenario is to take over the government (by creating chaos at voting places, tilting the election, etc.)

But if THIS were to lead to many people like us taking to the streets, we would be met (I'm afraid) with violence not only of police and National Guard, but quite possibly by these armed right wing extremists.  It's a profoundly sad time--a national psychosis, sustained by silos of misinformation and deliberate manipulation.

    So interesting (if sad and horrifying both) to hear the hard-line Republicans placing their Second Amendment rights over the lives of children. (I would think parents have some rights regarding the protection of their children from wanton violence.) But more than that, the complete lack of empathy. but that's what extremism does: we develop a religious belief in our orthodoxy (e.g., the principle that no one can interfere with my right to bear arms) and nothing else matters. This is Putin's orthodoxy in invading Ukraine: some 18th or 19th century Romanticism about Mother Russia, "justifying" his violence in destroying every living thing in Ukraine in order to take it over.”

Greta makes a compelling case for what the future may hold for all of us in this country.  She also emphasized in other comments that any future civil war will be not be so much geographical as it will be spiritual and psychological.  In other words, the coming conflict will not be between the South and the North but between political factions, with urban areas being the most divided.  As in “Parable of the Sower,” the violence will grow in all areas, and in response the federal government (driven by autocratic Republicans) will crush dissent and establish a repressive order, reminiscent of Gilead in “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

This is grim stuff, and while I have often entertained this possibility in my mind, for the first time in my life, I can feel it in my gut.  Something’s coming, and unlike the wind of Mary Poppins, this is a wildcat growl, and seems to be a distinct possibility in my lifetime, just like our having reached the tipping point in climate change. But, as with climate change, there are things that we can do to mitigate the coming storms.  

As I have indicated before, voting in this year’s primaries and elections is essential.  There is no way around this.  Although there have been plenty of laws passed to repress the vote already, there is still some possibility of stopping even more repression by voting in the 2022 elections.  If moderates and progressives lose in this year and in 2024, these may be the last legitimate elections for the foreseeable future.  So, do this – register yourself to vote, and find at least 10 other people who are not registered to vote, and get them to register.  

The sinister winds are strong, however, so we must all find other places to be active for justice and for equity.  Organizing, showing up at council and commission meetings, protesting in the streets, contacting legislators – all of these and more are necessities at this point, if we are to avoid the autocracy that seems to be coming.  The wildcat is growling, and the wind is howling.