My guess, is that due to the title of this blog, you think I am going to talk about religion. You would be wrong. I am going to talk about how enough people in this country voted for and continue to believe that an inherently evil man can help them.  It says something vile about the state of this country that a TV celebrity can convince so many people so easily that he is somehow the one to follow in spite of his obvious shortcomings.  How they could blindly vote for a man who has never endured hardship, never wanted for anything, has been taught to hate and bully others, who files  bankruptcy as a means of getting out of paying the very people who voted for him, hates on minorities, women ( don’t you have sisters and daughters?) and anyone “different” and refuses to care about anything except himself and his immediate family.  This is our PRESIDENT people! Add to that his inability to change and an infantile, bully mentality and we “have a problem”.

We have become a nation obsessed with media and unfortunately much of that media is geared toward the uneducated. Why? Because, as Trump as said himself “I love the uneducated.”  The poorly educated are more susceptible to believing everything they read.  They can be more easily manipulated. They love to gossip. Rich and powerful people depend on this mind-set to stay rich.  Why do you think he continues to campaign telling lie after lie to his base?

At his last rally he continued to tell numerous blatant lies and his base soaked it up. They, in turn will continue those lies. They will continue the violence against anyone not white, male and straight. He knows this, he DEPENDS on this.  He knows he must keep his uneducated base on his side. Why do you think Trump has surrounded himself with billionaires in his cabinet?  Because they are people who understand and agree with him. They are arrogant, feel themselves superior and will do anything to stay that way. They exist on POWER, it’s their fuel.  They will lie knowing that their uneducated fan base will support anything they say, and then they will steal from that base without qualm because they frankly despise the very people who voted for them. In fact, the only people they are threatened by and fear are those who don’t fall for their lies. People like me and millions of other Americans who know better.  Be us.

BE US.  Be proactive, be smart, be informed, be on top of daily events. Be responsible for your future and the future of your children. Don’t cave, don’t ignore, don’t stop resisting this president and cabinet. Don’t believe what you read without verification. Don’t repeat headlines without actually reading the article.  Be us. Stop being led, lead. Be us.

Last Fall, America was hijacked. We can argue endlessly about whether the election was fair or not but the fact remains that it was a very close election, the Electoral College notwithstanding. In an age of a wildly turbulent internet which has increasingly become the go-to source for information, masses of our citizens fell prey to an endless variety of misinformation. Misinformation we now know, at least in part, was put there and/or inflamed by a foreign enemy.  Dictators like Putin know how to manipulate the masses.  They understand that the sad truth is that the average person will not only fall prey to misinformation, but will lap it up like a thirsty dog if that information satisfies their personal biases and belief system. Dictators have contempt for the average person and love the uneducated.  Putin was betting on the ignorance, gullibility and mental laziness of the average American citizen.  He was right…and wrong.  He was right in that many, many Americans are mentally lazy and gullible, he was wrong in underestimating how many of us are not.  In spite of his efforts, without the Electoral College, Trump would have lost.  But Trump didn’t lose and this country was hijacked by fanatics.  I don’t use the word “fanatic” lightly.  Isis are fanatics, but at least Isis is not pretending to be something else.  Right now, our fanatical hijackers are pretending to care about our freedoms and Constitution while they systematically dismantle our government.  Make no mistake about that.  In every cabinet post, Trump has put foxes in charge of the hen house.  He wishes to dismantle secular education. He is taking away our environmental protections because he values money over people. He wants women’s rights gone; make no mistake about it. He pretends to be a Christian so he can create a new form of militant fanatical Christianity. He actively tries to cast doubt on legitimate news sources while supporting any source that favors him.  These are the moves of a budding dictator.  He deliberately incites hate in his “base” to keep them focused against the “evil” liberals. He lies to them over and over and they lap it up and pass it around as fact. Why do you think he still holds rallies in red states?  Hitler did that too.  Trump himself has said how much he admires people like Putin and North Korea’s Kim jong un.  He sees himself in the same light. Hopefully, his willful ignorance and hubris will be his downfall. He doesn’t have the brains or education to rise to the level of his perceived “heros”.   Add to that his penchant for lying and the blatant inconsistencies in his behavior and his days are numbered. In the meantime though, we have been hijacked and the majority of us know it. So where do we go from here?  What have we learned? How do we recover our nation?

To me, some of what we need to do will take more time than we have right now. Education for instance, we need a country of educated people, but that won’t help us right now.  We need to make higher education important in rural states not something to be dismissed or considered “elitist”. We need to pay more attention to the needs and mind-set of rural states. We need to bring jobs to rural states, not old jobs, new ones. That too, will take time.  We need to have better heroes, not sports stars and celebrities. We need to once again admire integrity over steroid-induced strength and truth over our false concepts of beauty. We need to stop demonizing groups of people and go after the one’s that deserve short thrift. Short term, we must remove Trump from office and quickly.  We must then systematically remove each and every one of his cabinet appointments.  If we can get rid of Pence and Ryan in the process, even better.  The country is leaning in that direction now, but getting rid of Trump isn’t enough; we also need to undo the damage he has imposed upon us.

We can’t bring back Hillary, doing so would cause outright civil war.  So how do we get our country back? Maybe we hold a short election with new candidates?  Maybe we impeach Trump and live with whoever ends up top?  I don’t know, but we need to do something soon. We need to get our country back.  It’s been hijacked.

Don’t tell me you can’t handle what’s going on in this country right now. Don’t tell me it’s just too much or that you are emotionally spent, or that you don’t have time to pay attention, or that you are depressed. I don’t care. I don’t care that you are frightened or sad or overwhelmed. I don’t care about your fragile emotional state or that you would rather post about your favorite celebrity or sports team.  Suck it up and deal.  It’s your responsibility to pay attention. It’s your DUTY as an American and as a human being to pay attention to every single minute DETAIL of what’s going on. If you don’t, you are as much to blame for what happens to this Earth and its future as the monsters in the White House are.  In fact, you are more to blame because only in numbers can the masses overcome those in power.  Only in numbers of people who PAY ATTENTION can we ensure that those in power work for us and not themselves.  It doesn’t matter whether you are a liberal or a conservative, Democrat or Republican. Your race, gender, sexual orientation has no bearing on this.  Stand up, take your share of the OWNERSHIP for what is happening, read reliable news sources, don’t spread political or religious gossip, be in the know, empower yourself, stand up for what is right, be a good example for your children.  Everyday, I see people around me ignoring world events, remaining deliberately ignorant, telling me they are depressed. I don’t care, I don’t FREAKIN’ care how depressed you are. Suck it up. It’s your future, but more importantly, it’s the future of your children.  I don’t even have children but I care. What’s your excuse?