No matter what role you play in life, there is no question that the next 12 months will decide what kind of country the United States will be for the next 25 to 50 years.
In my lifetime, other than a number of wars, there has been no period of time that will be as consequential as the year 2022. What makes this scenario so scary is that the people most affected by the decisions to come may not be in a frame of mind to do anything in response.
Everyone regardless of political party will tell you that at this point in time we are an exhausted nation. The COVID pandemic has sapped the energy out of almost every American. We are tired of long lines for vaccinations and tests. We are weary from the year and a half of home confinement. Many are exhausted from having to home school their children or making sure that their kids do their remote schoolwork.
Yet in the months ahead America will be faced with decision after decision that will impact the lives of its 350 million residents.
For the past year, state after state has been plotting to prevent its voters from having their ballots honestly counted. Local election officials, who work year-round to keep the system honest, are being supplanted in favor of local partisans.
Workers at election boards are being threatened with physical harm because they refused to twist the results in favor of a defeated ex-president.
The one place that can assure that we have national election integrity is the U.S. Congress. But many of its members don’t want elections to be fair and impartially run.
Efforts to pass some type of bill to keep the political playing field level have been thwarted by Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mc Connell who has no interest in any efforts to keep the system honest.
The upcoming election in November will be the first test of whether the local political mischief was effective but will anyone be ready to go to battle in protest?
The Congressional investigation into the insurrection that occurred on Jan. 6 is moving along and each day we are learning who the culprits are that were plotting to prevent a new president from taking office.
The thought that a sitting President Donald Trump could be working day and night to overturn the results of the November election is the most frightening aspect of this entire mess.
It is obvious at this stage of the inquiry, that if Vice President Pence agreed to be part of the plot, the results of the presidential election would have been nullified.
When the January 6 Commission finishes its work, there is now no doubt that not only was the president plotting to stay in office, he did so with the active support of sitting members of Congress who were working actively to tear up the U.S. Constitution.
When all the facts come out, we will have learned that through luck we avoided America becoming another Nicaragua. The real question to be asked is will our country be prepared to see that the culprits are brought to justice?
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the legality of the Mississippi anti-abortion law. There is a strong possibility that the court will nullify Roe v Wade and tell millions of American women that they are not free to make decisions about their own lives.
The anti-choice advocates will hold victory events but will the people most affected rise up in protest?
Today’s America is a tired and divided country. We have been through so much since March 2021, but can we afford to sit back and let the flame of democracy die out by doing nothing? For most of our citizens, 2022 will be a test. Are you up to this test?
