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There are six words that strike fear in my heart, "Even if Trump wins in 2020". It is my greatest fear. Yes, the world will go on and positive change will hopefully come, but I am 62 I might not live to see it. In four years, he has caused problems that will take at least a generation to fix and that is being positive. I don't know if I can deal with the damage eight years of Trump could potentially do. The guy has got to go!

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The fact that a 17 year old white boy with an AK-47 with his hands raised can simply walk past police after he killed two peaceful protesters while a black man getting into his car is shot seven times in the back while his children are watching from inside the car should tell every citizen something is very wrong. "Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected by it are as outraged as those who are." ---Benjamin Franklin

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(I shared this and Heather's newsletter on Facebook and would like to say hello to all the subscribers here, who though diverse are kindred spirits of history both present and past. May we work towards the future)

This is the first item on my agenda every single day. The historical context in which she places our current events in invaluable.

I encourage many of you to start your online day with this same ritual. Maybe with a cup and a cookie.

I often share her ideas and stories, in person, online and in the many many emails I write.

Heather Cox Richardson often takes a day break on the weekend as well. This regular sabbath is essential, more so during this present crisis, and I encourage you all to find that time of rest for yourself as well.

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In November of 2016 as the votes were rolling in red on the screen my stomach twisted into a ball of bile. I felt a fear I would not be able to describe until 3 years later. This is it. I could not have predicted it—but some primal part of me understood we as a nation were changing, our disconnection making us alien to our neighbors. Democracy has show its weak links across all our institutions. Republicans have pulled off their veil of “patriotism” showing us their true god—POWER. Humanity has revealed their darkest side, proudly aligning with corruption & lies to maintain a false reality where they are the so-called good guys. Trump is serving up fascism, the end of democracy and social concern, so many people around me— presumably in the Fox News alt-right universe are lapping their white tongues around every single word. I am so afraid for what is coming. Regardless of the election, his base will be waiting for a dog whistle. And I fear no one can stop it. I want to have the hope of history on my side but I fear our world has changed too much— technology has connected us to a vortex where we can choose our worlds. I write all this with profound sadness.

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Molly Irvin’s, one of the most perceptive and funniest columnists of my lifetime, said of Pat Buchanan’s 1992 speech at the Republican National Convention that “it probably sounded better in the original German.” It is a shame she is no longer with us. However, it is interesting that she left us this same review of last night’s Trump RNC speech.

She also left us this gem, “ War brings out the patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds on the grounds that dachshunds were 'German dogs.' They did not, however, go around kicking German shepherds.”. This description of misunderstanding patriotism could also be applied to Trump and his supporters. The German shepherds, now today’s liberals and disaffected conservatives, are getting organized to take a bite out of Trump’s butt in this years election. They are all tired of seeing his cruelty toward those without the power to fight back.

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I am hesitant to post a comment here mainly because I’m intimidated by Heather’s smarts and those of her readers, but that hesitancy my own problem.

I am always blown away by these posts and their stength of putting us in historical perspective. One thing that I was mentioning to my wife yesterday was how Trump really reminds me of King George. I am learning more, but his behavior and impact on us is strikingly similar.

Heather hits on those very resonant notes in our history, but the one that strikes me most is the person who basically caused us to become America in the first place.

Anyway, thanks for listening.

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Brilliant, Heather, absolutely brilliant. With a historian's concise precision you laid it all out there. Yes, we can look back as you skillfully do, but, as you keep pointing out, what we can see time and time again is that America ALWAYS ends up being pushed, often kicking and screaming, into the future. Old rich white men have tried again and again to wield their privilege and power to shape everything into their vision of society with them on top, but then, inevitably, that push toward the future is what succeeds. As a historian, you see the "big picture", and that is what matters now more than ever. Mired in the present as we are, though, it's easy to be dismayed. In the short term, I am very worried that in order to achieve that "push to the future" THIS time, things may take a violent turn. It's happened before and can again. Usually we manage to avoid it because cooler heads have prevailed and we solve our problems democratically and with compromise. But, these times see this country so intensely divided I'm afraid we're on a path not far removed from the period that led to the Civil War in 1861. Would you agree? There may be some real pain for us to go through before the next big "push to the future". Of course, I hope and pray things don't come to that, but we're not dealing with people on the "other side" who can think clearly. Some of them are absolutely apocalyptic. How does one reason with such people? Is violence the only way? Again, I'm very hopeful for the long term, but still very worried in the short term. Thanks again, Heather, for what you do. It is SO appreciated.

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Not surprised that this administration would only need a history lesson to understand that what they’re doing is wrong. But morals or ethics would have been very helpful, also! They don’t care. They believe themselves to be above the law. And above learned intelligence.

I work with several people who are thrilled with the RNC. Getting back to work has felt more isolated than, well, isolation.

Can’t say it enough. Vote!

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Thank you HCR, for being willing to sacrifice time, stomach lining, and brain cells to watching the post-postmodern version of the Nuremberg Rally (I know I would need alcohol to get through it!) in order to keep us informed. I can barely read through the morning summaries and listen to the NPR assessment. We are, indeed, at a tipping point. What worries me deeply is that, unlike the points in US history when the "people" (that is, white men) rejected the autocratic moves of political leaders bent on reducing everyone except elites to subject status, these same "people" are now driving autocracy onward, and the rest of us are hoping desperately that the democratic system of "free and fair" elections (which have never actually been either of these) will prevail. In 1934, Germans thought that electoral politics would prevent the rise of dictatorship. We saw how well that turned out.

In my FB feed and in comments and posts connected to media outlets, I am seeing the Trump message filtering into seemingly rational people's heads. The fundamental message has to do with the false, but compelling, image of the Zero-Sum Game: if "you" win, then "I" lose. I have been fighting against this messaging forever but it now perfectly encapsulates the GOP position that white people--especially men--should fear anyone who aspires to gain a share of prosperity and security. And when women who are aligned with patriarchy because it benefits them latch onto the same zero-sum argument, we wind up with people who are willing to overlook the obvious fact of Trump's utter corruption and incompetence in order to prevent anyone else from gaining the privileges they enjoy.

As someone whose ancestors (who did not flee to the US) pretty much failed to survive pogroms in the Pale and the Nazi occupation of Greece in WW2, I am deeply, deeply worried.

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I worry about Trump winning the election because it seems that that will be the end of America as a republic, regardless of its endurance as a country. Current and future Americans may want to meet the challenges of the future, but if Trump and his ilk are in charge of the country they will have a knee on their neck--especially brown Americans like me. Your description of the mindset of 'old white men trying to cling to power' is apt, but a lot of people like me will die or be put in camps if they win. You're so percipient that it worries me that you're trying to raise our hopes for after a Trump win.

...then again, pretty much everything worries me nowadays.

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RNC Night 4. This is what a Trump Dictatorship looks and sounds like. Spin a story blaming Biden for the past 47 years. Pronounce lie after lie with smirky asides to make your audience feel included in the joke. Make no mistake, Trump is a master of self-congratulation based on grievance. It made me so angry to see the nation’s White House and National Mall used in violation of the Hatch Act to promote the Trump Family reality TV show. The Rose Garden tossed away for better tracking shots. Jumbotrons flanking the WH! Fireworks spelling “TRUMP” illuminating the Washington Monument. My Q for the day: How many flags does it take to make a criminal a POTUS? This is our future unless we VOTE HIM OUT. Thanks HCR for giving my fears some hope based on USA history. But, I’m still scared. Back to my current day job of writing to voters in swing states. ❤️🤍💙

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Heather, thanks for the message of hope, despite the despair I feel right now...

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Thank you for revealing this throughly disastrous and corrupt Administration that showed its true colors in earnest last night. This should be the rally call to all decent people of this Country to end this perversion with our votes in November. I am hoping that our votes will count and we can work through this clear slight of hand, illegal election to find a better way. I would say we don't deserve what is happening to us, but how in hell did we get to this point?

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Thank you so much, HCR, for your clear-eyed, rational appraisal of each days news. You are a national treasure.

Thank you for all you do.

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As others here have noted, the phrase "if tRump wins in 2020" strikes fear in my heart. I'm 72 and living through 4 more years of chaos and insanity will probably be more a threat to my health than Covid-19. We must work to make sure the tRump train wreck is thrown off the tracks in Nov. And on Nov.3 we must VOTE.

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I sincerely hope I am overreacting, but this week, I worry that he will win reelection. I've been reading comparisons to 1968, when Nixon trotted out the "law and order" mantra (and the DNC had a "promises made ... promises kept" banner). According to a poll that Yamiche Alcindor of PBS reported on Thursday, support for BLM has dropped significantly in the past two months, probably because many have grown weary of headlines about protests and violence in some cities. Of course, that doesn't get to the root causes of why people are called to protest. Anyway, I'm concerned that Americans who have no clue about the Hatch Act and/or no energy to understand Russian interference and the Ukraine "I would like you to do us a favor" scandal are fixated on the "law and order" scare tactics being used by the Administration. They've found the phrase that will work -- it's the equivalent of the anti-immigration red meat that 45 threw out when he first announced he would run. Of course, the narrative might shift again if a lot of the mask-less folks who congregated on the White House lawn for the Trumpfest contract COVID-19. I certainly wouldn't want any more people to get sick or die, but I also don't want this poor excuse for a human being to be able to lie and manipulate his way to another term. I'm not sure our country could survive another four years of this.

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