It’s the cruelty that still gets to me.

After Agent Orange lost the Presidential election, I thought that a wave of empathy and compassion would waft over the land disinfecting the populace of hate, disinformation, and scapegoats.

But then the Republicans introduced over 250 voter suppression bills, mostly aimed at communities of color, making me realize that the cancer Trump exploited was still breathing, simmering, waiting for the next demigod to ignite the cesspool. Trump didn’t create the racism boiling beneath the surface, he exploited it to get elected, massage his ego, and to further the big grift. He gave white supremacy their long sought-after legitimacy, coaxing the venom out of the sewers with his dog whistles which evolved into direct appeals for an insurrection.

With their 250 voter suppression bills, Republicans are exhuming the Jim Crow playbook, but this time their shoes are shined, and they wear tailored suits and prescription sunglasses.

But the constant remains-Republican cruelty.

In Georgia, if the Republican voter suppression bill passes, you are forbidden to deliver water to someone waiting in line to vote. Yes, they actually thought of that. Let’s say you have a 90-year-old grandmother who has been voting since the 1940s, never having missed a vote, and she starts withering from the heat, dehydration setting in because of waiting in the long lines created by Georgia Republicans who have shuttled voting locations, mostly in communities of color. And out of compassion you offer your grandmother water. WATER! You offer her water…well, you could get arrested and your grandmother would lose her right to vote.

Is this what our Founding Fathers intended?

And the Republicans thought of this, but even worse, they wrote it down, and even worse, they are trying to put it into a law.

Cruelty and hate have not been extinguished with the removal of Agent Orange and his co-co-conspirator, Stephen Miller.

And they say with a straight face that this is all about election integrity, that it’s not about race. It’s like when southerners propagate the falsehood that the Civil War was all about State’s Rights, not slavery.

The least they can do is to be honest with their bigotry. I have a lot more respect for an honest bigot than a dishonest bigot. But hey, that’s just me.

Republican leaders have finally said out loud that they believe the only way they will win elections is to restrict the voting pools. In other words, they seek to sabotage the underpinnings of our Democracy—the right to vote. Truth be told, they don’t believe or want a Democracy, with the more radical sec promoting a race war.

“A Republican lawyer arguing before the Supreme Court on Tuesday admitted that his party needed voter suppression laws that disproportionately impact voters of color in order to complete with Democrats.

Republicans admitting that they can’t win without voter suppression laws in nothing new, but it’s shocking to see them put this before the Supreme Court as if it’s a valid legal argument. And it’s scary to think that the court’s 6-3 right-wing supermajority might agree with them.

Democrats in Congress are already working on a major bill that would greatly expand voter access, but the fight to stop voter suppression isn’t limited to Washington. Republican-controlled state legislatures are the front lines of voter suppression laws.” CNN

“My dream is to meet my father.” Immigrant boy at the border.

Back in 2016 when immigrant families arrived at the border seeking asylum, the Trump administration gave parents a choice: stay with your children while they are incarcerated, or abandon your children to the whims of DHS, perhaps never to see them again. They all elected to stayed with their children in the incarceration camps. And to turn the knife further, the Trump Administration went to court to deny kids soap and toothbrushes. I can’t help but think back to a time when children were locked in cages, sans soap, toothbrushes…and toilet paper, and food, and clothing, and heat, and medical treatment. You know, what that so-called master race was able to conjure and implement back in the 30’s and 40’s.

It’s hard to comprehend this level of evil, this level of cruelty created by an American administration, but it is alive and well as symbolized by the voter suppression laws exploding across the land. I thought we were better than that.

These refugee children are now being labelled by Lindsey Graham as future terrorists. Apparently, he can look into the eyes of a three-year-old and see the makings of a future 9-11 terrorist. This repressive immigration policy by the Trump Administration harkens back to the Nazi camps, where mothers were often given a choice as to which one of their kids would die and which one would be assigned to forced labor camps.

Trump is exiled, but his legacy of evil continues to poison the body politic. He has spent the last four years empowering white, extremist hate groups such as the Proud Boys and Qanoon, unleashing an avalanche of disinformation, including the BIG LIE: that Trump won the election. Armed with the BIG LIE, with a merry band of enablers, Trump has followed Joseph Goebbels playbook to a tee.

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

And boy, did he ever repeat it.

The BIG LIE is alive and well, soiling our Democratic institutions, despite evidence to the contrary. And for now, the man who ignited the insurrection remains free, despite overwhelming evidence that he cultivated the riot for months. But don’t believe me; believe Republican leader Mitch McConnell:

“This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out,” McConnell said.

“There is no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” he said, and added that Mr. Trump watched the events unfold on television. “A mob was assaulting the Capitol in his name,” he said. “These criminals were carrying his banners, hanging his flags and screaming their loyalty to him.”

McConnell said the people who stormed the Capitol believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of Mr. Trump. “Having that belief,” McConnell said, “was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet earth.”

Who am I to contradict the wisdom of Moscow Mitch?

And according to the latest intelligence reports, Trump invited and solicited Russia to interfere in the 2016 and 2020 elections, with Russia using Rudy Giuliani to funnel disinformation to the Trump campaign.

But here’s the thing: the battle for the hearts and minds, the soul of America has just begun. If Stacy Abraums didn’t get out the vote in Georgia, the ability of the Biden administration to rebuild America would have been sabotaged. We need a Stacy Abraums in every state, fighting off the Republican voter suppression machinations. The Democrats won the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, but that doesn’t mean the battle is won. The battle has just begun to restore our democracy—it’s a 24/7 battle. As demonstrated over the past four years, most Republicans have relinquished any morsal of integrity, or ethics. Many Republicans continue to kiss the ring of Agent Orange, repeating and doubling down on the disinformation that continues to spew forth from Mar-a-Largo.

Back in the 70’s, the Koch Brothers, currently the most egregious polluters in this country, had an epiphany: every year they would pour millions into Republican candidates coffers who would do their bidding in their respective legislatures. After doing that for a decade or so, they realized they needed to create a grassroots movement in order to get their repressive, and cruel, legislative agenda implemented. So, they started with State legislatures around the country grooming their candidates to take over legislatures. Today, Republicans control 85% of the legislatures. They also funded think tanks in order to propagate their ideas, which led to funding colleges and universities who agreed to teach their programs and agendas in exchange for funding. Today there is a graduate school of business at George Mason University entitled Koch Business School, the curriculum closely shaped and monitored by the Kochs’.

Despite last fall’s victories, progressives have their work cut out for them. We need a grassroots juggernaut to combat the disinformation and cruelty sure to be unleashed by the Republican Party propaganda machine. Tucker Carlson just said this; “There’s no evidence that white supremacists were responsible for what happened on Jan. 6. That’s a lie.”

It’s abundantly clear they have no shame, and we can’t have people running the country who are shameless…and most importantly, we can’t have people running the country who are CRUEL.