are we woke?

We are in the end game of the culture war. Those that opposed the wave of change that started in the 60s are still opposing it. Through the years the far right took over the Republican party and turned to gerrymandering and voter restriction to take control of the government to end the liberal wave of equal rights for all (people of color, women, non-christian, LGBTQ) and other cultural issues (poverty, education, health care, immigration, etc.) and bring the country back to being white and dominated by white rich 'christian' men and they have no compunction about breaking laws and engaging in unethical behavior in order to do it, all the while claiming the moral high ground by virtue of their very unchristian christianity. And we let it happen while we were distracted with raising our families. My husband thinks that this war will never end until all the baby boomers are dead and maybe even a lot of our children too. He may be right. We may have realized the war wasn't over until too late. And so we have a Republican party in charge of Congress and occupying the White House, a Republican party that only dances to one tune...that of the 2%, well, two tunes, the 2% and the NRA; a Republican party that is dismantling safety regulations and protections in industry, banking, and the environment as fast as they can; a Republican party that is selling off our national lands for mining and drilling; a Republican party that is passing laws to allow discrimination, that won't address the gun violence rampant in this country, that is deporting illegal residents as fast as they can no matter how long they have lived here, no matter how much they contribute to their communities, no matter that they have served in our armed forces protecting the people deporting them, no matter if this is the only country they have ever known, no matter that the 'family values' party is breaking up families; a Republican party that forced through a tax reform bill without their members even reading it that benefits the 2% and corporations on the backs of everyone else increasing the national debt which they intend to make up some of by cutting SS and Medicare; a Republican party that enables a president who has basically given our country over to it's biggest national enemy while destroying our ties with our allies, a man who thinks it's great that China has once again come under dictatorship rule and thinks America ought to try it and not a peep out of the Republicans, a man who thinks the presidency is all about using the position and power to increase his personal wealth. OMG. I could go on and on. This is just a drop in an ocean of destruction.

So maybe we are woke now. We better fucking well be or we can kiss this country goodbye. When the party in charge doesn't give a fuck that Russia is undermining our very democracy as long as it keeps them in power, then we are done.

Yesterday was the primary. In Texas there has been a huge Democratic turnout. In this very red town in this very red county, the auditorium was crowded. I've never seen this many people turn out for the primary here. And a lot of Democrats, maybe more Democrats than Republicans I think. I didn't think this town had this many Democrats. A friend posted after voting that when she was asked which ballot and she said Democrat, "I bet you do not hear that much." The volunteer said, "you'd be surprised. Especially this time." So maybe we are woke but we need to stay woke, we need this and more in November.

(been a few years since the year of the selfie and apparently the wrinkles quadrupled in that time)