Armageddon!

In the New Testament, Armageddon is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, “the last battle between good and evil before the Day of Judgment.” I’m not into eschatological conspiracy nonsense, but I see November 5, 2024, our Election Day, as a day when our country has its last battle between a democracy (good) and an autocratic and theocratic dictatorship (evil). I have no problem labeling it the “Day of Judgment.”

I’ve come to the conclusion that this election is not about two very different candidates but about two very different ideologies. One favors freedom and justice for all, while the other is about asserting white supremacy as well as a fundamentalist form of a cultist so-called Christianity. On November 6, we’ll hopefully have a definite answer.

I would like to say it’s up to each voter, but it’s not. It’s up to the Electoral College, which has, in the past, been the enemy of the people. A few people in the College made certain the minority of the voters won.

I think the majority of the country wants a democracy, but a strong minority (those who show up to vote) wants a theocracy or autocracy.

As we prepare for November 5, each voter needs to ask himself or herself, “Do I want the following?”

1. A democracy preserving our Constitution and adhering to the separation of church and state.
2. A theocracy ruled by an ultraconservative kind of religion masquerading as Christian that demands each of us be a member or suffer the consequences.
3. An autocratic dictatorship run by a small group of privileged white men or a single person who happens to be a convicted criminal, rapist, liar, and narcissist, for starters.
4. A country where there is freedom, justice, and equality for all. That includes women, the LGBTQIA+ community, people of color, the disabled, former felons, or any other overlooked minority.
5. A police state that punishes women, the disabled, former inmates, anyone whose sexual preference is other than heterosexual, immigrants, Muslims, and those people who disagree.
6. Public schools open to all that challenge young people to honor education and emphasize and teach the power of critical thinking.
7. Public schools where one is indoctrinated by state-run pretend Christians and forced to pray their propaganda and read their Bible and is run by ultraconservative privileged whites who ban books that differ from their warped thinking.
8. Welcoming attitudes toward immigrants who want to come to this country to make themselves and our nation stronger and where families will never be separated.
9. Vigilante groups that will round up all undocumented people in our country (about eleven million) and send them back to some country that the border police deem appropriate. No Muslims would be accepted (they are all terrorists) nor Mexicans (drug-crazed criminals). All families at the border will be separated: the men, the women, and their children.

I am a veteran willing to put my life on the line to preserve our great democracy. My wife and I have traveled to some seventy different countries, five of them communist, three theocracies, and two dictatorships. Every one of those ten are my concept of hell.

We think alike if you checked numbers 1, 4, 6, and 8 from above. But those who checked 2, 3, 5, 7, and 9 are demanding we throw away our world-respected Constitution and set up a state-run theocracy and autocracy for which the present unSupreme Court is laying the groundwork.

My bottom line is this: until November 5, 2024, you and I have to convince every citizen to vote. No sitting at home because you don’t like either candidate. No “Oh, I forgot to vote.” No flimsy excuse, such as “My vote doesn’t count.” No pretending you are too busy.

I have been around more than nine decades, and there is no question in my mind that this is the most important election in my lifetime. I hope you feel the same way and will keep sharing with people why this is so important for their future and the future of the country that doesn’t need to be “made great again” but needs to maintain our delicate, wonderful democracy.

PeaceLoveJoyHopeKindness

Bil

Get my book at Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon!

P.S. People often ask me provocative questions about current events, both religious and secular. I have found that some of these questions are being asked universally. I’ll be periodically alternating regular articles with one of those questions and my answer. I invite you to send me your question to bilaulenbach@yahoo.com.