The world has really changed in the past year, hasn’t it?  A year ago, some of us were glued to the TV being entertained by presidential debates while others were tuning in to “Antiques Roadshow” and anything else to avoid watching a bunch of idiots abusing each other and making comments about the size of their dicks. Welcome to the New America: Land of the Oppressed and Home of the Deluded.  My father, who fought for this country in WWII, is rolling in his grave right now.

Turns out, there are worse things than having Hillary in the White House.  We have a real live fascist in the White House, possibly with an inadequate dick, surrounded by a staff of hand-picked white supremacists, anti-Semites and National Socialists (aka, Nazis). How do you like them apples?

There’s no doubt that the White House is disintegrating more each day.  Intelligent and well-meaning Republicans with a conscience are starting to distance themselves from this catastrophe, while others are being fired by their reality-show leader. In the meantime, Neo Nazis and the KKK and other inbred morons, long suppressed by civilized society, feel like they now have permission to slither out of their holes and spread their hatred across the land. 

Since when are terrorists entitled to First Amendment rights in this country?  Are Neo Nazis and Klansmen anything less than terrorists?  Do they not exist exclusively to instill fear and commit acts of violence while clad in their cowardly costumes?  I don’t give a good goddamn if they are Americans.  In my eyes, terrorists of any background should have no rights in America except for the right to go back into hiding and shut the fuck up. 

Where do you draw the line with free speech?  Is it legal to shout “fire” in a crowded theater?  No, it is not.  According to a civil liberties website, “The idea of falsely shouting “fire” in a crowded theater arose from the Supreme Court's 1919 decision in the case Schenck v. United States. The Court ruled unanimously that the First Amendment, though it protects freedom of expression, does not protect dangerous speech.’

So, when a group of Neo Nazis come goose-stepping down the street, shouting, “Sieg Heil“ and “Jews will not replace us”, possibly in front of children of concentration camp survivors, is that not considered dangerous?  And, when Confederate flags and statues are thrust into the faces of descendants of slaves, is that not threatening? 

Where do you draw the line on the First Amendment? This retrograde and unevolved behavior is destroying our country. 

Seriously.  Even the psycho from North Korea is getting a chuckle over what’s going on in the United States right now.  He, and many other leaders from countries that now seriously deplore America, are enjoying watching us self-destruct.  They don’t have to nuke Cedar Rapids or Macon or New York City.  The U.S. will go up in flames all by itself as extremist groups go mano and mano in the streets. It’s bound to happen.

A well-meaning person asked me the other day, “But, what about the Antifa?  Didn’t they play their part in the Charlottesville violence? (She, apparently, like the president, was concerned that maybe the parading Nazis were going to get a taste of their own medicine.)  I wrote, “I believe that extremism begets extremism and violence begets violence. I condone neither. However, I believe that Nazis, anti-Semites, white supremacists and racists, etc., have a long history of violence and propagating fear.  They are, in fact, terrorists.”

I told her that if she and her family were fortunate enough to never have experienced slavery, say, or extermination in a concentration camp while “good” people looked away with indifference, then I understood where she was coming from. But, I also understood people standing up and saying, “No more oppression will be tolerated.”  I told her that I would prefer a nonviolent solution and to keep in mind that the man who drove the death car in Charlottesville was a Nazi sympathizer, not a member of Antifa.

Frankly, I had to look up “Antifa” because I wasn’t aware of what it was.  Turns out, it stands for (duh) anti-fascist.  Well, what kind of jackleg would be pro-fascist?  Profa?  Sounds like a birth control pill.   Whatever.  While I understand that some people feel like it’s necessary to fight fire with fire, I am anti-violence and anti-hatred in both directions. 

And, I’m glad that the rally in Boston was largely peaceful. Why was it largely peaceful?  Well, probably because the protesters outnumbered the white supremacists eight hundred to one.  I’m pretty sure the Nazis would’ve gotten their asses kicked if they got out of line.  Of course, the president praised the “anti-police agitators” for protesting hate. Oh, the president’s a regular Mother Teresa. Next thing you know, he’ll be trying to resurrect Adolph Eichmann from the dead to become his new chief strategist.

I am hoping that these incredibly offensive rallies will demonstrate that white supremacists and their ilk are in a steep minority in our country and that most Americans will not tolerate their presence.

In the meantime, a heartbreaking part of the past year was learning that quite a few of our dear friends are actually white supremacists in disguise; people we’ve known for decades who now, under this new leadership, feel empowered to step forward and “show their ass,” as they say in the South – and by that I mean showing their true colors.  It ain’t pretty.  They ask, “Can we agree to disagree?”  No, we can not. 

Will America survive in the end?  I don’t know.  But, I do know that if America does go down, we’ll all go down together.  We are one country, after all.  Maybe we’ll all emerge stronger when this nightmare ends.  May it be soon.