By Tim Wood
Now that we’ve stepped firmly into November 2023, it seems impossible for me not to be constantly thinking about our elections coming up in November 2024. In 2020 and 2022 I had thought that those elections were the most important ones in my adult lifetime. I guess they were, but now, facing 2024, this upcoming election season has become the most important one in my adult life.
Although I certainly don’t buy into an approaching new (physical) civil war, there is no denying we are stepping into a major configuration of opposing ideologies that may (God willing) finally bring an end to the dangerous rise of the MAGA extremist’s anarchy.
Not since the rise of the fascist movement “America First” in September 1940, supported by the public face of Charles Lindbergh, has America experienced such a serious fracture in a high percentage of our civil society; At least the America First Committee quickly dissolved in 1941 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
Not to say our young country hasn’t seen insurrections and anarchy in our past; some led by farmers, most led by white supremacists. But the January 6, 2021 insurrection was the one and only anarchy that actually attacked our capital and occupied our congress. In 2020, we had to face and are now still dealing with, “the big lie” of a stolen 2020 presidential election along with the infamous, historic insurrection of January 6, 2021.
It seems a little ironic to me that Pearl Harbor brought the immediate demise of the AFC but the January 6, 2021 insurrection could not and did not bring an end to the MAGA extremists. It’s not a stretch to think that in 1940 some of our insurrectionists might have been tried as traitors and executed (if found guilty) instead of being fed and able to form a MAGA Club in prison. Times have changed.
Yes, I do think that not a single country on earth should be led or ruled by any person older than 75 years of age. Let those politicians become over-priced advisers; I’m all for that. People older than 75 can be fantastic mentors, as well (or perhaps egotistical CEO’s). I do believe Biden has done a great job picking the U.S. up out of the pit MAGA created, but we still have quite a ways to go and I do wish a proper ticket would arise to face 2024 and our very complicated and shaky future.
Personally, I would like to see a Jeffries/Kinzinger ticket, (imagine – a Republican and Democrat working together). Could they, together, lead us onto a proactive path, mending our social fissures? It’s my fantasy, so I doubt it could be pulled off. But I firmly believe it’s exactly what Washington D.C. needs: A real, positive shakeup that cements bipartisanship through majority rule. The type of revolution that actually guides U.S. citizens and society into a true Democratic Republic through majority rule. Not chaos for the sake of chaos or power.
I don’t need to list the MAGA extremists or their “clubs.” God knows our media has given them enough oxygen. What I truly want to get across is the importance of the upcoming 2024 national elections. I think it is now imperative that we end the MAGA choke hold on our nation so we can get back to governing in a true democratic and bipartisan way.
The world is watching us, and if we don’t show the world our ability to defeat fascism, white supremacy, corporate greed and corporate monopolies in order to address real world problems, this country will continue on it’s path of decline but certainly at an accelerated rate.
I’m always advocating nowadays for and to our young people, emphasizing the importance of their voting in this upcoming election cycle. My conservative friends and family are as set in their ways as I am in mine, most of them now being “senior citizens” like me. The real need now is for a younger American leadership to arise, a leadership that is more in line with what the majority of USA citizens really believe in during this era in our declining America.
Democracy is extremely complicated. That is why authoritarianism is so appealing: It’s a simpler way to rule and citizens don’t have to think or compromise; the people in charge do that for you. I do know that I would be able to drop out of society and become a grumpy old hermit within an authoritarian America; I just don’t want to live like that. I choose, and will always advocate for, truth, justice and freedom. I was raised believing in those virtues, and, as it was advertised, I believe in simply “America the Great,” not MAGA.
I’m actually looking forward to the great confrontation in November 2024. We will finally see if this country chooses democracy over authoritarianism and whether I will remain a progressive voice in this society. It’s just a shame that all of us will have to suffer through this particular campaign year; it’s going to be ugly. But still, tell your young people to get involved and vote. Their future demands it.
Tim and Kristy Wood moved to Beaufort in 1974. He worked as a carpenter in both restoration and new home construction, as well as operating a shop specializing in custom woodwork, Wood on Wood Specs. He is semi-retired, involved with fine woodworking and formerly sat on the City of Beaufort Zoning Board of Appeals.
