Are You Ready To Be Liberated?

It is going to take all of us who are pro-democracy, working together

Thanks to the investigative work I do for Byline Media and RADICALIZED Truth Survives podcast, I interview global experts for a living.

I am always running the information I absorb through the various channels in my brain. I must tell you, I do not like my forecast for 2023.

The lurch toward authoritarianism is global, the playbook is obvious to anyone who studies fascist history. My muses Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Jason Stanley have lighted the path for us to see the signs and maneuvering.

Armed militias, nationalism, strategic chaos, mass shootings, ongoing disruptions, the weaponizing of communication, propaganda, psychological attacks. As my podcast partner Jim Stewartson says, the fascists are hitting all the soft spots in people’s heads. In tomorrow’s Byline Supplement, I have an investigative report on all the ways authoritarians weaponize information channels.

With Elon Musk re-platforming formerly banned white supremacists and traitors, Twitter has become a weaponized disinformation platform serving our foreign enemies and domestic terrorists who tried to and are still trying to overthrow our government.

I do not like what I learned from Jason Stanley that fascists are supported by the business elite.

Now this may be grim news, I am aware of that. However, as Ruth pointed out today in her weekly Lucid conversations, “never underestimate the American people.”

I am asking each of you to work hard on behalf of democracy in 2023 like you’ve never worked before. Make the year matter so we can jump in 2024 ahead of the game. No more Paul Gosars, who just ran unopposed. As David Pepper noted in a recent RadPod interview, when the right-wing factions lose, as they did this week in Georgia, they begin immediately assessing what went wrong and plotting the next round. Those who are pro-democracy must go on offensive and stay on offensive.

Working on behalf of democracy is going to look different for everyone. Today, I witnessed history. I worked in the trenches all year as a campaign manager to get a woman elected, and in my city, more women got elected this year than ever before. As I watched my candidate get sworn in, I cried tears of joy. We broke glass ceilings. We persisted.

We can do that all across this beautiful country. But we will have to join hands. We will be have to be on the alert for propagandists and operatives trying to divide us from each other. The forces that want to dismantle our democracy have no ideology. They will look for your soft spots. As I reported in Byline Times, Kremlin cutouts have been paying both left and right organizations in America for a decade to make us hate each other.

Our fight must be bigger. Our spines must be stiffer. Those on the side of democracy have always outnumbered those trying to dismantle it.

You will know the traitors by their words: they will tell you they are fighting the tyranny of democracy.

Recognize them as traitors. Call them out. We are not only fighting for the salvation of liberal democracy, this is a global fight for the future of our planet. That is truly what is at stake.

We have zero days to waste.