Editor’s Note: This poem we were finishing when we looked at each other and said, “This isn’t going to work. This will not help the nation to see and feel and react to things as they really are. And time is running out!” So we just stopped writing the poem right then and there in that spot. It’s not that we don’t think the poem’s any good. We’re not sure. We haven’t read it. It just seems like we need to try a different tack. The winds here: What are they are? What is the most helpful way to maneuver within the strange swirls?

Let us US play now the higher game
Let Love to hearts to minds speak clear and true
Let’s dance upon that holy honest plain
Both real and Real we share — Yes: me and you
When Vance excuses lies as painting true moods
And Trump proves lies with lies, let’s not be wooed
But seek instead eternal Love and simple facts:
Old fashioned, careful facts that seek not victory but wise gentle acts

Let us US choose now the higher calling
Do Haitians live off cute little housey cats?
Do immigrants poison our blood with all theirs?
Are newsmen who call out Trump’s lies dirty rats?
How many clues do you need, USA?
George Washington had the support to stay
He left to clearly say that that’s the only way
A government of the people can survive
The Donald that US tradition tried
Republicans in office then with him
Resisted and protected Biden’s win
The GOP now silences such voices
I fear a top-down crime from such choices
If rewarded with power. They seem dark forces.
How many clues until we remember
That governments are weapons too — can fortunes melt and flesh tremble — ?

But Kamala I don’t know what she stands for
But Kamala I don’t know what she’s good for
But Kamala what’s she ever done for me?

I think Kamala would be what we make of her
I think Kamala would be what we help her be

I think Trump will be what his foolish pride his wild urges his contempt for constraints on his power his disregard for the norms, standards, and laws of democracy his lie-based communication style his us-versus-them hellhole reality
Combined with an administration purged of those who refuse to sacrifice our representative government for the sake of narrow political gain
Would be

The difference is a group of people who subscribe to the notion that this is a democratic republic and the leaders serve temporarily and at the will of the people and for the entire nation
Versus
A group of people who aren’t so sure that any of that matters so much, and who are led by and are now eager followers of a man who thinks that winning is the whole point of life, winning no matter what you break, no matter who you hurt, no matter

The difference is leaders working to maintain a system of government that answers to the citizens
Versus
Leaders who’ve decided to side with truth-as-whats-expedient and might-makes-right and the-ends-justify-the-means

The difference is towards less or more political evil

The difference is clear

Kamala Harris would need our help to be elected and to govern well
Donald Trump would shove us out of the way to litigate and confuse his way into office and to use any means available to maintain and wild power, which he likes because it makes him feel important and it gives him the ability to shove those who talk back into the dirt and to give little treats and special words to good little dogs who sit and roll over and lay down and beg as the master directs

No one knows for sure
What A or B entails
But if you keep giving a man who has tried to undermine the peaceful democratic transfer of power and who did when in office work against democratic norms and standards and who has managed to sideline those in his party who would stand up to him and elevate those who would do whatever he asks of them:
I think if you keep handing power over to that kind of a team, you will find that you have less and less say in what your government does in your name with your resources in your lives and in the world

What do you want America?
Do you want to pretend you’re king of the world?
Or do you want to admit that you’re lucky to be alive
And you’ve been so lucky to be allowed to not fear your government
And Trump oggles Putin and Putin is not content to just silence dissent in his own borders but is actively hunting down ex patriots who step out of line

How long can it last this world with nukes everywhere?
How many picnics in the park with the sun and family fun are left?
I don’t know
But
I vote for admitting that we already share the values needed to share this government
I vote for admitting that carefully vetted news sources exist and they should be preferred
I vote for admitting that we don’t know all the details of God and soul and sin and virtue;
but we all know that none of our worldviews make any sense to any of us except to the degree we are aware, clear, honest, accurate, competent, loving-kind, and joyfully-sharing;
and we all know that none of our worldviews make any sense to any of us except to the degree they help us to translate spiritual Love into feeling thinking speaking acting living.
I vote for agreeing to work together to preserve an strengthen those norms, standards, rules, and laws that keep our government beholden to and serving the citizens of the nation, rather than beholden to and serving those who use the power of government to maintain power.

Author: Bartleby Willard
Editor: Amble Whistletown
Copyright: AM Watson