By that he apparently meant, for democracy to survive we have to accept the outcome of free and fair elections.

While true in principle, today we are confronted with a Republican Party and president that has every intent to steal elections by disenfranchising voters and sending ICE agents and/or the military to polling stations, possibly siezing ballots under the guise of "election integrity."

Losing to this fascist regime means losing our Constitutional democracy, and we can't be "willing" to let that happen. We have to be willing to turn out en masse for nationwide strikes and demonstrations -- whatever it takes to make America last more than 250 years.

Almost 250 years ago, this country was founded with the disenfranchisement of whole swaths of people. It took 4 Constitutional Amendments to give most of the rest of the people living here, the right to vote.

So "selective voting" is a sentiment that has coursed through the veins of this nation for centuries (continually perpetuated by recent immigrants and their their spawn like 45).

America's founding documents - Declaration of Independence and US Constitution - were a major step forward in the rights of citizens to govern themselves, as opposed to the subjects of monarchs. England had made advancements with Parliament, and the USA improved on that.

Since then, as you noted, multiple Amendments have broadened those rights to former slaves and women, and civil rights legislation was passed to strike down Jim Crow.

In other words, despite setbacks, steady progress has been made. There is truth in MLK's statement that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.

The current fascist regime threatens to turn it sharply back the other way. The Party of Lincoln has become an utterly corrupt tool of oligarchs intent destroying rights and replacing our imperfect representative democracy with authoritarian rule.

Most of America's Founders were men of the Enlightenment, but they were men of their time. The man who wrote "all men are created equal" as a defining principle of the new nation owned slaves, as did our first president who set the precedent for the peaceful transfer of power.

Our current president is a creature of ignorance and malignant narcissism who attempted , by conspiracy and violence, to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. Now he has every intent to prevent free and fair elections to keep and expand power for himself and despots to follow.

The long arc of righting wrongs and extending the power of the vote to more people is facing an existential crisis that must not be ignored.

There really isn't much of a distinction at all other than the "titles" of the leader. It's the same people with the same cultural beliefs running roughshod over those who don't look like them, act like them, or believe like them.

In other words, "water seeks its own level".



Except SOME "people", like MY ancestors, WHO were NOT considered "citizens" back then. They were chattel PROPERTY.

That whole part of history was white-washed and CONTINUES TO BE white-washed - literally as we speak, including within the past couple months -





And what these same descendants of those founders "giveth", they can and HAVE "taken away".



That already started over 20 years ago with Shelby County v. Holder (2013), with John Roberts personally taking away rights and safeguards from me and my family with the overturning of Sects. 4 & 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

Sect. 2, of that Act, which is about all that is left, will be gone this year at the end of this current SCOTUS session. Roberts is Taney on steroids.



They were white wealthy landowners and had little concern for anyone else not one of their kind.



His grandfather was a draft-dodging Bavarian, chasing gold and making money off of prostitutes in brothels, after he fled to Canada. He went back home and met another Bavarian who he married to produce 45's father, once they settled in the U.S. His mother was an "off the boat" Scot. So 45 is nothing more than the distillation of those cultures and mindsets.



This country has been there done that before.

As I say over and over, any "progress" has only been in effect when this society enforces what is basically "the honor system". Take that away and the whole thing collapses.

Last edited Tue Apr 21, 2026, 12:47 PM - Edit history (1)

First, thank you for the detailed reply.

Born in 1957, I've lived a fair amount of history and have read quite a bit more. I agree much of our history was whitewashed, especially when I was growing up. I didn't know about the Tulsa massacre until I was in my 50's. America's Founders were privileged white men, but by the standards of the late 1700's were radicals for progress.

The current SCOTUS is indeed scaling back rights, but taking them away? Certainly not compared to Jim Crow prevalent prior to the civil rights legislation of the mid-1960's.

Which is of course unacceptable, but very seldom is something all or nothing. Vigiliance and activism will likely always be needed, but it's not entirely an "honor system." Courts are holding on multiple fronts, despite the corrupt SCOTUS and their shadow docket.

In any event, the reason for my first post was to point out how Clinton's statement does not apply well to our current situation.

Peace,
Martin