Trish Lane

I, like many of you, have been contemplating our predicament since election night. We are in a losing war for our democracy and I'm not sure we collectively know who our true adversary is. It's not the voting blocks...white women, Latinos, Gen X. It's not MAGA. It's not even Trump. It's an insidious power that has been hiding in the shadows for some time...and when the stakes were at their highest in this election, it fully revealed itself. The American Oligarchy. They control our Supreme Court, much of Congress, and the flow of information to the masses via legacy, mainstream and social media. They decide the national conversation, how to keep us at each other's throats while they continue to amass wealth and power completely unchecked. They put their thumbs on the scale of justice and poured billions into this election. They chose Trump because he was desperate and would capitulate to their demands. They chose a running mate to replace him in case he became too unhinged to control. Consider how many disqualifying facts about Trump never saw the light of day...or didn't get the attention they deserved...or got drowned out by propaganda. They took a mentally spent buffoon and presented him as a hero to the masses. Despite Biden successfully steering us out of a global recession and strengthening our economy, they maintained the national tone about the price of groceries being too high. Despite Trump's obvious mental decline, their media outlets remained reticent to press the issue. We struggle to unite as a nation because they're too good at keeping us divided. We are drowning in disinformation because they control all of it. They have successfully created imaginary villains for us to fight...each other. It seems like we are a democracy careening towards fascism, when the reality is they're using the specter of fascism to keep us on edge while they turn America into a compliant oligarchy. Whether you are a democrat, republican, independent or MAGA, we have a common foe. Some of us just don't know it yet.