America is at war. I’m not talking about anywhere in the Middle East, nor am I talking about the Russian attack on our democracy. I’m talking about a civil war, a war that is being waged by members of the Republican government on the middle and lower economic categories of United States citizens.

Once upon a time, when I was a boy, the Republican party was a legitimate, thoughtful alternative to the Democratic party. They believed in strong national defense, toughness on crime (the non-racial version), limited social spending and small government. I never have believed in their philosophy, but they did offer a legitimate avenue of fiscal restraint and personal responsibility that was bought into by a lot of people. But slowly, starting with Ronald Reagan’s declaration that “government is the problem”, his “welfare queen” racial trope, and his acting ability due to his previous acting profession, the Republicans started to turn into something rancid and evil. When Bill Clinton was elected president, the conservatives (Republicans) shifted into their conspiracy theory mode, which they are still in as of now. With Newt Gingrich as speaker of the House, the era of scorched-earth rightwing policy began in earnest. Bill Clinton got impeached for something less serious than what is going on today with “President” Trump. Hillary Clinton was mischaracterized as a malevolent force, victimized by numerous conspiracy theories and personal attacks.

What caused the rightwing pot to really boil over was the so-called Great Recession. There were many disillusioned people all over the country in all political persuasions. Trust in government plunged. Demagogues took over both sides of the aisle, the right with Trump and the left with Senator Bernie Sanders. Thanks in part to Sanders’ personal attacks on Hillary Clinton, we now have a rightwing faux populist in the presidency. He campaigned as a man of the people who was going to “drain the swamp”. I suppose he has, if by draining the swamp Trump means filling his Cabinet with billionaires and Wall Streeters. And if populism means trying to pass “health care reform” and “tax reform” which in reality are nothing more than taking from the people who need help and giving to people who do not, why then, of COURSE Mr. Trump is a populist. And up is down, black is white, 1 + 1 = 5. The federal government is, as of right now, in the hands of people of bad faith, who care less about the country than they care about their careers and their ideology. The Republican congress has made a pact with “President” Trump: They will offer him a shield from his legal liabilities as a profiteer from public office and a traitor, as long as he will sign their bills into law, and do their bidding as to appointments and policy decisions. This agreement is still in effect, but it is in trouble. Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is working his way up the chain of command in the White Man’s House. Trump is performing unskilled brinksmanship with North Korea, and he is showing daily his lack of presidential ability. It’s anybody’s guess if he will last a full term.

The right wing is fighting an undeclared war on regular Americans. It wouldn’t be possible without the assistance of some of them. I am not going to speculate on why some people think Trump will help them. If they are not wealthy, he will not help them. Full stop. The only thing for the rest of us to do is to fight back. I don’t really care for the term “the Resistance” too much. It seems a bit pretentious. But maybe it is a good one-word summary of the opposition to Trump. It is less than a year until the mid-term elections. The Democrats have their own divisions and demagogues, unfortunately, but they are in so much better shape than the Republicans that I believe we will take at least one of the houses of Congress, perhaps both. Without being overly dramatic, we have to stop Trump as soon as possible, because every day he is hurting America both at home and abroad, and if he isn’t held in check by an opposition party soon, the damage will be permanent.

Here we are, in the shadow of the 2018 midterm elections. They will be held in a year. It’s amazing how fast time passes. Never mind 2018, 2017 seems like it was way in the future about six months ago. Maybe it’s just me, but time flies, whether or not I’m having fun. Anyway, to get back to the subject, it seems as though we Democrats are going to get an early 2018 Christmas present. Donald Trump has done untold damage to America, both domestically and in foreign policy. The emperor has no clothes. The world can see that a superpower is being headed up by a mental defective. So we should be in good shape for the midterms, right? Not so fast. I think that there is something in human nature that causes us to self-destruct whenever we try, as a united group of people, to accomplish something good. That is what is happening on the left side of the political spectrum. There is a significant number of people who, to all appearances, believe in the same things that Democrats believe in, but they disdain the Democratic party. They feel that it has gotten away from its working-class roots and has been taken over by the elitists and money seekers. The new left seems to think that we need to become Democratic Socialists in order to take back the country from the corrupt and dangerous Republican party.

The so-called Great Recession changed politics in many places. It was partially responsible for Brexit and the ascension (or descension, as in both the metaphorical and literal sense) of Donald Trump. Also, the recession was the main reason for Bernie Sanders’ surprising elevation. People were angry, and wanted a change. The right wing change candidate was Trump, and Sanders was the left.

Human behavior is hard to figure out. To me, it seemed so obvious that there was only one logical choice for left-leaning people in the 2016 election between Hillary Clinton and Trump. One candidate was trying to appeal to people’s fears and prejudices, and the other candidate was trying to help people, showing compassion as well as having solid ideas to improve the country in both domestic and foreign affairs. But Bernie Sanders came along, and for reasons that I just don’t understand, a great many people believed him when he said he was going to make public colleges free, and he was going to create absolutely free universal health care. The Republican congressional majority be damned. So when Bernie didn’t get the nomination, a lot of his followers either stayed home or voted for a third party candidate. Some probably even went for Trump. So Bernie’s fans believed all the slander heaped on HRC. Many people believed it. The idea that there is any equivalence between HRC and DJT is ridiculous, but unfathomably, many people thought it was a choice between two evils, and Trump was the lesser of the two. Just outright ignorance and gullibility, not to mention misogyny.

Be that as it may, the election is over and Trump was appointed president by the Electoral College. I accept that. I am over it. But the ideas proposed by Sanders live on. We still have a lot of people on the left who don’t consider themselves Democrats, and generally despise the Democratic party. If nothing changes between now and November of 2018, we just might blow an opportunity that Trump, Roy Moore, and Steve Bannon are presenting us with their lies and lack of a moral compass. In a divided country, pulling further from the center doesn’t make sense. Creating litmus tests, such as support for a country-wide $15 minimum wage, and support for universal free health care, is not productive. Hillary was correct in saying that the only way that progressives can make progress in a divided country is incrementally. It seems like both Republicans and Democrats fall into the same trap, thinking that if only they had a pure enough candidate, they could win elections. The right said that when Romney lost in 2012. It is not a rational way of thinking. I don’t think that Democrats should abandon their ideals, nor do I think that we should turn ourselves into pretzels trying to win over white racists who support Trump. It’s just that America is not ready for socialism, whether it is democratic socialism or not.

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. There has been enough “there” there to warrant an investigation of a sort, although what sort of investigation it is isn’t up for debate. The ship has sailed on that. It is now less of an introspective, redemptive moment than it is a mass hysteria, when any male with a big job has to be thinking hard about his past and what might come up if somebody decides to deliver payback on a grudge, or somebody wants to shine a light into his heretofore private transgressions.

One thing that we have to do is define what a sexual assault is. Is it a touch on the waist, or does it have to be below the waist? The breasts are clearly a sexual attraction. How about the shoulder? When alcohol is involved, things often go south, in more ways than one. Kevin Spacey got hit with an allegation of attempted rape, when he allegedly tried to have relations with a fourteen-year-old boy who was watching TV in Spacey’s bedroom. Spacey was allegedly drunk at the time. This was 31 years ago, in his own house, and he didn’t end up harming the boy. To use a phrase that I generally despise, this incident amounts to a nothingburger. When I was fourteen, I and a bunch of my friends used to try to get a gay man to provide us with alcohol. And in order to do that, we had to lead him on, a little bit. We were perhaps unique, but at fourteen, we knew what we were doing. We weren’t naïve children. If that man had tried to assault us, we would have just laughed and run away. I can’t believe 14 now is that much different, although who really knows. Back then, we were allowed to live as freemen, not as inmates in a low-security jail where we had to be accompanied by a parent as much as the kids now are. But the upshot of that accusation is that it has brought forth a number of people who are accusing Spacey of sexual assault. Whatever that entails. It’s become like a hot potato. Nobody wants to be stuck with accusations.

Predictably, this has become a political weapon of choice for many people. Quick, how many conservative big shots have been accused of sexual assault? How many liberal? I don’t know either, and I don’t think it makes a damn bit of difference. In heterosexual gender roles, men are usually expected to be the aggressor. It starts in junior high, with the first school dance. The boys are on one side, and the girls are on the other. Guess which side has to get up the courage to cross the room and ask someone on the other side to dance? It continues from there to dating. Which gender is expected to ask the other out? Which gender is frequently expected to pay for meals or entertainment? After all, the only difference between a successful courtship and a harassment charge may be if the woman reciprocates the attraction . With some men, this situation suits them well. These would be the alpha males, who have no shyness issues, and who love to be the one making the choice. But for the shy guys, this scenario isn’t so good. Shy guys stand a good chance of being unattached for long periods of time.

I’m not trying to make excuses for bad behavior in men. I think that it is long past time that the issue of male sexual harassment was given appropriate attention. And it may well be that this is the way it had to happen, in a dramatic, hysterical, witch-hunting atmosphere. My expectation is that the hysteria will not go on for very long. People will get bored. The news cycle will move on. But what I hope is that things don’t just go back to the way they were before, and that boundaries of acceptable behavior become clearer and better respected. I am just making the point that there is a part of the male personality that has been formed over many years that men have to be the ones who put themselves forward in any kind of pre-dating relationship. And that there are men who, because of their personalities, will take their “privilege” much too far and will abuse others. These men need the equivalent of a two-by-four across the forehead. Some of them are getting that right now, and hopefully others will take notice, and change their behavior before the same thing happens to them.