Writing History

History is not written by the losers; it is written by the victors. We can know this because the Allies in WWII (the victors) defeated the fascists axis of Nazis of Germany (the losers); Americans can’t even imagine what it would be like to have our native tongue be German. As the last of American’s “greatest” generation’s voices go silent, their lived truth can be skewed towards falsehood and history denied when unable to counter the lies.

We know this also because we still have a constitution that supports freedom and democracy – at least for now. Having won the 2024 presidential election, Draco II, his minions and sycophants, and the Project 2025 thugs (the victors) want to change history to reflect their view of the world, changing how the Constitution is enacted, how the laws are enforced, how America is run, how power is wielded, and how corruption is normalized. It is beyond my comprehension to understand how otherwise good Americans could be hornswoggled and brainwashed by a master conman, faux mob boss, and art-ofthe- deal maker into believing that “others” were the problem, but it happened and since then American democracy is being destroyed and/or severely damaged by the Draco II administration and his ultra-rich supporters, its survival not guaranteed.

I think I understand the 30 or so percentage of the U.S. population that backs Draco II regardless of what he does, the lies he tells, how many people he hurts, disappears or kills through both his economic actions and his military power, because most of them are of like-minded, fiercely independent at the expense of the commons (including the environment), live purely by the ego, and have to have someone or some group to blame their “perceived” misery on. Once Draco II’s power structure collapses, first by the un-election of his MAGA Republican sycophant legislators, and then by his conviction in the Senate after the third impeachment in the House of Representatives, these folks will go silent, again, like they did after the Civil War, but will reemerge, again, whenever possible to push their agenda like they did in the Jim Crow south. They will be with us, but somehow, we have to live with their hatred, bigotry, and fearmongering until new generations can unlearn their passed-down prejudices.

I’m not perfect, American is not perfect, the world is not perfect, but goodness has to prevail over its opposition in the long run, after fits and starts and set-backs galore, continually heading towards a “more perfect union” locally, at the state level, at the country level, and finally globally.

The history of Draco II et al (ultimately the losers) will be written by the victors (those pursuing that “more perfect union”) that treats the commons and all mankind as equal and (hopefully) never again allows Homo colosus’s hubristic ego to monopolize, deface and attempt to destroy democracy (and Nature) in favor of fascist independence like that of Nazi Germany and other more recent dictators and tyrants.

Bob Bates Tullahoma