A Funeral for a Dearly Beloved

The American Experiment had a pretty good run of two and a half centuries. It was far from perfect but despite its flaws it was a model here and around the world.

Obama said something about 20 years ago that we are not red states or blue states, but as time would tell his rhetorical flourish was a nice and inspiring thought but is clearly no longer true, if it ever was.

What has been proven today is that half the country lives in a different world, has alternative ‘facts’ and has has a world view completely different than the other half.

It was inconceivable the first time but it could be put down to ignorance, but not so for the second time. Everyone knew exactly what they were getting.

The first time, it was more of a joke with little expectation of actually winning and so they were unprepared, incompetent and bumbling. And while a huge amount of damage was wrought, at least some of the foundational guardrails of our democracy held up.

No t this time around. They have been planning and working hard for the last 6 years so as to avoid the previous mistakes and weaknesses.

There is certainly no constraints from the judicial branch. The supreme court has shown its delight in manufacturing whatever rational it wants to support its agenda.

Civil servants who uphold their duty to the constitution will be replaced by cultists.

Project 2025 and the rest of agenda to be implemented will be devastating not only for our public lands and wildlife but for our democracy.

I weep for my beloved!


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  1. Mary Avatar
    Mary

    Greedy (megalo-billionaires), stupid (uneducated and general public) and venal people won the Whitehouse, Senate, and House.

    A convicted felon with 4 felony indictments and a religious extremist will be president and vice president.

    It’s possible there will never be a vote again.

  2. David Neils Avatar

    More than half the country voted for wildlife abuse, women abuse, immigrant abuse, democracy abuse and planet abuse. We are a sick nation.

    But I won’t sink into despair. I’ll continue pouring my heart and soul into wildlife conservation efforts. I’ll hike in the landscapes that mountain lions call home to activate that strand of my DNA that simply can’t be activated any other way. And I’ll invite more people to hike with me and roll up their sleeves to make a difference for wildlife.

  3. Oakley Taylor Avatar
    Oakley Taylor

    I am so sick and devastated by this outcome. I fear most for the animals and the trees that will be detrimentally affected by the cruelty and thoughtlessness of those who will now be in charge. Losing my faith in a significant percentage of the country is only scratching the surface. The nightmare before us will reveal itself in daily measures of shock and eventually people will realize they only have themselves to blame for the devastation we have chosen to be our inevitable future. And a dark one it is at that.

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Author
Jonathan Ratner

Jonathan Ratner has been in the trenches of public lands conservation for nearly 25 years. He started out doing forest carnivore work for the Forest Service, BLM, and the Inter-agency Grizzly Bear Study Team, with some Wilderness Rangering on the Pinedale Ranger District. That work lead him directly to deal with the gross corruption within the federal agencies' range program.

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