Passive American No More
by Lorie Wood
When I was a freshman in high school and took civics, I became enthralled with how the US government worked.
I admit I didn’t understand it fully, but I couldn’t wait to cast my vote. I’m old enough that three months before your 16th birthday, to the day, you got your learner’s permit. On your 16th birthday, you got your driver’s license. It was a right of passage. And for me, turning 18 didn’t only mean 3.2 beer, it meant I got to vote.
On my birthday, I registered to vote as a Republican just like my parents! I voted in every election after that as a Republican because that was what my parents did. Sound familiar? I didn’t pay attention to politics or politicians. They were pretty much all the same. I would read up on amendments a bit and try to make the best choices for my community.
Overall, the political scene didn’t affect me that much. I was a passive American!
As I got older, some presidential candidates bothered me more than others. John Kerry, no way! To this day, I still won’t buy Heinz catsup. Yes, I said catsup. I was so happy when I moved to Kansas because I got to prove a point to my husband. We walked into the local grocery store, and what did it say over the condiment aisle? Yep! Catsup!!! I was validated. After 30+ years I got to prove that catsup was a real word.
As we got older, I started to care more about politics. I didn’t agree fully with red or blue, so I became unaffiliated. When Hillary and Trump ran for office, I couldn’t vote for either. My husband refused to vote for Hillary due to his beliefs. That left Trump for him. I agreed with him on Hillary, but there was nothing that could make me vote for Trump. I thought this is the time a third party could win. I studied all the parties' messaging carefully. I was certain my vote could count because there were too many people like me who couldn’t vote for Trump or Hillary. My husband warned me that I was throwing my vote away. In naive defiance, I voted for the Green Party.
Then Trump was elected.
There were four years of eating crow. My husband and son, who also voted for Trump, did their best to convince me that Trump was shaking things up, and that life was much better with him as President. Nothing I said could get them to see what I saw, so I passively endured.
Then in 2020, I voted blue. Thank goodness, Biden won.
And then, there was January 6th. Once again my naivete showed. I thought that the insurrection Trump had incited would be enough to prevent him from ever being elected again. Then surely, being convicted of 38 cases of felony fraud would do it. But I think Trump may have actually been right; he could murder someone and still be elected! So in 2025, he became the 47th President of the United States.
Though this time, the Project 2025 puppet masters were ready. With Trump angry at how we had been controlled by people who cared about the US in his first round, he was putty in the hands of the 2025 puppeteers. Trump did have one concern though. He didn’t want to go to jail. So he got that handled by getting the Supreme Court to give him a virtual carte blanche “get out of free” jail card.
That brings us to now.
We’re a year in. Trump on a whim of his own or at the demand of the Project 2025 puppet masters has managed to make the US unrecognizable to its citizens and the global community. I’m not going to detail everything he and his administration has done here. That is not my purpose. Besides, we all know what’s been happening, even those who are in denial, desperately clinging to the hope that Trump will come through on what he promised. Let me tell you right here, as someone who’s been politically naive, he’s not. It’s going to get worse.
And right now, I know I sound like an alarmist, but we need to take what’s happening seriously and change the way we think about politics. We can no longer think in terms of red or blue. Instead, we need to decide if we are going to be passive Americans and let this happen to our country, or are we going to draw a red line, and truly resist once it’s crossed.
As for me, my line was crossed before he was elected the first time, but what he is doing as the puppet of Project 2025 creators and to feed his own ego in his second term crosses so many red lines that I must actively resist every day and in as many ways as possible.
I hope you will join me.
One way I am proposing we resist is to use the political system in the midterms. In rural America, we usually have one political choice on the ballot, Republican, especially in local offices. It will be impossible to make change if there is no one on the ballot who will fight for what we believe. So the time is now; we can no longer be passive Americans! Democrats must become an active part of the Resistance. Let’s get the Resistance in absolutely every race in 2026. I don’t care if it is for the dog catcher in a town of 43.
Remember the people controlling Trump were able to get him elected, and will elect the next great leader, and the one after that if there is even another election, by controlling the rural elections. Trump, himself, said he could never run as a Democrat because Democrats were too smart. He believed he needed to run as a Republican because they’d believe anything he told them. And he counted on the Republicans to stay loyal to Party over anything else.
So rural America must resist and take our voting power back while we still can. It’s the only political power we may be able to regain. They don’t think we can do it. They think we can be controlled by whatever they tell us. They think we are uninformed and aren’t watching what they do. That is why they don’t even bother to cover up their lies. They believe if they repeat the lie enough, we’ll simply accept it either as truth, or a lie that must be told for the good of the country. This insanity needs to stop. Be a passive American no more. Join the Resistance and help us save OUR America while we still can.
Article by Lorie Wood, chair of the newly organized Decatur County Democrats. (cc by-nc-nd 4.0) Views expressed are those of the author.
photo by Aaron Burden on unsplash
