Electing Fascists

I HAVE A FRIEND, perhaps now a former friend, I haven't seen since the advent of Trump, a friend who is a few years younger than I (I'm seventy), whom I have known since 1985 and who, before the entrance of Trump into the political fray, didn't give a rat's ass about politics. To whatever extent Trump inspires people to be newly politically interested, I congratulate him. And yes, I firmly believe that in a healthy, functioning democracy it is better that everyone participate, regardless of ideology. Bring of the fascists, bless their little Trump lovin' hearts. Let's vote on it, and if we elect a fascist dictator, heaven forbid, just as the Germans in essence elected Hitler by electing a NAZI party majority to their legislature in 1933, well, and then, so be it. As we say, we reap what we sow, as Goethe and others have also said. As Voltaire sid; "We must tend our gardens". An apt cliche might be "let the chips fall where they may." The old joke, "What do you consider to be the greatest threat to informed popular governance, ignorance, or apathy"?. To which the respondent replies: I don't know and I don't care", seems relevant here. Which is preferable, an uinformed, inactive electorate, or an uninformed active one? I submit that it is the latter. We are all limited by the limitations of our intelligence and education. Mind you, I personally would rather Republicans stay home on election day, or send their mail in ballots, which Republicans seem to find repulsive for some reason, to the wrong address. But that is my limitation and problem, not theirs. I do not believe in ideological litmus tests. Let the fascists have their day at the ballot box! you don't want to silence the opposition. You want to hand them the microphone and listen to what they have to say. To silence or attempt to silence the opposition is fascist, not democratic. The cliche "sunlight is the best disinfectant" applies, in that, when we expose both progressive and conservative ideas and ideals to public scrutiny, we progressives needn't fear an intellectual defeat, even as we lament an electoral loss. I never start a political conversation with this right wing Trumper friend of mine. I leave that to him. Invariably he broaches the incendiary subject matter, wanting only to argue and make trouble, and vent his frustration at Trump's widespread and to him inexplicable disapproval, and once again its off to the races. I tell my fascist loving friend that I am content to do my talking at the ballot box. I tell him that I earned my political stripes on Novemeber 22,1963, the day my career as a concerned, politically informed citizen began, when I was a third grader, eight and a half years old. I also tell him that he is a political rookie, raw, green, nascent. Welcome to the big leagues,kiddo. The problem is the usual one,that he,my Trumper friend, is not well informed enough to realize how ill informed he really is. There's a lot of that going around, as we sometimes say. One can only teach a student what he or she is capable of comprehending. We must, as Goethe advised, do with people intellectually as we do with toddlers; let them bandy about, learn to walk for themselves, and find their own way. An avalanche of verified information concerning Trump's sexual and other forms of criminality will sway no one. We Trump haters are going to change nobody. Our best pathway, it seems to me, is to let them find their final approach to Trump without argument or assistance. Only when we experience the effects ofour actions do we reconsider them. And, as Goeteh said; "only by our mistakes which really irk us do we advance."