If You're Reading This, It's Too Late
I burn the flag / that massacred / Wounded Knee.
We don’t mean to alarm you, but to be honest with you, we should've been alarmed a long time ago. Now it’s too late. Now we’ve reached a point where we will not sugarcoat this for you. We have to get your attention so we can save ourselves.
You see, as we are approaching not only the 248th birthday of a failing empire built on white Christian nationalism, we are also mere months away from the next, and perhaps last, Presidential election which will shift this so-called “free democracy” to something a lot closer to a fascist theocracy.
So before you go waving your American flags at BBQs and fireworks displays on July 4th, we are sending out a series of final warning flares to get the attention of folx who haven’t yet seen the writing on the wall.
It doesn't matter where you stand in the aisle or what convictions you show up to the polls with. Whether you're enthralled by the fact that Trump is the first American President to be a convicted felon or entirely repulsed that the brutal events happening in Rafah haven't crossed Biden's red line. Regardless, if you're reading this, it's too late. America has scammed its citizens into believing that they're free. America has shown up at our doors in a cheap, outdated, baggy suit with a jammed briefcase, attempting to peddle snake oil freedom utilizing a pay-no-attention-to-the-old-white-wizard-behind-the-curtain-pulling-the-strings two-party political system with the hopes of us not catching wind of the Axe Body Spray they bathed in before arriving.
And if we are honest with ourselves, we bought it. We bought the lies we wanted to believe, like equal rights under the protection of the law. But the protection of the law would never, has never, extended to the descendants of those who were labeled by the Constitution as 3/5 of a human.
But we sure did want to believe it… that freedom and the pursuit of happiness could apply to all of us. And if the truth is that we live in a democracy where the people have the power to influence governance, then we must also acknowledge that we have participated in upholding these OG oppressive structures.
We must ask ourselves: will we fix and change what we have inherited, or will we destroy it and build something new and entirely different?
Allow us the opportunity to expose their lies with their own pasty, phony truth serum… which most people have been gulping down from red and blue chalices for far too many decades. Perhaps from this standpoint, we can see that the canon in the fight for America has always been pointed at us and is, in fact, a requirement.
If not us, who will they sell their freedom lies to?
Step Right Up
Freedom from England? Yes! This colonized house was built on this scheme, built upon what and who were already here on Turtle Island. Just have to wipe out the Indigenous people who were already here when colonizers named some rock Plymouth.
Freedom of religion? Yes! Just make sure the nation is built not only on white supremacy but, more specifically, on white Christian nationalism.
Freedom as in all men are created equal? Yes! As long as we are careful to classify the enslaved Africans we bought and sold as only 3/5 of a human.
Liberty and justice for all? Yes! But only if you’re a white cis het able-bodied man.
While too many Americans are trying to guess what cards the government is holding in their hand, we’re just going to make it easy and give you the answer: there is no two-party system, there is only one. For some reason, it has taken us decades of voting, advocating, and rallying to finally realize that the party of red or blue is Cola, regardless of whether you call it Coke or Pepsi. At this point, elections aren't based on policy (foreign or domestic), wage gap, criminal justice reform, or systemic racism; it's about special interests and which dog and pony show politician will see them best through. And out of those corporate special interests, the “watch what I say, not what I do” administration determines which ones will be prioritized, not the shifty party.
Whereas the two-party electoral college system hasn't changed much in the 247 years since its creation, in this upcoming election, the American people are faced with coming to terms with who they really are, not who they have paraded around the world pretending to be. Liberals were so committed to making Trump the right-winged political boogeyman that when Biden, the more "sensible" option, got into office, the whole world got to see firsthand how deadly he could be for the right price, I mean, the “right cause.” Biden, for many of the most jaded yet sensible Americans, was their last hope in a candidate who could potentially acknowledge some humanity in today's society and save us. But what was done in Palestine was a major and shocking disappointment and a complete waste of trust. And any person of color who is aware of the thousands of brown people being killed in Gaza and Rafah quickly recognizes how Biden is just as dangerous as Trump.
And perhaps a comforting thought, or rather, one that allows us to cope better, that it's been too late for decades. What would it mean for us to come to terms with the fact that these elections have never been about solutions to the real problems Americans face daily?
We gathered around the Democrat’s wagon of tricks and wondered if we could trust our own eyes. Four years ago, they said the right things… cancel student loan debt, raise the federal minimum wage, and yes, even sign HR40: The Commission To Study and Develop Reparations; to name a few.
And yet, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain who has moved ahead to build Trump’s wall for him and then sealed the southern border and removed the right for people to apply for asylum.
Pay no mind to the fact that the Democrat-controlled Senate could have ratified Roe v Wade but chose to make Juneteenth a national holiday and put Harriet Tubman on coins instead.
And now watch a convicted felon grow in popularity while Biden blatantly bypasses Congress over and over again to slide BILLIONS of tax money over to the settler colonial state of Israel to complete its genocidal project in Gaza.
Is it all an illusion? Or is it gaslighting?
Rallying behind a third-party candidate will never be a viable option for the Democratic Party that each and every single election cycle will whine about how we will organize around 3rd party “next time,” but another 4 years go by and it never happens. How many times have we heard when we SHOULD have rallied behind a 3rd party candidate? Only to be told “not now” because this election is too important to throw votes away. Just for the exact same speech to be given again.
You see, it’s already too late because we’ve brought fascism home, and the call is coming from inside the house, which is always your biggest indication that it’s already too late. The Supreme Court just gave presidential immunity to Trump, and criminalized homelessness after reversing affirmative action.
What more evidence is needed to prove this nation has not ever been by the people, for the people, unless those were white people, men in particular?
“America is the white man’s wet dream,” says activist and author, Tina Strawn, in her December 2023 TedX Talk entitled, “Blaxit: The New Underground Railroad.” Well, this is our starting point and the point where we finish, the point where we have arrived at it being too late. This is just to expand on what that actually means because, looking back, the racist forefathers and writers of the Declaration of Independence are very, very proud of what this failed nation has become.
And if you haven’t had your fill of poison, may we present to you something called Project 2025.
The ghostwriters of the Constitution are making a comeback experience with this one, rewriting the governing fabric of this doomed nation to align with the reality they always intended.
The truth of who America is and has always been, from the hearts, minds, and spirits of those who colonized it.
So, please take a look at what this project means for the future of this country built by the blood of the Indigenous people and on the backs of enslaved African people. And ask yourself how confident you are that the Democrats, or the Avengers, or Scooby Doo, or whomever the fuck, can save us now.
And since it’s already too late, one question remains: how are we going to organize ourselves out of this one?