Last week, against my better judgement, I voted for president. Naturally, my guy didn't win. In my opinion, nobody won unless you're a big bank, a military supplier, an insurance company or a giant non-profit who seems to have billions to spend but whom no one I know ever contributes to. 

The whole thing started me thinking about how fascism takes hold. I've often wondered how a free people could all of the sudden find themselves living under the boot and singing patriotic songs all the while. But here I was witnessing it with the "Get Out and Vote!" rhetoric coming from the folks that I call my friends. I had told some that I wasn't planning on voting and they turned white as though I had said I wanted to step on a puppy. Democrat or republican, almost everyone told me it was my duty  to vote. (Funny, I thought it was a right.) And it didn't even matter who I voted for in their opinion. They just wanted me to vote for some reason… although none could tell me what that reason was. And they said that if I didn't vote, I somehow waived my right to complain about what my government was doing although none of them could explain how that was. Facebook friends threatened to defriend me and some even wanted to do physical harm since not voting was somehow a slap in the face of those who fight every day for our right to vote. I didn't bother to ask who was going to take away that right if soldiers didn't fight for it since that would invite another stream of hostilities.

Talk to most people about something you think is "Orwellian" and they will blow it off as hyperbole. But we're getting there. And it's not that we're seeing jackbooted thugs enforcing martial law. No. It is our neighbor who is doing it for them. No wonder no one sees the thugs. But they're here and our propaganda system has done a beautiful job of slipping us the Kool-Aid without us even knowing.

It gets worse than just being excoriated on Facebook. In one case, a woman ran down her husband in a Jeep for not voting. 

So where is it all going? For several years we've lived in a country that will not tolerate freedom to sit out during the national anthem or to not pledge to the flag. I remember reading about a guy who tried it at a Yankees game and got beat up by other fans around him. And when the security guards showed up, they beat him up, too. And right now we're seeing a backlash against people who are petitioning for their states to secede from the union. 

So this is how it works. This is how it happens.