Answer Creep

"What this country really needs is an authoritarian leader."

This sentence was uttered to me by a man that I have known for over 55 years. He was as American as American can be. Adamant and assured throughout his life that the American way is the best way. In everything.

This froze my heart. Because I have also have been assured and adamant that the American way is the best way.

So what just happened?

One of us had lost touch with what it means to be American. In deference to this fact, I offer my definition.

The United States of America was founded on the principle that all of us are created equal. That we all have inalienable rights. So 'We the People in order to form a more perfect union' set up a government that divided up the powers between the States and the Federal governments. These governments were further divided to incorporate Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches with powers that can check and balance any other Branch that tries to grab power beyond the scope granted it by the Constitution. All to prevent AUTHORITARIAN RULE.

Based on this, I am haunted by the question - How did my friend come up with this idea?

I suspect "Answer Creep."

Answer Creep starts when people are seduced by someone who focuses them on their fears and hatreds. Pointing to perceived enemies and exaggerating the threat they pose. Then exaggerating a little more. He discredits any information source that might even suggest that we need to question the coercing blather that he espouses as 'answers'. Because these 'answers' feed into the fears of the followers, they buy in. He provides them with 'answers' that "feel right" more than are true. He enlists the aid of propagandists to exacerbate and 'normalize' the message. Once he perceives that his followers will believe whatever he says, even if he swore the exact opposite was true not a few weeks prior, he knows he can begin the Creep.

Inch by inch, little by little, his 'answers' slowly creep from 'answers' bordering on lies to ones that are especially insipid. They are so bad that true patriots are slowly but inevitably transformed into, in today's case, people who would support the single most un-American concept that our Founding Fathers could ever conceive. Something they rebelled against, fought and died to finally eradicate from our country: AUTHORITARIAN RULE.

So how do we protect ourselves? I believe we can do it with questions. Asking questions was a role that for dozens of decades was fulfilled by the Press. They used to ask questions. Probing questions. Who? What? Where? When? How? Why? Now the press is more interested in their own 'answers'. We now get pundits flailing their hands above their heads indignantly TELLING us what is or is not the 'answer'. Stop! Stop telling what your ego spews and ask the questions. And when the 'answers' you get are part of the Creep, ask again. And then ask again. Lies cannot withstand questions. Only the truth can. Keep asking until you get to the truth.

But the questioning cannot be wholly thrust upon the press. They are not reliable enough to be left out there alone. We, you and I, need to ask also. Why has our Congress betrayed the country by dismissing their responsibilities of providing checks and balances against AUTHORITARIAN RULE? We need to question them. And keep questioning them until we get the truth. And if no truth is forthcoming, kick their treasonous asses out of office!

We used to have 50 states in the United States of America. Now there are a certain number of red states and another number of blue states. Conservatives speak of Liberals in terms my parents used to refer to Nazis, and vice versa.

How long ago was it that our country DISUNITED? I cannot pinpoint when it started but when I hear the Speaker of the House of Representatives say that it is a waste of their time to pass legislation if the President won't sign it, I know that our Constitution is now dead.

The answers have crept so far that our country is now someone else's. The country I stand during the anthem to honor is gone. The country that so many Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force personnel have died for is now no more than a memory.

I pray I'm wrong. I hold out hope that it's not too late. Is there still time to find a cure? If we are to resuscitate the patient we need to act fast. We need to start asking questions.

The answer is the questions.