(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . LEVOLUTION [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-01-01 January 1, 2024 Moving into 2024, it is a good time to take stock of where we stand as the dominant life form on Earth and ponder the path we want to take heading into the future. Should we regress and stagnate or should we promote the process of progress to level up the human condition. Is our destiny more Star Trek Federation or Star Wars Empire? As things stand, economic and social disparity is as bad as ever in history. Like in the days of Kings over Serfs, Oligarchs and huge Corporations control politicians to rule over We the People with predatory capitalism. If we are to evolve, diversity and equality must be at the forefront of leveling the playing field. This process, which I call Levolution, cannot be achieved all at once. It will first require a lot of effort and then intelligent voting to make the necessary changes to get there. We all live in serious times that require serious effort from serious people. In my opinion, supporting entities that mindlessly want to tear it all down are not serious people. The answer is not to “Make America Great Again” but it is to evolve together as humankind. Progress includes protecting Planet Earth and our environment. It includes social and economic fairness with equal opportunity. It also includes advances in science and technology that make common sense – remembering that not everything that can be done should be done. It is a part of human nature to explore and research the unknown. We must just keep in mind that if we are to be an actually intelligent species we need to act like one. To survive as a pieces requires progression not regression. 2024 heading into 2025 looks to be one of the crossroads of history. As the situation stands now, the Republicans are a force of repression and little more than a cult of personality. On the other hand, the Democrats are a far too corporate friendly coalition that are also more reasonable and willing to take some of the steps necessary for Levolution. My approach to politics is to vote as progressive as possible in the Primary and then vote for whoever becomes the Democratic nominee in the General Election. In the past 30 plus years I have voted for Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden to be President. During that same time, the Republicans have given us War Criminal GW Bush and Common Criminal DJ Trump. It is currently still a fact that independent and third party candidates cannot win the Presidency. I do believe the champions of progress will prevail in the end, but that cannot be taken for granted. It is of utmost importance for everybody to vote in November – whoever the candidates are. I yet remain unconvinced that the nominees will be Biden and Trump, but we will know in a few short months from now. In any case, I do think that the Democrats will win the trifecta – the Presidency, the Senate and the House. Ultimately, I have more faith in human intelligence than most. If I am wrong about that and the American citizens are foolish enough to elect Trump or some other Republican to be President and also lose the Senate, the Democrats do have a very good chance of taking the majority in the House. That will probably be the worst case scenario and that would be enough to put the brakes on losing our Democracy to authoritarianism. If the Republicans lose big, like I think they will, I am not afraid of an outbreak of Civil War. There would be a lot of whining and complaining and probably some occurrences of violence, but nothing major widespread At the end of the day, the destiny of the human race and the longevity of our experiment in democracy is largely up to the younger generation. The measure of how much we are actually evolving as a species is to found in them. Young people today seem to be, on average, more tolerant of differences in people and more aware of environmental concerns than most “set in their ways” elders. It is my hope that the majority of citizens, including the younger ones, will realize that the reality of being reasonable is the only way to move forward and to do so in the spirit of peace, love and understanding. Eventually we can elect new and better politicians, but right now we must take the next step on the path to Levolution. We have a long way to go to get where we need to be and we have a lot of huge issues to resolve and problems to solve. The journey from this crossroads starts now in 2024. This year marks 20 years since I first joined Daily Kos. I first joined after the outbreak of the Iraq War which we were outrageously lied into. I invite anyone to visit my website where I compose and record songs and write essays about politics and other social issues….curtreply.com [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/1/2214855/-LEVOLUTION?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/