Fellow Americans,

By Professor Gennady Shkliarevsky

Fellow Americans,

The last four years have been a very exciting time for us.  We have built and sustained deep connections with each other and have reinvigorated our authentic positive community.  Through our interactions in social media we have been taking part in a common creative process that has shaped our political will and opinion.  This creative engagement is profoundly gratifying.  It has helped us to assert our dignity and fundamental freedom.  We are the winners.

The elites have not succeeded in establishing their control over us.  They have not succeeded in breaking our unity and solidarity.  The elites will certainly continue their efforts to do so.  They have already revealed their insidious plans for gaining control over us.  These plans include, first and foremost, efforts to identify us—the 75 million Americans—with white supremacists and racists, thus trying to discredit us and diminish the richness of our community.  They will also use extensively the mainstream media to advance their views of us.  Finally, elites are prepared to use administrative tools to suppress our voices, limit our freedom, and to sustain their tyranny.  We should deny them this opportunity.

There is much that will help us in our task.  For one thing, we are not afraid of them.  They are afraid of us.  That is why they have 25 thousand troops in Washington.  The inauguration. is supposed to be the high point of their success, but in reality, it marks the low point of their defeat.  They are afraid of their own people.

We must sustain our creative interactions in social media.  We must continue to shape our independent political will and opinions.  These creative interactions will serve as our principal tools in asserting our dignity and freedom.  We should continue to engage in substantive and constructive criticism of the elites’ efforts to deprive us of our values and history.  We should continue looking for ways to translate our will and opinions into tangible political actions.  Last but not least, our most important weapon in the fight against elite domination is our broadly democratic practice that is universally inclusive and empowering.  Elite practice is exclusive.  We must practice universal inclusion and empowerment in opposition to the practice of the elites.

We have much to celebrate these days, but there is still more work ahead.  Let’s renew our commitment to each other.  Let’s revitalize the American promise. Let’s continue to move forward toward a better future for ourselves, for our children, for America, and for the world.

God bless us all and God bless America!

~~~

Professor Gennady Shkliarevsky is Professor Emeritus of History at Bard College, New York

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