A valued friend whose opinions I respect more than I can say in this writing sent the response to my BLOG writing, which was inspired by another valued friend.  I took the photo of myself later in this day... and wrote back to my friend, Jerome, that I agree with and appreciate his response... Before I wrote back to him, he sent the second e-mail, so I feel compelled to include his apology... I love his characterization of what we have in America as "an admirable experiment."  That phrase says exactly what we admire in the system of government that we continue to call a "democracy." Jerome acknowledges that we keep trying, but sometime our attempts to be a democracy fail at the ballot box. This past election was one of those times.

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"I disagree, my friend. You are in the thralls of a wishful illusion.

We are an admirable experiment. We are a potential republic based on democratic principles and on values of justice, fairness, equality, freedom of religion and freedom from religion, the separation of church and state, the pursuit of the common good, and the opportunity for all citizens to better themselves and achieve their potential. 

We have never been a democracy. We are father from it than ever before in our history.Two recent G.O.P. electoral triumphs of embarrassingly shallow, poorly and narrowly educated, dangerous men, the existence of the Electoral College, and the super delegate nonsense make that abundantly clear. We are a Corporatocracy quite rapidly on our way to becoming a Neo-Fascist Autocracy/ Dictatorship and all that that implies."

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I was too upset about something else this morning when I wrote and sent this to you. I shouldn't have.

I should have, Jerral, said simply that I disagree with your statement "we are a democracy" and then shared with you why I disagreed. 

And I should have ended by simply saying that you are a valued friend, that I treasure our contact, and that I hope you weren't offended by my inadvertent snakiness. 

I also still hope that you will choose to post this on your Blog because I would be very interested in the reactions, if any, that you would receive.