By Ron Faust

Remember a reasonable time for a democracy

When we had Democrats and Republicans

Representing change and conserving tradition

 

A chaos President came on the scene flamboyant

Advocating superficial policies and white nationalism

Fading into irrelevancy and leaving the GOP a mess

 

Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are street gangs

Ready to mobilize another Jan. 6th insurrection

Willing to deny peace to promote national chaos

 

Two years after the January 6 insurrection

Far-right extremists have divided the GOP House

Pushing conspiracy theories but unable to govern

 

This was in full display as GOP took fifteen rounds

To elect maligned McCarthy as Speaker of the House

While Jeffries gave a brilliant oratory for Democracy

 

Voters of this Trump era are complicit in the chaos

Supporters of a culture of violence are to blame

Those who ignore political realities allow ruination

 

We need a cease–fire everywhere for our madness

For destruction, for nuclear weapons, for inequality

Only then, we stand on a thresh-hold of a new dawn.

 

1/6/23  (On occasion of experiencing the disarray of the Republican Party and the last line of this poem coming from a Christmas Eve sermon by Rev. Dr. William Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign)