HELP SAVE DEMOCRACY! FIGHT THE FASCIST TAKEOVER!

My name is David Hedges and I'm seeking support for the publication and wide distribution of my forthcoming book of political, environmental, and anti-war poems. THE DEATH OF DEMOCRACY spells out the utter catastrophe we face if we allow an unhinged narcissist to rule America at a time when the survival of our species and our planet demands immediate, decisive, and rational action!

MY GOAL IS TO PUT COPIES OF THE BOOK IN THE HANDS OF EVERY ELECTED OFFICIAL IN THE NATION!

Every penny raised through GoFundMe — and every penny of profit from book sales — will be spent by Road's End Press on publishing and distributing books. Once we have reached every elected official at the federal level, President Biden on down, we will start on the states. If funds permit, we'll start on cities.

GIVE $50 AND RECEIVE A COPY OF "PETTY FROGS ON THE POTOMAC" (1997), MY BOOK OF VERSE ABOUT NEWT GINGRICH AND THE 1994 REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION. GIVE $100 AND RECEIVE BOTH "PETTY FROGS" AND "THE DEATH OF DEMOCRACY." GIVE $150 OR MORE AND WE'LL ADD MY BOOK OF LIGHT VERSE, "TRUMP ÜBER ALLES: RHYMES FOR TRYING TIMES" (2022)

Trump admires Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and other ruthless despots. He is charged with 91 felonies. He is a sexual predator who boasts about groping women and was convicted in a civil court of rape. He scoffs at the rule of law. He has stated he will build concentration camps and use the military to stifle dissent. He has stated he will seek revenge on his "enemies," everyone who disagrees with him, and on "vermin," Hitler's term for Jews and other minorities, and his term for migrants and those whose blood he personally considers impure. He has laid out his plans to dismantle our government and destroy the foundations of democracy. All of this is overwhelmingly well documented!

These 30 poems do not simply chronicle Trump's misdeeds, failings, and foul intentions. Some, especially those written while he occupied the White House, employ wit and satire to make their points. And since it's not Trump’s fault alone that our country has slid down this slippery slope, other poems slice and dice the plutocrats who pull the strings, the "billionaire class." It is they, with a boost from the Supreme Court, who have funded America's drift to the right since Ronald Reagan infamously declared "Government is the problem." Some poems attack and mourn environmental carnage driven by rapacious capitalism., while others dwell on war, its enablers, and its outcomes.

I am an Oregon poet, author, and political, environmental, and social activist. My 10 previous books include poetry, memoir, and fiction. I am on the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission, served for six years as president of the Oregon Poetry Association, co-founded the Oregon Poetry Collection at the University of Oregon's Knight Library, and received the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award from Literary Arts, Inc. for contributions to Oregon's literary life.

Please chip in any amount you can spare! And please, spread this GoFundMe link to your networks. Democracy is running out of time!

THE DEATH THROES OF DEMOCRACY

Sail on, O Ship of State!

Sail on, O Union, strong and great!

Humanity with all its fears,

With all the hopes of future years,

Is hanging breathless on thy fate!

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

How in this anxious hour of discontent

Can anyone with open eyes and mind

Be anything but fully cognizant?

Yet roughly half the populace is blind

To evil of the most egregious kind,

That circumvents judicial oversight

And blurs the line dividing wrong from right.

How can democracy survive attacks

On fundamental principles upheld

By courts? Who are these egomaniacs

Whose shady dealings are unparalleled?

And why, when their extremist views are spelled

Out so a simpleton can understand,

Do millions march lockstep behind their band?

The Constitution and the Bill of Rights

Specifically prohibit actions now

Deemed mandatory. Thus the lights

Of liberty are dimmed. Yet those who bow

To autocrats are quick to disavow

Decrees that sanction artifice and fraud

And undermine our prominence abroad.

All those who seek to keep the Ship of State

Afloat see values tumbled overboard.

Left-leaning souls watch hope disintegrate

For peace, the olive branch replaced by sword

And shield, the severance of world accord.

Those on the right rate devastating debt

From reckless borrowing the greater threat.

The overarching answer's not explained

In terms that fit our country's paradigms.

We find a covert rationale ingrained

In politics as practiced in these times

Of bitter partisan debate. High crimes

Committed under propaganda's cloak

Hitch our descendants to oppression's yoke.

O COMMANDANT! MY COMMANDANT!

The poop deck on the Ship of State

Is knee deep with the sticky stuff

That pours forth from our Potentate

When he deigns to pontificate

On complex topics off the cuff.

His brain spins like a billiard ball

And ricochets between the beams.

His tweets hold followers in thrall,

His rants scorn law and protocol,

And not a thought means what it seems.

He’s hanging by his fingernails.

The quartermaster rings eight bells!

He has an ill wind in his sails

And everything he touches fails,

But on he plunges, through the swells.

He sees his destiny fulfilled!

He’ll kill Obamacare, and crown

His head with laurel leaves, and gild

His Oval Office throne, and build

His wall before the ship goes down.

THE PREDESTINED DEATH OF DEMOCRACY

"A republic, if you can keep it."

—Benjamin Franklin, when asked by political

activist Elizabeth Willing Powel if the new nation

would be a republic or a monarchy

The founders sealed our fledgling nation's fate

By compromising on a point now giving

Authoritarians the edge: Each state

Shall have two senators. So, voters living

In West Virginia or Wyoming wield

More clout than citizens in Illinois,

New York, or Michigan. The playing field

Tilts hard right. Extremists will destroy

Democracy if they, through cheating, steal

The Senate and the White House. Who can save

Us from dictatorship? The threat is real—

Ben Franklin's turning over in his grave.

The monster clutching at our nation's throat

Fails only if enough good people vote.

HOW TO FEED THE HUNGRY

My plan’s to round up billionaires

And lock them tight in feedlot pens

Until they’re fat as Frigidaires,

Then do them in like Tyson hens.

Once these elites play out, my plan’s

To tackle multimillionaires

And package them in quart-sized cans

To make sure everybody shares.

Their children, born to lives of ease,

Will spare themselves their parents’ fate

By paring down necessities

And loving what they thought they’d hate:

A Murphy bed with squeaky springs

Above a Brooklyn butcher shop

And eating out at Burger Kings

And drinking diet soda pop.

ON THE REBIRTH OF AMERICA

The new millennium is underway

At last, held hostage for a raft of years

By home-grown architects of disarray,

Sly profiteers who played upon our fears

Like harpists plucking strings. They made us dance

Two-step when all we wanted was to waltz

Through life with satisfying jobs, good health,

The basics — justice, truth. Imagine, France

Held up to ridicule for branding false

A bald-faced lie! So much for rule by stealth.

The founders of this nation knew the time

Would come when we’d be forced to reassess

Core values, reach past artful to sublime,

Endure the pain accompanying redress.

Supremely optimistic, they left clues

To solve the riddles of this lawless age.

Found in their writings are the truths we hold

To be self-evident. Now we must choose

Between two futures, one defying sage

Advice, the other confident and bold.

Beginning now, let’s paint the future bright.

It may take years to put us on the path

To universal health care and the right

To pick lifestyles that fit, without the wrath

Of righteous indignation crashing down—

But here we are, survivors of the best

The enemy within could muster, free

Of ringmaster and charismatic clown,

The beasts who fed upon our wealth. The test

Will be to redefine democracy.