Lao-tzu once wrote: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Today, in America, what is “the journey”? It appears to be a long and protracted movement toward a more just, fair and inclusive democracy. What is the “single step”? A society whose citizens will only accept truth and facts. In this context, what “journey” and “single step” will Mr. Balentine and his conservative Trump-Republicans (“cohorts”) pursue in the future? Hint: “(Limbaugh) … loved the Founding Fathers’ … ideas of self-reliance, small government and freedom from tyranny.” (“Be like Rush, a happy warrior,” Feb. 26.)

Embracing Limbaugh’s “loves,” the endgame (“the journey”) for Balentine’s cohorts is the creation of a new type of National Freedom, which translates into freedom from any personal/party responsibility for: maintaining all governments with a needed/suitable tax base, safeguarding the environment/climate, developing social programs to strengthen the lower and middle classes, dependence on science-based policy programs, solving global problems, promoting/supporting white supremacy and its adherents and wearing COVID-19 masks.

Balentine and his cohorts’ “single step” to achieve their new National Freedom is to create initiatives to “… keep stoking the fires of insurrection by maintaining a continuous diatribe against all that is factual and true.” (Letter: “Follow the facts, not Balentine’s ‘opinion,’” Feb. 5.)

On Nov. 3, 2020, 51.3% of voters cast their ballots for the Biden/Harris ticket. One hopes that the 81,268,757 Americans who supported the Biden/Harris ticket collectively share the desire for a “more just, fair and inclusive democracy,” and the “single step” to realize this hope would be “… accept truth and facts.”

In the future, every local, state and national election will determine which “journey” we take as a nation and what will be our “single step.”

John M. Mishler
Harpswell