We now have to emerge from the shelter of the holiday cocoon and face reality once again. What a welcome and needed diversion from the effects of the Nov. 5 election.

For many of us, the shock was immediate. For a lot of you it’s going to be a gradual awareness of what has transpired. The elation that comes with victory will only last so long. You’ve surrendered control of our country to the worst possible individual knowing full well what he is and is capable of.

Or have you just not been paying attention? Did that holiday fog start in October for you?

I’m obviously directing this to those who placed their little black dot by the name Donald J. Trump, but also to those who didn’t bother to choose one way or another, because not to choose is still making a choice. You who have given up on our democratic process or who can’t be bothered to engage are just as responsible.

I watched while a group of union workers were interviewed prior to the election, and a large percentage raised their hands when asked if they were undecided. What group would have more reason to vote against a billionaire backed candidate and for one who was the first president ever to join a picket line, or his VP? That should be a no-brainer for a union laborer. UAW president, Sean Fain, was very sure of his decision!

The United States is losing its grip on democracy. It has always been a tug-of-war between democracy and dictatorship, and right now the rope is being pulled farther to the right than is good for us.

All those who believe in free and fair elections, economic and social equality, and “liberty and justice for all” need to toughen up. Why are we letting the billionaire bullies take control of our lives?

Let’s face it, in experiential DNA, we are much closer to our fellow humans who struggle from paycheck to paycheck, who need help to get by, who depend on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and any other kind of government assistance from any of the programs now in place to help those in need, including school children and veterans — than any of those billionaires with their mansions, private jets and yachts.

We are closer to the migrants who come here to escape violence and oppression, to earn a living, because many of us have experienced that ourselves. We are related more by nature than by nurture, by our common experiences, to each other.

Why does the spirit of Christmas only last a few weeks? We need to accept and embrace our commonality and goodwill all year round. We will need that Christmas spirit to guide us through the upcoming Trump administration so that we can fight against policies that will hurt our fellow Americans, and those who have come here for a better life and need our protection.

Over the course of our country’s history, it has been immigrants who built and improved it, but the luster of their contributions has always been darkened by the treatment they received, and that includes the original native peoples and those brought here against their will as slaves.

A post going around social media shows a bumper sticker that reads “The only minority that is hurting America is the billionaires.” Truth.

The billionaires who now control our returning (still can’t believe the idiocracy of it) president want to run the government like their corporations, for profits on investments, and they are jockeying for a place at that table, a board of directors rather than a cabinet. They are coming for every government institution that was designed as a service, not as a profit-making business.

I am especially worried about our Postal Service, whose postmaster general Louis DeJoy, appointed during Trump’s first run at democratic obstruction, is bent on ruining it to the point where he can justify turning it over to private for-profit companies. These oligarchs (rich billionaires) are even targeting our public education system, which already needs more help than it gets.

So what are we to do now? Now that these oligarchs (and it’s not just American oligarchs, Elon Musk is South African, then you have the middle-eastern oil rich rulers, Putin and his cronies, etc.) have a frontman with the gift of grift to con the masses into ceding control of the government over to them? One who has a horseshoe attached, who even though indicted for 91 felony counts and convicted of 34, still gets elected President of the United States. And I am reminding you, this is how Hitler got his power too.

We’ve allowed a lot of damage to be done, but we shouldn’t give up. We can still tug the rope back as long as we don’t let go. Polls have shown that a vast majority of Americans blame wealthy donors for the political dysfunction that we are experiencing. So we are collectively aware of the problem. Political corruption got an enormous boost when in 2010, the Supreme Court decided 5-4 in favor of Citizens United, allowing corporations, non-profits and other entities to donate to elections as if they were individuals and what followed was the rise of PACs and SuperPACs which easily hide the sources of “dark” money. To overturn this decision would take making changes to the Supreme Court, which won’t happen under Trump and his republican congress.

As always, it comes down to us. When we, the constituents, put enough pressure on our representatives, we sometimes can succeed in getting them to react. We should be expressing our support for public campaign funding which New York and some other states have begun. We need to insist on absolute transparency in our elections. We need to push for updates to the FEC to allow it to better monitor and weed out corruption.

We need to get involved in our local government, where it all starts, and run for office. Democracy depends on competition. Democrats, I’m talking to you now! Get tough! I bet many of you watched “A Christmas Story” over the holidays. The bully, Scott Farcus, ruled over the other kids mercilessly. He gave Flick a black eye when Ralphie and the others ran to class and didn’t stand up to him. According to the adult Ralphie narrator,” you were either a bully, a toady, or one of the nameless rabble of victims.”

Eventually, what it took to end the bully’s hold was Ralphie finally having enough of it and breaking out of that victimhood, much to the bully’s shock. 2025 will afford multiple opportunities to run for local office. Every town, city, and village in Chautauqua County will have seats up for election as well as all the county legislators. Democrats, contact your town chair, or email the county chair, Marcia Westling Johnson, at chqdem.chair@gmail.com. The Working Families Party is also looking for candidates to run, and will endorse democratic candidates.

In closing, we bid farewell to President Jimmy Carter, who lived to cast his vote one last time, but as it turns out will, I think mercifully, not have to bear witness to what will follow that election. On Dec. 31, a contributor to The Hill wrote “Maybe our current representatives in DC should look at the remarkable life of the 39th president and look to follow the example on how his faith taught him how to treat his fellow Americans.”

A man without greed, who lived to serve others and who was a Christian when that actually meant worshiping and following the teachings of Jesus. If we could all be more like Jimmy Carter.

Susan Bigler is a Sheridan resident.