William Butler Yeats was a grand poet, playright, and gifted prose writer who spoke through mythic symbol systems and immersed himself in the Irish "troubles."

Yeats summed up his view of literature: "I believe that literature is the principal voice of the conscience, and that it is its duty age after age to affirm its morality against the special moralities of clergymen and churches, and of kings and parliaments and peoples … I have no doubt a wise ecclesiastic, if his courage equaled his wisdom, would be a better censor than a mob, but I think it better to fight the mob alone than to seek for a support one could only get by what would seem to me a compromise of principle."

We have an array of "special moralities," as Yeats called them, who compromise our higher principles.

Prize-winning Historian Arthur Schlesinger anticipated our challenges in "The Disuniting of America," particularly the toxic and desperate disquiet among white supremacists, fearing the "rising flow of non-European immigrants creat[ing] a 'minority majority,'" threatening to "make Eurocentrism obsolete by the twenty-first century."

Among our "special moralities" are the ever more political churches, seeking to influence elections and gain secular power, rather than follow the Sermon on the Mount, and affirm morality instead of perpetuating amorality.

These political churches dominate and instruct their obedient "faithful" to hate and fear those who are "different." In the Broadway musical. South Pacific, one song says, "You have to be taught to hate and fear, you have to be carefully taught." No nation of conscience can tolerate such instruction or rhetoric.

We have "temples" of finance, big business, that measure their existence by the margin of profit, and churlishly resist sharing in the earned riches with the workers whose increased productivity made the profits possible. In recent days, as a result, these workers suffered an unfair shortfall in savings that they could have used during the pandemic. Our elected representatives take care of themselves, making decisions to favor their re-election. And little else. No elected official is without blame. They may talk about making a difference but they come up short. In Luke, it's said that Jesus cursed those who placed a burden on others without lifting a finger to lighten the load. The burdens abound; relief is too little and too late.

There are our courts. We have many judges who take to heart their obligation to follow the constitution and the law. But, in the last administration, we had congressional leaders including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who installed questionable judicial officers, often dimly qualified, biased, and expected to overrule long standing legal precedents, favoring the ideological views of the Federalist Society.

Associate Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in "Making our Democracy Work," that the trust of the nation's citizens in the work of its highest court is critical "even when [the Court's] decisions are highly unpopular." This trust is at risk.

Judge Learned Hand, a federal judge from NY, both in the trial court and leading the 2nd Circuit appellate court, made an historic speech in central park in 1944 on liberty:

"Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it."

There are forces in the nation that would destroy that liberty.

Hand asked "what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes."

Hand concluded, "A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few …"

We have seen more than a few "savages" and that's not who we are.

We must sanction and punish those would destroy our democratic government.

Albert Einstein wrote - "Institutions are in a moral sense impotent unless they are supported by the sense of responsibility of living individuals."

Justice Robert Jackson, who tried the Nuremberg cases, wrote –

"We set up government by consent of the government, and the Bill of Rights denies those in power any legal opportunity to coerce that consent. Authority here is to be controlled by public opinion, not public opinion by authority."

Thomas Jefferson said, "I have sworn upon the alter of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

There are those in government, in the congress, and the several states, who would coerce the consent of the government, by suppressing the vote that opposes their governance, one form of tyranny in a democracy.

There are those in government who would suppress public debate, another form of tyranny.

If we are to give voice to our conscience, we must follow up with action, as our sense of things as they are implies there is a better order, and it is our duty as citizens to stop what's compromising this nation and restore our Republic.