By Philip Drucker

Excuse me, but can someone tell me exactly when did it become a good political move to distance yourself from reality? I imagine it was right about the time a significant portion of the American public decided to go with a presidential candidate who promised to drain the swamp, bring back manufacturing jobs, win a trade war with China (or was it Canada? I forget now), put prayer and institutionalized religious indoctrination back in school curricula, calling it “choice” and of course, MAGA.
Make America Great Again (MAGA) in large part by insisting institutionalized, good old fashioned racism and the ever reliable standby of religious intolerance, this time aided and abetted by a cult of unbelievable ignorance who call themselves QAnon, that have resurrected a 400 year old conspiracy theory where Jewish bankers rule the world and democrats, yes democrats traffic in stolen children and bid for the honor, pleasure, I don’t know you tell me, opportunity to eat babies with or without an order of fries and a milk shake I imagine. Oh wait, milk doesn’t go with meat so that won’t work for your average democratic, progressive, Hebrew even when engaged in horrific, satanic acts that I must say do seem to “trigger” the Trump faithful.
Well, to his credit, Trump did artificially stimulate the stock market, and he did give a bunch of tax breaks to those who didn’t and still don’t need it, so that’s something, I guess. Indeed, he did start a trade war with China, but win? That proved to be not so easy as Trump so blustered about. At this point, I often ask myself, is it really “doing something” when our president undertakes actions that are all but guaranteed to fail? Do you know why no president in the last 100 years thought it was a good idea to start a trade war with a competitor in the world market?
The short answer is professional persons who know their stuff know we all live in essentially what is now a one world market. A market where gaining foreign market share is every bit as good as domestic, and the labor is cheaper. Where workers are paid pennies, and owners have no workplace safety measures to worry about. No health care or benefits of any kind and get this, the leaders of these countries and sweatshops accept as may bribes as they can get. Business as usual, no questions asked.
Now that I’m thinking about it, can I ask you a question? Did you fall for that Rand Paul my favorite janitor of lunacy about Isolation being the American way back to prosperity? That if we somehow magically cut ourselves from the rest of the world, it will lead to the type of world where we attain the past riches and economic dominance and glory of say, 1940s/50s post WWII America? Newsflash and reality knocking. We became the world’s only superpower because everyone we called competitor destroyed themselves and their economy during the war.
And, yes, we rebuilt them, their cities and their economies through cooperation and favorable trade deals. Even with our former enemies, in great part by the reconstruction of the Axis powers. With the help of NATO, we rebuilt the international community, and fought against Russian aggression. Today, our president and way too many of his followers think the Russians are our friends. They’re not and they will slit our throats, or perhaps poison our tea every chance they get, and lately, they’ve been given way too many chances. Putting and paying bounties on American soldiers. Writing love letters and kowtowing to tyrants of all shapes and sizes?
This is the new spirit and soul of international business Trump supporters are so fond of? One where Trump’s personal business decisions, for instance building Trump Tower Moscow, takes precedent over our former world economic dominance and leadership through mutually beneficial trade agreements, and treaties? Wow, I guess we own the entire world now, don’t we? When did “leave us alone we don’t need your business” become a good business practice?
And in America, have we become a nation where the employer is always right? You’re fat? You smoke? You’re fired. Did you know that right now more than half of the states allow employers to fire their employees for being overweight and/or if they catch you smoking a cigarette on or off the worksite? This is going on in American right now. Look it up. Has the unfair and cruel treatment of the American worker slithered its way into and become part of our culture? You don’t think so? Think again.
Part time workers earning unlivable wages forced to work at two or three jobs to survive is already here. You want a plan to take care of your children when you are at work? Don’t have kids. You’re sick? You’re out, unless you are dead, then don’t come in because we don’t need you anymore and you are fired. Severance pay anyone? COBRA? Discriminated against in the workplace (stifling a giggle or two here)? Yeah, not so much.
Lost your arm? Well, you have another one, don’t you? Oh, and by the way you’re fired because we like workers with two arms. Can they do that? Sure, who is going to stop them? Does the plight of meat packing plant workers or immigrant farm workers come to mind? It should. Get ready for the new world order in the American workforce. I’m still amazed at this song and video from James McMurtry from 2012. Here’s one guy who has my vote when we look back and give out the I told you so awards.
Institutionalized corruption will be at its best, and if anyone in the Romney camp of slave labor is good for business or Marsha Blackburn’s school of pesky union free “right to work is the way to go” states gets their way, well, it’ll be coming soon to a Midwestern town near you, the right to work your life away for nothing. These are the voters who think America is rich when a Romney, or a Pillow Guy is rich, but not when a Soros or even a Gates is wealthy. Why? Because hard workers who earned their fortunes don’t fit the profile.
The promise of benefiting from one’s honest and often hard work is just too much reality for some people. Unless of course it’s about shoveling coal in coal companies trying to sell their products for which there is no market, that nobody wants, and artificially kept alive by what can only be described as government sponsored socialism. Just like the WPA, but the murals were better back then.
So here we are four years and a dismal track record later and the hide their head in the sand don’t bring me any bad (real) news are still willing to vote for him. Hell, they’re on the verge of letting take over America in a violent, anything but peaceful transfer of power usurpation. And why? So women won’t have the right to control their bodies? Our right to health care depends on a religious zealot who’s stated goal in this life anyway is to bring about the “Kingdom of God?”
Let me leave you with this thought, can we make it here anymore? Of course we can, this is still America and don’t you forget it! But first, we must stop building walls as the answer to all our problems. Not only the physical, chimerical magical mystical mystery southern border wall that will never be, but with the intangible, ethereal but caustic and deleterious artificial walls that currently separate from each other, both internationally and domestic.
In their place, we need real solutions to real problems and we need the help of our neighbors, all our neighbors, from our local neighborhoods, our cities, states, country and yes, the world. This is not the time for tough guy false independence. We have seen where that gets us. A pandemic in the White House. It is time to be humble, humble like the dust, walking with our heads bowed in respect for the opportunity to serve and to make things better.
This is how true leaders lead. How do you know a real leader when you see one? It is a bit tricky as it’s often hard to tell if they are leading at all. They often let others take credit for their work as they are already onto the next problem, and then the next and the next. This BTW is not Trump. He is a bad man who is dealing with personal demons that most of us, myself included can’t possibly imagine. I’m ready to see what Biden’s got. He seems sane, and these days, that’s a good thing. Ready for reality? I’m in. You?
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