By Philip Drucker
I start today with a simple query. Isn’t it time we all stopped listening to Trump? I mean, he never really was the President of the United States. By his own clearly voluntary acts and omissions he never tried. He is, was and continues to be the same clueless cult leader of an odd following to say the least he has always been since day one.
Oh, there will be any number of books, books, and more books written, interviews given, new networks dedicated to whatever flavor of hatred strikes their fancy that week, but there will always be one undeniable truth that we should never make the mistake of overlooking again. First and foremost, there is no Trump or for that matter even a Republican Party anymore without the allure of rampant, outright racism made palatable for an alarmingly large percentage of the American population.
Take the time to think back, evaluate what you have seen and heard for yourself over the past few years. If you are like me, you are still simultaneously amazed and horrified by the sheer amount of propaganda, outright lies and video tape spent trying to convince the public they are better off with an incompetent, insane and unfit but who as an avowed racist (when he needs to be) president who “speaks” for them so they don’t have to.
There are so many people today that believe “American” only include persons who are white, religious, and not necessarily rich, but it doesn’t hurt for in the world of the Prosperity Gospel, its fatal flaw placing the value of wealth before good works as a sign of celestial favor.
There are so many people willing to trade their very souls in an openly Faustian bargain based upon the opportunity to commence with the degradation of their brothers and sisters as a sign of superiority. The problem is nothing except possibly a virus or a social disease works that way. When we attack anyone’s right to use their God given talents and in the name of all that is just and right, goodness for the sake of goodness, and the good of all, We, the People suffer.
We all bear the loss of what could have been. We lose the cure for the incurable and along with it hope for those with none, only the promise of deterioration of mind, body and spirit until death. Yet 47.2% or a staggering 73,923,495 at least at last count before Trump starts another useless recount and Biden’s totals go up, feverishly believe in social norms and tenets familiar to the 17th Century as the logical alternative to simply admitting they don’t like people of different colors, faiths, economic class and so on. So little time and so many people to blame for the inability to see one’s shortcomings as the true reason behind at least the perception of one’s own failures.
I find it very difficult to take someone seriously who won’t even say what they are thinking. Rush Limbaugh and his “Ditto Heads” comes to mind. Spewing out all that hatred and vitriol in a manner guaranteed to please all but the hardest of the hardcore bigots among us. All for the price of not taking responsibility, but for the right to have someone else speak for the release of your darkest, inner demons under the comfortable guise of being “one of them”.
As if two racists united in their misplaced beliefs are more “right” than one, even though they are both intrinsically and from the word go, wrong. Think about this one. Make America Great Again. What did that actually mean? The obvious inquiry would be to find that time where and go back to when, America was great. The MAGA chose a time in our history I would argue most resembles America in the mid-1800s.
This was a time where the issue of whether America would tolerate the continuation of slavery was still a fairly wide open question. I point directly at the Missouri Compromise of 1850 as my ground zero for the average MAGA’s dream time where America was truly still very racist, and yes, at least in their minds, great.
The Missouri Compromise was an agreement to split the territories captured during the Mexican-American War and those acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, and in the process, grant statehood to Maine, a free state, and dividing the remaining territories into slave and non-slave states along the southern border of Missouri. Fashioned as a way to avoid Civil War, it didn’t and proved only that Abraham Lincoln was right, meaning, a house divided cannot stand.
Should we today make the same mistake? Isn’t it time we all put on our big-boy pants and admitted the obvious? The only conclusion being a large part of our electorate believes racism to be in integral part of what makes America great? That lower taxes are worth the continuation of an entirely toxic hatred, fear and loathing? How can the rational, reasonable mind make this diabolic trade? But they do.
What are some of the truly great moments in our history? Certainly 1776 when we declared our independence from a tyrant would qualify. Lee’s surrender after the Battle of Appomattox in 1865 and the Union’s inevitable victory thereafter in the US Civil War.
Ask yourself, what good ever came out of the Reconstruction? The Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws? Was separate but equal ever “equal”? Not in the least nor was it ever meant to be. As a practical matter, how can separation ever lead to equality? Don’t think too long or hard for an example. You won’t find one.
What I can identify for you as actual moments of greatness in American society invariably led to a greater understanding of our brothers and sisters and the value inclusion and de-segregation all for the betterment our society. Jackie Robinson breaking the previously sacrosanct major league baseball color-line in 1947. The end of World War II leading to the elimination of racial segregation in the US Military.
The US Supreme Court decision by Earl Warren in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). In 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger and we haven’t touched any of the civil rights victories of the 1960s. And so, what were those acts of outright racism during those years that made us great? Hit me up if you think of one. I can’t. It appears to me acts filled with unity and inclusion, love, kindness, empathy and love are what has always made us great.
Humor me for a second or two and try this. If you remove from your vocabulary words like Republican, GOP, MAGA, anything remotely having to do with Trump, and exchange those terms with “racist”, “nationalist” let’s throw in “blessed by avarice of all that glitters gold” the insanity, madness even in its current magnitude, suddenly makes sense. Yes?
I will not so fondly remember many of the seriously stupid and disgusting excuses I heard over the years that in no way shape or form could possibly be set forward as an excuse to practice racism, but here are some of them. Several right wing-nuts (insert racists) had no problem telling me on numerous occasions they didn’t mind Trump’s racism because Obama was a racist.
This was usually followed by Obama put children in cages too, so I, Trumper (racist) have no problem with Trump (The Racist) making it official US policy leading to purposeful mistreatment and culminating in the blatant separation of families, or perhaps forced sterilization, as yet more scare tactics all with the unfortunate side-effects of at least unnecessarily hurting and yes, killing innocent men, women and children in the process.
But this is reality and reality does not work with this banana republic loving bunch blinded by their bile and blight and either incapable, unwilling or both, to examine the rotten fruits of their vile to the core far less than Garden of Eden. All snake with none of the added attractions or fixer-upper charm. Sad really. America is not great when it forgets how we got great in the first place. Life, liberty with justice for all.
In short, America has never been great when dabbling in the illusion of exclusion from the mainstream those who are Americans, by right, including birth, naturalization, immigration and hopefully soon, a bigger, brighter and better immigration policy and system based on strength and growth through diversity and acceptance. Must we continue to tolerate the intolerable? I say no.
Trump will soon be gone but he will leave behind a legacy of emboldened miscreant-believers that the overthrown of America is not only possible but desirable. They will rant and rave for the MAGA movement to rise again. But, just like the south, it won’t. Except maybe Georgia? Now that is something to look forward to, isn’t it?
Note: Tomorrow at 1:00pm I will be doing my year end PET scan and if all goes well, I will be off the sauce with all eyes on the future. As always, your thoughts, prayers, well wishes, and healing light are always welcome. Namaste be on you.
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