Sunday morning show political gabber George Stephanopoulos asked the one-time candidate for House Speaker, Steve Scalise, “Can you say unequivocally the 2020 election was not stolen?” {Stop me if you have heard this answer before}, “So you keep rehashing 2020. We’re talking about the future…,” answered Scalise. That was the fifth iteration of Scalise’s evasive answer. That line from Republicans is usually followed by talk of the border, gas prices, and the price of groceries. As someone living on a retirement income, the cost of fuel and groceries plays a significant part in my life, so I am not minimizing the struggle. Having said that, if anyone has noticed, the four-dollar price for a dozen eggs a year ago has been cut in half in my area. The price for a gallon of gas in America is amongst the lowest of any industrialized country—as much as I would like it to return to the days of my buddies and I pooling our pocket change for a tank of gas, those times have long gone, never to return.
Moving past the nostalgic wishes of a thirty-cent dozen eggs, America has much more to lose: freedom. In a year, we are on track to have a large portion of America voting for Autocracy over Democracy. Even more dangerous is a seeping theocracy that could see decisions based on one religion. We know that one party in America has abandoned any sense of moral decency when their presidential frontrunner has been adjudicated to have raped writer E. Jean Carroll and been judged to have committed financial fraud but is still the leading vote-getter in the GOP. Literally, as I put thoughts to the cyber cloud, the former President is sparring with Judge Engoron in a New York City courtroom, trying to avoid paying what he owes the state taxpayers.
The rise of Donald Trump says a lot more about his followers than it does about the man. Touting racism, xenophobia, sexism, and abstract fear of the other, the bigots have found their voice. Cloaking themselves in the shroud of economic anxiety to disguise their hatred of non-white- non-Christians, Trump has turned the Ronald Reagan dial to twenty. Then, California Governor Reagan, in a phone call with Richard Nixon, referred to the UN African delegates as “Monkeys.”“To watch that thing [a 1971 vote by the UN to recognize China, instead of the US ally Taiwan] on television, as I did, to see those, those monkeys from those African countries – damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!” Reagan said to Nixon as the two exploded in laughter. Capitalizing on the cheers from racists and xenophobes when he called Mexicans rapists and murderers, Mr. Trump furthered Mr. Reagan’s Africa comment calling Africa and Haiti “sh*thole countries.” Ignoring the fact the former President does not know Africa is a continent and not a country, his apparent disdain for black and brown people is contemptible but wholly American.
Reminiscing The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Congressman Ryan Zinke (R-MT), Trump’s former Interior Secretary, introduced what can only be termed the Palestinian Exclusion Act. In a press release titled “Zinke Introduces Bill to Expel Palestinians from the United States.” In summary, it would direct the Department of Homeland Security to “identify and remove covered aliens without lawful status,” including those whose lawful status had just been revoked. The attacks on black and brown people in and out of America and acceptance of bigotry by conservatives are an ominous sign of a return to a time when gasoline was thirty cents a gallon and schools were segregated; you remember—In the Good Old Days.
Vote Against Guns