This is such an interesting political time I cannot sit idly
by and watch it unfold sans comment. The
Trump Corollary is in high gear and the impact of the presence of this man in
our White House transcends simple models of conservatism and
progressiveness. He has via his own
mouth and tweets diminished his possible positive impact on our country and
accelerated the impact of base yearnings from those groups who are organized to
hate other groups. Undoing kindness,
tolerance, understanding and unity he has poured gasoline on the fire of
prejudice, hatred, intolerance and ignorance.
His staff and his party are abandoning his positions not right and left,
just right, (the left never supported him).
Most interesting is his loss of support among CEO’s, the military and
congressional Republicans. There apparently
is no group Trump is not capable of alienating, and unless your last name is
Pence or Conway there are no individuals immune to his attack, including the
mother of a murdered protester. I know
it would be safer to deal with loftier issues like Ann Coulter’s leg room on airline
flights, but the effect of Trump is like the reverse of the great asteroid
impact of 65 million years ago: species
we thought were long extinct have now re-emerged on the political landscape wreaking
havoc in a world not prepared for their carnivorous appetites.
I believe the simple phrase, “Make America Great Again”
encapsulates what we are now observing.
That phrase carried much meaning to many people in our country. People who were discontent with progress and
change and fearful of where they might stand when the smoke cleared were
emboldened by that phrase. It simply
meant we are not great anymore. We were,
but we are not now. And it means there
was a time in our history when we were great.
The theory is we should return to the values and policies of those times
and we will be great again. Sadly, nowhere
in our past were we as great as we were in November 2016. The phrase has also come to mean that nothing
done in the previous 8 years has merit and no one of the party of the previous
8 years has any sense. There are two
things Trump prays for at night, a Kenyan birth certificate and Clinton criminal
activity verified in emails. Neither
will ever appear.
When were we great?
It appears we were great during Ozzy and Harriet, My Three Sons, Leave
it to Beaver and Father Knows Best. We
were great when Anglos married Anglos, slept in twin beds, every household had
a working father and a stay-at-home mom, and kids never went without a good
school, good clothes and good meals. Women
knew their place. Blacks knew their
place. Everything was fine.
Frustrating to me is that so many things were horrible in
those days. Movies and TV did not depict
real Americana. Prejudice was
institutionalized. Women were kept under
the thumb and chained to the kitchen sink.
Women were limited to clerical roles in the work place. Bright women went to college and became
nurses or teachers, service roles, not leadership positions. Black Lists, casting couches, and separate racial
bathrooms and water fountains were the realities of those days. Children and adults with special needs were
kept at home. Pregnant women who were
not married went to stay with a relative until birth. Pregnant school girls were expelled. No movie studio would cast a Black as a lead,
nor a woman. It was all about the
handsome men and the starlets on their arms.
We were sick as a nation and blind to the notion that the phrase “all
men are created equal” meant all men regardless of race and religion and gender
identity; and all women.
I think that is the America Trump wants to return. He Rumpelstiltskinned the last 5
decades. He awoke as Archie Bunker. In reality, he is laughable as are the goons
and family members surrounding him. We
can never return to those days and I think he must know it even if he longs for
it. I remember science fiction movies of
that era and the scientists were all evil.
It was the regular guy who saved the day. So Trump does not like science and would
rather have people with no knowledge, experience, training or skill run the
show. After all, those are his
characteristics.
When I think of human civilization over the past 4,000 years
I recognize we have come a long way in the technology department, but not so
far in the social department. Early
scientists were persecuted for announcing that the earth was round not flat,
that the earth orbited the sun, not vice versa, and that life evolves. It is only in the past 100 years or so that
women have gained the right to vote and own property. 154 years ago slavery was legal in this
country. Around the world we still see
women forced to cover their heads and faces and denied education, we see an
active human trafficking trade, we see blatant racial discrimination and
religious persecution. We have not come
so far that we cannot remember those days.
But here we have come far from the days of persecution to arrive
at the days of reason and respect. We
must resist the return to those former days with everything we have. We must confront the dinosaurs who are now
apparently roaming free and let them know that their cause is not just immoral,
it is extinct. There are always those
who long for what they perceive to be the good old days, but they do so with
simple minds and antique memories. Everyone
who believes our best days were in the past should forfeit their cell phones
and computers and Novocain. Our hope is
not in the past. Our hope is in the
future. Don’t hate Trump. Resist his rear view mirror vision. Pity him.
Or better, just laugh at him. Our
future is does not lie in racism, misogyny, and anti-intellectualism. Our best future lies with pushing the
boundaries of science while expanding the civil rights of all human beings.
