Examples to Learn From

The Power Structure of this country appears to be doing everything it can to prop up the unfortunate "election" of Donald Trump to the Presidency. It's quite a remarkable scene when you think about it.

Not only is he unsuited to the office, he's totally unprepared and obviously at sea as the reality of what he's in for engulfs him. I'd be laughing if it weren't such a dangerous situation for so many Americans and people around the world.

Truly, I don't think he expected to win the office and he was quite prepared to hector Hillary from the sidelines, probably from his own TeeVee show and network set up and run by his compadre Roger Ailes. That's what I believe they were going for and expected to do. It would make them lots of money and serve as a brake on a Hillary White House.

In other words, they expected to play the Opposition Game the way it's been played by the Right for decades -- and to profit from it handsomely.

Had that happened, there would be grumpiness and grumbling from Trump loyalists to be sure, but he would have been able to give them a whole alternate universe in which to lick their wounds and do virtual battle against The Hag -- until she was either driven from office or so tied up in knots her regime would be declared a failure. Blah blah blah. It seems to me the groundwork was already done for this enterprise, and all they needed was a Hillary victory to launch. Stars and dollar signs were in their eyes.

And then... the unthinkable happened. They were given the Presidency instead. Now there will be no launch. No dollar signs. No alt.universe for their Loyalists to play in. This is as real as it gets.

Jeebus dancing on a Ritz. Whose idea was this? Well, it is what it is, and I imagine I'll be exploring it for some time to come. I had little interest in the campaign and the candidates while that shit-show was going on, but we're here now, and my interest in what to do about it is pretty intense.

He was given the keys to the Kingdom, and he's obviously as stunned as everyone else is. The Caucasian Id has been unleashed -- to what object I don't know, but there it is. White folks running wild doing what they want to whoever they decide to Other. It's ugly now and getting uglier. The worst of it is falling on the children, the brown, the black, the differently abled, the suspected queer, the suspected Muslim, or anyone at all who doesn't fit the New Model (White) Conformity.

That id has largely been kept in check for generations, and now it's let loose again to prey at will on the different and the vulnerable. Whose idea is this? What is the freaking purpose?

The United States has long since ceased to be a 'White' country, unlike some of the revanchist nations of Europe which have been reclaiming their 'Whiteness' in the face of the brown hordes of refugees driven from their homes (by EuroAmerican Imperialist destruction) in the Middle East and North Africa.

Until 'this' happened, Americans seemed quite content not to be 'White' any more, and the election of Barack Obama (twice) was supposed to be redemptive proof. He's still a very popular president. The efforts to turn him into a caricature and to "Nigger-ize" him never worked. At least not that I ever saw, but then, I'm not keyed in to the alt.White universe. I don't know how those people think. I don't know what they believe. I don't even know who they are or where they are.

It's just alien to me.

At least from my point of view these people are simply fringe, free to believe whatever they want, but not free -- until now -- to act on it.

Now they feel they've been liberated, and their Champion is going into the White House.

America will be White and Right again! Yay!

Why would Our Betters want this to happen? Why would they allow it to happen? Why are they trying so hard to prop it up? What's the deal here?

Obama himself is part of this process of propping up the inconceivable. He's been going out of his way to be kind and generous and welcoming and helpful to the Incoming Inconceivable, extending his hand and opening his heart, yadda yadda, which is not only eye-popping, but is also deeply disturbing. WTF, Dude?

Whoa. Something's going on we don't know anything about. Things are not what they appear.  But maybe we got a hint of it when Michelle Obama so warmly embraced War Criminal George W. Bush at the opening of the Museum of African American Culture a few months ago. That was really shocking to a lot of people who sincerely believe that man should be in the dock at The Hague. Until he is, he should be shunned. But no. The Obamas and the Bushes and the Clintons -- and the Trumps? -- are all very good friends. Well, maybe the Trumps will be brought into the Circle if they ever get their act together enough to warrant inclusion. They haven't done so yet, but they're being given every opportunity. Why?

And what do we do about it?

Always we're being told just to calm down, accept the inevitable, don't fight it, everything will be fine, "he's not as bad as you think," yadda yadda, and I'm sorry, no, we're not going to just roll over for Trump, not this time...

I'm so old that I've heard this same litany about rightists installed in office -- going back to Reagan's gubernatorial victory in California in 1966. Every time, the same litany has been repeated: "Just calm down, accept it, 'he's not as bad as you think', everything will be fine." And every time it gets worse.

Every fucking time.

Reagan's election in 1966 was considered catastrophic at the time. Many innocents would be hurt. And guess what? It was and they were. Almost exactly as predicted. And so it's gone with every subsequent reiteration of Rightist Rule, over and over and over again.

And now this.

No, not again. Not when it is so obvious that something is dreadfully wrong with our electoral process, and not when he himself has no inkling of what to do now or even, seemingly, how he got this prize.

WTF?

I despise what he did during the campaign, boosting White Supremacy, inciting violence, and conning so many people into believing his bullshit. That all has violent and destructive repercussions on the innocent playing out right now. What he did was release the Caucasian Id from any restraint, sowing the wind. He will reap the whirlwind, but in the meantime a lot of people who shouldn't be hurt will be.

That's happening right now.

He told his followers to "Stop it!" as one would tell a dog, but they're not stopping. Why should they? In their mind, their victims deserve it. They lost! Oh, jeebus.

So what do we do?

Among the examples to learn from are the Water Protectors now and for months facing down Authority run amok in North Dakota. Other examples include the rebels in Ireland who ultimately defeated the British. The independence movement in India which eventually led to the exit of the British Empire. Anti-colonialists everywhere, including our own 18th Century revolution. The Zapatistas. And on and on.

Examples not to follow include SYRIZA in Greece, bless their hearts. It appears the Socialists everywhere are simply exhausted and out of steam. They have nothing much to offer any more, and they are obviously too willing to concede to their opponents almost before the struggle is engaged. Does that sound like the Democratic Party as well? Of course it does.

But make no mistake, the Democrats are just as much captive to the neoLibeCon, aristocratic ruling clique as are the Republicans, as are nearly all ruling parties throughout the West and much of the rest of the world.

The struggle we must engage in now is ultimately against that entire ruling ideology. Though we have to take it one step at a time.

I cite the examples I do because each of them based their struggle on simple principles: sovereignty, self-worth and spiritual renewal. If you think about it, that's what many of the White Rightists after too, only they want what they want in order to harm others, not to lift them up.

In other words, while the struggle we must engage in may be similar to that of the White Right, the objectives are quite different.

Strategies and tactics of where we go from here are actually very well worked out long since, the rule book of how to do it is already written. We don't have to reinvent the wheel, but we have to resist efforts to divide us (Shut up, Democratic "helpers" -- you're not helping!)  and we must be aware of and  remain focused on the end game -- why we fight, in other words.

We will win, though probably not in my lifetime.

You never know, though. As we've seen, things can change in a twinkling.