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Trump and junkyard dogs [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-09-22  

Out in the high desert of California, not far from Death Valley and Hinkley—made famous by Erin Brockovich or infamous by PG&E—, there’s a near ghost town called Red Mountain (pop ~125) where many have given up, except for a few who still hope to strike it rich mining, over 100 years after a little gold was discovered. I drive past this junkyard sometimes, with its rusted out vehicles, containers & trailers, surrounded by a pit bull fence. This scene repeats with different emphasis across the country: the guy in upstate New York who put up his own billboard size photo of Hunter Biden stepping off a Chinese plane, the rancher in Utah with Confederate Battle Flags, “I love coal” bumper stickers in Boebert’s district, the plaintive pleas to pray for Trump in the middle, the stark demands for obedience at church or burn in eternal hell-fire in the southeast, fearful whispers that “our country is gone”, dark flags of black & blue or assault weapons, and the guy in my town who asks anyone who doesn’t kneel before both the flag & cross to leave “our country”. These folks may not have much, but they aren’t cheap or modest with their Trump signs, a few that will long outlive him.

How did we get here? How did so many Americans find their way to the wrong side of truth, justice and the American way? Were they brainwashed or manipulated by the rich & powerful? Why is there an affinity between billionaires and life’s losers? Romney claims that their political leaders are afraid of their mob—“I vote against the interest of my country out of fear for my family’s safety”—, so what happened?

American history is pretty simple, if you step back and are completely honest. Economic & religious refugees, mostly, arrived from Europe with minimal documentation and wiped out huge numbers of indigenous people with disease. Jefferson bought the rights to colonize the middle of the continent, and the natives were repeatedly forced out, notably when President Jackson defied the Supreme Court to remove all the natives he could find east of the Mississippi, women children & elderly on foot, some men in chains marched to Oklahoma. Then after Mexico gained independence from Spain, the US invaded and took half their native lands, doubling US territory. The stolen land was worked mostly by slave labor, benefiting whites with cheap goods and services, until the Civil War. Then the Homestead Act stole even more native lands to give mostly to whites, again often poorly documented economic migrants from Europe. The military used artillery and automatic weapons to wipe out many native villages, because white people were afraid. Still pioneers took more land than they had clear rights to and even established a whites-only state in Oregon. Chinese built railroads and levees but were excluded from settling for decades. Americans of Japanese descent lost their homes and businesses when they were imprisoned for being ‘an enemy race’. Basically, many white people have voted for policies that benefited their race at the expense of other races for two hundred years.

Many politicians have recognized this political power, and many fortune hunters have exploited it. Entitlement is the affinity among the politicians, billionaires and the exurban, disaffected conspiracists. All three groups feel entitled to whatever they want, feel that the laws should apply not to them but to others, and arrogantly believe their view of the world is the only correct view and that the rest of us are wrong and only worthy of being trampled or pushed aside. They never learned the kindergarten lesson about sharing. Trump, Murdoch and some folks who own junkyards share only the same sneering contempt, snarling greed and bullying bark.

The Republican descendants of the white diaspora still live in small towns on stolen land with pioneer statues and memorials for soldiers (but not for the massacred original inhabitants), and they do not care about fairness, justice, laws, liberty, freedom or the Constitution. They only ever supported democracy when it supported them. They want what their ancestors wanted: for their government to bully others into submission, make them obey their rules and give them free stuff. They will talk endlessly about liberty, until a boy wants to wear a dress to prom. They talk about faith, until someone seeks a permit for a Mosque or says that their belief allows abortion. They talk about loving nature, until a big employer want to pollute. They talk about proudly displaying guns, but stay silent when their cops shoot a black boy holding a toy. They complain about welfare in cities, while their towns survive on government payments. They demand respect for the flag and for our troops, without recognizing that most of those who gave their lives did so for “liberty and justice for all”.

Despite the history, rural Republicans deny their ancestors ever did anything wrong or received any special treatment or benefits. They are furious that economic immigrants receive any benefits today. And they deny that they are bigoted in any way, while they vote to restrict representation for and voting by black citizens. White American males have been the most privileged demographic group on earth for 200 years, but the Republicans among them claim both victimhood and the right to retribution. They are twisted, delusional hypocrites and liars and some are dangerous and a few are my neighbors.

And yet we are polite to them. Most of us here learned right and wrong in school or at home or from our friends or from books, and we choose to live on the right side of history, even if our ancestors benefited from being on the wrong side. We know that white males are over-represented in positions of power, in advertising and in entertainment. We know that white people are stereotypically portrayed as powerful, intelligent, brave heroes who overcome all obstacles to gain the wealth and respect their characters deserve. With few exceptions, the highest paid people on screen are white men. This racism and sexism is the system in which we all still live. But we recognize the need to change it, and they want to keep it. Fair versus unfair. Good versus evil.

So being polite to them perpetuates evil. The media put on a show of respect for these white Republicans, even when they are completely wrong about facts, spout conspiracies and patently lie to their faces. Our political leaders try to parse their speech to avoid causing any offense or saying anything that might sound critical. If a brave woman dares call their behavior ‘deplorable’, that’s an unrecoverable scandal. But Trump’s true voters are only a subset of white people. In 2020 he won non-Hispanic whites by 12 points and 40% of whites voted against him. Where’s the respect for those 40%, or for the truth, or for America? Trump’s voters are not the majority, and many of them no longer believe in our democracy. Look at the photo above: many are life’s losers. But they are still treated like nobility. And Trump is their King.

Well, it’s about time that someone started telling them “no” or better yet, “NO!” Bad behavior must be corrected, not rewarded. Lies won’t stop until the liars are confronted and made to stop lying. Violence and threats are unacceptable. Enough with the cheating, obstruction and irresponsible acts. We can’t be afraid of these stupid, mean and dishonest men anymore, and nobody who opposes a fair election and supports a criminal for President deserves any respect. No more olive branches, listening politely or meeting bigoted idiotic fascists halfway. Not a single day should go by without someone saying plainly that believing in conspiracy theories is stupid, that Fox News lies constantly about everything important to further enrich a billionaire, that Trump obviously broke many laws repeatedly, that white Christian nationalism is dangerous un-American bigotry, that guns are out of control and killing children, that the Climate Crisis is real and must be dealt with effectively immediately, that Putin and global fascism must be stopped, and that Republican policies are killing many Americans needlessly.

This site focuses on that message, with both passion and facts, when much of the rest of the country hasn’t yet figured it out fully. Sure, there are some soft-headed distractions—easily ignored. The old minority view here that ‘Trump is just a poor, confused child who doesn’t know what he’s doing and can’t be held responsible as he is ill’, has been replaced by realism. Like all the racist leaders in history, Trump knows exactly what to say to activate his racist base, and they know what he means viscerally regardless of the words he uses, because they recognize and identify with and share his hate. Most of us can finally hear his dog-whistles, and now we know what to expect: fear and cowardice among his enablers, adoration of his base and violence from his extremists. So enough of all the soft-pedal excuses and mealy-mouthed compromising. Trump is an experienced liar, a lifelong committed bigot, a greedy cheat, a cruel bully, a rapist, a skilled demagogue and a clear and present danger to the country and anyone he interacts with. The sooner he’s imprisoned, the better off we will all be.

But the problem remains in those who responded to the dog-whistles from the start. The mean-spirited, unkind, selfish, blindly bigoted, stupid and cruel base of Trump supporters. Even though some are armed and again threatening civil war, they must be brought to heel, and taught a long-overdue lesson. They are not entitled to any more illegal benefits in America, and they never were. They are not entitled to whitewash history. Unfair mistakes of the past must be admitted and corrected, when possible. There’s one flag and one set of laws for all of us, and we must be scrupulously fair always. And no more heel-dragging, dishonesty or complaining about tackling the Climate Crisis and all the other problems we need to address: “ain’t nobody got time for that”.

Here’s what everyone except the pundits already knows. Do you know the real reason the polls say we’re exhausted with politics and unhappy with government? It’s because we’re angry. I have been frustrated with Republicanism since I learned how to think, but I’ve never been this angry for this long. And I’m not alone. We’re all sick and tired of the mollycoddling wishy-washy milquetoast lack of a sufficiently-urgent-and-effective response to the obviously dangerous situation we face. We want the Senate to tell Tuberville to sit down and shut up and get the job done. We want the House to tell off the crazy caucus and do the same. In short we want someone to stand up to these lying, entitled hypocritical white Republican males and tell them “NO!” And while it will be the cathartic enema that the country needs, to watch Fani Willis prosecute Trump, we must not wait to speak out. We must not tire in working to elect more, better Democrats.

Joe Biden may not be the candidate I wanted, but he’s done plenty of good as President, without enough recognition. In many ways he’s exceeded my expectations, and frankly we have no choice but to unite against Trump and his fanatics. Yesterday, Hakeem Jeffries gave the clearest, no-nonsense response to MAGA extremist deal-breakers who are trying to extort the country by shutting down the government that I’ve heard in ages. The majority of the American people want the government to serve all of us fairly and responsibly. So I’m supporting Joe & Kamala’s reelection financially, and I support the brave honest journalism on this site.

And I will continue to provide updates here on my strange quest to visit the national parks by zero carbon emission vehicle, regardless of who calls me an elitist or tells me to be more humble. I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to make change. I will be writing a post soon about some of Joe’s new parks. And, yes, I know that when dogs are loved and well cared for, they are gentle, loving members of our families, who do not deserve to be compared to the flea-ridden Republicans above. Also, thanks to those who donated to earthquake relief in Morocco, which surpassed the original goal and has raised $23,000+ so far. Thanks for reading.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/22/2194470/-Trump-and-junkyard-dogs

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