The current POTUS is massively unpopular with the country at large but is incredibly popular with members of his party. If anything, we can deduce from this he is EXACTLY the president they want. And that, my friends, is a very bad omen.
For the longest time, those of us with roots in the Americas who learned from our older relatives—and in some instances witnessed it ourselves—what a US-backed and installed right-wing dictatorship looks like, have contemplated why it hasn’t happened here. Maybe it was a condescending ‘That’s fine for those savages, but we’re civilized here’ attitude that for decades kept those thoughts in check. But I’ve always wondered if somewhere, deep in the corridors of right-wing influence and power, over cigars and brandy, while dreaming of or actually plotting the destabilizing yet another foreign county and installing another strong man who’d kindly defer to big business interests while he stomps on his own people, the idea hasn’t been floated: ‘What if we did it here?’
And yes, I know what you’re thinking: I’m just another partisan dilettante yapping away. Sure, guilty as charged. But I’ve quoted him before and I’ll quote him again: “Just because you’re paranoid don’t mean they’re not after you.” Right you were, Kurt.
But seeing the process of delegitimizing the press, rigging elections, questioning patriotism, pointless military parades, etc. etc. etc. is of no surprise to me; I can vouch for the ugliness this portends and worry that most on our side of the political fence here in the US are still in ‘it can’t happen here’ mode. No? Ask yourself how many previously unthinkable things you’ve seen happen in this country over the last year and change. And ask yourself how comfortable you are with a third or maybe more of the country being absolutely fine with these previously unthinkable things.
It doesn’t happen overnight but it moves along steadily and insidiously. And when you have a corrupt government, supported by a number of people who mostly don’t have an issue with autocratic leadership—as long as they’re not on the business end of the 2 x 4 with a rusty nail on the tip—and a core who want to decimate those who believe, feel, live and think differently, how do you think that usually plays out?
Meanwhile, we’re hoping that the same people who wanted this and made it happen somehow become reasonable and let us appeal to their (chained to a wall in the basement) humanity. And that elections, which have now been proven to be easily tainted, will save the day.
Yeah, reminds me of a Judas Priest song.
