For Baby Boomers like this writer The Honeymooners television show was right on. One of Jackie Gleason’s funnier quotes was when, as Ralph Kramdon, he gave it to his wife Alice with ‘ You’re a regular riot Alice!’ Looking back after these three years I can serve that same ditty to Mr. Trump. The riot that he and his minions like to reclassify as a ‘ Peaceful Protest ‘ gone awry was nothing of the sort. Is he by any chance selling you that bridge in Brooklyn too? Peaceful Protest my ass! That mob of fools who followed their leader were participating in none other than an insurrection! We are also told that The Donald sat there in his safe and secure White House viewing the rumble on the Telly. All those law and order good citizens didn’t give a rat’s ass that they were pummeling Metro Police officers, sending one to the hospital for brain injuries and a stroke. Once the mob entered the Capitol Building they scared the shit out of most, if not all, of the Congress. Trump’s VP, who refused to follow Trump’s orders to stop the process, was rushed to safety by the Secret Service. You see, Trump gave the green light to his rioters to go after Pence for his ‘ Treasonous ‘ behavior. The signs ‘ Hang Mike Pence’, along with other epithets, littered the afternoon sky. Members of Congress hid inside the chambers, and some had guns drawn. Where was Trump loving Senator Josh Hawley, who earlier had ‘ fist pumped ‘ the mob? Josh baby was hiding too.
Ask yourself this: If a Black Lives Matter group had rushed to that Capitol building in protest what do you think might have transpired? Methinks that once they pushed past the Metro police and got close to the entrance we would have seen scores of dead bodies, black protestor bodies, lying there. You would have seen a national backlash against anyone who dared to stand up and protest police violence against unarmed blacks. This would have resonated throughout our nation, with both political parties joining in to sound off against that Capitol riot. Such is the state of our nation today. We don’t have to study what the Nazis did to Germany in the 1930s. We are on the precipice of viewing it IF the fascist Republican Party gains control of the presidency and the entire Congress.
Look what they are doing, with the aid of this super right wing controlled Supreme Court, to the women of America? Look at what is being done to the most vulnerable of us, our LBGTQ fellow citizens. People that the great journalist Chris Hedges calls Christian Fascists are taking over local school boards and many town, city and state legislatures. They are doing what the Nazis succeeded in doing to that once great nation of Germany: The banning of library books, even burning them, scapegoading ethnic minorities ( duh, like those not white), gay Americans, progressive minded citizens ( We are now ALL Marxists) and of course anyone who wants a woman’s right to choose. This becomes the ‘ New Normal’. Teaching the horrors of slavery is no longer in vogue. To paraphrase my governor Captain Ron: Under slavery at least those black folks learned skills.
As stated previously by yours truly, this phony populism that has conned so many of my neighbors and fellow citizens into a love of fascism, will force me to vote for the party opposite… just to keep these wolves from completely taking over. And believe you me, I have little to say nice about the Democratic Party except this: Vote for them, as Noam Chomsky has said, holding your nose.
Philip A Farruggio is regular columnist on itstheempirestupid website. He is also frequently posted on Countercurrents, Dissident Voice and the Nation of Change Blogs. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn NYC longshoremen and a graduate of Brooklyn College, class of 1974. Since the 2000 election debacle Philip has written over 500 columns on the Military Industrial Empire and other facets of life in an upside down America. He is also host of the ‘ It’s the Empire… Stupid ‘ radio show, co produced by Chuck Gregory. Philip can be reached at [email protected].
