The success of Donald Trump in the Republican primary is the direct result of eight years of the Republican hate machine. He is the incarnation of Republican ideology in its purest form without any additives or sweeteners. The Republican Party for the first time in a decade is taking a look in the mirror and realizing what they’ve become.
The Donald is a demagogue who peddles straight Republican heroin and as the country is finding out, Fox News has created incredible demand. I had thought that as a country we would be smart enough to not fall for demagoguery but I was wrong; well at least I was wrong for the Republican voting half, it remains to be seen for the overall race.
From what I’ve read Donald Trump will alienate us from the rest of the world if not set us at war with many countries at once. Not only that but he will persecute our own population: Muslim citizens will be registered in a database -who knows how many other groups would follow – and a good part of the Mexican community would be target as well.
Writing these words I am in awe. It feel as though they should belong to a history report for some European or Baltic country pretty much anytime before 1942. And right now, before we hit Super Tuesday there is a decent possibility that it could turn true with the only hope being that the citizens of the USA are smart enough to pick the democratic candidate in the general election. It is all too easy to hold on to this faith, this belief, that the citizens of the USA are smart enough to realize that the path of isolation, war and persecution is the wrong one. That belief however, has been waining this past month looking at crowd after crowd of real people, real human beings that are alive today, waiving Trump signs with enormous smiles on their faces.
What is really difficult to understand is that the majority of these people are Christians. Christianity promotes the opposite of building walls, of going to war. Christianity is about loving and helping each other. I write these words and feel as though I’m writing for a first grade CCD class but know that should these words be said in front of a Trump crowd the speech would get booed and there might even be some aggression.
The whole affair just doesn’t make sense. Just to sum up we have Christians that support war and walls and even though we have more access to knowledge and citizens going to universities than ever before, people are still falling for the same tricks that have been used throughout history to gain quick support. There is a perceived wrong, there is agitation to validate the anger the wrong creates, we all go to war and kill each other until the anger dissipates from complete exhaustion and loss of life; and then we take a break. The historians teach the error of our ways which allowed such loss of life to happen and all the students are glad that we live in more enlightened times and that something like this certainly wouldn’t happen again. And then it happens again.
I read a Time Magazine piece on Trump yesterday which was very conciliatory and respectful of the man. It confused me because I still don’t understand why there is not complete outrage about building a database to track certain citizens of our population. That should have disqualified any candidate but instead seems to only have made him more popular! Then to have a respected publication do a piece on him that just might garner more voters I end up completely baffled.
Another of Trump’s promises is that the USA is going to go over to Iraq’s oil fields and take the oil. So, I might have a few facts mistaken but from what I know of history the super short version goes like this: World War One creates various countries in the Middle East out of the remnants of Ottoman Empire. The victorious powers lump tribes and people together that absolutely hate each other. Over time victorious countries continue to meddle in each country until dictators take things over. But the powers that be continue to meddle with the Persian Gulf war, Libya, Iraq war and so on.
Over the past eight years the involvement of the USA becomes more limited which is what the voters voted to do. Now, Trump is advocating that we go back in a big way and everyone cheers. It seems to me that these people cheering are about as intellectually complex as my patio furniture.
The powers of the West have been involved in other countries affairs since boats could first carry an army! I guess my point here is that I’m upset stupid people have the power to elect someone who advocates that we go back to war in a region that has been a mess since the Ottomans went away. Yes, I understand that there are some compelling geopolitical reasons to stay involved but hasn’t meddling just created more meddling? I mean the result has been a complete mess and has never gotten better in almost 100 years of meddling!
It seems to me that this constant tug of war is not going to end and could very well lead to world war three. Nobody would have imagined that the Archduke getting shot would lead to millions and millions of deaths nor would anyone have thought “the world” would again be at war so soon after all that carnage. Just like my schoolchildren example above, it looks like we’re about to all go to war again which will cause future schoolchildren to wonder in amazement how we could be so dumb.
