Too many Americans forget their origins: Unless you’re a Native American, you’re an immigrant or descended from immigrants. At one time, the poem on the Statue of Liberty was a clarion call for all who seek refuge in the US. Now DHS and ICE have basically edited it to say, “Give me your tired, your poor, your hidden masses…but only if Mr. Trump wants them here.”

What do a lot of autocrats have in common with Trump? If your answer is “fascism,” you’re right, but what fascists create is an us-versus-them polemic that haters and bigots feed on like Dracula, AKA many Trump supporters in the US. Trump uses refugees and immigrants as scapegoats and calls them migrants and invaders to create that us-versus-them picture. Never mind that his wife and her parents are immigrants; never mind that he himself is the descendant of immigrants. He still includes them in the class of “us” and anyone he despises in the class of “them,” including persons who were born here. All dreamers (DACA kids) are in the class of “them,” for example, and he told the Squad (that name was unfortunately created by those four new reps in Congress) they should go back to where they came from, never mind they’re all Americans.

Trump does this so his supporters have someone to hate. Although he’s a complete racist, he couldn’t use the Jews like Hitler did, but any fascist worth his vitriol knows that the wannabe autocrat must create a “them” so people can circle the wagons around the “us.” It’s a standard fascist tactic, and unfortunately it works. Trump was elected after all by people who are haters and bigots, and that group includes the Christian right. Trump didn’t win the popular vote—there are too many people who don’t become that extreme in their hate, racism, and bigotry—but the votes were distributed well enough to allow him to eke out a win using the Electoral College.

Of course, Trump is far too moronic to come up with that us-versus-them idea himself. In 2016, his handlers, Bannon and Miller, created the current immigration policy, if we can call it that. In spite of American industry pleading for more workers of all types, Trump and his minions want to close the country’s borders to all of “them” so they can concentrate their fascism on controlling and exploiting the “us,” with the privileged circle of “us” starting with the Trump family and becoming ever smaller as time goes on. Anyone not favoring Trump becomes one of “them.”

Immigration policy, the old version, became more of a problem over the years as people realized that quotas and so forth, as well as a lack of a path toward citizenship, lead to inequities. Trump and his minions, instead of reforming the system and working to eradicate its many flaws, something that’s difficult but not impossible, turned it upside down, making it something that those old Nazis would be proud of. That was the easy way out—Trump is just too lazy and too fascist to think beyond that (he won’t even read his national security briefs!). And Trump’s supporters, the marching morons, who like many Germans in the 1930s, look the other way and ignore all the human pain and suffering. They’re so brainwashed they’ve become lemmings who will follow their leader right over the cliff…any cliff!

There are many fronts in this war against Trumpism and Trumpers. Immigration is an important one. Racism is another. And these two are linked. And they are two ills afflicting our society that go far beyond conventional politics. Of course, Trump isn’t at all conventional; he’s a dangerous aberration. Fascists don’t have an ideology or care about political parties. All they care about, Trump included, are themselves. In their opinion, they’re at the pinnacle of the “us,” after all, and all people in the class of “them” must bow down to the top dog…otherwise, he will throw them in the class of “the” and bite “them,” as Trump is intent on doing as an expression of the absolute power he thinks he wields.

Let’s make sure this sick individual is gone come January, 2021. Vote for Biden.

***

Added note: I’m getting barraged with “surveys” asking me to “vote” for a Dem VP nominee to stand with Mr. Biden. These surveys are annoying to say the least, as most surveys are, and the number indicates that the political dog packs are sharing lists. So much for privacy! But to throw those dogs some bones, I’ll indicate my choices here in order of preference (the surveys don’t allow that): Susan Rice, Tammy Duckworth, and Val Demings. My first choice was Amy Klobuchar, but she bailed out; she could have helped Biden in those swing states. Demings could help him in Florida, but they might be ready to vote Trump out, although their governor, who’s a Trump lackey, is really the problem. Susan has creds as Obama’s UN ambassador and NSA, while Tammy is an Iraq war veteran and senator. Both Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren have far too much baggage and will help the cause better by staying in the US Senate. What about Bernie? Who’s that? I haven’t heard a peep from him for a while, and his time has come and gone, especially with all the important modern issues he just couldn’t seem to get a handle on, although the healthcare topic is heating up (Trump just asked SCOTUS to kill it again). Besides, old Joe, like me, knows there’s too much testosterone in politics.

***

Comments are welcome.

Binge-reading #1. Reading an entire series certainly qualifies as binge-reading…and why not? The books in the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” are examples of those rare kinds of thriller David Baldacci, Lee Child, Jeffrey Deaver, James Patterson,  and others might want to write but can’t: Each sci-fi novel in this trilogy is a big thrill ride. Full Medical is about a conspiracy where world leaders make sure they have enough body parts as they age; you’ll meet the clones. Evil Agenda is about an evil genius who’s out to take over the world; the clones are still around to try to stop him, and they’re joined by a mutant warrior. No Amber Waves of Grain is about a North Korean industrialist who’s out for revenge against the West; the clones team up with that first evil genius to try and stop him—but Chinese and Russians are lurking around too. The entire series can be found on Amazon and Smashwords and at all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and lending and library services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker&Taylor, Gardners, etc.). Many entertaining hours of reading await you.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2020 at 3:15 am and is filed under OpEds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.