After years of extolling the virtues of the Great American society, the Constitution and the values which underpins it, one Presidential election in 2016, other than the forty four before it has ripped the scab off the festering sore growing subdurally on the body Politik of the American State, exposing the tattered fabric of a Society at war with itself.
Unlike many of the pundits and wise men who have thus far pronounced on this matter, I see not two Americas but three. An unholy troika of disparate factions, each vying to hold on, preserve and protect what is "their" concept of America, their cultures, their values, their ways of life.
In earlier times optimism drove the conversation. The Indians were lost on the reservations. the slave off-springs had had their Mlk moment and had been pacified, or bottled up in the hoods, the factory towns, were manufacturing and white reigned supreme, cloaked in the Constitution and the American flag, all was honky dorry, in the land of the free and the home of the brave.And then....the twin evils of Technology and Globalization happened. In less than a decade the factory towns went to bed in Middle America and awoke in China, transferring millions of jobs overnight. Whatever factories that remained Stateside, now required less than one third of the manpower operating the new high tech machines to produce as much goods as it's predecessors.
The Deplorable Right
This state of affairs has lead economically challenged whites, to coalesce into groups such as the Tea Party, the KKK, Aryan Nation, and white supremacist groups, which appealed to the baser qualities inherent within their psyche. All it takes is one provocateur to shout, "The Indians are coming circle up the wagons," except today's modern day Indians are any non white, poor, or individual espousing other than "Hard right" views.
This Group together with Conservative ideologues, and Big Money men committed to hold on to power by any means necessary, using the naive, the uneducated, and the unsophisticated as foot-soldiers and mercenaries. Their mission was to whitewash all things Obama from their sacred White House, and exorcise the demons his presence left lurking in the shadows. If Donald Trump did not exist, that Group would have invented him. A braggadocios, ignoramus tool, available to be used by anyone who paid any attention to their teacher in High school class.
The Progressive/Independent Middle.
Unbound by party affiliation, and with a healthy aversion to all things traditional, they seek to negotiate that winding path which would lead to their perceived principles, regardless of what pragmatism dictates. The sought champions like Bernie Sanders, who, while espousing worthy ideals, totally disregard the environment and political climate in which they are operating. So the sower went out to sow his seed, to raucous cheers of "Bernie or Bust!', some seed fell among the rocks, and some fell upon arid ground, Bernie went bust, and we ended up busted, with Donald Trump.
The Liberal, live and let live, Left.
Young White Americans who grew up idolizing, Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Kobe Jay Z, and LeBron, are as different from their Right-wing cuzzins as a plantain from a rock fig. They are much more educated, whether from College or the internet, much more open to different people and different aspects of life. To them an immigrant is a human being from another part of planet Earth, not an alien from outer space. They appreciate that change is life, its natural, its the human condition, not something to fear, or fight.
But all is not doom and gloom. History is not on the side of the Hard right. I see them holding on to their tattered dreams, by aging cracked and desiccated claws before dropping into the inferno which is waiting to consume their antiquated, draconian and antisocial world views. In 20 years, the USA will truly be the land of the free and home of the brave. Cheers.
