So Donald Trump is now our president-elect!
Of course, the F.B.I.’s James Comey is the proximate cause of this disaster. His October Surprise intervention in the presidential campaign represents yet another coup by the ruling class to nullify grassroots democracy. It’s like the Supreme Court’s selection of George W. Bush back in 2000. This time however the F.B.I. is the agency of intervention on behalf of the elite.
In any case, Comey’s maneuver, like what happened 16 years ago, embodies the corruption of a system that needs to come down for reasons far beyond banana republic pre-election shenanigans.
After all, the American system with its burgeoning police state at home and its brutal imperialism abroad is responsible for most of the world’s problems: unending wars, oppression of poor people everywhere, planetary destruction by way of human-induced climate chaos, and reversion to pre-Magna Carta torture and imprisonment without charge or trial.
In the name of humanity, in the name of Mother Earth, then, the system just described has long deserved dissolution.
But how would such destruction occur? Until November 8th, it all seemed so entrenched – controlled by overwhelming military and law enforcement powers, not to mention a network of propaganda and miseducation that keeps citizens asleep and rebellion at bay.
Enter Donald Trump! Enter the U.S. electorate!
The election of Donald Trump represents (in Michael Moore‘s words) the Molotov Cocktail the desperate subconsciously required to destroy dysfunctional arrangements that no longer serve them. It’s like the Brits and Brexit. There too ordinary people refused to be led by the “experts.” They knew the system had to be destroyed. So they gave the middle finger to their “betters.”
Yes, Trump remains an absolute lout, and a know-nothing. He’s a climate-change denying sexist and racist xenophobe. But as such he makes clear to the entire world what “America” has become – what it in fact is: loud, boorish, fearful, uneducated, racist, sexist, domineering, undemocratic, and xenophobic. With his election, it is no longer possible to pretend otherwise.
Ironically, however, the Donald Trump version of us all might represent exactly what’s needed to spark and catalyze the revolution against everything he, our country and many of us have come to embody. He’s what’s required to destroy the system as we know it, and to coalesce revolutionary forces roiling just below the surface of contemporary American life.
So following his inauguration just watch the agents of revolution come together. I’m talking about:
· The civilized world
· Women tired of being objectified and harassed and underpaid
· Environmentalists
· Black Lives Matter activists
· “Fight for Fifteen” workers
· The new First People’s Movement resisting installations like the Dakota Access Pipeline
· Immigrants
· Young people energized by Bernie Sanders
· Muslims at home and abroad
· Religious leaders like Pope Francis
· And Mother Earth Herself
But, be forewarned: the next four years will be rough. There will be a lot of broken heads and imprisonments. We’re about to experience a genuine revolution.
Thank God.
About Things That Matter 
In deed. And thank the roiling Spirit that is god
LikeLike
Yes, thanks are due. But how can we organize, John, at this crucial moment? You and I need to get together and talk.
LikeLike
Politics will not save us. We are on our way to regions more hellish than those we already inhabit. Our lack of the real Love that is so essential is reflected in every individual and institution of our doomed human culture. The change required of us is beyond our abilities to accomplish it. Hold fast to whatever Love you can muster, but this great ship of humankind is going down. This is in accordance with cosmic laws, which are just – but certain in their operation. And yet every moment of Love is precious and real. May we have many of them as this great and tragic drama of extinction runs it’s course….
LikeLike
You may be right, Mike. But I’m not ready to give up and watch the ship go down. The ship of American Imperialism, yes; I’d be happy to have that sink. But the planet? We’ve got to organize and defend Mother Earth and our sisters and brothers in the most vulnerable places.
LikeLike
Yes, it will get ugly. It’s already getting ugly.
The challenge, more that ever, will be to stay connected to others, when the others have been emboldened in their ugly behaviors.
The revolution is not one of winning or fighting, however: it is one of coming together in love for one another, for the benefit of all, with no one left behind. It has to come from the bottom up, from our neighborhoods, into our larger communities. It has to be led by unity in heart-spirit, not by leaders.
It’s a big task. The good news is we have a really urgent reason to take the time and effort to do this. The Republican Party has now won itself out of all credibility, while the Democratic Party has revealed its empty shell. The Third Party candidates once again gave Florida to the Republicans.
Onward,
Hank
LikeLike
Hank, I’m not so sure it was the Third Party candidates in Florida. Voter suppression there and elsewhere was widespread. The biggest factor, however, is the outdated Electoral College system that “once again” gave victory to the loser of the popular vote.
LikeLike