It
has been my experience that Donald Trump supporters are unable to accept
verifiable truths about him and themselves. He is their Golden Idol and all who question his direction are Infidels. Here are a few facts about the intellectual origins of our current flood of no-nothings.
We have emerged an
improved society from even worse times than these. It took many decades but American Apartheid
is nearing an end, although the current President is clearly a throwback to the
Know-nothing and Jim Crow eras. An
incredible rise in neo-fascist and racist groups closely followed his
election. His open public support of these "very fine people" has been clearly
demonstrated. Trump's racism was
probably passed on from his Father.
Woody Guthrie preserved in infamy the racist policies of our current
Presidents father with a song: "Old Man Trump", the same man who was
arrested at a KKK rally in NYC. Guthrie rented an apartment from President Trump's father for two years and knew of his refusal to rent to
blacks. Guthrie may not have known that
the father of this man (our presidents grandfather) ran whore houses in the
pacific northwest - the genes remain intact.
In mid-19th century America the "American
Party" began the Know-nothing movement.
It was primarily anti-Catholic, xenophobic, and hostile to immigration,
starting originally as a secret society - exemplifying much of what the current
far right version of the Republican Party is today. Between 1844 and 1858 there were deadly
riots brought on by the Know-Nothings or similar xenophobic groups in
Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, Baltimore, Washington DC, New
York and New Orleans -and countless other smaller towns. Other backward facing groups like the
Pug-uglies and the Rip-Raps were also terrorizing new immigrants, Catholics and
the freed blacks. There were many street
battles during this time - as we saw in The Gangs of New York. This division eventually led to the Civil War
and the slaughter of over 600,000 Americans.
And with the Civil War came not only the freeing of the slaves but the
KKK and Jim Crow who regularly terrorized new Americans - besides denying them
their rights as Americans. Not that long
ago we were still slaughtering black Americans.
The Tulsa Riot of 1921 was a white riot where most of the African
American part of Tulsa was destroyed and many innocent blacks were murdered.
(this famous incident is not in our school history books - we have cleansed it
from our memory). In my memory, 1963,
four little black girls attending Sunday School were murdered by racist
Americans and the perpetrators (all KKK) allowed to go free until decades had
passed. This was not an isolated
incident - many such slaughters of innocent black Americans happened in the
south during Jim Crow.
But the Donald, his congress and all his hate
group supporters have nothing to offer to the future stewards of our liberty,
our children and grandchildren. The
mindless few (and the millions who they have brainwashed) have sacrificed all
to seek the unbelievable wealth they have either inherited or accumulated, more
often than not, fraudulently and/or illegally (the 1%), will eventually be
beneath the soil and there is no evidence yet that anyone, not even Ozymandias,
can take their possessions to the other side - even if there were other places
to alight. The incredible waves of
propaganda generated by the ruling classes to keep the poor, the immigrant, the
newly released from bondage ignorant and to convince them to vote against their
own future have now been revealed for what they are - cheap tricks to keep them
from demanding what is rightfully theirs.
Let's begin a better chapter in our history in November!