”There must be some kind of way out of here
Said the Joker to the thief
There’ just too much confusion
I can’t get no relief.”
I’m not quite sure why, but lately, I find these lyrics, written by Bob Dylan and immortalize by Jimi Hendrix, constantly rumbling through my brain. My best guess as to why would be, that this is probably what Republican elected official and their constituents are, regretfully, feeling as they witness the nightmare that is their presumptive nominee for the Presidency of the United States, Donald Trump.
And, before I get lambasted for singling out white women with children who vote Republican, I’d just like to ask a series of simple questions:
During the past two presidential elections did many African-American men or women vote Republican? Did Asian Americans vote Republican in any significant numbers? How about the diverse Latina community? Do you honestly think there are or were many Jews or Muslims casting their lot with a party devoid of common decency?
I wonder; would you like to venture a guess as to how many members of the LGBT community or the young, optimistic, Sanders supporters, yearning for change, are on board with their lunacy? Or, the progressive white men and women who have resisted the Republican siren call to tribalism and have been a huge presences in our nation’s contentious, seemingly endless, march towards becoming something truly special for all of us?
The answer to all of the above is of course no. There is primarily one constituency, working class white women with children, along with the low voter turnout and the disastrous gerrymandering following the Democrats calamitous defeats in the 2010 and 2014 congressional midterm elections, that has inexplicably enabled a Republican Party that, for the better part of the past 40 years, has been attempting to marginalize, demonize and render powerless minorities, the poor, immigrants, LGBT’s, and, yes, women, to remain competitive in presidential and victorious in off year congressional elections.
The question isn’t, as Joan Walsh posited in her 2013 book, “What’s the Matter with White People,” nor, is it,“ What’s the Matter with Kansas,” Thomas Frank’s 2004 work, both of which explore, among other things, why working class whites have been, since the Reagan Revolution, voting Republican. This, despite the fact, that the Republican policies enacted, as well as those proposed by President Obama, that had previously garnered bi-partisan support, but or now being obstructed by these same Republicans, are directly responsible for their family’s stagnant economic status and crumbling hopes of ever achieving the American dream.
There aren’t two competing explanations for why white middle-class security has ben shaken since the 70’s, as Walsh asserted, nor did an abandonment of the white middle-class by the Democratic Party, which Frank cites as the primary source of their discontent lead to working class whites voting Republican.
Rather, I submit, that It amounts to willful, deliberate ignorance and, yes, racism, which, with the election of Barack Obama not once, but, twice as President of the United States, has released this unprecedented bias and allowed our nation’s subterraneous racism to rear its’ ugly head so high, that it now appears as if a majority of whites would rather have an ignoramus, blowhard, like Donald Trump as President, as opposed to the cerebral, empathetic, intelligent Statesman currently occupying the office, Barack Obama, just because the later just so happens to be Black.
Although, I must agree with Frank in that the Democratic Party’s dalliance with the Democratic Leadership Council, with its’ emphasis on moving the party away from its’ progressive roots, did play right into the hands of the exceptionally well choreographed agenda of the conservative movement to methodically steer our country towards becoming an oligarchy led, rightwing nation, where we are all left to fend for ourselves.
But, all in all, there has been but one narrative dominating our politics for over forty years and that began percolating as far back as 1964. A concerted effort by the Republican Party, following the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to paint the Democratic Party as the champions of minority rights-to the detriment of the white middle-class.
That is, up until this presidential primary season, where Bernie Sanders and his supporters, along with the most effective advocate for progressivism since FDR, Senator, Elizabeth Warren, have enraptured and revitalized a Democratic Party that, had, quite frankly, lost sight of its’ soul.
Bernie’s mass mobilization of the young, centered on the gross income inequality, that has rendered upward mobility in our country practically non existent, and the emergence of Elizabeth Warren as the no nonsense, unapologetic voice of Liberalism, have totally flipped the script, whereas now the majority of Americans are beginning to understand that they’ve been duped, and no longer have to settle for the Republican snake oil they’ve been ingesting for all theses years, which, far from curing their ills, has literally been killing them.
It comes as no surprise to me that affluent whites, or, for that matter, members of any other racial or ethnic minority of means, or those who feel they are on the cusp of achieving financial success, would vote for the party that has been extremely effective in representing their interest.
Along the same vein, I can understand why white men, many with a limited education and dwindling job opportunities, and others, beholden to the fictional notion propagated by one of the Republican Party’s taskmasters, the NRA, that, “the right to bear arm,” somehow provides them with a sense of security and strength against the omnipotent Federal Government, would side with the party that feigns sympathy for their plight and stokes their fervent anti-government fantasies.
But, how in the world do white, working-class mothers live with and rationalize aligning themselves with the cruel, immorality exhibited by the policies of the Republican Party, which have had undeniably negative implications for their children ever having a genuine opportunity to realize their potential.
None of what is transpiring within the Republican Party is new or could possibly not have been expected. Since the days of Nixon and Reagan, the Republican Party has promoted the vile, mythical meme of “white victimization,” and, as a result, their, mostly ill informed adherents, have swallow this nonsense hook-line, and sinker.
Need any proof? Look no further than these words written by one of the most prominent African Americans of the civil rights era:
“That convention was one of the most unforgettable and frightening experiences of my life. The hatred I saw was unique to me because it was directed against a white man. It embodied revulsion for all he stood for, including his enlightened attitude toward Black people.
A new breed of Republican has taken over the GOP. As I watched this steamroller operation in San Francisco, I had a better understanding of how it must have felt like to be a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.”
Those chilling, sobering, observations were Jackie Robinson’s account of his attendance at the 1964 Republican Convention, where the conservative, anti-civil rights candidate, Barry Goldwater, was accepting his party’s nomination for the Presidency of the United States.
And, sadly, although I wouldn’t equate our current predicament with that of the onset of the Holocaust, I must say, it is extremely discomforting and dispiriting to witness the fact that over fifty years later, a majority of “White America,” will probably cast their votes for the later day version of George Wallace, a candidate for President of the United States in 1964, 1972 and 1976 as a Democrat and in 1968, as an Independent. A man who proclaimed in his 1963 inaugural address as the democratically elected Governor of Alabama, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.”
I have no doubt that Donald Trump will not win the Presidency of the United States, but what does it say about us as a country that almost half of the electorate would consider as our next President this egomaniacal, politically ignorant man who, is nothing more than a callous grifter; Sarah Palin with inherited money and a decent education.
What I find equally or perhaps more disturbing is, those female members of the senate such as Susan Collins and Kelly Ayotte as well as African-American Senator Tim Scott. And, their partners in crime, female Republican Governors like Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Susana Martinez of New Mexico, who have aided, abetted and given comfort to a Republican Party who, in the words of political historians, Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, “ continues to demonstrate that it is an insurgent force in our politics.”
Where was Senator Collin’s outrage when Trump and a sizable portion of the Republican base were clamoring for President elect, Barack Obama’s, birth certificate or his college transcripts? Remarks and sentiments no more despicable and odious than the racist statements her party’s standard bearers has leveled against the American born judge, of Mexican descent, presiding over lawsuits against Trumps, now defunct, scam of a “university.”
Laying blame for the total collapse of any semblance of responsible governance directly on the heads of the Republican Party, Mann and Ornstein, in words every fair-minded American should hear and take heed of, stated, “The old conservative GOP has been transformed into a party beholden to ideological zealots, without respect for facts, evidence, science or willingness to compromise.”
And, with that damning assessment, along with the paralyses our country has experienced as a result of recalcitrant Republicans, it leaves me to wonder:
How in the world do those people sleep at night, when they have got to know many of the policies they are standing behind: opposition to a raise in the minimum wage; opposition to equal pay for women; remaining silent while Republican controlled states deny their poor and minority constituents the opportunity to obtain basic health care or the right to vote; and making it nearly impossible for women in their states to obtain their constitutional right to an abortion, or, indeed, any of the essential services Planned Parenthood has been providing for decades, are designed to move our country backwards.
Also, let us not forget the plight of the “Dreamer, “and their noble quest to become full participants in our nation becoming the beautiful mosaic many of us envision.
Here, once again, progress, in this case comprehensive immigration reform, is being stymied by a bunch of small-minded, ignorant white men, elected overwhelmingly by whites, that are still, somehow, under the illusion that these angry, malcontented Republicans, that they continue to elect, many of whom harbor an intense racial animus towards our President, have any real solutions to enhancing or in any way, shape or form, improving the pathetic trajectory their lives have taken since signing on to Reagan’s folksy, hokey slogans: “It’s morning again in America ,”and, the recently resurrected by Trump, “Let’s make America great again. “
And, what is probably their most disgusting policy trend, as far as I’m concerned, being orchestrated by none other than, Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, Mr., “Let’s not let the safety net become a hammock,” and, he, who separates Americans as “Makers and Takers, “the relentless, obsessive drive to enact massive cuts to the food stamps program.
For the life of me, I cannot comprehend how these Republicans women elected officials, the African-American conservatives like Senator Scott and their working class constituents with children, would place there lot with a bunch of white, male, neanderthals, who seem to derive some sort of perverse pleasure out of denying the poor and minority children access to health care, decent housing or a quality education.
And, also have no qualms with sending those children to bed hungry. I’ll never forget the hurt and sadness in my mother’s eyes on those occasions when she had no choice, but to tuck us in without having had anything for dinner and her sighing and saying, “I’m so sorry, but, I promise you this, things are going to get better.” And they did.
I was fortunate enough to be a child of the sixties, at the height of the civil rights movement, when President Lyndon Johnson’s (the white man being despised at the 1964 Republican Convention) “Great Society” was in full bloom.
I shudder to think what might have become of me and my family had we not had the benefits of decent public housing, quality public education, food stamps and the generous Pell Grants and affordable National Direct Student Loans, which provided me with the opportunity to attend law school and to become an attorney, and several other of my siblings to obtain college degrees as well.
I grieve for the disadvantaged children these days who’ve had the misfortunate of coming of age, over the course of the past several decades, in a country woefully lacking in the compassion and caring for one another that I experienced; that feeling that all things were possible, and-that I belonged.
It’s imperative that we, as a nation, revert to becoming that country that was once dedicated to achieving the lofty goal of equality of opportunity for all, under the comforting cover of a living, breathing Constitution, interpreted by a court that shuns its’ ideological impulses and instead takes into account how their decisions will affect the average American. Rather than, as is the case now, continuing to swing the conservative movements wrecking ball, aimed directly at decimating our fragile Democracy.
The world was a lot smaller when I was a child growing up in the 60’s. Back then there were only three major television networks. So, in effect, we were all receiving pretty much the same accounts of the current events confronting our nation.
Everything from the Beatles first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, the Vietnam war coverage with its’ sobering daily causality reports, the “One Giant Leap for Mankind” in 1969 and the riveting, even for me, then just 17 years-old, Watergate hearings; we were all being socialized and factually informed as one.
Todays journalist, epitomized by the Chuck Todd’s of the world, are less concerned with reporting the facts and their implications than with facilitating false equivalencies, such as their reporting on the asinine polling that suggest a dolt like Donald Trump is on equal footing with Hillary Clinton, who just so happens to be the most qualified candidate we’ve had for president in decades, because they both have high unfavorable ratings.
Or, focusing on Hillary’s misguided and mind boggling use of a private e-mail server while serving as Secretary of State, which no matter how confounding and just plain stupid the decision was, will, no doubt, go the way of all of the other Republican hatched Clinton “scandals,” which have all, each and every one, amounted to much ado about nothing. But, thanks to the media sycophants, have nevertheless, served their purpose of painting this, cautious, unnecessarily guarded, but nevertheless progressive, dedicated public servant as an untrustworthy opportunist.
Where are the Edward R. Murrow’s or Walter Cronkite’s when the nation is so desperately in need of truth tellers, rather than the “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil,” ratings chasing scribes, masquerading as journalist these days?
I, for one, refuse to succumb to their mendacity. This election is too historic and consequential for us to permit such nonsense to prevail. Hillary and the Democrats need all of us who cherish our Democracy to vote in droves, and not just in presidential election years, in order to once and for all repudiate the repugnant, stifling, conservative narrative that has had its’ foot on our collective necks for far too long.
And, I can’t reiterate enough the importance of Hillary Clinton becoming the next President of the United States or emphasize the significance it holds for legitimizing and advancing, despite unprecedented resistance, the substantial achievements obtained by our nation’s first President of color.
Although much of “White American” will find it difficult to stomach the election of an extremely well qualified woman, who has been vilified and castigated by the rightwing for decades and yet, has managed to retain her dignity, following on the heels of a twice-elected, unmercifully maligned African-American. Nevertheless, many of us will rejoice.
Why? Because, finally, with the election of our nation’s first women President, a stake will have been driven through the heart of the notion that the Presidency of the United States is the sole province of white males. And, as a result, wealthy, greedy, belligerent, self-serving white males, will no longer be calling the shots or setting the agenda as to who we are and where we are going as a Nation.
In his initial inaugural Presidential address in 1933, with our country in the mist of the “Great Depression,” President Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched the introduction of his “New Deal” legislation, which extended a life preserver to and would rescue millions of Americans, who had been drowning in a sea of hopelessness and economic despair, with these profound words:
“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
President Roosevelt, truly a man of uncanny vision, followed up those inspiring words with these he announced in his second inaugural address:
“There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations, much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.”
The bright, passionate and energetic young Bernie Sanders supporters, despite their disappointment, will, for the most part, rally to the cause, realizing that, with their overwhelming support for Democratic candidates, the Senate and less possibly, the House of Representatives, are within reach of Democratic control.
And, with Senators Sanders and Elizabeth Warren leading the charge, their movement, which is, in essences, a demand for an updated version of FDR’s “New Deal,” is the future of the Democratic Party. And, that future is now-Our “rendezvous with destiny!”
And, as the final piece of the progressive puzzle, I believe many of those married, working class white women with children, who have in the past been voting Republican, will be marching to the polls and voting for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot; they too having finally seen the light.
Which is why the lyrics I now find happily playing on an endless loop in my mind, are those penned by Cats Stevens, at a time when it appeared as if we, as a country, were beginning to find our way towards becoming one:
“Well I’ve been smiling lately
Thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be
Something good has begun…”