We are that Camel

Very young children look on, amused but perplexed.

They’ve been taught that temper tantrums, hissy fits, throwing things and hitting people are not appropriate reactions to not getting one’s way. Not to say anything about burnings. As for the truth? Well, they’ve been told that it’s a must but observation has long taught them that it’s respected much more in the breach.

Respect for authority? Ha, you’ve got to be kidding. Perhaps not all the lessons they’re learning are bad. They may, however, make for somewhat problematic times in the very near future.

Just a year ago the politically correct crowd was properly chastising red necked right wingers for a lack of respect for our president and his lovely family, and they were right to do so. The conduct of right wing opponents of the government then in office was inappropriate as was the obstructionism of the legislators they’d elected albeit they were then the majority party.

Today, all that’s changed. We’ve had new free and open “democratic” elections. And they were very carefully planned too. And carefully choreographed. The media were just darling about it.

A short refresher first though. According to the electoral debate analysis, media and pundits and at least three of the four principal candidates (even though three were never supposed to have had a chance), the refusal to accept the results of the 2016 presidential election would be not only unheard of and unpatriotic, but treasonous.

Now that the results are in, very, very unexpected results, apparently somehow someone not authorized to win by the powers that be (i.e., the mainstream media and the shadowy deep state, won), and now, the clarion call blaring from most television sets, newspapers, radios and street corner criers is to not only delegitimize the resulting government, but to make it non-functional (it’s always been dysfunctional) and then to overthrow it. “It HAD to have been the Russians’ fault, with help from traitorous fifth columnists!!! It always has been, is and always will be (when convenient). Time to pull old Joe McCarthy out of mothballs, hold our noses and chant his chants. It turns out he was right after all. Where the hell are all those blacklists? Damn it, we’ll just start our own. Facts, we needn’t worry about facts if we keep shouting loudly and frequently enough. And if we bring the world to the brink of destruction? Better that than Trump!!! Say goodbye Gracie.”
Some of us (independents and third party supporters, our parties and candidates having rarely if ever been in office) are the perpetual opposition. Joined every four years by what can at best be described as “fellow-travelers-of-convenience-for-a-while-until-we-get-back-in-power, whereupon we’ll be ditched crowd”. Ditched, but with a very pleasant “thanks for the company”. We have our issues to fight for and policies we oppose year in and year out regardless of who is in power, a stark contrast, especially right now, with the core groups of the two major political parties, best described as a single, two faced tool of the highest and mightiest puppeteers among us.

Among the losers of the last election, one faction, commanded by the “we-couldn’t-possibly-lose-ladies-in-pant-suits” leading their lesser evil poodles by their leashes, sometimes gently but too often with churlish yanks (that’s how fake revolutionaries do it, a twist of wrist and a subtle kick in the rear, or sometimes elsewhere, depending on the sex), this time it’s going to be different. “No more Ms. Nice Guy!!!!! We’ve worked too hard and too long to take this lying down (or sitting down, or standing up, or …)!!!!”

“It’s time for scorched earth, and scorched skies, and scorch you too!!”

Everything concerning the almost spontaneous quasi-revolutionary war on everything Trump, including his family, his taste, his manner of speaking, what he thinks, what he wears, how he wears it; well, … everything, is not just bad, it’s horrible, unacceptable and won’t be tolerated, regardless of past professions on the importance of accepting electoral results in a democracy.

Interestingly, for some of “us”, the above mentioned independents and third party supporters, that craziness, while a bit unsettling, has some benefits. It exposes the utter hypocrisy of that segment of the anti-Trump movement who either sat quietly by while the Clinton-Obama-Clinton administrations engaged in very similar, all too frequently identical actions, or actually cheered it on. For serious and honest opponents, those of us who’ve been crying into the wind for four years and a score, the good thing is that, amazingly, the issues are out in the open (although responsibility, … not so much):

• The horror of the Zionist organized and implemented world-wide anti-Muslim campaign (although those responsible remain safely shielded) with its resulting wave of Islamophobia reflected in discriminatory immigration practices not only in the United States but in many other parts of the world from Argentina to Sweden, now being hysterically (or histrionically) criticized through hyperbolic massive demonstrations, legal actions and judicial decisions, in the media, in show business, in sports, everywhere. Xenophobia and racism are no longer cool (as they were, for example, when the anti-African American Clinton welfare reform and criminal justice reform programs were proudly introduced, when prisoners of one specific religious persuasion were kept at Guantanamo without trial, and when anyone who broke the news was promptly imprisoned).
• The deportation of two and half million undocumented residents, including children forced into refugee status by Clinton led US policies.
• The overthrow of sovereign governments in Latin America, the Ukraine and elsewhere through either coups or rigged elections, or if those didn’t work, invasions.
• The watch the Palestinians die as Palestine disappears with a little help to our friends program.
• The war on drugs, war with terrorism, war with Russia, war with China, war with Iran, war with Syria and if that’s not enough, we’ll find someone new to blame (but don’t worry, the war on poverty’s been permanently postponed).
• The perpetual-war-investment-plan for the military industrial complex (but not for veterans).
• The row, row, row your drone killing fields.
• The failure to do anything meaningful on environmental issues extravaganza (frack, frack, frack goes the doomsday clock).
• The free pass and get out of jail card to Wall Street looters (do it again Daddy, do it again).
• The foreclose on college student debt program.
• The watch the infrastructure decay, doesn’t it look wonderfully rustic programs.

Of course, these are only illustrative, they’re many, too many issues to name. And they need resolution. But should those of us who really care about the issues, really care about justice and equity and the common welfare and really oppose racism and xenophobia, join forces with those who time and time and time again have shown that their only interest is to regain power for power’s sake and who take every opportunity on any issue to deluge us with pleas for funds, despite their enormous personal wealth? Shouldn’t we distance ourselves from all the bad guys and act on our own, with principle and consistency, with courage?

“What?” they shout, anger etched on incredulous faces at our apparent naiveté. “And let those bastards win? They’ll destroy everything good, everything!”

So some of us, a very few, it’s true, remind them of their own records. Most ignore our observations, apparently too busy protesting or granting interviews or sending out pleas for more and more donations. But a very few among them take time to respond:

“OK, we admit we’ve made some mistakes in the past” (although their big kahunas never admit error). “But we PROMISE” they shout to us (that’s why I used all caps)!!!! This time it’ll be different; trust us!!! Plus, our protests are fun, come meet stars and celebrities and other fun people.”
Somewhere a gentle breeze, perhaps a zephyr or a zephyr in training, although a bit too jaded for that, seems to whisper in a sing song voice: “Fool me once, shame on me, fool me 2,723,762 times …. Well, perhaps 2,723,762 times will prove to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back”

But remember, collectively,

We are that camel.
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© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2017; all rights reserved