Thanks Don. You lit the fuse of change

By David Sherman

Thank you, Donald Trump. The violence you foment is biting you on the ass, instigating the kind of change you abhor. Thanks to you, revolution is in the streets and in the air.

Yep, Donald, you and your slimy ilk of Steve Millers have really pissed people off.

While optimists celebrated Obama’s election, racists stocked up on weapons, fertilized weeds of white supremacy and Fox found its frothing audience, perhaps the only collective that can watch you without reaching for Pepto-Bismol or mind-altering substances.

Unfortunately, the dream of what a Black president might mean for race relations in the U.S. was an unfortunate overture to Americans’ baptism in The Donald’s coveted mire of race war, class struggle and ignorance, an ignorance that has cost untold number of deaths and suffering as they still wait for his Covid miracle.

Many had already recognized the fetid scent of the U.S., but, because of Trump, the majority now realize that America stinks. In fact, the U.S. is Crazyland. Google “Is the U.S. crazy?” and up pops a trove of thoughtful, affirmative replies from a library of reputable publications. With explanations. So, while he can’t be credited with the psychosis gripping our neighbours, he is its publicity-loving manifestation.

Through the decades, with Hollywood’s help, sea to sea has been blinded by noxious myths such as, “Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears.” In truth, of course, cities are flooded with tears and the only alabaster is in the high rise condos set to gleaming by maids, cooks, chauffeurs and nannies of colour.

No one can make America Great Again, because America has not been great since the first white people came ashore around 1600, humbly praying for the freedom to kill indigenous people.

By excelling only at repugnancy, The Donald has accomplished the opposite of what he promised MAGA merch-wearing morons – he has given power and determination to those he fears the most – women and minorities. Not to mention fortunes to an army of attorneys.

Paying someone to write your exams does have its drawbacks and so The Donald knows nothing of history.

As the late comic and political activist, Dick Gregory, told audiences a few decades ago, a tamped down boiling kettle will explode; squeeze into a sneaker two sizes too small and your foot will wear through it. Keep beating the dog, the dog will bite. And the big dog that is the thinking population of the country to our south is now biting back.

The Donald, while playing Mussolini, built a base of deplorables but also brought tens of millions of decent-minded Americans together to push back. He has so angered and disgusted so many, America might now get its shot at, if not greatness or redemption, significant embarrassment reduction.

His certifiable insanity has finally pushed a majority of embarrassed Americans to attempt to be what they boasted they were – democratic, colour blind, empathetic, a land of opportunity for the “tired, poor, huddled masses.” The rest can sit home and polish their firearms.

Perhaps I am naïve and the optimism may be false, but it springs from new experiences: athletes saying, “we’re not going to shut up and dribble;” a TNT sports talking head walking off a live set saying he was going to stop talking and start marching; some Republicans who don’t have their noses jammed up his lower intestine, grew spines and are saying anyone but The Don.

Many super wealthy, unless in line for an ambassadorship or a cabinet post, laugh at him. And save for the tin pots in Brazil and the Philippines, The Donald has enraged the world.

And anger breeds hope.

The Donald lifted the carpets, praised and caressed the cockroaches that scurried out while encouraging police to beat, maim and kill. The Don has held up a mirror to Americans and said aren’t we great and we’ll be greater yet. But the image in the mirror was that of a cesspool that, increasingly, has made Americans sicker than the pandemic he ignored.

A majority of Americans are not buying that Christianity condones cruelty, shooting protestors, hating thy neighbour and fealty to the dollar. Except, perhaps, for Jerry Falwell Jr. who preaches abstinence, fidelity and threesomes with the pool boy.

The economy The Don has bragged about was never great. It was inherited from Obama, the “man who lives rent free in his brain,” and The Don revved it up into a money machine for stock-rich execs and tycoons.

Tax breaks of criminal proportions made a fortune for a few. The smartest cashed in when markets took off, the greediest made bank from swimming in the Don’s swamp of insider trading, cronyism, nepotism and deregulation.

America’s unprecedented deficit is of no concern as long as the endless zeroes are spent on those with more money than they can count. Soon, those who never miss a meal will stamp their feet in rage over that same deficit and will demand the disadvantaged pay for it by doing without food stamps, health care, welfare, unemployment insurance, housing, pension, police, firefighters and teachers.

If you read the small print in the Donald’s “greatest economy in history,” you will find almost half the country would go hungry if they missed a pay. Most cannot afford to write a cheque for $400. Many work two or more jobs. In some states, minimum wage doesn’t even qualify as a wage. Applying for unemployment insurance is a form of torture. Paid sick leave does not exist. In some states it is illegal. Health care is no care. Education is a dream.

For much of America, the great economy translates into eviction, addiction, hunger, illness, incarceration and fear.

There is no backup plan. And, as Covid shows all too well, there is no help except for the wealthy.

Democrat presidential nomineeJoe Biden won’t solve the problems that strangle America. But, he probably will not call in the 82nd Airborne to produce a reality show of them breaking heads as he feigns finding religion for the cameras.

Yes, Americans are saying now is the time for change, the status quo is no longer acceptable. Thank you, Donald.

And we can hope for all his efforts, we will get to enjoy the spectacle of the Don, catalyst and cataclysm, in handcuffs, screaming, “Hoax!” and “Deep State!” while only Fox and its declining number of angry viewers, in faded MAGA gear, listen.