TRUMPISM CAN BE STOPPED

TRUMPISM CAN BE STOPPED

The year 2017 will welcome the biggest political divide in American history, with the exception of the years during the Civil War. No one has the crystal ball, nor can any one accurately read the tea leaves, to say what will happen in the next four years. However, if Mr. Trump continues to surround himself with bigots and appoint racists to cabinet posts, the next four years will be volatile. Every time he appoints another bigot, Fox News, the KKK, White Supremacists, and the American Nazi Party celebrate. Fox News celebrates because its ratings increase. The KKK, White Supremacists, and the Nazi Party celebrate because they believe the appointments are a means to take back the country they lost. All they needed was a demagogue as their leader.

Looking at the other side of the coin: after the final election countdown was complete, Democrats received a majority of the popular vote. Therefore, the Democratic Party is far from being dead. Everyone knows that America’s political pendulum swings back and forth every four to eight years. So if the Democrats in the House and Senate demonstrate strong leadership, the Democratic Party will survive. Millions of Americans are going to be greatly disappointed with the Trump administration, but the greatest disappointments will be within America’s working middle-class.

The Democratic Party must rebuild; America’s working middle-class must be the center of the rebuilding process. Democrats must fight for an increase in the minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour, and nothing less will do. They must continue to fight for tuition-free colleges and universities and use every means possible to fight for America’s youths. If the Democrats can win over the millions of average working Americans who are now devout followers of Fox News, the greatest change in all American history can occur. But it is going to take strong words and strong leadership, followed by strong actions, to prove to white working–class Americans that they have been brainwashed by this so-called news media whose sole purpose is to keep the Rich Man’s Party in power. 

Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House, will perhaps get his legislative agenda passed through the Republican-controlled House and Senate. His plan is to cut funds from Social Security, Medicare, disability programs, and programs that provide food for the needy. When retirees actually hold reduced Social Security checks in their hands and see with their own eyes that the funds have been cut, maybe reality will set in. Although at this time in American political history it is difficult to predict the reactions of any citizens. 

When working-class white Americans realize they have been manipulated by Fox News and the Republican Party and will have to work another four years without an increase in salary, it is possible they might wake up. They will also be faced with the problems of the Republicans increased inflation that will further reduce their purchasing power. For the next four years America’s working-class will continue to work but will receive a salary that is below the poverty level in the Great American Society.

Some churchgoers already have broken away from the Republican-controlled Christian churches, and many more are sure to follow that example. Parishioners will not continue to sit quietly in church while preachers spew rhetoric of hate disguised as Christian responsibility. Many intelligent church members will no longer continue to be brainwashed by money-loving preachers who have turned the gospel into a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme. 

Within the next four years a Great American Coalition will be formed. This coalition will consist of working-class Americans, African Americans, Latino Americans, LGBT Americans, disabled Americans, Muslim Americans, Jewish Americans, and displaced American Christians. When this SOLID coalition is formed, it will be a force that cannot be stopped. The Republican leaders have already realized the possibility of this coalition, and that is why they have continued to support Fox News with unprecedented loyalty. They know the only thing keeping the Rich Man’s Party in power are the millions of average white Americans who are brainwashed by Fox News.

I have problems understanding parents, particularly those living in the South, who want to revive the fears of the KKK, the unrest of White Supremacists, and the renewal of the scars in flying the banner of slavery. Why they desire their children and grandchildren to live in the turmoil of bigotry is something I’ll never know. There are small communities scattered throughout America in which diverse peoples are living together. Christians are living with Muslims; Whites are living with Blacks; and heterosexuals are living with homosexuals. Recent surveys show that these are the happiest communities in America.   

America is running out of land for military graveyards and granite for headstones, but hate still continues to breed wars.  The astonishing fact is that the chief promoters of hate in America are the Republican-controlled Christians. They hate Muslims, Jews, African Americans, Latino Americans, and the wide diversity of Americans in the LGBT community. Republicans have no idea the kind of hornet’s nest they have stirred up. We are the hornets who have been mistreated all our lives and we are prepared to produce a severe sting. The Christian church has lost the complete meaning of the cross. The truth is the devil controls the minds of most so-called Christians because hate is a demonic characteristic.   

Many of my acquaintances are presently involved in a great advent of gloating. My advice to you is this: you best do your gloating now, because it will be short-lived.  May I remind you that four years, seen from a historical perspective, are no more than a few grains of sand on the beach. The chest you are now beating is a drum that contains the heartbeat of all humanity; within a few, short years that drum will be fine-tuned to the sounds of a different drummer.