By Mildred Robertson
Eight years ago it appeared that
America had turned a corner in the road as it elected its first Black
president. It was refreshing to think that this strange exercise in Democracy
had matured. It seemed that the Founding Fathers had gotten it right. It
appeared that they had, in fact, created “a more perfect union.”
Fast forward eight years and we
find that America has made a 180 degree turn and elected a racist, sexist,
misogynist who is both unprepared and unqualified to hold the most powerful
position in the world. He has done all that he can to separate us, categorize
us and pit us against one another.
Two America’s seem to exist in
Trump-World—“Us” and “Them.” The real test will be who actually falls into those categories when Trump-World takes
shape in January. Will the millions of poor, uneducated, underemployed and
unemployed white men and women who so proudly cast their vote for Trump find
that they have been bamboozled?
You see those of us who recognize
Trump for who he is already know that Trump-World will embrace a society built
for the elite—the “Us’s” of this world. The
rest of us, the average citizen who will become one of “Them,” will be crushed by
taxes, low wages, fewer health-care options, unemployment, isolationism and
war-mongering.
We already know that the Republican-led
Congress will institute “trickle-down” economics that never trickles down. We
know that struggling families will have to figure out how to feed, clothe and
shelter their children on minimum wage salaries and that senior citizens who
have worked all their lives will have to fight to survive without a safety net.
Folks who briefly enjoyed the security of health benefits, even the chronically
ill, will be stripped of those protections…possibly never to be insurable
again.
What the masses who voted for
Trump don’t’ seem to realize is that they will fall, not into the “Us”
category, but will become one of “Them.”
Blacks, Hispanics, other people of color, the foreign born and poor,
uneducated whites will all be in the same basket. It will be a shock to many of
his supporters who view the “Us and Them” equation much differently. What they do not seem to see is that Trump
has no empathy, no care, no understanding for the plight of anyone other than
himself. His goal always was and always
will be his personal attainment of money and power.
Oh, he may try to assuage the
wounded egos of poor white males who feel that opportunity has bypassed them by
allowing them to terrorize communities of color. He may permit them to freely
roam the streets in white sheets and hoods, march in formation, burn crosses
and raise their hands in a salute to his sovereignty. This comes directly from the South’s old
playbook. Moneyed barons historically organized mobs of poor white men to keep
the rest of those relegated to servitude in line. Then those barons pocketed
the bounty from the corrupt system for themselves.
It is clear that he learned this technique at the feet of his own parents. Unfortunately, the things they did not appear to teach him was how to respect another human being; how to be fair in his business dealings, how to be honest in his discourse, how to listen and how to reason. It is frightful that this nation has entrusted the fate of the world into the hands of such a man. I shudder to think what our foreign affairs will look like in four years.
The rise and fall of great
nations has been captured in the annuals of history. In each instance,
destruction occurs as a result of the careless use of power and the abuse of
those least able to bear life’s burdens.
Don’t be fooled. The fact of the
matter is that whether you are among the group designated as “Us” or “Them”
your ultimate fate may be the same. Because when the bottom drops out of our
society, the top also will surely tumble.
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