…and become, once again, THEM!

By ‘America’ I mean the USA. Much of the rest of the Americas teeter between Us and Them. Brazil, which has been Them for a long time, may in a fragile way, have made its first attempt to become part of Us. Canada, up there  in the top half of the North, still clings to its its Usness, like a faded battered lighthouse continually washed by the thudding of tsunamis rolling in from  its south. 

But oh dear, USA! That once Horn of Plenty has turned into the box in which Schrodinger’s cat may be alive or dead.

Once, we basked in Americana. Zoot suits. Levi’s, Coca Cola, porn, Allan Ginsberg, Marvel Comics, Kennedy and Obama. All built on the glorious principles of freedom of speech, the excellent values enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The theory being allow every plant to grow and weeds will have nowhere  to go.

The weeds have always been there. With roots in the religious zealots who fled Europe in the 17th Century and after, with their bigotry and allegiance to ancient mores – as well as belief in  truth and ‘freedom’ within the constraints of their antique Book. Such a mixed blessing. Flowers, and weeds.

It may be inevitable that one day the weeds will win. In 2016 a particularly poisonous weed, Donald Trump, did indeed win the Presidency despite having won a minority of the votes of the people. The absurd Electoral College system, whereby states, whatever their populations, each have an equal vote ensured his victory. Thank goodness Trump turned out to be so noxious and incompetent, the next election saw an extreme senior, so senior that his outlines are becoming blurred, a sweetheart with a great heart and a deeply ingrained love of liberal democracy, into the Presidency. At least he is one of Us. It was a case of Anybody But Trump.

And in the new world of the Senior senior, the weeds grew and grew. 

Like the Weimar Republic post WWI, the baddies had been defeated but the seeds of the weeds planted by Keiser Trump with his Big Lie spread everywhere. They flourished in the Supreme Court, planted by the Liar-in chief. They snuck into many of the offices of the land, with bags of lies and sweeties for the kids.

It is the Right  Wing Narcissist’s playbook to always accuse the Opposition  of exactly what ails himself. They use the word ‘groomer’, to imply that all Democrats are pedophiles and only they can save ‘America’ from moral destruction.

Yet they are the groomers. I am not saying  they are pedophiles – a pedo can be of any political persuasion, and I’m sure their politics are of no consequence. What is of consequence is their preying on children, which is ghastly. And so, anyone accused of being a ‘groomer’ is seen as dark disgusting and dangerous.

Well, the Rabid Right is dark, disgusting and dangerous. Like weeds they  spread their poison wherever they can get it  in. They are certainly in schools, in every town council, in the Senate and Congress. They are attempting to groom the Nation. Not sexually: they are grooming the Nation to believe that only Fascism can save them from pedophiles, trans people, gays and a shadowy cabal they call the Deep State.

Behind them the lunatics of QAnon, the false Christian Evangelicals, the Rabid Right – racists, xenophobes, homophobes, Transphobes, Nazis, fascists, Bad People…and the innocents whose capacity for logic has been shut down by brilliant sophistry and twisting of the truth. Every  phobe in  the book. A panoply of Hatred.

Democracy cannot flourish when choked by weeds. 

America, have you left us?