Political Turmoil

 

Being an eternal optimist, I felt pretty certain I’d feel better (less stressed) after the Biden-Harris Administration was sworn in.

 

Of course, that was before January 6th happened, when all hell broke loose outside and inside the U.S. Capitol.

 

Now there’s the threat of an assassination coup during Biden’s first State of the Union Address, according to Capitol Police and FBI professionals.

 

And at CPAC all the lunatics were out in force (even people who weren’t in D.C. voting supposedly because of the COVID pandemic… yeah, right…)  having their racist, white supremacist  juices jiggled by Trump and a bunch of his “Big Lie”-spewing compatriots (“Biden stole the election from Trump, otherwise he could not possibly have lost.”).

 

And did you see their Golden Calf — er, their Golden Trump, I mean–and the shape of the stage (a tip of the hat to Nazi Germany?)

 

It’s enough to make me want to surrender my optimism and give way to utter despair…

 

I’m so TIRED of the turmoil caused by their blatant lies and by their continuing political plot to maintain white male supremacy.

 

It seems I’ve been fighting the same sad shit all my life, from the moment I discovered what white males have been doing to citizens of color and to women of all colors since the founding of our nation (and before).  The rest of us have certainly felt the pain of  white males running roughshod over us, but we haven’t until relatively recently ever mounted a united defense to stop the practices that marginalize us and keep us at a distinct disadvantage.

 

And believe me, the abusers in their ranks are getting scared…even paranoid. They are pulling out all the stops everywhere imaginable to maintain the status quo. They’re working overtime to disenfranchise voters of color, to control women’s bodies and lives, and to destroy this struggling planet in other ways.  It has to stop!

 

But it won’t stop if we grow weary of the struggle and decide to let other people do the necessary work to overcome our adversaries. I’m semi-retired. It isn’t like I have to dedicate a huge portion of my work week to realizing an employer’s goals. i have the time.  But I’m going to be 70 in a few days and I was very much hoping that with age would come some degree of freedom to just BE, without major time-consuming obligations. I’m TIRED. I want to REST.

 

But there is no rest when so many people continue to struggle just to keep their heads above water because of the way things are rigged right now in favor of the wealthiest among us (who are mostly white and male).

 

I don’t hold all white males in contempt, or all rich people. A lot of them “get it” and are on our side, saying we’re entitled to share in the wealth that we have created for them.

 

But the ones who aren’t on our side are on my contempt list, for sure.  They have to be sociopaths or psychopaths, to think they don’t need to share their bounty with the people whose blood, sweat and tears paved their path to riches.   

 

I’m talking about the Waltons, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, among others. They need to start paying their employees a living wage that doesn’t keep them in “the working poor” category. These wealthy bastards are government-subsidized poverty creators.  What they’re getting away with right now isn’t much of a step above slavery.  Slaves and indentured bondsmen and servants of old were provided living quarters–pathetic as they were–and sufficient food to sustain them well enough so they could work. Today’s wage earners have to pay for their food, clothing, transportation, and shelters and, if they don’t want to end up bankrupt, they have to find ways to pay for health insurance, too. The wealthy should try doing all that on less than $15/hour (take away their other money and perks for a full year so they get the whole experience for just 365 days; that oughta do it. If it doesn’t, they’re irredeemable as so-called human beings.)

 

It’s a travesty.  And there is no excuse for it, other than unbridled greed, coupled with the apparent desire to look down on their “hired help” with disdain and a sense of supremacy.

 

I am so freaking tired of fighting the same battle

day after day and week after week. 

I revere Bernie Sanders, AOC, the rest of The Squad, and all the others on the front lines (Stacey Abrams, et al), past and present, who have made it their political life’s work to make America truly great for the first time in its long history.

 

But it seems we’re all in this for the long haul, whether we want to be or not. As long as “greed is good” and white supremacy is “defend”-able by hook or by crook (by disenfranchising, gerrymandering and/or filibustering), there will be a helluva lot of people doing all they can to keep the ball rolling in that direction. (They’re people on the wrong side of history, and of decency, but they’re still in it to win it. So we have to stay engaged and thwart their every move, every time.)

 

But damn … it’s exhausting!!!