By Philip Drucker
Half a Post is Better Than None Follow-up To Yesterday's 8-29-2020 Communique
After signing off for the night due to the onset of fatigue-2020 and with my chemo fanny pack ticking like TikTok clockwork, with the TV still on shut my eyes and started to drift into What I can best describe as a twilight state somewhere between barely conscious and the sweet Morpheus (not the guy in The Matrix) state of in my case dreamless sleep. My favorite kind.
Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice. I managed to open one eye to see that it was none other than Former President Obama. Open sesame! I commanded my eyes to open and focus. The right one complied. The left, not-so-much. And so, limited to a single eye on the prize I manage to listen, actually quite intently to a speech I believe will go down in history. So many moments I could point to, but I never saw a former president essentially, although gracefully, trash a sitting president, much less one running for office.
It could have been the chemo talking, but I couldn't help thinking this was a true leader spiritually leading us to stand strong in the face of adversity. Here was the unifying message all true Americans were waiting for. He didn't hold back.
What I heard was someone finally exposing Trump for his fascist, nationalist to the extreme, mixture of fear, grandstanding and folly he believes passes for actual policy.
I also heard this. Trump exposed for his openly brazen attempt to limit the "real" Americans, you know, the ones whose votes count, are the xenophobic, racist, straight, (with many still in their closet) white good people on both sides who vote for him. Any other outcome would be a "rigged election" for it meant people who did not vote for him, or even liked him, voted.
Thus, with the big tent party of inclusion far outnumbering the party of soil and blood politics right wing nuts breathing their last of the soon to be clean again air above before slinking back into the slime and ooze under whatever sick rock they choose to hide under, he justifies in one fell swoop, election fraud, foreign interference, poll taxes, mail-in ballots and all dirty tricks (in Roger Stone's case not done dirt cheap even) allowing only the true, worthy of voting rights Americans to vote. Any other scenario is simply not an acceptable expression of the will of the American voting electorate.
I can hear it now, it was "those" people who never should have been allowed to vote in the first place that cost me, no, "us" to lose the race. It also sparked a synapse or two to wonder, no wonder Trump's supporters expect him to cheat using any and all weapons available, for his defeat would signal a final and lasting surrender to the concept that We, the People, are in fact, all of us, right here and right now, with the great majority of us ready, willing and able (no matter what he does) to vote his sorry ass out, skip the curb and straight into the sewer, and with it taking the last gasps of individual and systematic racism as a way of life to where it belongs.
No longer representative in any way of what made America great (when in fact it's exactly the opposite) and at least for his still somehow ardent followers, a return to anything a white person can or even wants to do, is somehow “better” than anything anyone else not white could think of do. My way, or the highway = the white way is the only way, or get out of the way. There you have a short version of the no longer even subtly veiled meaning of MAGA for those hiding their racism under our latest symbol of blind hatred and racism, the Red Golf Cap.
It's sad to think there is a significant percentage of the population that would check their souls at the door of democracy and opting to enter the room marked fascism trading their greatest political gift, pride and dignity for the prospect of being "right" for no other reasons than 1. a misplaced reliance on old, decrepit, sometimes even laughable debunked theories of "science".
Eugenics, phrenology (including the shape of one's skull) and reliance on culturally skewed intelligence tests, mostly rigged tests invented to reward the average knowledge and concerns of those immersed in the daily life of your modern often racist suburbanite. Throw in a large glop of misreading the scriptures, or only reading the ones you like, and there you have it. A perfect recipe for any third-world dictator to dangle oh so brazenly to those who would heed his clarion call for what amounts to false promises not worth a plugged nickel.
How did I get all of this from now private citizen Barack's speech? I don't honestly know. It seemed so obvious at the time. The constant cancelling of any culture attached to the Obama legacy made oh so much sense. Perhaps this man of quiet dignity's words opened up my inner eye to reality while forcing the truth to the surface and now, like so much spilled ink onto this page.
As it took my last ounce of strength that came from who knows where to listen to this historical speech, was it worth it? Oh hell yes! For last night was the first time in almost four years that I fell into the deepest of deep sleeps knowing that there are more of us than there are of them and come November, the will of all Americans, of all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, and sexual preferences, the big, the small, the short and the tall, no matter what you worship, will have our say.
Secure in the knowledge that once again, the good inherent in everyone (Namaste) will triumph over the evil, greedy and demented intentions of the few. So totally worth it. Casa Bonita! For you classic South Park fans. Can't wait for Day 4 of the Convention. How about you?
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