The Butcher of Brooklyn?

Blogging is not always an easy activity to maintain.  It requires inspiration and time.  Time I have had plenty of as I, like most people in the world, have been sitting at home, isolated from the normal routine of running a company that I had established over the past 10-years.  All routines that I had become accustomed to were gone.  The daily commute, the greeting and interactions with employees in the office, the lunch hour break, the drive home…; all gone.  In their place came idleness, along with it a lack of inspiration.  The daily activities around work ceased to exist.  Making plans, focusing on the growth and profitability of the company, and developing personnel to become the best they could be…; all ceased to exist.

Instead, what followed were worry, fear and nothingness.  Nothingness in the sense there was really nothing to do.  Yes, I had to manage dwindling cash flow needs and submit tons of loan paperwork.  Yes, I feared of a future that would be grossly different than it once was and yes, I worried about my employees.  In the midst of the doom and gloom I had to put on a happy face, an encouraging face.  I needed to lift others in spite of my own sinking despair.

The virus along with the associated economic collapse was bad enough but coupled with it was the unceasing attack on our democracy by the President.  No matter how bad the news on the virus and the economy became, he could make it worse.  No matter how much he illustrated his inability to lead in a crisis or how strikingly wrong his continued onslaught of tweets became, the likelihood of his reelection seemed to improve.  A destroyed democracy played directly into his hands.  A strong economy, reelect the President… a failed economy, reelect the President?  The logic was baffling and nonsensical.  It still is perplexing at best and terrifying at worst.

How can one continue to be inspired to write when no matter how things change, the results are the same?  No matter how naked the king seems to be, no one seems to notice.  I guess it is a simple matter that they don’t care.  If people do not care that their democracy is being destroyed, why bother writing about it? Whose opinions will be swayed by my attestation to the facts?

The election process by which democracy is assured is being destroyed.  First, people will need to be willing to risk their lives to vote if the virus is still rampaging through our society in November because of the attack on mail-in alternatives.  Second, the hand-shaking approach to meeting candidates and hearing their ideas is gone.  The only method of “getting the word out” about political alternatives is now wholly dependent on a damaged and partisan news media system that no one trusts, pays attention to, or who are totally swayed by.  Third, partisanship has infected every aspect of our society.  Wear a mask; you must be one of “Them.”  Drive an electric car, you are a maggot of a democrat.  Wear the wrong color clothing; attend the wrong place of worship; be of the wrong race, culture or creed; say the wrong thing to a delivery person (that’s another story)… all of which can result in you finding yourself suddenly in a hate-filled, execrable, and heated confab with no hope of resolve or reason.

Where will of this lead us?  I believe we are all looking for answers to that question and so far I do not like the answers I am finding.

There is a universal desire to return to a sense of normal.  People mostly decry that they dislike the extreme partisanship that has sickened our country/world, and yet, it persists and grows.  Most people feel they would like to see an end to the bickering, and yet, they continue to bicker.  Most people would prefer to spend peaceful times with their families recapturing the feelings of love and hope  that only a family can bring, and yet, they are quick to attack others for wanting the same.  Everyone wants justice… as long as they can define what that justice looks like.  Most people cannot stand to see hate, racism, lies, name-calling, bullying, and bigotry and yet, Trump continues to get away with everything he says and does with people continually willing to vote and support him.

  

If you are hopeful for a peaceful revolution through the ballot this November, forget it.  The likelihood that Trump will lose is very slim and even if, in some way, Biden somehow pulls off a miracle victory, Trump will not “peacefully” leave office.  He will declare it invalid and grab a tighter hold of the power he claims to be his.  

I know that many of you do not believe this to be true.  You have faith in the remnant of democracy that we have left.  All I can say to you is this:  Who will stand up and stop him?

No one has even attempted to rein him in during the last four years, no matter what he says or does.  The polls illustrating his support have not wavered an inch.  Congress has not only been ineffective, the Republicans are fully enabling his every deed.  He has his own sycophants spread throughout government and the courts who are willing to do everything he demands.  They are afraid of him and yet, empowering him at the same time.

You can pick and choose which totalitarian regime in history to compare as they all will provide examples of what is developing in our country today.  If you are finding it difficult to think of a good example, I highly recommend reading Madeleine Albright's book,  Fascism: A Warning.  In this reading you will find plenty of examples. 

The one that comes to mind to me this morning is the regime of Idi Amin in Uganda.  A populist leader, Amin began his governance by offering to return wealth to the common man.  “We are determined to make the ordinary Ugandan master of his own destiny and, above all, to see that he enjoys the wealth of his country. Our deliberate policy is to transfer the economic control of Uganda into the hands of Ugandans, for the first time in our country's history.” – Idi Amin.

Since we all know that he became known as the Butcher of Uganda, something along the way happened to change this relatively hopeful beginning.  What happened was a campaign to eliminate a class of people who were different than the majority.  Amin developed an entire culture of hate, attacking legal residents of Uganda as aliens and enemies to the country.  The cry “die cockroaches” rang through the throngs of para-military gangs who raped and murdered their way to one of the worse genocides in world history.  Over 500,000 Ugandans persecuted and killed in eight years of war.  A war committed upon themselves.

I can hear you now… “Gary, you can’t possibly begin to suggest that Trump is the next Idi Amin and that here in this beautiful country of peace and opportunity we will face murderous gangs racing through our streets untouched and uncontrolled, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent souls?  Here?  In the United States?  Never.”

I ask again: Who will stand up and stop him?  

After all, the count is already up to over 100,000 Americans dead in just 3 months.