THE TIME MACHINE FALLS APART OR HOW TRENT LOTT AND A BLACK MAN NEARLY CAME TO BLOWS
I went to the Big Political Convention to hear the funny speeches and see the debate. I thought it would be intellectually stimulating to hear a good debate in person.
I heard a college student say “I think the Mexican-American Relationship has been both bad and good.” Now there’s food for thought. Maybe in the next century there will be two political parties, one called the Good Party and the other the Evil Party. Kind of like what we have now, only different, with the Republican and Democratic Parties being the two main parties sparring off against one another all the time yet currently resisting all efforts to rename them more appropriately.
Like a slams-chills-and-thrills extravagant circus in Roman times, our top social class (America’s privileged elite) provides the masses entertainment, too, though perhaps unintentionally. Though we seldom see them, we know of their existence. Sometimes behind the scenes they must gather to issue a benevolent decree to give us COMEDY for a show . . . as when Trent Lott cleverly half-joked that Strom Thurmond was really a good presidential prospect after all. Dang, ain’t it too bad that real he-man of an outright SEGREGATIONIST didn’t get elected president? And this remark–the country might have been better off if Old Dumb Strom had been elected in 1948–gets Trent canned! If that is not COMEDY, what is?
This is the man who leads the majority party in the Senate, although I rather doubt any majority in America could be found that likes Trent more than detests him. However, I reckon there can be found quite a few majorities that would think he was a segregationist or at least a replaceable non-functioning part and either way he in no way represents the kind of numerical majority the rest of us think we are. My majority includes all the working people of America and I don’t believe Trent Lott is one of them or anything other than a phony lying fool and upper class hatchet man (or was, until his wings got clipped) for god only knows who, but one surmises great wealthy will be found among his supporters: those who counted on him to carry the ball for them until he got careless and dropped the quip that sank his career faster than the Nazi ship Bismarck went down under British bombardment!
I mean, one day he is the Majority Whip, a very powerful post, mind you, in the larger scheme of things. He’s walking east down the Capitol steps and bumps into a Negro man and Mr. Lott tends to stutter when he gets flustered but here he’s calm and cool and totally in command. He whispers just loud enough for the Negro man to hear but just out of earshot for anyone else: “Bump into me, you little no good for nothing, will you? Why, I could crush you like a beetle under my hand! I can get you fired, get your family investigated, and I can send the IRS to your house, too! I can raise your taxes, put a bug in your phone, and screw your credit way the hell up! Bump into me, will you! Get your black ass out of my way!”
Yes, that was how well the high and mighty Mr. Lott was doing one day. But move forward in time . . . before the time machine broke . . .
A month later, it’s mighty different! By now Mr. T. Lott has been forced to resign “of his own free will” (however bravely, or foolishly, he thought he could resist at first) for his curious pock-holed-and-questioned-mark quip about Mr. S. Thurmond. Here was a cute under-the-table tribute to his idol, for what else can you say about Strom’s greatness at a 100th birthday tribute other than include the fact that he ran for the presidency of the United States of America? That Strom Thurmond would have shown the whole country how to handle “Negroes” (or “negras”) if he had been elected / “yes sir, if the Segregation Party had won, this country would be a whole lot better off . . .” Excuse me, and all Trent Lott had to do was resign?
You’d think he deservedly could have been slapped down with a much stronger moral censure than that, but I guess in his situation it’s serious enough: an exposed racist and ignoramus in hiding and waiting his turn. A venomous snake got crushed, is how some people think of it. Losing the Majority Leadership position, oooh, that’s a big step down! not a small step down! and obviously a devastating if not to say fatal blow to his greater political ambitions, if he ever had any. Nevertheless, I bet there are some hot-tempered and soul-prideful brothers in the ‘hood that would like to get their hands on Trent Lott’s sorry ass for a little while, you can rest assured of that. And imagine that same Negro, a month later, seeing the former Majority Leader Mr. Trent Lott coming down the east Capitol steps and this time it’s the Black Man who speaks first:
“Last time we met you were ready to climb all over me, wouldn’t you? But now you are in disgrace, you are the King of the Dunghill, you are wallowing in manure and showing everyone another side of your bad rotten ass. First the Enron Tragedy and now political buffoonery, too! You are the butt of everyone’s jokes! My, how the mighty have fallen!! Why you blathering idiot, you climbed and lied and cheated to get into that leadership post and then you go and shoot yourself in the foot with a joke that wasn’t the least bit funny in the first place! Your joke was an embarrassment to the country and to yourself! Imagine if I were to yell for help now- ‘help! police!’- and tell them you struck me! and then I call a few reporters, too–how much do you think the papers would like to get their hands on a story like that?? Yes, picture that headline:
“Majority Leader Lott strikes Black Man!”
“Then, where would you be? Why you would be sinking so low the ants would pee all over you! You threatening me today? Not hardly! Not on your grandma’s bible, you hear me, Mr. Trent ‘The Hypocrite’ Lott? We’re done with Strom Thurmond and segregation and now the country is done with you–you lying sycophantic stupid ignorant racist lying bastard!–America is done with you. Say goodbye to your presidential dreams! In the 21st century, it ain’t gonna happen, Mr. Lott! In fact, now, today, I think it’s your turn to move out of my way! That’s right–that’s it–a little farther off the sidewalk now, please– there, that’s just fine! And the next time you bump into me, you better be ready to move your ass just a little bit faster!”
2. THE TIME MACHINE IMPLODES
Yes, actual Heated Passionate Arguing could break out anywhere and everywhere! But the real struggle–The Big Struggle–that one will continue as well. As Lincoln said, the American people cannot be fooled forever. Their patience will wear thin one day and this comedy-turned-tragedy-turned-comedy again will see its doom approaching. This insanity of buffoonery mixed with savage inhumanity that accompanies war will not last forever. These lies and hypocrisies will diminish one day–though only as the result of active struggle and never passive acquiescence.
It is said that The Good Side cannot lose and I entirely agree. Only it is rare to have an opportunity in one’s lifetime to see such large steps forward being afforded the freedom-loving peoples of the world! Those tender-hearted souls who seek visions of a different future (different from the future that will unfold if we stay on the path we are now on with all its dangerous traps and snares) will do well to ponder this axiom: we can only add brighter hues to Visions of Peace for the future if the caring compassionate majority of humanity determines to make it so!
Democracy must not lose to any enemy, whether foreign country or American oligarchy. The reactionaries dominating the Republican Party are no different than reactionaries of any other country; they like to think their economic empire is invisible to the common people, as though we don’t even suspect that it exists. They believe their behind-the-scenes control of political power likewise has magical powers and will stay invisible to the American people forever. The recent disclosures and debacles (arrests, bankruptcies, pleas of guilty, informing on one another, insider manipulations, whistle-blower testimony, scandal upon scandal, accounting firms dragged through the mud, etc.) have put to rest for all the time the myth that the richest people in the nation can engage in unlimited underhanded thievery and never get caught; the myth has been exploded that they never steal or conspire or that they all make their fortunes without giving in to greed, corruption, and crime.
When American corporations turn dishonest—and business and political leaders turn corrupt, racist, and warlike–then it’s time to suggest that myths regarding the lawful ways of rich folk need mending. The new scandals are no surprise; they are, in a sense, rather familiar, being at heart old crimes packaged in new ways . . . but the striking way in which recent events have exposed such cheating behind-the-scenes machinations with such detail and clarity, does indeed shock each and every one of us, we who serve as the conscience of the nation. This chicanery, this hucksterism, this fraud and corruption and outright theft goes on in broad daylight in a country like America?
This is a land that we have chosen to define as synonymous with the love of liberty–and other equally noble, priceless sentiments beyond, such as equality, peace, justice, truth and honor–may it ever be so! But equally obviously, there are reactionary social forces in this country who do not care to pay aught but lip service to such principles. They repudiate time-honored American democratic principles. We cherish the dignity and inherent value of every human being, both here and everywhere in the world! Average Americans do not wish to make war on other peoples of the world for light or transient causes–or whenever a small group of men in Washington D.C. determine to start another bloody war and try to fool us unto giving our assent.
That is cause for their removal from office, but it is not cause for initiating military action. A bully cannot justify his actions in attacking a smaller person with the reason “because I wanted to”, any more than the American government can justify its intended aggression against Iraq by resorting to the same “because I wanted to” excuse. It is a ploy only bullies find worthy of advancing as a rationale for their inane and moronic acts of violence against others; it is a position totally devoid of a moral base, totally bereft of logic, and totally meaningless from the perspective of love and compassion. Violence is not justified against another nation unless that nation has attacked us.
This is a traditional American foreign policy stance that began with George Washington. We do not involve ourselves in European affairs, particularly when the threat of war is imminent. We do not interfere with the internal affairs of a nation, since democratic respect for the equality of nations precludes a right-thinking nation from assuming the role of world policeman. There is no evidence, let alone proof, that the nation of Iraq attacked the United States. Secret mumblings about terrorist connections cannot deny this basic fact: Iraq has not attacked the United States, nor does it show any readiness to attempt such an attack.
We do not act upon suppositions of what “might occur” or “may happen” but on hard cold facts and them alone! And we do not usurp the right to strike first when our foreign policy is based on peace, mutual cooperation, cooperative world societies, and diplomatic alliances to ensure that no nation should strike first. America must not become the aggressor and must never unilaterally abrogate to itself the right to strike first with military force whenever the D.C. bureaucrats feel the need! It would be a fatal precedent to tolerate, one that would lead to the demise of American democracy. America cannot dictate the internal affairs of a country without becoming a marked target as the most hated of all imperialist oppressors. In truth, other nations may well resent and resist American economic and political power (as do many American citizens at home) but such opposition is not tantamount to a willingness to declare war, or prepare for war, or in any sense to engage in efforts to start overt military operations against us.
That recent presidents have won for themselves the right and power to make war, almost at their personal discretion, is a frightening development for the sanctity of the constitutional United States, as founded and conceived. The war-making power should not be the hands of the Executive Branch at all but in the hands of Congress, where the Founding Fathers and our Constitution placed it. They wisely chose to make the declaration of war a power that must come about as the result of a vote of the elected representatives of the people, in congress assembled, and in great contradistinction to the military authority and tyrannical abuses of one person, particularly the King of England.
The power to declare and make war should never be removed from Congress nor should it ever become the prerogative of a single man (as in the days of the Europeans monarchies), especially since the president now has an arsenal so great he could destroy most of any nation before half-reaching “the time limit” in the law under which the President (head of the Executive Branch) must report back to Congress of the Legislative Branch–the President must merely inform Congress of how the war is going, reporting to the very body that the Constitution specifically states is alone empowered to declare war!
Congress appears to be making a dictator of the president, or at least is willing to stand idly by while watching him begin to make himself one; and this is another distinctly visible trend, along with the corporate and political scandals that scream from the newspapers, scandals traced to insatiable greed and conscienceless corruption! These two trends, among others, indicate clearly that the wealthiest elite and most warlike militarists are controlling the country for their own benefit and not the people’s.
It is urgent that Americans stop arguing about petty things so that we will not be so easily blinded to the larger battles with the forces of injustice yet to come. I believe we are witnessing the decline and death of a sick patient; we are seeing an economic system enter its death throes. It is lashing its tail furiously about and threatening the world with war and chaos if it is not allowed to continue undisturbed in its old ways! In truth, the wealthy and greedy people who run the nation’s economic life bring these curses upon themselves. The truth will out and if there is a vigorous class struggle waiting to take center stage once more, so be it—all these years of the most extreme economic exploitation of one class by another must be taken into account if and when opposing social classes in America approach anything like a final reckoning.
And that day is coming.
3. A Historical Digression . . .
Historically, there were periods when Mexican and American government leaders respected each other and worked together for common goals, and at other times the two countries argued and fought. During those embattled years, the United States usually exercised its greater military strength in such a way as to overwhelm Mexico. The United States behaved like a bully, carefully fomenting trouble by picking a fight in order to provoke a war. American politicians, journalists, and preachers joined the war frenzy by trying to convince the American people that Mexico started the war–and during periods such as these a great deal of anger and resentment was built up, of course.
4. THE TIME MACHINE REVISITED
What concerns me these days, though, is not the past so much as the future. We are living in the 21st century now. I can see already that the forces of good and evil are at it again–as though the American people in its majority has not already indicated the country’s clear preference for a life of freedom, for a life without fear of the threat of war, and for a life of peace whenever and wherever the path of peace is still open. The only time the peace option ceases to be viable, is after an army has launched a direct attack on the United States, or upon an ally. We are not under attack “now”, in the sense of immediacy, nor has one of our allies called upon us to help them resist armed aggression from without. National “war readiness” does not include the right to attack or strike the first blow, no matter how some leaders may want to make this idea seem palatable. Therefore, the option of peace has always meant, in a democracy, the right of leaders and of common citizens to continue to talk to the people of other lands, even while the threat of war is at hand and may yet erupt into a burning conflagration. When did any political leader give away the American people’s right to favor peace over war?
So I see the 21st century as a time of great struggle and conflict, much like the twentieth century was. I believe the peoples of the world are on the threshold of winning great new victories for freedom over the forces of tyranny; reactionary governments will topple, including, with great likelihood, in America if the reactionary extremists capture the White House. Time is running out for the traditional masters of the world’s capitalist economic empire; the people will either have to bend the knee to greater tyranny or rebel–like our founding fathers and mothers did during the first American Revolution.
The American people will never stand for a reappearance of the boot on their necks, whether it be a soldier’s boot from the King of England or a soldier’s boot from the army under George Bush–or another like him. The possibilities are ripening on both sides. Although the democratic majority in many nations has a powerful voice, it also remains a fact that a great deal of military power remains with a small elite within the Status Quo. This is quite unfortunate, as it means there is a very real chance of a bloody reenactment of previous massacres of people by an increasingly reactionary government which may well steep its hands in blood, even on the eve of the events that will topple it from power.
Yes, the other side–I’m tempted to say “The Evil Side” but I will try to thwart the temptation–is not entirely powerless or out of maneuvering room yet; quite the contrary! Indeed, many countries may well see the birth of new conflicts, as well as the continuation and intensifying of old ones. There is no telling who will begin to argue with whom. See that, right there? Language. A bunch of friends go to a restaurant. Among themselves they speak several different languages. The question comes up, which one should we use? English, Chinese, Spanish? they can’t agree this particular evening on which one.
I mean, if you were a customer in that restaurant, sitting near or walking by their table, don’t you think that would be a pretty strange conversation to overhear? Maybe they solve that problem, and the waiter comes over (from god only knows which country) and one of the customers is really angry about something to do with the food or service and the waiter can’t understand him, and so they start to argue, too! To me such a development–an increase in arguments among the average everyday kind of people– would mean that the side representing war, oppression, and tyranny is winning out. The people must be ever wary of the many tricks and masks of the masters of the existing system whenever it shows its corrupt nature while the system’s trust fund holders hurry to paint for themselves a cleaner, nobler image.
The economy is in a recession–that’s a given–though some have already insisted that we are half out of it and on the road to recovery! For others, it’s a little harder to tell and harder yet to accept. Huge layoffs occurred again recently–go tell those laid off workers that the recession appears to be petering out! These developments, I think, call into view a cross-section of a major class antagonism and no mere personal spat as may occur of its own accord occasionally. Working people wanting to buy a house can’t afford it; they are unable to buy a new home. Others see a sizable percentage of their paycheck going to cover the cost of rent or mortgage as housing prices skyrocket.
Workers have long commutes that add many hours to the length of their work day. When Prices go up for goods and services, retirement planning goes up in smoke. On-line companies, cell phones, cable TV, and other communication devices must be paid for. Bottled water to drink costs money but air to breath is still free (harder to bottle) and certified to have been fully rinsed in atmospheric industrial pollution of astounding proportions. Working people see all around them regional and national problems going unsolved, such as homelessness and the AIDS epidemic; then they get to witness Enron workers being stripped of their life-savings in the blink of an eye and without so much as a by-your-leave and certainly with no advanced notice of anything doom-like impending!
What other word than “catastrophe” comes to mind when a person investing retirement savings in the vaults of a powerful company wakes up one day and is told that all the money in the account has turned to water–is gone, is worthless, is vanished! Or is informed that the wonderful company doing “ever-so-well” has been hiding dishonest dealings for years and was run by men who willingly broke the law! Or is informed all of a moment that the company is declaring bankruptcy (going belly up as its best chance of escaping from responsibility for its own crimes) or is told “your thousands of dollars have vanished into thin air!”
How dare these hypocrites remove their masks long enough to show themselves thus! We suddenly see the conduct of certain members of the wealthiest class in a new light! We get to see a most revealing glimpse of the character of very wealthy individuals as we view them at their most corrupt and immoral through the journalistic lens!–as we perceive the tendency to lie syndrome (about these economic masters) at its worst–as abundantly manifested in the criminal conduct of these corporate leaders! Even as I honestly believe no sane peace-loving and freedom-loving people (like we Americans are) will ever put up with such gross hypocrisy and greedy deceitful ways for long, I also believe the Democratic Majority will win great battles in the 21st century!
I believe it is inevitable (oh, the horror of that word to some!) that both struggle and victories for the people will come. The reactionaries may seem to have more “bank accounts” and “tricks” but most are variations on a single theme and some mere nonsense; that theme is Power and Wealth and how the Status Quo holds on to power for as long as it can. It gives up nothing without a fight. As with the feudal monarchies, so it is with corrupt governments of the modern era, of whatever clime or land.
The White House itself may one day be home to a new kind of president, for the presidency shall not remain all white and all male forever. Oh What A Day To Be Alive when that happens! Why, it would be like seeing Abraham Lincoln get elected or the day Segregation was outlawed and equality was proclaimed the law of the land! If a woman got elected–a good woman that the country liked and respected–why the whole population of the US could treat itself to an extra Fourth of July celebration! In high school history textbooks of the future, they ought to devote whole chapters to this singular event! And all the little girls growing up will learn about the first woman president of the United States! Oh, that will be a good day, I’m sure!
Of course, there will be some men saying “You see, that’s what comes of giving women the vote in the first place. Why, we’ll never have any peace around here any more! Coincidence? I think not! They get the vote and how many wars since then? Let’s see, World War II (boy, that was a humdinger!), Korean War (you know, the one we fought nobody-knew-where over nobody-knew-what and which ended in a cease-fire both sides retreating to and claiming their original lines of demarcation after thirty or forty thousand or maybe five hundred thousand got killed or whatever number who really cares it was only the Korean war a relatively small side-show as wars go . . . .)
And then there was the Vietnam War, a very noble case of America marching to the aid of the French, the colonial masters of that part of the world, and skipping ahead a bit, there’s that war with its own cute name (Desert Storm, very poetic) and I’m not sure if they have named this new war yet or are still working on it. I think they could call it “The Stupid War” but they probably will not appreciate the suggestion.
Author: Dr. Roger Rosenberg
[copyrighted Sept. 16, 2002]
