American Dream or American Nightmare

September 2, 2020

      We are all gripped by fear.  Fear that snatches us up by the collar and hisses, unmasked, in our faces, “We hate you…and we will kill you!”  We are not afraid of the things that Trump and the RNC told us to be afraid of. We’re not afraid of Black people moving to the suburbs— we’re already here. We’re not afraid of antifa and anarchist protesters— those are mostly peaceful, woke white kids whose parents raised them right.  We are not afraid that “socialism” will run amok in Joe Biden’s America.  Socialism? Joe Biden? Have you met Joe Biden?

      No, we are afraid of what a mentally impaired, stochastic terrorist is unleashing on this country. Trump has nothing left—  no platform, no plan for rescuing a shattered economy, and a plan to rely on “herd immunity” to curb the soaring COVID-19 infection rates, that will result in 2.13 million dead Americans.  So, as Trump always does, he pivots to fear and racism.  As commentators from Charles Blow to Joy Reid have pointed out, Trump is hardly original in this regard, (Source:  “Trump, Vicar of Fear and Violence,” by Charles M. Blow, The New York Times, 8/30/20).  “Fear of a Black Planet” was not just a classic Public Enemy album, but a pithy descriptor of the subconscious dread that drives far too many white people to vote for plutocrats who shred the safety net to line their own pockets and to shrug at abuses of power and the incineration of the Rule of Law, (Source:  “The past year of research has made it very clear:  Trump won because of racial resentment,” by German Lopez, Vox.com, 12/15/17).

      Tapping the vein of racism for power may be nothing new, but the intensity and open calls for violence are.  It is one thing for Ronald Reagan to announce his candidacy in Philadelphia, Mississippi, site of the brutal murders of civil rights workers, Schwerner, Cheney and Goodman, sickening wink at white supremacists.  It is quite another for Trump to fly to Kenosha, Wisconsin, compare shooting Jacob Blake seven times in the back to missing a golf putt, (Source:  “Trump Compares Jacob Blake Shooting to Golf Blunder: ‘They Miss A Three-Foot-Putt,’” by Cristina Cabrera, TalkingPointsMemo, 9/1/20).  Trump and his supporters are lionizing Kyle Rittenhouse, the baby-faced racist who crossed state lines to murder two protesters,(Source:  “Why Are Right Wing Pundits Celebrating the Kenosha Shooter,” by Nastia Voynovskaya, KQED.com, 8/28/20).

      After giving a prime time slot to the Brooks Brothers Bonnie & Clyde, this escalation is not surprising.  Trump is not subtle and he has gone all in.  He is branding Black people demanding the right not to be summarily executed in the street by police officers and vigilantes as thugs.  Trump has labeled white allies protesting in support of Black Lives Matter as antifa “terrorists”, signaling to his supporters that killing them is not only permissible, but righteous.  The DOJ has launched an investigation into Black Lives Matter, which is nothing more than a 21st Century version of COINTELPRO, (Source:  “Justice Department investigates protest leaders, funding, in Portland and other cities,” by Kevin Johnson, USAToday.com, 9/1/20).

      Frankly, while all of this news is terrifying, and we have every right to be scared, we can not afford to let our fear paralyze us.  We have to remember that those multiracial throngs loudly proclaiming that “Black Lives Matter,” is what terrified Trump and the racist minority that fervently supports him.  What we are witnessing is apoplectic rage at the prospect of living in a truly representative multiracial democracy.  The truth is that our dream is their nightmare.  We have sixty one days to make it come true.

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