State of the Pete-2020 (Commentary)

I came to these shores on the Summer of 1973. I arrived with my family to the bucolic town of Littleton Colorado as legal immigrants. I entered Isaac Newton Junior High as a seventh grader, mingling anonymously with all the other elementary school graduates from the area. I was immediately immersed in the American culture, Colorado style, whether I liked it or not. I did like it.

By the time I was a senior at Arapahoe High School, I felt like I was fully integrated into the American culture and lifestyle, western version. Also, in my senior year in high school, I took the AP US History class from Mr. Dalton Holsteen. A truly fortunate decision on my part. This was the class where I learned all the US History that was approved for high school students at the time. This class formed the foundation of my knowledge regarding the American government and the history from whence it came. Although my knowledge has been augmented and amended since that time, this was the foundation. This was where I learned about the founders, read the documents, reviewed the salient historical events, formed the basis for what I believed to be the American ethos, and bought into the American dream. Indeed, it was during my senior year, after I turned 18,  that I became a naturalized American citizen. I had my interview with the immigration judge in downtown Denver with my parents present. The judge asked me a few questions and commended me on my knowledge of American History, even though I did miss one question, that still rankles, and granted my citizenship.

Regardless of how my knowledge and opinions changed over the years, the basis of my beliefs was formed there in Littleton Colorado, all those many years ago. My knowledge grew, that is just the nature of knowing how to learn; and my opinions changed, that is just the nature of maturation.

My dilemma in 2020 is that everything that I was taught about the American Republic and about the meaning of the great American Democracy experiment is wrong. If not wrong then highly dubious, as exemplified by the present situation in the Republic and the cancer growing in the American Democracy.

This goes beyond what one Orange Criminal has wrought the last four years, it has to do with what a select group of one percenter decided to do to destroy Roosevelt’s grand experiment and Johnson’s great society and regressing about a century into a white patriarchy that is out of step with the reality. Heather Cox Richardson laid her case out on her Letters from An American for December 30, 2020. She is far more eloquent than I am in laying out the historical evidence, I just want to frame that argument in my own perceptions and opinions. I am sure there will be many who disagree with me, and at this point in the destruction of a more perfect union, I don’t give a rat’s ass. Stop reading here if you are getting defensive, or better yet, unfriend me, I frankly don’t care, I am tired of being the better person, it has not done anything for the good of the society when progressives cave to selfish and racist louts.

Those lessons that I had internalized are a belief in the operation of a Democracy, that no matter what transpires, Americans are dedicated to preserving and strengthening the institutions of Democracy, that the citizens of the Republic understand the tenets of the founding documents: The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Federalist papers etc., perhaps not having memorized them by heart but having internalized their meanings. I believed that those who chose to serve in the government are driven by their love of country and their dedication to the purpose of the Republic. I am not naïve enough to believe that everyone has pure intentions, but I thought that the debates and disagreements were a part of a healthy Democracy; that in the end, those who are governing share the same ideals of the governed.

I no longer believe such a thing. I gave up on that belief after the GOP stole the election from Al Gore and handed it to Dubya. But, even with that abysmal happenstance, I still hoped, naively, that there was good in the hearts of the thieves. The GOP cabal of 2020 blew that to smithereens. The top of the GOP and the present Senate are prime examples of the parasites that have come to infest our Republic. The central focus is not to maintain and preserve the Republic or to create a more perfect union, it is to destroy the society that FDR had wrought, the society that had closed the equality gap between the haves and have nots. Nothing matters to them other than their ability to run the nation at the greatest profit to themselves. This cabal of cowards are more self-involved  than principled and more greedy than patriotic. These are toddlers playing at being responsible adults.

I do understand that there are Republicans and conservatives who became disgusted with the Orange Colored sycophancy and had defected to the Lincoln Project, but not enough. Those who are still members of government have been toadies to the Orange Criminal for the sole purpose of being re-elected. They have completely forgotten why they are in government. Or truer to form, they know exactly why they are in government: to enrich themselves and their families. Public service is far down the list of their priorities.  Even those who do show signs of a backbone fold themselves neatly back into the draperies when challenged. The only ones who had any real backbone is either dead like John McCain, or no long a Republican, like Justin Amash. The rest of the so-called moderate Republicans will only be so independent and when the time comes for them to put up or shut up, they do a convincing Mitch McConnell imitation, they pull their turtle heads back into their turtle shells. I am talking to you: Collins, Murkowski, Romney, and Sasse. Those lessons that I had listed are long forgotten or creatively spun to the parasites’ selfish uses.

Given the amount of scandal and shame that the Orange Criminal has brought upon the office of the president both domestically and internationally, the complete mishandling of the pandemic response, and the 338,000 murders resulting directly by his tiny impotent hands; one would think that most Americans would turn their backs on the incompetent blowhard, and  yet there is still a solid 40% voting block who indiscriminately voted for the Orange Criminal. Forty percent.

This is what hurts my heart. It negates all the best beliefs I had about my fellow Americans.  It negates everything I believed about America and Americans. When I became convinced of the benevolence of my fellow citizens, I was sold on the myth that my fellow Americans cared deeply about our fellow human beings. Most importantly, I believed the myth that if immigrants, the ultimate outsiders, worked hard, integrated themselves into the greater American tapestry, contributed to the great melting pot, that we would be accepted as equals into the great American Democracy. Even as the realities in my experience demonstrated that this is not necessarily so, I held on to that belief because I felt that I had to, or else all my struggles and  all of my parent’s struggles were for naught. 2020 gave me my rebuke as 40% of the intelligent and otherwise fair Americans, people I trusted to have my back and accepted me into the great American society  voted for the Orange Criminal. The hurt comes from the fact that even as these former friends and colleagues can look me in the eye sincerely and treat me as an equal, their core beliefs gave them an excuse to vote for someone who is the antithesis of who I thought them to be. The single act of voting for the Orange Criminal for the second time showed me that not so deep in their hearts, they were more xenophobic than not, more misogynistic than not, more racist than not, more cruel than not, more self-absorbed than not, and more selfish than not. All the PSA styled pronouncements which emanated from their lying lips were meant to be pure bullshit. Their vote revealed them to be who they are. It isn’t that I expected them to put my concerns, or my black brothers and sister’s concerns, or the dead immigrant children’s concerns ahead of their own. I did expect them to view the corrupt values exemplified by the Orange Criminal to be significant, significant enough to be the showstopper. I expected them to recognize that the accumulated evil of the Orange Criminal far outweighed their own narrow agenda. Instead, we got excuses. If you can overlook all that is wrong with the Orange Criminal, then you were not sincere about what you originally said to me. Your action speaks louder than your pithy words. You may object to being called xenophobic, misogynistic, racist, cruel, self-absorbed, or selfish; but you are all of those things when you go along with them when they are supposed contrary to your beliefs. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. (It’s right, I checked, I didn’t want to be Dubya.)

Particularly galling are the nominally Christians who are swimming in the orange muck. It was difficult for me to see how they can justify their choice; how can they do something that is so far removed from what their Christ stand for, but then I realized that these invertebrates lost their conscience long ago. There is no sense of guilt, no sense of compassion, no sense of empathy, no love of fellow man with these bottom dweller, just opportunism. I hope they all go their own particular brand of hell.

These two factors I listed explains the chaos that cropped up in this country in 2020. It explains the failure of one of the most organized and effective emergency relief systems in the world to deal with the pandemic, because without competent and people motivated by a higher purpose and a love for their fellow humans, no system can operate, no matter what the system legacy was at one time. Obama left the dumbass an operations manual, but he threw it away because it came from the Obama administration.

The latest development shows the depth of their shamelessness, those very officials who protested that COVID-19 was hoax were the first one seem elbowing the frontline workers out of the way to get their vaccine shot. Yes you, Marco Rubio. Yes you, Joni Ernst. Yes you, Mike Pence.

It explains the cold-blooded murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery to name but a few. The apathy and privileged response of the officials speaks to both factors working in conjunction. Indeed, race is a wedge deployed by both the official of the system to divide the poor into black and white; fooling the poor whites to antagonize the poor blacks in the Machiavellian scheme to pitting one set of have nots against the other set of have nots. It was splitting the enemy to maintain the wealthy white’s stranglehold on power.

The existence of the “Karen’s” in our society is explained by the duplicitous behavior of the 40% of Orange Criminal voters, who exercised their privilege indiscriminately, even as they understood that by doing so may cost another human their life, but they don’t care.

The Operation Varsity Blues scandal came because of the privileged class being too greedy to accept that their children are not smart enough, not good enough to go where they wish. The concomitant system of white privilege known as legacy admissions into the desirable colleges, admits the children of alums under the cover of legacy, to the exclusion of those who were smart enough, who were good enough to go to that school. They are left looking inside from the outside. So don’t be spouting the high ideals of higher education, these institutions can prostitute themselves as well as anyone. Spare me the arrogant rantings regarding athletic scholarships and minority admissions. The precedence had been set by the legacies. Discontinue the legacy admissions then maybe the playing field might be slightly less sloped against the disadvantaged.

Even as I write these words, my optimism had grown over the year 2020, by the actions of some of my fellow humans. My cynicism is tempered, and my optimism had grown much as the Grinch’s heart did at the end of the tale.

The exceptionally large and human response by the citizenry to George Floyd’s murder heartened me.  The scale of the protests and the diversity of those who stood tall in the face of the usual subterfuge was heartening. The steadfastness and persistence of the protests, the general responses of the police in most of the protest cities was heartening, the engagement of people of all races and economic backgrounds was heartening. The earnest soul searching and conversations after the protests, especially amongst my friends and colleagues was heartening and extraordinarily remarkable. Black Lives Matter stopped being a Black issue, it became a human issue, for the time being. I will withhold my full-blown optimism until the changes a coming is permanent and sustainable. I believe it is because we have never seen anything like this before. But I have a reputation to uphold, once you declare yourself a cynic, you can never let up.

The list of books addressing the underlining issues not only grew but the books showed legs on the best seller list. Who knew that How To Be Antiracist, White Fragility, and Caste would crowd the New York Times  nonfiction list and their authors become celebrities?  Who could have foreseen sports teams, collegiate and professional put the issue of racism and violence due to racism front and center in their bullseye? Who could have foreseen Collin Kaepernick get redemption? Who could have foreseen Roger Goodell defy the Orange Criminal and the owners? Who could have foreseen professional athletes put their careers on the line for a social cause?

The biggest source of optimism comes from the elections themselves. When we saw a black woman who had a governorship of Georgia stolen from her by the Orange cabal forego the usual lucrative lecture circuit and token seats on corporate boards for the hard work of registering voters and declawing the very machinery that stole the election from her, even though it should have been the job of the DNC. Because it was her, because she knew what it took, she made it tangible and real, Stacey Abrams delivered on her promise.

Black women saved the Democrats and Joe Biden, and in the process saved the Republic and American democracy from the usurpers and Russians. Jim Clyburn saved Biden’s candidacy in South Carolina. The black women demographic votes to play a big part in saving the nation from a second term from the Orange Criminal and his machinery, as hapless as they may seem at times. A shoutout to Rudy Giuliani and the Four Seasons Total Landscaping crew.

Anonymous poll workers and counters, both Democrats and Republicans counted the votes, recounted the votes, and then re-recounted the votes to shut out the Orange Criminals minions from stealing this election.

Finally, the nation’s visceral and emotional response to the passing of John Lewis and the Notorious RBG brought me out of my depression, as that kind of emotions can not be faked, it can not be bought. Their tragic passing brought to the fore the need for the present generation to take the baton and carry forth the legacy or progressivism.

These are the people that  demonstrated those lessons that I had learned in AP US History all those years ago. Those lesson and tenets that I had internalized and held noble in my heart. In a very tangible way, these people restore my rose colored lens’ view of what America means. Of course, the danger to the Republic is not over, the Democracy is still fragile and that 40% can mobilize at any time to throw the Republic once again into peril. At least now we know and we have the slightest bit of hope.  Vigilance is required from the majority 60% and ruthlessness is required when dealing with the treasonous 40%.

 No more pills of any color. I bid you an optimistic and safe New 2021. Please wear a mask, be alert, be careful, and socially distance.

Pete