Trump’s attempt to ban Muslims — as well as his foolhardy attempt to build a useless wall — has little to do with protecting the homeland against terrorists from abroad or criminals from south of the border. No, the goal of his policies is more about politics than the safety of the American public.
The simple fact is, right-wing white dudes spend more time in their basements playing with their guns (lovingly oiling and rubbing them) than they spend in their bedrooms “playing” with their wives. Therefore, the “replacement rate” for whites (the number of white babies being born) has fallen to an all-time low, and in another few decades or so minorities will be in the majority in America. Gasp! But this has long been in the making.
So the only way for conservative whites to maintain unfair control of the country is to find as many ways as possible to limit the franchise … to keep as many black Americans as possible from voting by saddling us with felony convictions, and keeping anyone out of the country that might one day become a citizen … and then vote Democratic.
This is all about a demographic that has always been advantaged and privileged, trying to ensure their advantage continues to be passed down from one generation to the next without having to share power with anyone they view as the “other.”
But the U.S. Census doesn’t lie; the days of white hegemony are coming to an end and what we are witnessing is the dying gasps of a rigged system that favored white males over everyone else. But really, did anyone actually think these bastards would go down without a tooth-and-nail, knockdown, drag-out fight?
The real issue progressives should be concerned with is not that we aren’t superior in numbers — we are; the real fear is that some on the right are so bigoted they would just as soon figuratively burn the country down (or deliver it into the lily-white hands of a Russian dictator) than to see a woman — or another person of color — as the head of state.
Make no mistake, these are modern-day troglodytes we’re going up against: They will despoil the planet — pollute the air and poison our waters — all in the name of the great god profit … and if we don’t organize and rout these virtual demons at the 2018 midterms we might as well prepare to inherit a severely damaged environment. The climate really can’t wait a few more decades.
And in order to take back our country now we must do what the Tea Party did upon Obama’s election: Organize … incessantly … relentlessly.
But for progressives political organizing will be more difficult since we’re not as homogeneous as the white right. Our diversity in terms of race and lifestyles could turn out to be our weakness — our Achilles heel — if we don’t master the art of providing everyone an equal seat at the table and put aside our petty grievances.
And as David Frum suggested in The Atlantic, we have to not become wild-eyed radicals, but determined patriotic citizens. When we do engage in mass protests they never can become ugly like the one recently did in Berkeley. Silent witnessing is the only way of winning the hearts and minds of our fellow Americans.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com