Fully realizing in advance that I’m running the risk of ending up with egg all over my face on Election Night, nonetheless I am going to go way, way out on a limb and predict that not only will tRump get beat by Biden/Harris, but he’s going to get beat like a government mule — like a redheaded stepchild, like the brazen attempted thief of our democratic principles he so roundly deserves to be beaten for. I’m talking about more than a 10-point landslide — I’m predicting a total repudiation by a margin of 20 points or more.
Go right ahead and call me a wistfully thinking Pollyanna, or even worse, a complete fool. But I’m a big boy, I can take it. There was that one time in my life I thought I was wrong, but as it turned out, I was mistaken.
What, pray tell, am I basing such an outrageous prediction on, you, gentle reader, might ask? So I’ll cut right to the chase. It’s based more on cowardice than commonsense. While it would be wonderful if tRump’s fringe supporters finally came to their collective senses and realized the destructiveness of the path the sociopath is leading the country down, in my estimation it’s going to be fear that causes them to stay home on Election Day if they can’t bring themselves to vote for Biden/Harris.
My logic is simple: If tRump wins reelection and attempts to change the country from the form of government that has worked — albeit with glaring exceptions — relatively well for 242 years, and institute a form of American Apartheid (which, if he wins, he will take as a mandate to pursue to radically alter the Constitution), the outbreaks of violence that are sporadically occurring in Portland and other places around the country will engulf the nation and eventually reach the doorsteps of the soccer moms that tRump is depending on to keep him in office. Realize that without them he simply cannot win.
The fact is, while there are hardcore groups of radical racists on the right that would welcome such bloody confrontation, the white suburban housewife is not to be counted among them. After all, they’ve lived through eight years of a black man being president and their world didn’t come to an end or even change except for the better. So they are not going to be willing to risk the peace and security they and their children currently enjoy out of some vague fear of an America populated by more people of color than people that look exactly like they do.
After all, it’s more a fear of their husbands than one they harbor themselves about their daughters growing up and marrying a black man. And let’s be honest, this is what all of the commotion is about, and has been since the end of slavery, isn’t it? The insane fear of that “Big Black Buck” the white man created in an attempt to control their woman — but it hasn’t worked too well, has it?
Now he wants to fight about it, the very situation he created. But that “miscegenation” horse left the stable over a few decades ago, or for some, right around the time Kim married Kanye. In this day and age, “race mixing” is no longer the palpable fear it once was, at least not for the majority of American white women.
And if it ever comes down to the race war crazed bigots have been itching for since the end of the Civil War (which I hope and pray it never does come to that), it’s a sure bet that it won’t be whites against just blacks and browns as the racists now think: white progressives in overwhelming numbers would join the fight on the side of justice and fair treatment for all. After all, it’s their democracy too that would be at stake, and they’re going to fight tooth, nail and claw to maintain and preserve it, you can bet on that.
Just a cursory reading of history reveals to even marginally bright people that, in the end, those fighting for a right, true and honest cause will always win in the end. Sometimes it just takes years or even decades. Vietnam should have taught us the lesson that might doesn’t make right.
I have to continue to believe that “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Without that belief, what hope do any of sane and upright people have for a brighter future?
So, as an old mentor of mine was fond of sometimes saying at the appropriate time, “The fox ain’t worth the chase.” Or, put another way, “The juice ain’t worth the squeeze.”
Put more succinctly, to that white soccer mom, fear of black people isn’t enough to risk putting her comfortable way of life in jeopardy. In the end, right as she casts her ballot (or decides to stay home) she’s going to come to her senses, no matter what that damn fool bigoted husband of hers might think or say. She knows that she’s not the one that’s crazy, he is.
One Response to “MANSFIELD: An Audacious Prediction”
Lelia Benham
Well Said, all things being considered.