June 13, 2021
I knew that the election loss would not spell the end of Donald Trump (even though I hoped that it would). And now, after the failed January 6th attempt to maintain (or was it regain?) power — He has retreated to Mara Lago — but still manages to govern while in exile. The Chiang Kai-shek of our times?! I wanted to list all-of-the-rulers who were either forced, or purposefully went, into exile — but it was far too long! Suffice to say, King Trump has joined the illustrious company of the Constantines, Napoleon and the Shah — to name a recognizable few.
For now He\’s operating out of Mara Lago — but I fully expect that as the criminal charges against Him and His family mount — that He will flee from Mara Lago for Russia — and set-up the White House East. Some folks have mentioned Ireland or Scotland as possible exile destinations because there are some nice golf courses there — but Irish and the Scots don\’t seem to want Him. Russia has to have a-couple-of-decent golf courses, don\’t they?
But His base still loves him and worships Him as Q\’s annointed One. Hopefully they will all follow him to Russia — along with Republican members of Congress — who can join him there and operate out of the Federal Assembly when the Russians aren\’t using it, and, since the Russian Federal Assembly operates under a dictatorship — there should be plenty of open dates for our self-exiled Congress to conduct the business of the White House East.
I have oft referred to the aforementioned base as knuckle draggers! But they are much worse than that — they are vile, greedy, and under-educated knuckle draggers.
They are surely the cohort of de-evolved humans that Devo anticipated.
The most recent example of forensic stupidity comes with the Right\’s interpretation of Critical Race Theory. Granted, when I first heard the term Critical Theory (with regards to the Frankfurt School of Sociology) — I thought that it was criticizing capitalists/capitalism — as Critical Theory was simply Marx\’s Conflict Theory with a name change (it was not prudent for Jewish-German sociologists to use the term Conflict Theory in the climate leading up to WWII). Critical Theory was actually more geared toward the continued deconstruction of capitalism and its effects on the social and human conditions.
Enter Critical Race Theory, which the knuckle draggers interpret as criticism of every destructive thing that White Americans have ever done. What really gets the Right\’s goat is the suggestion that Whites should apologize for the horrible behavior of their ancestors (and relatives) towards the minority ethnicities who were enslaved, robbed, cheated and murdered by the White majority. The knuckle draggers prefer a sanitized, White-washed version of history in which the persecuted ethnic minorities sucked up the oppression and discrimination and became pleasant, hard-working Uncle Toms.
Perhaps Critical Race Theory, which entails deconstructing American history by reporting what factually occurred — should simply be renamed as a narrative — like The Complete Story of America. That might sound less threatening to the knuckle draggers.
Of course — such a text will never be complete — becoming more voluminous: as what will one day become history — continuously unfolds.
As a high school teacher — I was always pissed off that students were forced to learn about the Marshall Plan and never about the war in Viet Nam (that may have changed by now — but I don\’t think so). It is my belief that the Viet Nam war has affected the entire social fabric of the America we see today — from homelessness to music.
American History and World History should probably kick off in the 5th grade and run all-the-way through the 12th grade (which might add some additional rigor and credibility to that throw-away-year of American schooling).
And with a legitimate understanding of American and world events — we may finally see the general populous learning from history — so that it isn\’t repeated, and, of course, never have the exiled One returning like Napoleon (or someone even worse).