The singing group, The Temptations, had a popular song that was entitled,
“A Ball of Confusion!”
It was a musical lament on the sordid state of affairs in the US of A that was in progress back in the Sixties and Seventies.
A ball of confusion would aptly characterize the underlying sentiments of what is occurring in the nation with a wannabee autocrat at the helm with his
shameless Attorney General Will Barr as his trusty lapdog.
It appears that the dystopian theater call governance is in no wise abating anytime soon because Americans are seemingly caught in a political crossfire not knowing whom to believe about basic core issues of fairness and justice.
The public murder of George Floyd, et. al., ignited a firestorm of national and international protests but unless and until legislators feel the heat of an angry public, they will pass a modicum of tepid bills aimed at putting out the fire but not putting an axe to the rotted roots of the tree.
The biggest tell will be if white America will humble itself and take its medicine and be thoroughly brought to heel and account for its original sin of slavery and its continuing aftermath as evidenced by an unjust legal system, a warped welfare system, criminality in the matter of not dispensing taxpayer funds to the neediest; and not addressing the hot potato issue of reparations.
What is being asked of white America is to come on to the national stage and by way of implication, the world stage; and stand naked and confess that it devised, concocted, manufactured and benefitted from a lie that people of color are inherently inferior to white people.
Also to admit, without reservation, that a total historical retelling is in
order regarding their brutal treatment of the Native American tribes, people of color and Asian Americans.
Anything less would be dishonest and would not lead to a reconciliation of all the injured parties.
The Tulsa Massacre along with the recorded massacres of Native Americans and other hushed genocides against people of color including acts of violence and economic exploitation of poor whites would require a proper historical examination and confessional that would last for years. Three good reads (among hundreds of extant books) on these subjects would be the tomes entitled, Stamped from the Beginning, The Half Has Not Been Told and When Affirmative Action Was White.
When Herr Trump threatened imprisonment for those who would trash American icons in the form and fashion of Confederate statutes, he was simply saying what his base believed and that is: White Supremacy is still the order of the day and if he has his say so, it will remain that way!
Unless you can fully comprehend that America, from its inception never had a plan to treat people of color as people of equal honor or being equally made in the image of God, you will continue to wander in abject darkness.
The Big Lie that was concocted was that America is a white man’s country ordained by God and its manifest destiny was for the sole benefit of the Anglo-Saxon and not the Native American tribes, who possessed and owned the land and who were merely speed bumps on America’s way to a shore to shore Caucasian hegemony.
History is told to us by the victor and the victor writes both the history books and the rule books; and if you have a contrary understanding of what really transpired, you are deemed a persona non gratis.
When the highest office in the land is occupied by a person who by all accounts is an intellectual moron and is bereft of any moral compass and is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goals. That is when you see the liar Michael Flynn being freed from any further legal prosecution for his crimes and those who “snitch” like Michael Cohen, remain in jail.
It is no longer sufficient to vent and rage about the obvious moral failings of Herr Trump or his proficiency in lying or remark about his addled brain spewing out incoherent sentences or he being enamored with tin horn dictators.
That is who he is, and he no longer is even trying to hide his disdain of minorities or the plights of the George Floyds or the Sandra Blands or his intense envy of former President Obama (Obama is everything Trump would want to be, but never will be!).
Herr Trump gladly slanders Obama with the word, traitor and that he has committed treason (of course without a shred of evidence and which evidence is not to be found in a sane world). For Trump knows by simply invoking his name, his base will howl to the moon and call for his political scalp.
America is witnessing a decline, temporary or otherwise, in both the quality of its civic discourse and its inability to spot a con in its midst because the con speaks to the evil that resides in their own hearts and as such, Trump is a fellow traveler with them.
What will be a grave danger for this American republic that has taken some serious hits to its gut, will be the dangerous time frame from the results of the November election to the time that Herr Trump is supposed to leave public office.
He will not go quietly into the night. He will shout, like the madman that he is, that the election was a fraud and the deep state manufactured millions of illegal votes and as such, until he investigates what happened, he will, by executive order, remain in office and have William Barr conduct an investigation.
However in the meantime between the time of the results of the Fall election and to the proper date of the swearing in of the new president, Herr Trump can and will cause some serious political and economic carnage by means of imperious executive orders and mouth slapping statements that will have the country reeling with fear and exhaustion.
If need be, who will have the political courage to take him by the scuff of his neck and led him to the front door of the White House and give him the boot? Or, will he bunker himself in the White House and issue a call for his minions to march on Washington and save his cowardly self from the pending state and federal criminal indictments?
That above time frame will be fraught with political intrigue as Trump defies the law and dares the powers that be, to come and get him, if they dare! My answer to the above? Simple: Buckle Up…Buttercup!
Lafe Tolliver, attorney at law
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