If you give the public the choice between hating a rich man or hating a poor man they’ll always choose the poor man. You can throw stones at a poor man with less fear that he’ll throw something back.
Kings and politicians have always known this. They have always pandered to it too.
See those utterly defenseless people over there? The weird looking ones with no friends and no clout? They’re the reason you have crap wages. Here’s a rock. Go-get-them.
And go get them we do, over and over, like the half-baked idiots we are. All we need is someone in a military hat or a big red cape to tell us what to do, who to blame, and what to do about it. We’ll do the rest.
We never seem to figure out that we’re being suckered. We never seem to say wake up even after we’ve been seduced into doing something awful like going to war for dubious reasons.
That’s because once you’ve done something truly awful like going to war for dubious reasons it’s easier to go on doing something awful than admitting you’ve made a terrible mistake.
Fifty-three percent of Republicans now support Donald Trump. Half of them already know they are making a terrible mistake, but they have been swept up by the here’s a rock, go get them current of 2015.
Donald Trump is a very rich and a very protected man who doesn’t want you to envy his inherited wealth. Instead he apparently wants you to envy vulnerable minorities who have inherited crushing poverty. Trump is smart enough to know how to hoodwink you into thinking you’re taking care of your nation.
And while your busy bashing the Latinos who have actually done nothing to harm you, he’ll be busy crafting new legislation to deregulate Wall Street, repeal your health care, give more tax cuts to fellow millionaires and then stick you with the bill.
It’s an age-old game of bait and switch, but what’s different about Trump’s run is that there has never been a GOP candidate who has been so blatant about the fact he’s doing it.
Trump aims to keep you so busy saying hateful things about Mexicans that you won’t even notice that your pockets have been picked, you’ve lost your healthcare and your wages have dropped again.
That’s the seductive thing about prejudice; it’s a problem that actually feels like it’s a solution. While you’re busy blaming innocent people for all your financial challenges, the people who actually created your financial challenges will have more time to dream up some new ones for you.
All of us are missing the point of Trump’s idiotic presidential run. The question isn’t can he win the White House or not. The question is just how far have we fallen as a nation now that the question is even being asked?
Rulers always know when they have pushed a thing too far. Rich rulers know it more than anyone.
America is now a more unequal society than at any other point in its history. Something’s going to give soon.
A smart ruler knows that in order to get ahead of the rich man/poor man showdown that’s brewing across the nation, the thing to do is to create a handy scapegoat. See those Mexicans over there minding their own business? They’ll do. Go-get-em.
If you’ve already joined Trump in his vile immigrant bashing then you probably won’t want to read this. I get that. Who wants to hear they’ve been suckered?
But remember, it wasn’t so long ago that politicians were blaming the Irish in this country for every social problem.
The only thing that really changes from decade to decade is the crowd with the bulls-eye painted on their backs. Once it was us. Once it was the Jews. Once it was the gays. In 2015 it appears to be the Mexicans.
History shows us that not everyone who indulges in the dark arts of demagoguery meets their richly deserved comeuppance. Many get away with it, protecting their assets while they send the flaming torch wielders after some other unsuspecting poor sod.
Trump is our rich man, Mexican immigrants are our poor man and we as a nation now have to decide which of them is the real bully. It’s amazing it’s taking some of us this long.
I guess we’re still waiting for someone in a military hat or a big red cape to tell us what to do next. I suggest you don’t pick up the rock.
Comments