Thursday, October 8, 2020

Republicans Live In Oz Land

Here we are America.  Living in the land of the Wizard of Oz.  Pence's debate performance against Kamala exemplifies their rusty, dull witted failure to grasp objective reality.  Our country is in Covid, economic and social distress as never before.  Yet, their rusty yet frightening adoption of Fascist solutions to the unreality they live in seems to them right, though history has proven them so terribly, destructively wrong.  

They really believe that Eurocentric, white America is threatened by different ideas and to them, very different people, especially those of color. They clearly believe that by limiting their numbers via immigration policy disfavoring these unwanted people, they can reshape an already incredibly diverse and exciting mix of races and culture into the White Nationalism they see as the solution to their power retention.

They really believe that by limiting the power of their diverse fellow American residents, via voting suppression, housing isolation, school segregation, an economic caste system and a reshaping of the American democracy experiment into a top down power structure, with their kind at the top and the diverse kind at the bottom much like the Dark Ages of Europe or Asian dynasties, they can thrive and the rest of us be damned.

There is alot of religious fundamentalism mixed into this land of Oz. Good old fashioned Protestant belief that some of us live privileged lives because we are so selected by their God as better.  Combine that with uniquely American mega-church theology embracing the concept of the mythical American Dream as possible for those who embrace the concept of American Exceptionalism. Riches is the visible reward for living a justified and self centered life.

So with these mindsets framed in racism and exceptionalism, these Republicans deny the reality of massive economic inequality, blaming the unequal for their plight on their failure to work hard enough, be smart enough and righteous enough to advance to their level of excellence.  These unequal are just losers, as Donald Trump has echoed.  He did not invent this idea.  He adopted and lived it.  The Wizard Trump is exemplary in his success, regardless of his immorality, selfishness and lack of empathy.

They justify their European immigrant occupation of the Americas as a righteous bringing of Christian religion to an ignorant population of non-believers for their own good and salvation.  This was true of both Protestant and Catholic occupiers.  Thus their theft of publicly owned lands for their private use, genocide of indigenous people and cruel subjection of them to the superior European economic model prevailed.

To advance this economic model , they who colonized the southern portions of the new colonies imported slaves not permitted in the British country of their origin. They emulated the British economy with the idea of advancing it with new industries and goods.  Slaves were necessary to execute this plan.  Ironically, the northern colonies sought to create a more religiously tolerant life, while exhibiting intolerance toward those differing with their Puritanical theology.  They created an early society of exclusion and isolation. They rejected the British economic model, while still creating a tiered social structure.  Hypocrisy infected both  America's.  But the occupants of the land of Oz deny this history in favor of a myth that America was found of the idea of freedom for all.  But the indigenous, differing believers and enslaved were not included in the all part.

So, an America that  some believed that God blessed began its journey to struggle through hypocrisy for the next 250 years. Attempts at expanding the freedoms enjoyed by the few ensued with abolition, expansion of religious sects such as Catholic Maryland, Mormonism and Christian Science broke through, in spite of significant  attempts to subvert.  Women's voting rights and ultimately, half baked attempts at integrating African Americans into the political and social structure followed.  

But the White Nationalist power structure prevailed as did the uniquely American caste system. This factual history is largely ignored by the minority of the population identifying as Republican.  They invented the concepts of the the American Dream and Exceptionalism as vehicles to suppress reality and advance American Oz.  A mythical America.  And these Fascist Nationalists truly believe their myths.  They are genuine in their believes.  This is not a charade the rest of us have to deal with.   

Thus, the challenge for the facts-driven majority to somehow continue the American journey toward democracy for all with an opposition steeped in heartfelt mythical belief.  A journey out of the land of Republican Oz, the demise of the Wizard and the empowerment of a diverse, reality driven people.