“The end of the world as we know it” — Der Spiegel, not exactly a socialist Chicken Little, callin’ it like it really is.
Of all the lame arguments I’ve ever heard, none is a bigger non-starter than “the enemy of our enemies is our friend”. Unless, maybe, it’s the whole “lesser of two evils” thing, being bandied about over someone who is most certainly evil, and one of two, but not the “lesser” in the least. And, unbelievably, during this past week I’ve heard variations on both being tossed out there by people who really ought to know better than to use either.
Yes, I’m talking about progressives. Some even downright radical. You know, LEFTISTS. Arguing in favor of a right-wing demagogue who has the backing of the KKK, and is plotting to bring actual neo-Nazis into the White House, even as I write.
I have just one question for them: Have you people all lost your fucking minds?
The “leftist” arguments in favor of Der Drumpf are meagre and dubious. First, there’s something to the effect of “He won’t bomb Syria!” Oh? How do we know that? This is, need I remind you, a man who doesn’t understand that you must not, MUST NOT, hit that nuclear button no matter how sorely tempted you are. He’s a man who can’t refrain from kissing women who don’t want his lips anywhere near any part of them, and who even bragged of groping their crotches. He is aggressive and violent towards women, and really ought to be in jail for sexual assault, and rape of more than one under-age girl. He can’t control his own impulses at anything. How are you so sure that he won’t declare war on impulse, too? Especially when he has the biggest military machine in the world, right there in his shrimp-fingered hands? And his own VP, Mike Fucking Pence, is already looking to bomb not only Syria, but RUSSIA?
Then there’s the “He’s going to turn his back on Israel!” canard. Really? When he sucked up to AIPAC? Yeah…he’s gonna look the other way while Bibi & Co. demolish the Gaza Strip with an endless rain of white phosphorus (made in the USA!), and build illegal settlements all over the West Bank (that is, wherever they haven’t already). There will be no peace in the Middle East, and no two-state solution either. There will be a one-state “solution”, and it will be a Palestinian holocaust eerily reminiscent of the Jewish one of the 1940s. In other words, Drumpf will wash his hands of it, like Pontius Pilate, and let the crucifixions go on unabated, on a vast scale. Big foreign policy improvement, that.
And let’s not forget the “He’s not an elitist, he appeals to the working class!” bullshit. When the overwhelming majority of his voters are not working but middle-class, and substantially better off than those who voted Democratic, that argument won’t wash. Drumpf was, himself, born with a silver spoon under his cokey nose. His father and grandfather were rich before him. Grandpa Drumpf made his boodle as a pimp during the Gold Rush, and Daddy Fred was a real-estate mogul so racist and odious that he aroused the ire of a certain Woody Guthrie, who wrote scathing folk songs about him. Woody Guthrie was working class. Drumpf is not, and neither are the majority of his odious, racist supporters.
“He’s against globalization!” — also bullshit. Again, the racists who supported him are
virtual illiterates when it comes to politics and economy. The “global elites” Drumpf railed against? Dog-whistles for that old Czarist myth, the Elders of Zion. Yes, that’s right, he was being openly antisemitic. Remember his last campaign ad? Funny how all the evil people he singled out for abuse were Jews, eh?
And, riddle me this: How does one oppose globalization at home when one owns property — or at least, has one’s name slapped all over dozens of hotels, resorts and golf courses — in other parts of the world? Or when one’s own brand of suits are made in foreign countries where sweatshop labor is cheap? Drumpf is a fine one to babble about bringing back jobs that were going to China or Mexico when his own suits (and his daughter’s fashion line, too) are still made there…eh? He’s not an anti-globalist in the slightest, he’s a globalist himself. One who profits off the very things he rails against.
And back to foreign policy: Drumpf, an anti-war isolationist? Don’t make me laugh. Look who he’s considering for the job of CIA chief, and tell me if you don’t find this just a wee bit appalling:
Above all, I find it weird and ironic that those who claim to support Bolivarian socialism would make the argument that the late Hugo Chávez would be with Drumpf. Hell no, he would not. He would recognize immediately that this orange buffoon is not even an improvement over Dubya, never mind Obama or Hillary; he’s Dubya on steroids, with his head even further up his own ass. Bigger, uglier, and mirabile dictu, dumber, too. Drumpf is casino capitalism at its worst, and Cuba is preparing to fend him off even before he takes office. We all know, or ought to, that Venezuela’s government will side with Cuba in the event that the latter is menaced by Washington. Drumpf, a casino-owner linked to prostitution, represents a definite menace to Cuba, whose revolution turfed out the local mafia and closed its gambling-pits and bordellos. He has also declared the governments of Venezuela and Cuba to be “oppressive” and vowed to topple them. What kind of leftist could support THAT?
And if Chavecito were alive to see all this, you just know he’d be heaping scorn and ridicule on Drumpf’s grody comb-over, too.
Just like me.