An abomination

Standing Rock is evidence that the odd little Trump hand has touched the nation. Its groping fingers have stirred the pot, angered the hornets, and uploaded history. He has conjured up forty-three-year old tableaux of Wounded Knee. His jabs at minority voter suppression reek of deja vu. I see how Trump has walked his diminishing portion of America toward a violent propensity. A little is enough. It is, in fact, too much. But then, embroiled in the final throes of a race to decide democracy, neither side of the aisle seems to care much about the fringes. Once again the U.S. government has left the Native American alone as big business encroaches on their land. The irony.

A twelve-mile oil pipeline threatens the Sioux reservation. Non-violent protest lost again. Sitting Bull is rolling his eyes in a grave somewhere. It is a controlled massacre today in Cannon ball, North Dakota. It's merciless wounding with mace and rubber bullets. Brave generations, dust of civilizations, centuries from Columbus' genocide, toe the line of audacity. Why is it always the Native American at the end of the line? How come they must desperately try to conserve some semblance of what belonged to them in the beginning? Why are they always last to see a slice of the pie that the Dutch paid them in glass beads that valued $24? And now, some 300 years later, they build them a casino to recoup their loss—hush money so oil can run through what remains of their slice of pie.

Aretha Franklin spelled it out. It has always been a bottom-heavy trickle. For the Native American to get either compensation or—at the very least—respect, tanks of bureaucracy must be fathomed. The trickle must be followed to the top where history guides often say nothing is left. Our government evidently sees—let's say quite inadvertently—the Native American as the last on a short list of minorities to whom they owe something.

Take the African-American, they were last on the list for over 200 years. If Native-Americans had not—against their will—surrendered their parts of North America, there would not have been cotton to pick, and without cotton to pick there would have been no slaves to oversee. One notch on the totem pole. And women, as a group that has earned a respect that I wonder why was ever questioned, seem to come before the Native American. How could John Adams have ignored his wife's request? In March of 1776, as Adams prepared to leave for the Continental Congress, the future First Lady advised “ And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire that you remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.” Because of the Native Americans' “generosity,”Adams had ground in which to make that—let's say oversight—that set the course for women, their suffrage and struggle for equality. The refutation of Abigail's words by future president Adams was the trickle that fed a movement to the top—to, God willing, the first female POTUS. Okay, a higher notch on the pole.

Now, let's go back 169 years from Mr. Adams’ arrogance. Captain John Smith, it is said, felt the head of a young Native American rest upon his as it lay on the chopping block. Regardless of the truth of this story, it postulates the idea of an Indian saving the life of a noble white man. Pocahontas was taken captive during the Anglo-Indian hostilities in 1613. In captivity she converted—I surmise not willfully—to Christianity. She was then touted around England as a “civilized savage.” Women up on the pole, Native Americans still down.

Why does the Native American always wind up at the bottom of the heap in a democracy in which they are, ironically, often forced to participate, although more often, abrogate? From Columbus to Andrew Jackson to the U.S. Cavalry and now to U.S marshals—again—the Native American is like a tolerant uncle, not blood related yet obstinately ingratiated. The government has a long, long record of breaking treaties with them and bullying them into parcels of land that do indeed belong to them. In this case, the pipeline could easily be relocated. I am saddened and outraged. I am left with a deep disillusionment of America. I fear it has stuck out a thumb for a hitch on the road to regression.

Well, it looks as though the totem pole may just be a measure of how—or where—it stands.

Anchormen Interupted

It is the old tug-of-war. We've lived through it before. Two parties trying to survive in this country, each thinking they have the answer. I was born under a Democratic administration that strayed. Granted there were fateful distractions like assassination, the party failed to deliver on the precepts it espouses. The Democratic Party came close to falling in the metaphorical mud. We lived through that. We were not interminably discouraged by McGovern's devastating loss, indicating most of the country was deaf to any voice but their own. All those Yippies who were beaten, all the McCarthy Democrats that voiced how Vietnam was wrong and required an immediate and unmitigated end, all felt silenced. They hurt, some were tearful, and they felt a sense of loss. They saw a tired war that was sentenced now to continue indefinitely. Wounds heal. Wars feel injustice. People will sense when they have no appeal. Turned out a Republican won, and turned the war his own way, presumably in ways his “Democratic” predecessor never dared. Fate intervened and opened a Watergate. Maybe Nixon would have eventually found Saigon, but Ford did. The healing began. We got through it, hopefully wiser for the wear.

A slip on the Soviets by Ford gave us Carter. Democrats back on solid ground. Okay, I look back and think he was weak. He did some things good for no one—the Olympic boycott—but he got us through a gas crisis, a nuclear disaster, and forged a peace plan in the middle east. In four years. Then the Republicans pulled harder. Reagan lived as a Democrat for much of his young life (as did Trump). His “Reaganomics” served no one but the one percent. He did limit nuclear weapons, helped end a cold war, and had a wall dismantled. Al Sharpten says today “We got the down, but not the trickle.” The other 99 percent is used to waiting. A gold, more likely brass, ring dangles. It's pulled, then released in frequencies of 4 to 8 years. The 99 percent are pursuing happiness for sure, but it gets closer, some feel it (if it stays long enough) and then it gets pulled away. One side of the country hiccups. We waited through the Reagan administration. Slaves waited, women waited, gays et al waited to be free to marry. In a democracy a lot of waiting is tolerated for greatly disproportionate rewards. That is a given most seem willing to accept. The anarchists, the rouge members of democracy, those who are either not educated enough to follow the democratic process or too impatient to follow it, won't accept waiting.

George HW. Bush had a Republican agenda that was destined to lead to war. For months he played cat and mouse with Saddam. The spider-hole poet fooled everyone. Bush pounced thinking Saddam had WMDs. He dropped bombs on Iraq in a prelude to his son's future.

In four years the Democrats mustered more strength, enough to have reign for eight years this time. Bill Clinton was at least as popular as Reagan In a video that was never show during this last campaign Trump praises Bill. He says he did a great job with everything. He said Hillary did well as first lady and senator. Clinton left jobs in his wake. He left a balanced budget. He signed the ADA. Personally, during the 90s I don't feel I ever benefited directly for any of these.

Enter W. A war his father ended cleverly is stupidly ignited again. It rages on for. . . Jobs go overseas. War crimes are committed. Cheney gets rich off the war. Wall street goes unchecked until the bubble bursts. The Democrats pull back tighter. This time, I think largely due to the major damage W caused, they squeeze in a black president. Surprise, from the beginning I am quite sure that his skin color colored peoples' opinion of him. He got more done then any president in my lifetime, in spite of it.

A billionaire business man, an outsider with zero public service steps up to the line. He holds the rope with more experienced politicians, but none who had yelled “you're fired” on a reality show. He came flawed, in any American's estimation, reeking of bigotry, misogyny unscrupulousness, and narcissism. He proved himself to be debatable by a tweet with a child-like distractability. His celebrity knocked all the “better” cookbook Republicans down the line. He did not win by popular vote. For winning still, Trump has James Madison to thank. Only in America.

We have lived through this before, although never this far from sanity. However I think a lot of that crappy, injurious, talk that belonged in the mouth of a dictator was more words than reality. We'll see. Regardless, politics in America is crying out for a third party. LBJ should have signaled it. Since then, the need or want for one has only gotten worse. I am convinced that without one a tug-of-war will persist as long as there is rope. Has everyone in this country ever been truly happy?The best scenario is a percentage is happier than another much larger percentage. Their anchor man pulls and they get a new breed of happiness until the other anchor pulls away that flurry of happiness.

This time, the Republicans pulled so hard, the constitution is threatened. Every minority who has been heard from, silenced, heard from, silenced now feels they will never be heard from again—or at least for the next four years. Immigrant families feel threatened. Muslims feel threatened. But it is not the end of the world, just close to the end of a rope. The donkey symbol goes back to Andrew Jackson. Fittingly, people called him a jackass. It is also fitting that the donkey represent the Democrat, as they are usually the ones following the eternal carrot. But when you begin a government with only white, slave-owning men voting, the wait for the eternal happiness of all is not surprising. Nothing's 100 percent.