Under normal circumstances I have an extreme aversion to using any and all sports metaphors when describing politics. Because I typically perceive it as coldly reducing the millions of flesh and blood real lives affected by those politics to something akin to inanimate and easily dismissable pieces on a game board. And elections themselves to either fun and games or just a momentary time-killing diversion. But in these far from typical times — in fact, far, far more than we have yet realized! — I find such a comparison to be at least marginally apt at this particular time.
With the orange menace’s latest and most unveiled racist attacks ever on the city of Baltimore, the Squad, Elijah Cummings, and now essentially ALL non-white refugees, he has signaled that he is now going absolutely all in on a platform of pure, unmistakable and unadulterated racism in 2020. And so, with their lack of response to his unprecedented hateful rhetoric, the remainder of the GOP has now also unmistakably signaled that, regardless of whatever supposedly private reservations they may have, they are ready, willing and able to go all in with him. So in the absolute starkest of terms, that essentially says — IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS — that from this day forth, the Republican Party is now conclusively running on a vision for the future, of a United States of America whose greatness will be singularly and most foundationally defined by it’s total and unapologetic commitment to an ever-increasing role for white supremacy in all aspects of American life. Which will likewise inevitably include an immediate and ever-increasing amount of racialized violence against all who would not or cannot henceforth be defined as white.
ARE YOU HEARING ME YET???
That now brings us to the poker metaphor.
If the Republican Party has now (thus far unofficially, yet effectively) gone all in, betting absolutely everything they’ve got on a now undeniable platform of a future America filled with raw, naked white resentment and racism. Then what type of equally powerful and directly anti-racist, statement-making bet does this history making step now absolutely demand from the Democratic Party? In direct response to the Republicans shoving all their poker chips across the table? And again, in the name of this now unapologetic full-on commitment to racism? And almost total abandonment of all other political priorities. Because their all in bet effectively says that they are now betting everything they’ve got that the 60% of white Americans that have been religiously voting Republican for the last 50 years will not only fully embrace this once and for all total assault on “PC culture”, but an even greater percentage of previously closeted racist whites (and self-hating others) than ever before will supposedly now be energized to come and join this long-awaited vision for the future of America, that will supposedly return long-suffering and marginalized “real Americans” to their rightful role at the forefront of American society. Which will in turn supposedly generate more than enough new energy and belief in the new vision for America to overcome any type of “racist and anti-white” coalition of nonwhite and non-racist white voters that the Democratic Party can assemble, in the name of such “fake news” things as healthcare, taxes, the deficit, climate change, and whatever else.
And then there’s this. If the Democratic Party waffles on directly addressing and challenging this unprecedented all in bet, and refuses to offer up an equally large and directly anti-racist bet of their own, will that in itself be a tacit and/or unintended acknowledgement that anti-racism is in fact a weaker poker hand to try and play in an America so historically drenched in white supremacy? And thus a sign to be interpreted by Republicans that they are the ones on the right side of history? And as a result embolden them even more?
The day of reckoning has indeed arrived. It is now time for us to decide — once and for all (for all the poker chips). What kind of America do we really believe in? Not what do we SAY we believe in when people are watching. What DO we believe in? The Republican Party is now holding our collective hand to the proverbial fire and demanding that we finally make that long, long, long avoided choice. Once and for all. And they’re also making it unmistakably clearer by the day with their increasing boldness, that if we’re too timid or afraid to make the necessary choice, they’ll be more than happy to make it permanently...for all of us! And in unabashedly choosing racism, they’re also likewise making it unmistakably clear that if they get to do the deciding, instead of it being 6 million, this time it will be potentially tens of millions paying the ultimate genocidal price.
Thanks to trump, their masks are now completely off! And very much because of it, the time has now arrived for us to take ours off and publicly declare who WE are too! Or just like 80-plus years ago, they will begin to mercilessly show us once and for all, and in incomprehensibly sadistic ways that will make our current Concentration camps look like a Boy Scout jamboree, WHAT they are ultimately truly aiming for!
Last but not least, this diary is not intended to add to the perpetual fears of those folks always focused on, and ever-watchful of, our worst case electoral scenarios. And who perpetually feel the need to react to every tiny but ominous gesture that the Republican Party makes, in response to every supposed tactical mistake that the Democratic Party makes. Lest we should lose the election! Quite simply, as of now it is officially much bigger than just politics. So this is very much intended to be a clarion call. Not the screeching of a scared little bird, warning everyone to be very, very afraid because “The sky is falling”. But rather, like the so-called Greatest Generation, it is a call to meet the gravest direct threat to the lives of millions of innocent human beings since Hitler himself, with unquestionable and clearheaded resolve and bravery about the true nature and full magnitude of the threat we now face. So as of now, this is no longer just about winning an election. This is now about whether we will have the collective courage to stop what is now undisguised white supremacy from taking the next inevitable and monstrous step in the progression into full blown genocide.
I leave with this:
The Republican Party has now made it imminently clear that they intend to kick in the door standing between them and a future of unapologetic and (especially based on the Concentration camps) sadistic racism...”by any means necessary”. MLK had this to say about the inevitable progression of such things: “Racism carried to it’s furthest degree is genocide.”
The time has truly arrived for us to decide once and for all, “Who do we want to be???” Because history has repeatedly shown us that this will most certainly not end with strictly overt displays of racism. And (with their gestapo-like goons at ICE and CBP) the Republicans are at the door! And they’re not taking no for an answer! Cowering in fear while hoping it’s not really happening again is no longer an option!