By Kevin Hall
People need hope. They need help. Desperately. And while it’s been that way for many years, now it’s growing exponentially.
Five long years ago when that golden, gelded steer of our media-driven religiopolitics, Donald Trump, glided down his gilded escalator and immediately attacked Mexican immigrants with racist bile of the worst kind, a third of the country flocked to him like so many sheep from their childhood parables and haven’t left his herd since. It’s a mentality. They love a strong man, unable to see the wolf in sheep’s clothing despite the dead bodies scattered around them.
He locked down the anti-abortion christian vote—yes, lower-case “c”—with his selection of Mike Pence as vice president, which came with a network of nondenominational mega-churches run by grifters or medieval bible literalists, all preaching a “Jesus rocks!” prosperity gospel of self-interest and scientific ignorance. Several such cross-topped big boxes can be found here, and their most prominent pastor, Rev. Jim Franklin, can be heard weekly on KMJ hate radio.
Trump pushed his way to final victory by increasing voter turnout in unusual places for a presidential candidate. He worked to excite the White Nationalist movement and its many permutations to actually vote, as did another bloc of people who never vote: his fellow denizens of screen addiction. They loved him on The Apprentice reality TV show, in which he played a successful businessman, and at his ringside appearances during broadcasts of the weird, heavily make-upped world of professional wrestling where his orange-caked mug fit right in.
The man is a carnival barker of the highest order. A con, or confidence, man who knows half the people want to be told ever grander lies, while the other half is left to alternately rage or look away.
It is difficult to accept that so many Americans can be this easily bedazzled and misled. Nearly impossible to believe that millions of them still back this man who has now directly caused the deaths of more than 200,000 people in this country. His list of crimes against humanity and the environment are so sickening people have almost become numb to them, staggering from headline to headline about the latest atrocity, afraid to read the details within.
Following Steve Bannon’s direction to “flood the zone with shit,” Trump took office and every day has made it a point to dominate the news cycle with gaslighting on every topic possible, while his minions proceeded to dismantle every governmental institution designed to bring order or fairness to society and keep unfettered capitalism in check.
People are exhausted by having to fight every day for survival, whether they’re struggling to put food on the table or arguing in court against illegal Trump directives.
There’s only so much adrenalin one can burn each day fighting the madness, and living in Trump’s America is like living in a household headed by an abusive alcoholic. The ongoing horrors at our border with Mexico, including the expulsion of 8,000 unaccompanied minors last month; pedophilia and sexual abuse by ICE, Border Patrol and private internment camp guards; unaccounted for refugee children; and now forced hysterectomies on unknowing women in these camps, these are all crimes against humanity—by our country’s leaders, those who follow their illegal commands in violation of domestic and international laws, and those who don’t fight back.
What would four more years of these assaults look like? Because they’re just getting started, you know. Who wants to risk finding out?
We’ve been invaded from within. They’ve taken control of nearly everything, and now they’re killing us. We’re being threatened on our streets by heavily armed cosplayers who are mentally unstable and want to act out some revenge fantasy single-player video game when what they need to do is go back to the paintball range. They’re like children playing with blasting caps.
If we don’t fight back and instead allow Trump to win another election, or if we don’t fight back when they try to force a Bush-like Electoral College coup through statehouses and the Supreme Court, and if we don’t fight back to retake the Senate now while we have a chance, we will have learned an answer to that age-old question: What would you have done in Germany during the 1920s and ’30s or today in Brazil, the Philippines, Russia, etc., etc.?
Your actions this final month will tell you. And I haven’t even mentioned Muslims, Black Lives Matter, climate change, species extinction and so much more. Lift. A. Finger.
To dial! People need you to talk to them, please. Now. Phone bankers are reporting on long, meaningful conversations with voters who are undecided or feeling hopeless. People don’t know who to trust. They are in the small percentage of undecided voters, typically too busy staying alive to keep up with the news. You can help. You can make the difference.
Key Races
President/Vice President: Joe Biden/Kamala Harris, joebiden.com
Arizona U.S. Senate: Mark Kelly, markkelly.com
Colorado U.S. Senate: John Hickenlooper, hickenlooper.com
Georgia U.S. Senate: Jon Ossoff, electjon.com
Iowa U.S. Senate: Theresa Greenfield, greenfieldforiowa.com
Maine U.S. Senate: Sarah Gideon, saragideon.com
Montana U.S. Senate: Steve Bullock, stevebullock.com
North Carolina U.S. Senate: Cal Cunningham, calfornc.com
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Kevin Hall hosts Climate Politics on KFCF 88.1 FM every second and fourth Friday, 5 p.m.–6 p.m. He tweets as @airfrezno and @sjvalleyclimate, coordinates an informal network of climate activists at www.valleyclimate.org and can be contacted at sjvalleyclimate@gmail.com for presentations and information.
