Coalition of Hate

Submitted by Lindsay
Melbourne Australia!

Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. Abigail Adams, 1776

(9/2017) The response from President Trump over the Charlottesville massacre has removed the camouflage he was parading in for the past couple of years. His refusal to condemn the white supremacists has revealed to the world the fundamental values he holds, his disdain for democratic values, his derision for people that do not fit his notions. It shows that he is unfit to be the president of a great nation.

The contempt he shows for justice, truth and tolerance is now so clear that even those who were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt now know the reality. In ‘Animal Farm’, George Orwell points out that all of us are born equal - but some of us are more equal than others. This has always been true, but to be a democratic leader means having to reduce the disparity as much as possible. Mr. Trump has sought to do the opposite.

His plan is (well, was his plan one hopes) to benefit the top 10% of the population while keeping the rest anesthetised, full of happy juice and diversions. Not just any 10% either – only the white part, because if your skin is not Aryan white you don’t deserve to have a say, should not expect to be more than a lackey in the white man’s world. Sad to say, so many fell for this that his calumny was smothered – until now.

Most of the world has not owned slaves for centuries, but often profited from their use. Why not? It is not prohibited in the bible, and was common practice among the Israelites. Prohibition was not there, only their treatment and conditions. The claim that this justified their continued use is unfounded, because we and nearly all nations have abolished it - just as we have abolished child labour, the burning of witches and animal sacrifice. The enlightenment brought many freedoms to the proletariat, the chief among them the right to liberty and equality. That is the opposite to slavery, and the desire to maintain that right is both profound and entrenched, but still hated by those who have never gone away from wanting the good old days to return.

White supremacists, harking back to the days when white men could imagine they were better than coloured, slaves or not, are still trying to maintain that fiction by glorifying the flag under which it took place. They kneel at the feet of monuments to their heroes, showing their hatred of anyone who dares challenge them. Such attitudes have no place in modern society because we know that progress is only achieved by embracing diversity, allowing us to live in profitable and close proximity to vast numbers of people who have different values and cultures. We have to be tolerant, show that we have a set if ethics and morals that transcend hatred - or set up ghettos where we can insulate ourselves from the riffraff - or vice-versa.

It’s a funny thing about supremacists – they actually demonstrate their innate fear by trying to make themselves seem important. If they really knew they were, they’d just smile and get on with things - you do not need to polish your jewels to show how rich you are. Naturally no one should forget the past. Just as Germany has done over the holocaust, images and history of slavery must be there as reminders of how trapped in the practices your forebears had become, or of the mindless cruelty that resulted. The fact that most of you have renounced it and reckon it to be a shameful blot on your history cannot be allowed to be forgotten.

But - white supremacists will always believe that slavery was their right, that they were, and still are, superior and are the only ones that matter. They know that lynching is OK, gun ownership a divine right, and skin colour is the dividing line between ruling and servitude.

It’s not just those groups that want to live in the past, it is the armed militias, the fundamentalists, and others like them. They have formed a coalition of hate, and want to return things to the old ways because not only did they became rich and powerful, but they could write laws that entrenched the system . Their lives were easy, built on forced labour for their gain and glory. They went to war in defence of the indefensible, to preserve the present and deny the future, to subvert the government and run networks to undermine resistance. Today, in pursuing the same aims, they aid Russia in destabilising your power, but, like Russia, are incapable of running a country where freedom and equality rule.

You may say that there is no such thing as equality, that it’s just an idea, and you’d be right – except it’s a very powerful idea that has been fought for for centuries. You, hanging grimly onto being leader of the world, have tried to introduce the concept to other nations. It is horrifying to see that some of you are vehemently opposed to that, but want to re-establish the rule of master-slave. Under your constitution laws are there to ensure that everyone it treated with an even hand. It’s often not the reality, but that’s the aim. Neoliberalism and the far right have twisted is in their favour, white extremists have unwittingly added to their power, meaning the downfall of society is that much more certain.

When you add a president with sociopathic morals and narcissism to that mix, you have a case of national terrorism being generated by a coalition of hate, bigotry, elitism, greed, and insatiable hunger for power. Anyone who supports that group is signing their own death warrant.

By the way, the quote at the beginning is from a letter written to John Quincy Adams by his mother.