Nightmare on Dream Street

Submitted by Lindsay
Melbourne Australia!

Self-preservation is the first law of nature. (Proverb, 1720)

(10/2020) I have been watching your wonderful country fall apart over the past few decades. You may not have noticed – you lack the view that parallax gives - but what I have seen has filled me with dread, anger, and pity.

There is one thing that began the dislocation, and that was the use of slaves. It began the two-class system, us and them, of the idea that ‘them’ were no more than animals, there for use by owners; they were cheaper and more useful than horses. They became the class who were made to take the blame for failure, wrong-doing and the misfortunes of poor white folk.

The rise of anti-slavery led to reform in the north, entrenchment in the south, and sparked civil war. Even when emancipation became law they were still regarded as trashy inferiors in the south where they were isolated, discriminated against, and lynched. One hundred and fifty years later many descendants have succeeded by reaching the highest offices of the land, running corporations, making being a person of colour an honor. But, for the majority, not much has changed from those terrible times.

This brings another devastating fact into play. Conservatives, as the title suggests, want to conserve what they have and to keep them that way, while at the same time embracing new ways of increasing their power and wealth. They have always believed they are superior, know better, and are more worthy.

They live by ‘The Rule of (their) Law and (their) Order’ and in the states and municipalities where this is the way things are done we have seen law enforcement ramp up, army style police forces given almost carte blanche in their dealing with minorities, especially the poor and dispossessed, who are often subject to almost indiscriminate shootings without penalty to the shooter.

This has produced fear and loathing, and coupled with the anxiety produced by the gun lobby, so much stress has resulted that the use of opioids as a means of survival has made the problems worse.

Nowhere else would this be allowed. It would be called murder, plain and simple, and the officers responsible put on trial and incarcerated. Most importantly, the media would expose and condemn the practice.

Your social problems don’t end there, even if these are the most visible. Your system of health care is probably the worst in the world. Even in The Congo there is free treatment for the poor, while Russia and China have always had state funded care at all levels. Many places, of course, have very poor or non-existent health care, but nowhere else must you pay to be treated.

OK, you have a version of Medic Aid, but it is far from universal. Money before treatment is truly inhumane, and reveals the heartless approach of a country whose god is profit.

These, and other social problems such as education, imprisonment and housing pale into insignificance compared to your foreign policy and international relationships.

The greatest manufacturing complex in history has been whittled away, as first Japan, then China undercut you production costs, and with the dogma of ‘buy cheapest, sell dearest’, the ability to compete was lost. You, especially Walmart, reveled in Midas profits, at the expense of communities and equality. Instead of ditching the mantra and putting tariffs on cheap goods, which would have protected jobs but increasing prices, the idea of trade pacts and a level playing field were introduced, (which Australia, Canada, Mexico and assorted other idiots bought, much to their regret; they were oxymorons of the best kind), because you knew best.

Funny about that, isn’t it.

All this may have been manageable, but when the Super-Star Mr. Trump strutted onto the stage it was a case of ‘abandon hope, all ye who enter here.’ No one knew that at the time, of course – tragedies don’t give advance warning – but that is the outcome. In four short years he has reduced America to being, in the eyes of the world, run by a buffoon, an admirer of dictators, a narcissist, fraud and incomprehensible apologist for the rich.

His inability to comprehend the devastating effects of COVID-19 on the citizens of your formerly great nation is astonishing. He reacted as though the Chinese had introduced it so they could make him look stupid, which they did not need to do. His response at every turn has been to complain that it is interfering with business. ‘Drink bleach. Take hydroxy-something. I did, and look at me. Masks? Who needs them? PPE’s? Waste of time and money. Just get commerce going. I can’t make money otherwise.’

The awful irony is that the share market has continued to rise, although at the time of writing it was showing signs of a fall in blood pressure. Because of this the dollar has remained fairly strong, and investors have chosen it ahead of other scarier currencies. The fundamentals have become more like quicksand as money is printed, (making me wonder if they will run out of paper), and the Chinese dragon is doing a bit of writhing.

Of course the debt will never be met; default is out of the dictionary, and money is no longer the currency. This has morphed into digital dots representing hopes, deals and assumptions.

It is impossible to know if this will remain when the eye-watering amount that the virus will cost is known. I doubt it, but there’s one thing that nothing is proof against.

It is something that makes all the above like a speck of dust. Climate change is altering everything, and it hasn’t really got started. Forget weather, the effects are already reducing arable land, oceans are warming, the Antarctic is melting, the tundra has thawed. Agriculture, fish, livestock are getting scarce. Except for the rich, and even their riches will not be enough to meet that challenge.

Can Joe Biden do anything about it? Not much, but he can and will make life more tolerable for more people; he will begin to restore international confidence, he will reduce the feral police forces, cool tempers and get off the law and order bandwagon.

He’s no miracle worker, but another session of Donald will ensure that miracles are no longer possible. It’s your choice, and I know that the great majority of Americans see the writing on the wall. Whether you are Republican or Democrat, getting Trump out next month is the one path to safety.