TERRY MOSHER
Sometimes I think that I have lived way past my expiration date and need to get out of here before I am explode from within. The reason I think like this is because of the stupidity that washes around me in bigger and bigger waves and I can’t escape from them.
Okay, I suppose I could if I put my head in the sand and shut everything out. But the implosion of social media where everybody with the ability to type can express themselves leading to dens of lies, exaggerations, half-truths and, sometimes, even truths, bombards me and I can’t escape it all. And sorting all that out is the troublesome chore.
What I find especially troublesome is the ability of just one person to change the discourse of a sensitive subject. I think we all know – or we all should know –that the right person in the right time can talk a rabbit into a boiling pot of water. Hitler had that ability. People were mesmerized by him. He came along at the right time (for him) when Germany like the rest of the world was gripped by terrible economic uncertainly and was in need of somebody who could rally people to a cause (as bad as that cause was) and believe in what he said was the inherent right to be the dominant race in what he promised to be a grant empire that would rule for the good of all ethnic Germans.
I can imagine in my worse moments that if I had been a young and impressible teenager as Hitler rose to power that I would be pushed along by his power to instill nationalistic pride and that I would have been guilty of doing things that I otherwise likely would have not, and maybe even things that would have gotten my hung by the victors of that unjust and horrible World War II.
In my best imagination, I would have resisted Hitler and may have just been a docile and unfortunate spectator to the terrible crimes committed by others who lived around me. Had I survived Hitler and the terrible ravages of that war, I might have gone on to live out a full life with just the guilt of knowing I did nothing to stop what was a horrible reign of an evil man and his ardent followers.
That is where I’m at today, except I am not a young and impressible teenager. I am old and beyond being able to be conned by the latest rise of a strongman, who is dumb as they come but is as conning as a fox and can say things and influence people at a time when many people are looking for somebody to lead them to the promise land of nationalistic glory and economic power.
We are not living in a time like the 1930s when the Great Recession had knocked the whole world to its knees and people who were starving were looking for the savior who could put a chicken in every pot and bring stability to their lives. America found their savior in FDR and his New Deal, which included something called Social Security, and Great Britain in its time of need turned to the master of wordsmith, Winston Churchill, to lead them in the bars, the streets and the fields as it confronted its own fears and the great enemy that in its nationalistic ambition slaughtered its way to the shores of the English channel and casted its hungry eye on Churchill’s London.
We are not in that sort of economic drift that caused the rise of Hitler. We have rebounded from the Great Depression of 2008, but there exists a growing gulf between the super rich and mainstreet America that has given rise to a simmering of frustration and anger that coupled with the imminent browning of America that is causing nervousness within a ruling white majority class has made America ripe for somebody with the a soothing voice and nationalistic message to rise on the political scene.
No amount of truth revealed that paints an ugly picture of this person has prevented his rise. He said once that he could go out on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and shoot somebody and his poll numbers would rise, and you know what, they probably would.
Can this monster be stopped? Probably not. People who normally are reasonable have lost their souls in search of the savior who will slap around America’s enemies, perceived or otherwise, build walls to keep out those who are not like us and who are taking our jobs, ban people of a different religion from entering for fear they bring them own brand of justice along with their AK-47s, punch China in the nose and deny it our markets unless they pay an economic penalty, kill off ISIS and their women and children and anybody else who dares threaten us, ban journalists who don’t behave, slap them with suits if they don’t say the right things, whatever the right thing is, and only the savior knows what that is, and it can change at any time.
The good thing for this huckster, this con man, this evil-doer, is that he also has risen at a time when his main political opponent has a distrust factor that is extremely high. The haters of this person, and they are really, really hateful haters, gives them only one voting choice, and that is the huckster.
So this is a good time for the huckster.
And it’s a bad time for me. I see through right through this huckster. Any person who does the research and becomes informed can see what I see. Unfortunately, as the huckster has said, he can shoot somebody and gain more loyal followers and doing research on him will not deter those followers from voting for him.
I’m afraid we are in for a rough time in this country. We may be at the beginning of the end of America as we have known it. All good and powerful countries eventually fall, and I see this country falling pretty quickly if the con man wins this election.
I’ve got to go and see if I have enough energy to mow the lawn. Hey, even in my despair the grass grows.
Be well pal
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.