by Marceline Donaldson May 5, 2016
Lots of people will be lining up today and in the days to come to kneel before the presumptive Republican Candidate for President of the United States – Donald Trump. They will be lining up and kneeling to kiss his ring. A traditional, historical, act that has been around and practiced for eons of time.
As for me, this Republican will be at the Voter Registration office changing her political designation from Republican to Independent.
It is going to be an emotionally difficult day, because I will also be at the passport office making sure my papers are in order, in case we have to leave the country quickly and abruptly. Remembering what it was like in Hitlers’ Germany, only the Jews who left early got out. I suspect it will be the same in the United States for minorities. We probably will have to be out – if Trump is elected president – before the borders are closed. And according to Mr. Trump that would be within his first 100 days as president.
As a young person, in the deep south, I registered to vote as a Republican. The bad, racist, violent KKK folks were Democrats and were supported by the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is a Party which supports and goes after ‘movements’ for members. The ‘movement’ that the Democratic Party chased in those days was the White Supremacist Movement with its many parts. Blacks, trying to vote became “Strange Fruit”.
As the years passed, there began to be fewer “Strange Fruit” – hanging from the trees, but to be a part of the Democratic Party and to participate in the Democratic Conventions anyplace in the country, you could not be Black. If elected to any position in the Democratic Party you were not allowed to be seated or to serve – so why would anyone register to vote as a Democrat.
As many, especially Black Women, started the fight to open the Democratic Party it was brutal and violent. And on my side, one of my relatives had been head of the Republican Party in Louisiana – an African American. There was no contest as to which Party I would choose.
But like everything else in my family, we were split. There were Democrats and Republicans just as there were Blacks, English, Irish, Italian, Scottish, Chocktaw, Black Foot, Swedes, Swiss, French and on and on. My grandfather was an honorary Senator from Louisiana. Honorary because Blacks could not serve in the Louisiana Senate, even if elected and needless to say Mixed folks especially could not serve. He could be a part of the meetings, etc., but he could not vote (Sort of the precursor for what is true in D. C. of its Senators and Representatives today – who knew that bit of political structure came directly out of the racist playbook).
As the decades passed, it became harder and harder to be Republican. The two parties were in the process of changing sides. The Democrats were moving into the territory of where the Republicans had been and the Republicans were moving into the territory of the Democrats. Today that switch is complete with the election of Donald Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee to run for President of these United States. The KKK and other sundry and assorted White Supremacist groups are now Republicans and the others are now in the Democratic Party.
Mr. Trump – a former Democrat, with all of his minions and followers – are mostly formerly Democrats. Strom Thurmond was one of the first to lead his followers out of the Democratic Party into the Republican Party. It was an easy takeover. Why? Because of the way we did business. As precinct chair in Wayzata, Minnesota so many years ago, one talked to many people before the caucus to feel out where everyone was and when the caucus happened only a few people needed to show up. You knew what the majority wanted and it was all very quiet, circumspect and quick – that is until the advent of Reagan. Somehow, money was available to those from the deep south – Texas particularly – who showed up in the caucus supporting Reagan. And there was a regime change. I was booted out as precinct chair and the four pillars of what became the enduring issues of the Republican Party were put in place. The first time around Reagan’s people lost because they started too late. But the next caucus round. four years later, he won the nomination and then the presidency. It was all done in such a ‘civilized’ way. Palms greased; people helped to move and get jobs; people supported even though they had no jobs – all to buy the Presidency. And it was a success. Most of the ‘Republicans’ I’ ve talked to since were Democrats and switched for reasons that boiled down to racism, sexism, etc. Classism was strangely missing in those isms because the Republican Party was moving down the class ladder.
Maybe if we had a third party this would not have happened, but it does not look as though a strong Third Party will emerge ever.
And people like Bernie – keep me totally away from the Democratic Party. Still running in spite of the fact that he clearly could not win – either the nomination nor the Presidency, but he has become too drunk with the power he sees just across the horizon that he can’t and won’t stop even if it means strengthening Trump’s campaign. His only thought is weakening Hillary’s because of what he might get therefrom.
How have we survived our own human nature all of these thousands of years. It certainly doesn’t seem to be getting better.
No one should be surprised at Trump’s win. It is what we deserve. All one has to do is look at the pictures from meetings of those at the top in many places and they are all White and Male. Maybe an occasional woman makes it into some of the high powered circles, but when you read their stories years later it is heart breaking to read about how they were treated and the stress they were under just being present. They couldn’t talk in meetings because others talked over them; were ridiculed, etc. etc., had to expend enormous energy and live under incredible stress just to keep a female presence and more important and even more stressful they had to smile and say positive things about the position they were in. And that would be White, Black, Yellow, Orange, Pink, Purple women – doesn’t matter. If Trump is elected you won’t have to worry about that anymore. As he has been quoted as saying “political correctness” will be out the window. To be anyplace one will have to be White, male, with Northern European ancestors to function on any level even in the middle to lower part of his world. If Trump is not elected, I suspect the influence his ‘movement’ has had on the U. S. will have moved us into a racist, sexist place that was on its way out in today’s world.
But enough of this. I have to get dressed and get out of here to get all of this done today. It is going to take eons of time to do it because making these kind of major changes slows time and drags one down.
Wish me Godspeed! And may God bless the United States of America. We certainly are at a time when we need those blessings to reign down to keep us from a conflagration that will swamp all of us before we take seriously the fact that the tsunami is on its way and will arrive before many of us even realize it is coming.
Hmmmm! Now lets see, before I go is there a lottery number I can play today reflecting all of this?
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