Tuesday, December 19, 2017

The Devil with Small Hands

In the days after the of the Election of Donald Trump I felt a fear that I had not felt since the immediate aftermath of 9-11. It was a fear of the unthinking, uncritical hatred of the masses, the idea that due to circumstances completely out of our control, the innocent would now be at the mercy of the majority, stoked on by the malevolence of the few. My biggest fear is that Donald Trump would emerge to be the Machiavellian genius people were saying he was. I was afraid that, as President, he would gain popularity and win over skeptics with astute political maneuverings and consolidate those victories into support for his persecution of this nation's people of color. The idea being that, amid such victories and fervent support, even those well-meaning whites who did not harbor racist sentiments would remain quiet. In truth, events played out quite differently.

Donald Trump is not a political genius, Machiavellian or otherwise. In fact, although I often use the term mediocrity as an insult, the term cannot apply to Donald Trump in the political sense because the term would denote that he is middle of the pack, and this is simply not the case. Donald Trump has proven (to my great relief) to be almost comically inept, seemingly incapable to listening to his advisors, unable to stay out of his own way, utterly clueless when it comes to prudence in communicating with the American people, and a hopeless political neophyte.

Rather than playing political give and take and currying favor with Congress in order to achieve his main objectives, he has squandered whatever political clout he may have had and is wrapping up year one on the verge of accomplishing only his first major political objective while in office despite the Republican majority in both chambers of Congress. Much like a paper tiger, this small handed devil has proven to be much weaker and less fearsome than advertised, principally because the political plurality that is his base is no match for the rest of America who remain decent people dedicated to the ideals of justice and fairness, who uphold diversity without prejudice, and who do this nation proud despite the soulless beast that occupies the Oval Office who only represents the monsters of yesteryear.

Make no mistake, his inability to achieve his political ends does not mitigate his intent. If he had his way, he would close the border, deport Latinos and Arab refugees (most likely citizens included if he could get away with it), and return America to the race-based injustices that earned praise from Adolf Hitler before his own rise to power nearly a century ago. Donald Trump is a small-handed, miniature version of the larger devil that is perhaps to come if this nation cannot come to grips with the current tribalism that permeates throughout. This fear-based and antiquated idea that that is only one way to looks, act, and be American that has existed throughout my lifetime, a silent hatred that has always been brewing just under the surface, awaiting an imprimatur that will begin the unraveling of this experiment in political liberty that is America.

I say that Donald Trump is incompetent, not out of malice, but out of an immense sense of relief, a sense that, barring some self-induced calamity with North Korea, this nation will be able to survive this term without any permanent damage despite all the efforts of the executive branch. Currently the right is a shambles. Their own party is testament to the fact that they aren't concerned with sexual assault except inasmuch as it can be used to score political points when committed by Democrats or minorities. Their own candidates, however, can be readily forgiven when they commit such acts because, after all, boys will be boys and the last thing we need is another Democrat in office. The current situation is thus that the evil that Trump and company would visit upon this nation is not attainable at this time but we cannot be complacent in light of this fact. We must organize politically and do everything in our power ensure that a situation like this is not allowed to happen again. The next devil might have bigger hands.

Sunday, November 05, 2017

Rigged for Disaster

Perhaps rigged is too loaded a term to use regarding the last Democratic National Convention but let us entertain the possibility that the DNC was weighted in Hillary's favor. Why would they do this? I offer here a list of reasons they might have chosen to favor Hillary to the detriment of Bernie Sanders, a comparison to what happened on the Republican side, and some editorial comment over the entire thing.

The first, and most obvious reason, was that Hillary was an establishment Democrat. The party would have obviously preferred a candidate who would put the party first and play politics as usual, campaign rhetoric be damned. As a political outsider, Bernie Sanders would have been more willing to take actions which would have run counter to what the establishment Democrats wanted if that was what it took to fulfill his campaign promises. Hillary, like Bill Clinton before her, would have been willing to sacrifice those campaign promises if that was what it took to wheel and deal with her fellow democrats and avoid arousing the wrath of Congress and the nation as a whole (see Bill Clinton's reversal on gay rights and socialized health care during his terms as President). Hillary Clinton is, first and foremost a politician whereas Bernie Sanders is more of an ideologue. That makes him less predictable and dangerous in the eyes of establishment Democrats.

Second, in some sense the DNC might have preferred to hand the mantle of leadership to Hillary as a reward for her years of loyalty and on the idea that it was her time. There are some who say that although Bill Clinton had the people skills and charisma, it was Hillary who was actually the brains behind the Clinton political machine. In a sense the election of Hillary Clinton would have in effect been her third term in office, not her first. Perhaps it is with this in mind that President Obama declared that there had never been another candidate as qualified for the office as Hillary Clinton. That, coupled with the fact that her age made her political viability doubtful for future races, would have been reason for the DNC to anoint her over Bernie Sanders.

Lastly, the DNC's underestimation of the Deplorables' political power fooled them into thinking they could disregard the desires of their own voters. They thought with Trump at the helm on the Republican side that a Democratic victory was a foregone conclusion and that they could force an unlikeable Hillary on the Democratic side against the will of Democratic voters (especially the young) who were energized and came out in droves to vote for Bernie. And remember, a zero charisma Hillary was the only thing that made a zero charisma Donald Trump viable in the first place.  Amazingly, this was the course the DNC chose and it came into play on election day when many of those young would-be Democratic voters stayed home and when many of the undecideds who had favored Bernie actually cast their ballots for the political outsider on the other side.

Keep in mind that, as much as establishment Republicans hated Donald Trump, they did not weight the scales against his candidacy and chose rather to let the political desires of their voters play itself out which is why they won the election. History has yet to weigh in on the ultimate implications of this development but in the short term they won the election and the Democrats lost. Again, let us entertain the idea for a moment that the DNC weighted the scales in favor of their preferred candidate over the wishes of their own voters. If this is indeed the case, the results of last year's elections are exactly what the party deserved and has given this nation a result we neither deserved nor desired.

Sunday, October 08, 2017

The Perils of Imputing Motives

I was working at a Middle Eastern restaurant a few years back when we caught a break in the action. The main front line cook (a young Iraqi refugee with a tenuous grasp of English) was out back smoking.  As the prep guy, my work was caught up so I went out back to join him.  The new guy, a Syrian refugee who was being trained to work the line, was on break and he wandered over towards us leaving the restaurant effectively without anyone to plate an order.  Predictably, some customers came in.

The main cook told the trainee to go see about the order.  The latter replied that he was on break and that he wasn't yet familiar with all the orders so he said the main cook should go see about the order.  For my part, I was ashamed at my co-workers for not getting up to do their jobs.  In the restaurant business, as with most business, the customer should be catered to.  When they place an order they should see hustle, professionalism, and friendliness.  I thought to say something but eventually one of them (I can't remember which) got up to take the order.  The moment passed and would have been something we all forgot until we got the phone call.

My co-worker Malak (a Palestinian-American) took a call from a woman who demanded to know if we had a problem serving mixed race couples.  She said that she had been in earlier and that the staff had been slow to serve her and her boyfriend and said that if we had a problem serving mixed-race couples maybe we were in the wrong business.  Malak apologized profusely for the slow service but stated that we were inclusive an had nothing against people of any race or religion. 

For my part, I wanted to grab the phone and tell the lady that our cooks aren't racist, they're lazy but I honestly didn't think it would make a difference.  From my experience, when people impute motives onto the actions of others, it can be next to impossible to detach them from these views.  Never mind the fact that it boggles the mind to try to think of a reason why anyone would think Arab refugees would be emotionally invested in the black/white American racial dynamic. This lady received poor service and made a snap judgment about the reason behind it.

In relating this story to one of my friends as a caveat against knee-jerk reactions regarding race in America, I was accused of being a racial apologist and covering for racists.  That is not the case at all.  Rather, I think that if we, as ethnic minorities, want our concerns to be taken seriously we must call out the genuine demonstrable cases of racism and avoid imputing race as the factor in cases where we might be honestly mistaken.  We must not serve up the potentially innocent along with the guilty for condemnation or we run the risk of condemning our own cause with frivolous and potentially damaging claims.  If our rallying cry is for justice, we must hold ourselves accountable to that same standard.  In the continuing battle against racism, we have enough actual enemies to stand up against.  It is not to our advantage to weaken the cause by fighting the wrong fight.

Saturday, September 30, 2017

Irreconcialable Differences

The recent schisms in American society, the raging debates about extra-judicial police killings of unarmed black males, the demonization of immigrants, especially Latinos and Arabs, and the contempt a large percentage of the population displays against diversity in America regarding religion and sexual orientation, leads me to believe that there will be no rapprochement between the two sides in the near future.  We are currently experiencing a clash of cultures that can best be described as a clash of civilizations, the old which upholds a mythological ideal of white Christian hegemony lorded over all other groups to their detriment and the new that is inclusive, diverse, and which extends in-group recognition to all factions of humanity regardless of race or creed.  In short, the clash is between old time America which hypocritically failed to live up to its declared values and the new America that ardently seeks to uphold them.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Job Search

My prospects look good. Everyone seems to be hiring. I also have tons of experience and I interview well :D