Dennis Black

How the Hell…

How the hell did we get here? Trump is president-elect, the GOP has arguably the most power ever in the history of this country, and my personal favorite President-Elect Trump has appointed to him a special advisor who in the most recent interview has said “Darkness is good…Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power.”
One second while i take a step the fuck back. Trump, his administration, and his entire kkkrew represents the banality of evil, the epitome of hatred, and the ultimate indifference towards tolerance. Again how could we have possibly gotten here?

First it requires us to revisit the very formation of the United States It begins with the middle passage, coterminous with the the genocide of the indigenous peoples of this land; it were these conditions that forged the ethical backbone of U.S civil society. The extermination and torture of over a sixty million people over the course of  centuries paved the way for a Trump presidency. It was the trillions of dollars in free labor via chattel slavery that positioned the United States as empire. Think about chattel slavery as the ultimate tax break for white folks. The conditions of chattel slavery financed the first industrial naval fleet in the world, positioning the United States as a critical player in the Allied victory of World War I. The war brought on the “Roaring 20’s” and subsequently brought on the Great Depression. Before we know it the country is in another World War which determines international relations and global power dynamics for the next century.
Aided by the mutant beast of capitalism, the United States becomes a global warring empire from 1945- Present. Just as important to note, is that the United States, since its inception in 1776 has been at war with at least one foreign country 93% of the time.  Chattel slavery financed a war machine and now neoliberal capitalism (self-interest veiled by good intention) dominates the modern power relation between nation, corporation and people.

  Second, Hillary was a piss poor candidate and should have never received the nomination. I challenge anyone reading this to afterwards google search the leaked emails from Hillary herself where she explicitly calls for her campaign to invest energy in a Trump nomination in the primaries. Hillary did this, more than any single voter or media outlet could have. Hell, she worked with the media , a former CNN correspondent , Donna Brazile, who was also a moderator for the first Democratic debate in the primaries, was recently fired when more emails came out of the woodworks that detailed the incident where she sent Hillary debate questions before the debate, to give her the leg up on Bernie Sanders.

You simply don’t just get a Trump presidency out of nowhere,

…61 million registered voters thought Trump was not only qualified to be in command of 15,000 nuclear warheads, but also took an effort that approximately 50% of the registered voters in this country did not do, and that was vote. Despite all of his comments rooted in racism, sexism, and classism, he still managed to win the hearts and minds of 61.2 million U.S citizens. That’s because the hearts and minds of a solid quarter of this country’s population is equally racist, sexist, and classist. Even if they’re among the group being oppressed and discriminated against.  The exit polls of this election has determined that at least 53% of white women voted for Trump. This is not meant to be a pissing contest of who’s more to blame for this rise in fascism, but it is completely embarrassing for a competitively financed candidate to lose their own demographic. What would we say about Obama if he lost the Black male vote to Mitt Romney? Hillary seemingly offered no change, no inspiration, no way to fire up the base that could have and  would have led her to victory.

Facism did not win, Hillary lost,

in presidential elections there is a general strategy to win midwest states most often referred to as the Rust Belt. In the last 100 days until the election Donald visited key swing states almost 3 to 4 times than Hillary. In a post election interview, President Obama also mentioned that Hillary didn’t work hard enough. Whereas Obama visited 87 counties in Iowa, Hillary visited less than 40.

The most important distinction that cultivated this reinvigorated atmosphere which propelled Trump and the GOP to victory is the rise of the Movement for Black Lives  and the backlash, whether silent or vocal  it received. In a July 2016 poll, it reported that approximately 60% of respondents disapproved of Black Lives Matter and the Movement for Black Lives. This country has structurally and ethically remained the same since it’s inception and at the very least 61 million folks want it to stay that way . The birth of the 13th and 14th amendment marked the death of chattel slavery but prompted the afterlife of slavery through the prison industrial complex, sub-prime mortgage lending, crack, heroin, privatization of water systems and school districts, all are intricately tied to the legacy of chattel slavery and the domination of Black folks living along the margins.

With everything aside, it would almost seem like a common sense choice to choose anyone, not Trump to be president. Well that’s what kind of happened, but didn’t. Currently,

as of November 22nd Hillary has 62.5 votes to Trump’s 61.2 million.

Currently Hillary holds a 1.3 million vote lead. I’m not the only one that has been saying it, but Hillary and her campaign team developed and deployed the most piss poor political campaign that I’ve ever seen. This is considering the resources she can muster and bring to bear. From 2000 to 2008 she practically controlled the democratic party and from 2008 to early 2016 she controlled the party through the former Democratic Party Chair, Debbie Weisserman Shultz. Never have I heard or seen of a campaign, where the only coherent statement coming out is that you’re not as awful as the next. I bullshit you not there are leaked emails that have Hillary herself agreeing with staff to indirectly support a Donald Trump nomination by Republicans because he seemed to be a “weak outlier”. This country has always held the potential to elect Trump, but it  literally took the help of the Democratic Party to make this nightmare a reality.

Trump quintessentially reflects white masculinity and the greater part of the U.S citizenry. While it is easy to compare Trump to Adolf Hitler, Trump kept Hitler’s autobiography, Mein Kampf on his night stand, he pulls from Adolfs charismatic leader playbook, as he mimics a famous phrase of Hitler  “Make Germany Great Again”, although reminiscent of Hitler, Trump finds his pedigree in the U.S white nationalist before him. He is Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and George Washington. Trump and his ilk have always existed, but never in our generation has there ever been a president so uniquely unqualified.

This isn’t to say that I’d prefer a Hillary presidency, it is more of a question that you have to answer for yourself. Do you want to see the collapse of this country, or do you want to see the country repair itself?

Do you uphold the legitimacy of the constitution,or do you undermine it at every corner and turn possible? The future of this empire is foggy and  one thing is for certain; Trump is not an anomaly, he is a product of U.S civil society and a direct reflection of the public’s intolerance to tolerance.