Extremism

It seems now that every day I read something about a group within or aligned to republicans, who are labeled as “extremist” in some way. Generally, they are labeled as “Extreme right wing” politically, or sometimes as “Extremist Christian-Nationalists”.  I am not quite sure what is intended by those labels, but when I read more, it seems that such groups are autocratic in origin, and would, if given power, move to eliminate other religious or political groups that are of more liberal origins and purpose.

Seemingly, the concept of “Separation of Church and State” is regarded by these groups as “Libtard” BS, and must be eliminated from our country.  Now, these groups are also always aligned with republicans.  So the Republican Party has become, seemingly, a party of extremism, perhaps since Donald Trump took over the party.  And, now, with Lara Trump moving into the position of Republican Part Co-Chair, along with James Whatley. Mr. Trump now seems fully in charge of the party.

I sit here with my mouth wide open, saying “Whaaaaaatt”? Bear in mind, I first came to an understanding of republicans when Dwight Eisenhower ran and then became President in 1952.  So, that party has included Ike, Reagan, two Bushes, Nixon, and now Trump. Now, whatever your thoughts about any or all of the above prior republicans, Trump seemingly falls into a totally different character-set than any of his predecessors.  To me, he would be more easily placed within some foreign political party, like Benito Mussolini’s party in WW II Italy.

And yet, and yet, Mr. Trump is now the darling of republican voters. How is that possible?  How did American republicans turn into autocratic Christian Nationalists, fully capable, we now imagine, of creating the equivalent of Concentration Camps for immigrants, or more simply to house people they don’t like?

We now no longer have just two political parties. Apparently, that ceased since 2016. How did this Nation go from electing Barack Obama to electing Donald Trump? See, I do not think that we will survive a second Donald Trump presidency. Because, I think that Donald Trump is delusional, perhaps even now subject to bouts of dementia, and that he actually does not believe in democracy. He seems to be living sometime in a prior century, perhaps 1930-40s Germany or Italy.

But why is it that Americans do not understand that fairly obvious truism. Donald Trump does not really wish to become US President. He intends to become the first Autocratic Ruler of the Americas, and there to remain until he dies.  He never uses the term “King”, but clearly that is his intent. If he is ever actually elected, he will never relinquish the office or the controls offered thereby.

Americans on the right wing of our politics, do you not see that? By voting for him, you are expressing your OK with the end of the American Democracy. You are saying it’s OK if America becomes a racist-homophobic, anti-immigrant, and maybe even Jew-Hating Nation? That is what he stands for, and it is now what his political party stands for.  But, again, how is that possible?? I feel as though I am living in some weird Nazi-Fairy Tale, and I desperately want to awaken to return to the America I love and respect.

I guess we will know come November, but almost every day some new news about America sliding to the right peeks through the News. But maybe that’s just the Foxy-News and we seem to be receiving more Foxy News hype than the civilized outlets.  Maybe I need to just turn off all News. But no, I could not go on without my NPR news. So, I will have to put up with the bad news screaming from the other side of our universe, in the hopes that this awful stuff does not actually represent the real America. Let’s hope folks.

Anger v. Apathy

As we watch the anger arising all over our country during this godforsaken thing we call our election, I wonder about what is the cause. And then we watch an interesting TV series on Netflix called, This Is Us. And, it is loaded with Father anger issues.  And what are they?  Well, apparently, many fathers go through life unfulfilled and they toss their anger at their kids, often their male kids. So, for whatever reasons, Daddy grows up unhappy, and has a lot of Daddy anger. And so, the kid grows up with lots of anger tossed his way, making him also feel unfulfilled and diminished.  Now, do the moms of the world grow up angry and toss their anger at their female kids?  Maybe, but I’m a male and possessed an unfulfilled Father, so mostly I see the Father anger issues.

My own family had a Daddy who was seriously flawed for reasons known only to him and his parents.  His Father died fairly early, so my Father grew up in a largely female household.  Now, as I grew up in Manhattan, we visited my Dad’s mom, my Grandmum, fairly frequently, along with her two daughters, my Aunties Helen and Elsie.  Now Grandma and her two daughters seem to be fine humans and certainly always treated my mom and me and my siblings wonderfully. Sunday dinner was always a fine repast, filled with great food and family camaraderie. Oddly, my recollections almost always reveal our visits to be without my Father.  I remember him to be a Hit or Miss figure, mostly Miss. When he lived at home (infrequently) I recall him almost without any defining characteristics. And remember, I grew up in Manhattan during WW II. My Uncle served in that War, but not my Dad—he was too old I guess (38??). Actually so was my Uncle Bill, but he served in the Seabees, so maybe they had fewer age issues than for dudes toting a gun. Mainly my memories of him were things like this. I’m sitting at home in the kitchen with my mum, sis and bro. Rudy the Dad is missing. Then Rudy comes to the door of our flat and he knocks and then asks to see me. Mind you, I am about 6 or 7.  He wants to see me. So, I go out into the hallway and sit down on the stairs. And he doesn’t yell at me or anything. He pleads with me to ask my mum to let him come back into our Flat to stay.  So, after a bit, I go back inside and tell my mum what he wants. I fail to remember the result, but I think he was allowed back inside.

But then, see, in not too long an interval, he managed to leave again.  So, mostly, I grew up not so much with an angry Father figure, but a missing person, aka my Father,  My last encounter with him was fairly typical. During that War, my mum managed to buy and save War Bonds. When the War ended, she made a big decision. My bro and I used to play on the street on 71^st Street near Second Avenue. And we kept having “incidents”. I broke my arm once. Then I tore a hole in my arm, requiring 12 stitches. Then my bro was run down by a lorry, requiring hospitalization.  So, after the War, my mum decided that she had to get us out of the City. So, she took her stock of War Bonds, and went across the river into Rockland County and bought a little house in a place called New City Park. My grandpa (the one from Scotland) was carpenter and he fixed up the place so it was livable.  My mum decided to keep on working at her company in Manhattan and send my bro and I up to the newly acquired house, with my Father, who apparently promised to behave.  She would stay at Gibbs and Cox in Manhattan and live in our Second Avenue flat with my sis.  My father would get a job (bartending) somewhere in New City or Nanuet and live in the new house, taking care of me and my bro.  So, we all went about our new lives. She even bought him a car of some sort. Now, I do not recall any incidents with our Father during that interval. No anger, nothing.

Then, Winter began coming on. And sometime in November, our oil heater failed. I awakened to a fairly cold house without heat. As I awakened, my bro and I noticed something odd. Our Father had gone. Yep, the heater failed. It was cold, and he apparently did not know what to do, and so he simply left with no word to my bro or me.  So, of course, we called our mom and informed her of Daddy’s latest. She fairly quickly quit her job and packed up and moved over to New City Park. She got a new job as a bookkeeper, got the heater fixed, and simply moved in with my sis.

 And that was the last time I saw my dad. Once, maybe a month later, he tried to return to the house, but my sis and my bro refused to let him in. So he left again and we never saw or heard from him again.

But, there was no visible anger. I guess there was a lot of retained anger, but none of it showed, or was revealed in any way. My mum just moved on, with a new job, and my bro and I just re-entered new schools.

Now, the purpose in talking about this is to examine how I wound up with none of the anger issues I see on TV and all around our Country. Why do people actually support Donald Trump? Well, they’re angry for some reason. I wound up, instead with an emptiness—no Father. But I experienced no real anger, except maybe a kind of intellectual anger. I had a weak Father, who doubtless produced fury within my Mother, although neither she nor my sis ever let it show.

So, I came away from my childhood with more of an emptiness than any serious anger.  And so, when I observe on TV these almost palpable anger issues caused by Fathers who dumped their anger on their kids, I view them from an intellectual distance.  I can understand them, but without any emotional attachment to them. And I remain uncertain why I never managed to acquire the anger. Mostly, I think, it is because my Father never dumped on me.  He never yelled at me, never tried to make me feel like a simpleton idiot.  So, I wound up with no serious Father Figure emotions at all.  Now I think I turned out ok without these Father anger issues.  Maybe I just never learned how to be an angry Father. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing, when I observe all the anger around us all in America.