A Global Crossroad

Never mind Trump, Trump himself.  He’s the least of your worries.  The man is a huckster, a carnival barker who, as they used to say about the Bushes, was born on third base and thought he hit a triple.  He just wants to be president.  If he gets in, he won’t upset the apple cart.  He’ll go right along with what the ruling class sends along to his desk for his signature.  He just wants the ultimate ego massage.

Yes, there is a grave risk that he will uncork large street thuggishness on the part of our own homegrown brand of white nationalists.  And yes, they may become shockingly reminiscent of brown-shirts of 80 years ago who rampaged through the streets of Germany smashing windows of Jewish shops and painting the Star of David on the windows and walls of Jewish businesses.  Of course Jews will be replaced by Muslims, LGBT, foreigners, and people who look like they might possibly be foreign.

Such a prospect is of course very scary, especially if one happens to be one of the unchosen ones.

But it gets worse.  Much worse.

If you didn’t happen to catch Rudolph Giuliani’s 15-minute speech to the Republican convention, you owe it to yourself, and to all of humanity, to watch it on youtube.  It’s there on youtube, and it’s truly scary stuff.  In near hysterical voice, Giuliani stops about one millimeter short of calling for the elimination of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims.

Let’s pause for a moment to put that in perspective.  That is 22 percent of the world’s population.  It is five times the population of this country.  It’s 400 million more than the number of Catholics.  It’s 50 percent more than the population of the United States and Europe combined.  And Giuliani essentially wants to get rid of them, by force.

Again, that’s scary, plenty scary.  But that’s not the half of it.

Word is that Giuliani wants to be the next director of Homeland Security.  Never mind that his only qualification is that he happened to be mayor of New York City on September 11, 2001.  That’s like saying he should be president because he once attended an inauguration.  Be that as it may, what is scary here is thatGiuliani apparently thinks the best way for him to get the Homeland Security slot is by  standing up before the entire world and calling for 1.6 billion heads on a platter.  Now that’s scary.

And here’s more.  It’s scary because convention delegates, who essentially represent the 61 million who voted GOP in 2012, stood up and cheered this madness.

It’s scary because a mainstream, very mainstream, Republican politician thinks this is the best way to appeal to and impress a man who may become the next president, a man who would have control over this country’s ghastly nuclear arsenal.

It’s time to wake up – this is where we are with our body politic.  Our technology and body politic have now combined to produce this outcome.  Our technology and psycho-social evolution have combined to bring us to this global crossroad.  For that is where we are, as of this week, as of Giuliani’s hysterical, frothing-at-the-mouth 15 minutes.  We are at nothing short of a global crossroad.

It is no secret that the Old Guard of the Republican Party has lost control, complete control, of its own party.  This has been widely commented upon, even by an extremely and intentionally myopic mainstream media.  What’s not talked about is that this has been building for 35 years, ever since the intoleration of Jerry Falwell and the so-called Christian Right were tolerated and even indulged by the Reagan Right.  The Reagan Right had its Chamberlain Moment, and like Chamberlain at Berchtesgaden, they blew it, completely blew it – and now we’re all paying the price.

But what Giuliani’s 15 minutes represent is nothing less than final confirmation that the lunatics have taken over the asylum.  And on November 8, less than four months from now, those very same lunatics may get the keys to Armageddon.

And lest you think I am being hysterical, I invite you to google my name and read other writings of mine.  I sometimes get colorful, and sometimes I take a little literary license, but I am not given to exaggeration or hyperbole.  Hillary Clinton never saw a war she didn’t like, and never will, but she won’t unleash the massive U.S. nuclear arsenal, at least not intentionally.  We are truly at a crossroad – you, me, and all 7.4 billion of us.  And we have 111 days to do something about it.

Lawrence Reichard lives in Belfast, Maine, and can be reached at thedeftpen@gmail.com.