The Demagogue Revisited
The Random House dictionary defines 'emergency' as a sudden, urgent, unforeseen occurrence requiring immediate action. This is an American dictionary, presumably defining American English usage. The demagogue is president of the United States of America, where English is the official language spoken, so presumably he should know the definition of the word 'emergency', and know how it should be used in any discourse. Therefore, when he declares a 'national emergency', one presumes that he is speaking of an occurrence along America's border with Mexico that requires immediate attention, not a construction project slated to require multiple years to complete, if it should ever be approved for commencement by a reluctant Congress.
The real emergency lies on the Mexican side of the border where thousands of children's lives hang in limbo through no fault of their own. In years past the American creed beckoned the unfortunate to come on to her shores with a promise of succor, not a concrete wall or barrier, denying them entrance. Now they gather in large numbers, in unsanitary camps, forced to flee the butchery in their home countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, seeking a promise long dead with the ascension of the demagogue to the position of overlord. And Mexico, unable to absorb them all, and equipped only to allow them through passage to their forlorn goal, must stand aside and cringe at the spectacle of their plight on her own soil. Today, even the demagogue's friends, far right White supremacist bigots, and extremist ideologues are calling him an "idiot" for his stance on the border wall that he had promised Mexico would pay for. Not a brick of new construction has been laid, repairs to existing structures are ongoing, as is normal, but the deception that this president is trying to hoist on his own people is unprecedented, and the demagogue claims that many miles of new wall are being built, though congress has apportioned not a penny toward this construction, or his "vanity" project.
The level of deception required to hoist this pink elephant upon a people, three-quarters of whom have no desire to see a wall dividing the United States from Mexico, their close and well appreciated neighbor, their partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement, no matter what new name it flies under, is remarkable. There is no stomach for this division among the lay American populace. The hypocrisy of bigotry is blatantly exposed in this demagogue's employment of dozens of undocumented workers to enhance his personal wealth on his golf courses and other luxury accommodations, only to terminate them as soon as their presence is exposed, with no attempt made to improve their circumstance, or legalize their stature, even after fifteen years, in some cases, in his employ. America encompasses over eleven million undocumented migrants in its fold, necessary to carry out the demeaning tasks that the highfalutin residents of the plutocracy deem below their dignity to perform, but remain absolutely essential to the functioning of the state.
The plight of the so-called "dreamers" is systematically being ignored by this administration and its cohorts. These children came to America through no wish of their own, and the majority know no other place called 'home", having arrived at such an early age as to have no memory of their original birthplace. The demagogue would love nothing better than to have them all ejected, but knowing that the vast majority of Americans would not countenance such blatant cruelty, abides his time and awaits an occurrence that could justify the mass expulsion of Black and Brown teens and young adults from their adoptive homes. These kids have spent their entire lives in the American system. Raised therein, educated therein, and many of them have served, or are serving, in the military. Standing up for America, defending America, and proclaiming America as if it were their own. As it is in fact, except for the accident of their birth elsewhere. Their persecution would place an indelible stain on America's good name internationally, but such blemish has already been amply applied in the brief course of this demagogue's tenure.
The unprecedented state of emergency that this demagogue has declared in order to accrue funding for his illicit, some say immoral, wall dividing the USA from the rest of the Americas is yet another example of his inability to grasp the lessons of history. His wall is as immoral as was the structure dividing Germany, Communist from Capitalist, and as destined to failure. as all such abominations are. One cannot construct a barrier against the Black and Brown infidel, when there are so many of them born therein, living and prospering within the confines of Hometown. Imagine that the Prime Minister of Belize were to propose a wall between Belize and Guatemala, our greatest adversary, whose groundless claim to Belizean territory goes back for generations. Imagine that monetary concerns did not enter the equation, yet if our Prime Minister were to propose such a construction, he would be laughed out of court. Political divisions exist between peoples, and hopefully can be resolved diplomatically, but though those divisions exist, peoples mix at the ground level, and intermingle seamlessly. There are more Guatemalans at work on our farm on the Hummingbird highway in Belize than there are Belizeans. In fact, the alien population of Belize as a whole, could easily surpass its native born residents in number, simply because its social structure allows for the equal participation of all in her prospective, while that of the neighboring republics favors the Anglo-Saxon wealthy minority.
The demagogue's talk of forcing out Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro reignites images of imperialistic America, when all Latin America were presumed puppets to her dogma. With the exception of Brazil. America could not then, and cannot now, bend that megalithic economy to her will. Brazil's economy is too large, its culture too diverse, like its population too inclusive, to be persuaded by an abstract alien ideology. Throughout Latin America, and Argentina may be the exception, to attempt a coup of the aristocracy over the proletariat would be such a foolhardy obstruction of justice as to demand an immediate reaction from the halls of lay jurisprudence in defense of common sense. The pages of history are awash with examples of the mighty few attempting to suppress the will of the inarticulate but determined many. In Central America this plutocracy succeeds through the contrived ignorance of the proletariat, but elsewhere in the region, the people though impoverished, are well aware of their ancestry rooted in mighty empires. Their glory not brought down by conquest as historically reported, but by insidious and pervasive disease, introduced and disseminated through ignorance, into a populace lacking immunity to alien contagion.
In reaction to the decay of democracy introduced by, and perpetuated for the preservation of his autocracy, the Democrats have come out in unprecedented numbers, twenty-one to date, to challenge his spurious hold on the presidency. He lost the popular vote by over three million the last time around, and only became president because the electoral college does not represent a true majority of the American electorate. His popularity is among the lowest all-time for any president. His presidency is a farce, yet he claims popularity beyond belief. He asserts this by proclaiming all the popular, established polls to be misguided, and only his, taken by some unknown pollster, to be accurate. He proclaims all reporting that contradicts his purpose to be "fake news", and expects that because he says so, all will disregard the reporting of the main stream, and rely only on "Fox News" for their accounting of the day's proceedings. Oversight is an evil appendage that detracts from the hard work of steering the ship of state, and the world, down a prescribed course designed to assure maximum financial return for himself and his family, and for his cohorts as long as they remain true to his purpose.
Howard A. Frankson -- Belize