A postmortem liberal lament sans handwringing

I can’t bear all the handwringing on the inter-tubes by Democratic bloggers, pundits, and failed strategists, so this is my own postmortem liberal lament. Anyway, the energy of anger and disgust is better redirected into words than sticks and stones, or punching out windows in my petrol-mobile with arthritic knuckles.

The last time Republicans controlled all three branches of government was 1928 under Herbert Hoover. Guess what happened? The last six out of seven Republican presidents couldn’t win the popular vote either. It’s high time we nuked the outdated Electoral College in favor of one person, one vote!

I’m getting too old and lazy to hassle with all the paperwork of seeking asylum in an actual democracy — one envisioned by the Founders; not the bastardized hellscape hobbled together by the constitutional untruths and misquotes of goofball “intellectuals” to the right of Jefferson Davis. So I’ve decided to stay put and hurl politically incorrect insults at the brain-dead zombie hordes of “conservative” (what a misnomer!), grab-em-by-the-p---y, mostly white, religious hypocrites.

Or, as I prefer, “radical Christianist terrorists.” A label so well deserved shouldn’t offend sham followers of the “Prince of Peace,” considering that their last great savior instigated an unlawful, immoral religious war of choice in the wrong countries. FYI for dummies: The bulk of 9/11 conspirators came from and were funded largely, albeit indirectly, by our staunch (ha ha) ally, Saudi Arabia, harboring Wahhabi “princes of war,” squandering oil wealth derived from American rednecks driving gas hogs. Radical Salafist killers are still supporting asymmetric terrorism (as opposed to our variety of state-sponsored terrorism), and clueless American taxpayers are still funding the more mainstream Sunni wars engulfing the Middle East, ensuring an ever increasing supply of new terrorists.

Why? Because of oil — the same oil destroying Earth’s climate. Why? Because of the for-profit, mega-corps’ defense industry — a “defense” destroying civilization. Why? So that billionaires can suck up all the good times for themselves. As Smedley Butler said, “War is a racket.”

Neither do I cut any slack for Obama’s and Hillary’s culpability for following suit; still, George choke-on-a-pretzel Bush’s signature achievement and lasting … and lasting … legacy is a senseless, futile conflagration that has slaughtered far more Muslims than Christians — a Nuremberg-worthy war crime of the highest order. That’s the cowardly reason the village idiot pulled America out of the World Court. Does anyone seriously think the latest, greatest Republican messiah, sporting his phony head of hair and 300-word vocabulary, can bluster his way out of this neo-con, self-induced quagmire? No, I didn’t think so!

Trump. My God! Duh, let’s give the nuclear football to a total narcissistic, reality-show media creation/sensation — a small-minded, loudmouthed, schoolyard bully who made his political bones disseminating a right-wing, fever-swamp lie about Obama’s damn birth certificate and then fanned the flames of Hillary’s damn emails.

The compliant corporate media gifted this fool two-plus billion dollars of free exposure (Bernie almost none), never mentioning the fact that the “Dubya” Bush administration deleted over 22 million emails — and, yes, from a private server! The double standard and selective outrage is breathtaking!

Sure, Trump had a lot of bad press; but then, remember what P.T. Barnum said about publicity, “I don’t care what they say about me, just make sure they spell my name right!” He also famously said, “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”

Stupid people vote for, well, stupid people. Ignorance is not necessarily stupidity, but willful ignorance certainly is. Being the shameless, self-centered showman he is, Trump correctly identified the mood of the populace, filched Bernie’s truth, and out-maneuvered Hillary’s poorly run campaign. If you think this greedy huckster will go to bat for us, watch the Scottish documentary by Anthony Baxter, “You’ve Been Trumped Too.”

“Dumbocrats” used to be the party of the average working stiff, but over decades of compromising with “Republi-cons” and lusting after wealthy donors, they abandoned their base for corporate-minded ideology and so-called “free” market principles. Nothing is free! The horrible cost of this titanic shift was a rapid transplantation of America’s manufacturing base — the true wealth of a nation — to low-wage countries free from laws regulating pollution, and an irresponsible downscaling of our lunch-bucket citizens without college degrees and without any realistic fix. It’s no wonder they hate the party that sold them out.

However, going for Trump was just plain stupid. He and his minions of orcs are unwitting fascist chumps. The historically accurate definition of fascism is the melding of corporate interests with the militaristic and police state powers of government, a concept first introduced by Mussolini and later adopted by Hitler. The road to ruin is a distinct sequence of events, and America is nearing the end of Naomi Wolf’s 12 steps to fascism. (Think Standing Rock, Dakota Access Pipeline, and broken treaties.)

Instead of holding hands and singing “Kumbaya” with Herr Drumpf to “Make America Great Again,” as Hillary and Obama suggested in their spineless, defeatist concession speeches, I’m rooting for this sick version of “Ameerca” to fail utterly. The world needs it to fail! Otherwise, we’ll be the generation that allowed rapacious scavengers to feed on the rotting corpse of our once great Republic. I hope they choke!

A paraphrased quote, oft misattributed to Sinclair Lewis but nevertheless reflecting one of his salient points, shouts out to us, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” Indeed.

Lawlor is a resident of Kalispell.