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Terry from Derry: Blood Boyles

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Terry from Derry: Blood Boyles
By Terry Boyle

 You got gangsters in power and lawbreakers making rules.
– Bob Dylan

I’ve been going through a phase of watching back-to-back period shows

that highlight the class differences in England. It still fascinates me how the randomness of birth could and still does determine a person’s life.  And, while we may not live in a society that judges someone by their class, we certainly believe that money gives you more than an unfair advantage over everyone else.
 
Archaic notions of good breeding and proper standing have given way to wealth and prosperity.  It never ceases to amaze me how the rich can manipulate and control supposed democracies. It’s so easy look back to the bad old days of a rigid class system and pat ourselves on the back for the changes we’ve made, when in fact, nothing much has changed. 

Bob Dylan wrote: You got gangsters in power and lawbreakers making rules. If there is ever a time when those words ring true, it is now.  The 45th president of the United States has, since his defeat, been exposed as a liar, cheat, and egotist and still, despite his obvious crimes, manages to elude justice, because he has money. His wealth makes it almost impossible for the courts to prosecute him. 

When someone sues, he countersues, and it’s a case of whose got the most money. Can you imagine the ordinary person on the street getting away with such blatant disregard for law and order?  The Trump dynasty is as duplicitous and obnoxious as any of the worst aristocrats. 

Donald Jr. sacrifices the truth every time he makes some claim about his father.  Ivanka with her consort, Jared, are desperately trying to keep out of the limelight for fear that their avarice be exposed.  Together, this band of frauds, have, collectively, used their wealth to their own advantage. 

They are perfect role models for Dylan’s insightful lyric. But what is so bewildering is why we let them get away with it. His presidency has laid bare what we always knew, if you have money, you can do what you want.

Through Trump’s presidency, we have become acclimated to a rhetoric that is not based on fact, which is largely anti-scientific, and racially biased. Trump did not invent these things, but he brazenly paraded them as if they were virtues to be proud of, and people loved him for it. 

His bizarre antics, then and now, were endorsed by his enablers, Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham.  For these men, Trump could do no wrong because they saw him as a way to gain greater political power.  McConnell and Graham are pragmatists without conscience who are prepared to accept any deviant who can keep them in power. 

I can imagine future generations watching endless period shows about us and wondering how could they have abided such obvious hypocrisy, and nothing is done about it? We will be judged harshly for our excusing the rich and powerful, and rightfully so since we have done little to change the status quo.  Since we have legitimized the bigotry and gross manipulation of control by powerful men, there has been any number of lesser minions who have dominated our headlines with stupid and foolish rants. 

Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan and Kristi Noem come to mind when I think of how far we’ve fallen into the trap of believing the spiel of the door-to-door salesperson. They don’t have to support anything they say with facts.  It’s simply a matter of saying what they like with little or no consequence. 

They are products of the Trump era and they will continue to repopulate themselves with other idiot clones, if we let them. The rock group Green Day were prophetic in their song American Idiot when writing, ‘I’m not a part of the red neck agenda/now everybody do the propaganda.’ The American idiot is led by those who don’t research the facts, who endorse racial discrimination and lend credibility to lying to get what you want.  The red neck agenda is not a slight towards those of the working classes, but those who believe in white privilege and who are not smart enough to realize they are being duped by those in power. 

I remember when Trump came into power.  Lines were drawn. The racial divide was gaping.

Discussion between parties became impossible since power sharing was considered weak and unworkable.  Any hope of ever bridging the poverty gap was lost. 

Those who had money had greater access to exploit those in their employment.  Access to healthcare, parodied as Obamacare, was and still is under attack. Those who suffer most for this movement away from defending the poor and weak of society are those who benefit most from a more accessible healthcare and higher wages.  The American idiot shoots themselves in the foot by voting for those who want to take away the very things that make their lives easier.

When I sit and watch English shows, particularly around the Victorian era – the golden era of prosperity and wealth, I think to myself why the working classes would continue to vote for these men who are so opposed to bettering conditions for their constituents.  There is no clear answer in my mind, since the problem still remains. 

People, blinded by a false sense of patriotism, still cast their vote to someone who cares little or nothing about their voters.  These voters will stick by their party even if the party tricks them into believing the hype and not the truth. 

I remember when Trump lost the election. I overheard a couple of my neighbours discuss the need to clean their guns. While this talk of guns was not serious, it did make me think of how seriously deluded people were by the previous administration.  When I see the worst horrors of injustice by the English aristocrat being repeated by the Trump dynasty and the money people of our day, I wonder if we’ve learned anything, anything at all, from the past.  

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