The New Al Qaida

The New Al Qaida?

 Should we be worried? Is it time to panic? Or should I watch a little less news? Perhaps it’s just the subject matter I’ve been reading about this semester: the CIA sponsored coup of the democratic Guatemalan government in the 1950s. Sometimes I get confused about what time and country I’m living in, but I know I’m being silly. Silly boy. That could never happen here, right?

Back then in Guatemala - totally different scenario - they had this powerful elite who’d gotten wealthy on the backs of the working man. And these elite were so threatened when a reformer president came along, popular and democratically elected, fair and square, that they engineered a “popular” uprising in the form of a military coup. The coup, of course, resulted in decades of brutal dictators who murdered anyone they even suspected of opposing them, the usual story. And all this because a handful of rich people didn’t want to pay slightly higher taxes. The reformers actually wanted that wealth to benefit the working man just a tiny little bit more than it was, which was not at all.

Commies.  

Of course, the rich people didn’t do it by themselves, they had to convince at least some ordinary people, preferably people with guns, that the reformers were evil conspirators, communists, tyrants, baby-eaters. I mean, they were going to raise the rich people’s taxes a little bit, if that doesn’t scream “tyranny!” then I don’t know the meaning of that word.

So in conclusion, that could never happen here…right?

Sure, I occasionally pick bits and pieces of loud angry rhetoric out of the ether, over the airwaves, accusing our democratically elected, fair and square, popular President of being a tyrant because he wants to raise rich people’s taxes a tiny little bit. I’ll give you that one. Sure, they’ve even dedicated a lot of funds and organizational savvy behind what would appear to be wide spread popular outrage over the tyrannical-ness of our new President’s policies concerning rich people’s taxes. There’s also some stuff about wanting to take people’s guns away from them, which seems to come out of left field (or would it be “right field” in this case?), but I won’t try and wrap my head around that one now, other than to point out that these outraged people are pretty much the ones who have all the guns.

So, yeah, there are some similarities if I let myself harp on it too much, but I’m a silly boy. Yeah, the government did just issue a report about “Right Wing Extremism” which might imply the existence of wide-eyed radicals huddled in a dank basement somewhere. And yet, from a wider perspective one would almost be inclined to include one of the largest media networks in the country in that description, with household verb/names like Rush and Bill who enjoy nationally syndicated radio and television programs reaching millions of ordinary Americans every day of the week.

I’ll admit it’s a little concerning to hear people with that much influence and reach branding our popular democratically elected President an illegitimate tyrant, and then to have almost those exact same words coming out of the mouths and off the placards of those same before-mentioned stunningly angry gun-owners on the streets of America the very next day. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if those exact same justifications are uttered from the mouth of the next Timothy McVeigh after he blows something up. I mean, what else can you do with a tyrant but blow up his buildings?   

But I’m probably just exaggerating. Either that, or these expert pundits and talk show hosts and their political cohorts are the most staggeringly irresponsible bunch of overgrown toddlers to ever hold the fate of our great nation in their hands at precisely the moment when we most need to work together if we’re going to pull ourselves out of this mess.

There is a deep and tragic irony in listening to the very people who gave us the most anti-Constitution president this county has probably ever seen, crowing loud and often about the supposed police state they think our current president is leading us to. These are the same people who brutally attacked anyone who dared to question our last walking tsunami of a president, calling us “traitors”, “Anti-American”, “terrorist supporters”, even though all our concerns turned out to be justified.

Does it make sense? Well, of course not. But neither does the toddler who’s just had his favorite toy taken away from him after he punches his sister. He screams, red faced and outraged, and his extravagant display of anger isn’t logical, but we don’t expect it to be. We understand that it’s just because the spoiled little brat’s never encountered disappointment before. He’s never had anyone take anything away from him, never taught to share, never heard the words “No, don’t do that. Bad boy!”.  As adults, we understand that losing an election is literally the worst thing that’s happened to him in his entire petty little life. He just doesn’t know any better.