For close to 10 years I crisscrossed the land, playing the Blues in just about any place that would have us. I came to know our American brothers quite well and love them dearly. This week's Camino a Ítaca looks back and hopefully is wrong about the way forward. You can click over and read the original version here in Spanish (tambien se puede ver la version en castellano abajo en PDF) or read the English version below.
So, it's finally over. After four years of seeing the name fester like a wound on every other page of the newspapers and after 1,500 days of listening to his name mangled and mispronounced on foreign television, it's finally come to an end. Trump and his particular brand of vileness has been ushered out of the White House and will once again return to being associated with real estate scams, bankrupt companies, failed business ventures, reality TV, porn stars and pedophiles. The failed Big Brother Washington edition experiment has come to a screeching trainwreck finish with its winner, or should I say loser, absconding in the dark of night. Leaving the cleaning crew the difficult job of trying to get rid of the stench of four years' worth of takeout food before the Biden's move back in. It's a reek that will linger over the country while making its way overseas for some time to come now.From afar it seems almost incomprehensible. How was it possible that such an obvious huckster was able to cheat and lie his way into the most powerful position on earth? How could such a large percentage of the noble American public be duped into believing such an obvious snake oil salesman straight out of a cheap Western movie?
The answer may be simpler than you think.
It just might be that they felt that they had nowhere else to turn. On two of the most recent occasions they had indeed voted for the 'nice guy'. The one with the charming smile, the model family and who possessed the uncanny ability to form complete sentences. In the 90s they had tried it with Clinton and then after the debacle with the Texan, they gave it another try with Saint Obama. They deposited their vote with all of their, excuse the pun, hope and what did they get in return? Nothing.
After the punishing Regan-Bush Sr. years, the Democratic party saw the writing on the wall and completely turned its back on their traditional, working class power base and decided to get in bed with where the real power lie, big business. Those very people you now see, shouting out, correctly pronouncing the orange beast's name and insisting that the election was stolen used to be Democratic voters. In the 90s they saw with their own eyes Bill Clinton give the keys to the executive bathroom to the big tech companies, eviscerate what little welfare existed and then repeal banking regulations that had held the banks in check. They then watched while Obama bailed out the banks that started the great recession while starting seven new wars, and what happened? He got the Nobel Peace prize. The supposedly progressive party had accomplished things that conservatives could only dream of doing. This is why Hillary Clinton lost to an orange clown. The people felt they had nowhere to turn. Just watch as what little hope turns to more bitterness as the 78-year-old Washington lifer in fact, brings things 'back to normal'. It's a stark warning to governments around the world, start actually listening to and working for the people or the next Trump might not be so dumb.
It just might be that they felt that they had nowhere else to turn. On two of the most recent occasions they had indeed voted for the 'nice guy'. The one with the charming smile, the model family and who possessed the uncanny ability to form complete sentences. In the 90s they had tried it with Clinton and then after the debacle with the Texan, they gave it another try with Saint Obama. They deposited their vote with all of their, excuse the pun, hope and what did they get in return? Nothing.
After the punishing Regan-Bush Sr. years, the Democratic party saw the writing on the wall and completely turned its back on their traditional, working class power base and decided to get in bed with where the real power lie, big business. Those very people you now see, shouting out, correctly pronouncing the orange beast's name and insisting that the election was stolen used to be Democratic voters. In the 90s they saw with their own eyes Bill Clinton give the keys to the executive bathroom to the big tech companies, eviscerate what little welfare existed and then repeal banking regulations that had held the banks in check. They then watched while Obama bailed out the banks that started the great recession while starting seven new wars, and what happened? He got the Nobel Peace prize. The supposedly progressive party had accomplished things that conservatives could only dream of doing. This is why Hillary Clinton lost to an orange clown. The people felt they had nowhere to turn. Just watch as what little hope turns to more bitterness as the 78-year-old Washington lifer in fact, brings things 'back to normal'. It's a stark warning to governments around the world, start actually listening to and working for the people or the next Trump might not be so dumb.
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