The Chaotic Forces of 2016 Leave Me Wondering Who Is Friend

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Rowan Wolf, PhD
Voice of Conscience

[Photo: Fish kills in Florida from algae blooms. This repeated catastrophe is mostly human caused and the graphic reflects my feeling of the chaos and insanity of what we are seeing.]

I imagine that many of you are shaking your head wondering how the two most hated candidates somehow rose to the top of their parties. Then in twist after twist, the whole scenario gets more and more distasteful, and hateful.

The Republicans have a warped egotistical and hateful caricature of a candidate of mass destruction. He is not just imploding the Republican party, but any semblance of civility and reality. After tapes of him discussing his sexual assaults with crude braggadocio come to the surface, and a growing number of women step forward stating they have been victims of Trump’s sexual assaults, his “surrogates” are all over the talk shows saying that it does not make any difference whether these women’s claims are true or not because it is just a “distraction” from what’s really important.

Excuse me, but when your candidate 1) discounts half of the human race as less than human, and certainly less than him, having no rights in the face of what he wants, and 2) presumably he doesn’t care for much of the rest of the population except perhaps some rich white males like himself. Of course he is the perfect candidate for the “leader of the free world.”

I found myself deeply moved by Michelle Obama’s speech for in speaking the hard truth, all women have experienced some form of demeaning behavior because of our sex. It was a point of unity and clarity. Further, she allowed men of character to step up and say loud and clear that such behavior as Trump bragged about, nor such talk that attempted to create male bonding by demeaning women, is not to be tolerated.

If there has been one honest and true thing in this entire disastrous campaign, it is Michelle Obama’s speech. For what she said was true and every woman knows it. Thank you Michelle Obama for fighting for the humanity of women everywhere of every race, creed, and nation. You are right that this hurts, and this week of revelations and replays of this disgusting exhibition has cut many of us deeply. Thank you for not letting this pain pass without notice. Not only that, but your honesty offered a breath of fresh air in the foetid air of this campaign.

On the other hand we have Hillary Clinton who has left death and destruction in her wake and certainly has had a hand in the crafting of the Democratic Party as it is. Yet she is plagued by “Russian” hackers getting into this server and that and releasing damning information. Then, Wikileaks releases more “emails” that too baldly show the nasty world of behind the scenes political planning.

However, for me, both the Democratic Party server hack and release, and the most recent email release, raise a number of issues and concerns.  Why leak the DNC info when it is way too late to address the issue of sabotaging Bernie Sanders and his campaign? And I am wholly confused and disappointed by Wikileaks and Assange, who seems to have timed the release of private communications in the Clinton camp to have maximum affect in undermining the Clinton candidacy.

Why now Wikileaks? Why not prior to the the Democratic Convention when Sanders, or perhaps even a true third party left candidate could have moved forward? Is Wikileaks manipulating the releases to boost the Trump candidacy?

Are the Russians, or Wikileaks, or some otherwise thought to be “progressive” force, manipulating data and releases to assist Trump?

It is looking at this insane scenario that way, and considering things in this light, makes one have to reevaluate who is friend, who is foe, and what grand game we have found ourselves in the middle of.

There are those across the political spectrum directly and indirectly supporting Trump, and I truly feel a deep sense of betrayal over this for Trump epitomizes everything I have fought against for most of my life. From the oligarchy and enforced class inequalities, to environmentalism and respect for life, to struggles for racial equality and justice, and struggles against various forms of colonization, to the valuing of true diversity and the creation of community in its truest sense. Trumps stands at 180 degrees on every one of those issues, and he does so with an unabashed egotism and a sadistic streak where he laughs as he crushes others under his heels.

Oh, I know the argument that Trump is so off base that he might bring down the system. But then what? Is there some phoenix of love, peace, justice, and honoring of life that is supposed to arise from the chaos that will certainly ensue after the nuclear detritus clears. To find that Wikileaks, who I have supported and trusted, seems to be playing its hand for Trump is just another blow.

I am left wondering just who stands with me for sanity and life, for peace and justice. What allies are there? For this I can claim as a certainty, whether Trump wins or loses, the hatred and bigotry that has been demonstrated amply by Trump and his followers is not going to quietly subside. It has now been elevated, normalized, and nurtured. We have lost decades – decades we cannot afford to lose. It is hard not to lose heart when thinking how much ground every positive movement in this society has lost in this insanity.

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