Dark Journey
By Mowahid Hussain Shah
Trump has left the White House with a tarnished legacy. But, in doing so, he has also sullied America.
The “Save America” pitch is essentially “Save White America.” Homegrown terror is making the spectre of outside threats almost as an outdated cultural depiction.
A man determined to build a wall between Mexico and the United States has succeeded in erecting an invisible wall dividing Americans from Americans.
The terminology of terrorism was, in effect, almost specifically designed and weaponized to target and smear Muslims. Now, in the wake of the coordinated January 6 rampage, which scared the living daylights of Congressmen inside the besieged US Capitol, the term has now been broadened to include under its rubric the mostly white Americans partaking in the siege.
Liberal Democrats, outraged over the violent onslaught to disrupt the electoral process certifying Joseph Biden as winner, would do well to pause and self-examine their own enabling posture when a democratically elected government of President Morsi was brutally quashed in Egypt around the Fourth of July 2013.
Liz Cheney, a senior Republican lawmaker in the House, is frothing over Trump’s “betrayal” of democracy. Ironically, her own father, Vice President Dick Cheney, incited the 2003 unprovoked assault on Iraq, stemming from which, and using the White House platform, he endorsed torture – a violation of his oath of office.
The blowback signs were there in plain sight. Underestimated has been the power of disinformation, fueled and inflamed by an unfettered toxic social media.
Amidst mindless chatter, Trump may have done a favor by visibly bringing to the forefront and exposing the dark underbelly of American polity and society, with its paranoid anger, fear, and grievances, which have put so many on the path to a dark journey. The trust deficit is huge.
It remains to be seen whether the cautious Biden-Kamala duo is up to the huge repair task ahead. Republicans may have lost control of the House and Senate but their capacity to arouse passions and drive a wedge remains intact.
The underlying conditions that gave rise to Trump are not going to melt. Trump may have been impeached twice, but it was mostly on partisan lines. Only 10 Republicans voted against him. Unclear remains the outcome of a Senate trial, which has the potential of making him a martyr amongst his passionate popular grassroots support within the Republican base. The potential of more violence hovers.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Zucchino, whose 2020 book "Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy," details how the elected government of a Black-majority North Carolina city was bloodily overthrown, pointing to the deep undercurrent of hatred still in play.
General Stanley McChrystal, former commander of American forces in Afghanistan, along with other mainstream analysts, are drawing parallels between the tactics of US violent extremism with that of Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
McChrystal warned that “the fabric of something very dangerous has been woven.”
The clash within is the real threat.
All evidence suggests that Trump, instead of making America great, may have acted as an accelerant to its decline. Trump isn’t done yet.
