He’s made all sorts of dire predictions about what he’ll do on his first day if he’s re-elected. Shoplifters will be shot. Heads will be broken. Liberals will be arrested. Illegal immigrants will be deported. The military will descend upon our cities and if there are riots, the soldiers will act with maximum force.
How can Trump get away with saying these things? Because millions of Americans are really, really pissed off by the way things are going: the disintegration of our cities, the lack of respect for the law, the disrespect ill-behaved people display toward our shared values. Every overturned garbage can in Oakland, every splinter of smashed car window, every pilfered item resold at Lake Merritt is a giant “fuck you” finger directed at the public, and the public, predictably, has had enough.
Where do I stand? I’m as pissed off as everybody else by the sociopathic behavior in Oakland. I see people all the time I’d like to have rounded up and put away. I’d like to see some way to immobilize sideshow participants, including spectators, that would hurt them. I’d like to throw every crook in jail, and if the cops have to get rough on them, so much the better. I’d like to see a crowd of decent people surround some schmuck who’s blasting music at 125 decibels on our streets, take his device away, throw it in the Lake and dare him to do anything about it. Yes, I get angry too, and it’s this anger that so many millions of people feel that’s fueling the Trump MAGA movement.
In a weird way, I think people are going to vote for Trump just to see what actually happens on Day One. Trump is a master of T.V. ratings. He learned, from The Apprentice, to leave the audience hanging at the end of every episode, so they’d tune in again next week to find out what happens. It’s the oldest trick in Hollywood. Will the train run over the damsel chained to the tracks?
People are understandably angry at what’s being done to America, and they want revenge. And punishment. These are only natural reactions to the post-traumatic stresses that so many of our fellow citizens are experiencing. I too want vengeance. I feel no compassion at all for the thugs who mug, steal, burglarize, carjack, and who physically attack people, especially elders. I think that many, if not most, men in particular feel this way. And not just White men, but men of color. This is why so many will vote for Trump: because they’re convinced he has the cojones to tackle the problem, and the Democrats don’t.
Given my feelings, then, why am I voting for Kamala Harris? Because I think rationally. I recognize that, emotionally, I’m unbalanced in my resentment of the bad guys who are ruining Oakland and our country. But I also know that one can’t make big decisions when one is emotionally upset. That’s when I turn away from my emotions, towards the rational side of me, and ask myself what would happen if Trump wins and follows through on his threats. The answer is: civil war. If Trump declares war on Black people and Black urban culture, tens of millions of Black men and women are not going to sit idly by and let MAGAs in uniforms, carrying assault weapons, seize their neighborhoods and round everyone up. They’re going to fight back (which is their right). The MAGAs will fight them back and everything will go to hell. That will be the result of the triumph of Trumpism: bloodshed and domestic war.
When I realize these things, I understand that my revenge fantasies against bad people may make me feel better, but it’s no answer to our long-range problem of saving our country. The only way to save America is to renounce violence in all its pernicious forms and come together and find negotiated settlements. It’s an ugly, frustrating way of running a city or a country, but it seems to be the only possibility we have of getting through this without bodies piling up. I sure as hell resent the criminals and sociopaths of Oakland, but I have to recognize, in the end, that they have certain rights I must respect, because the alternative is to go back to the law of the jungle.
Steve Heimoff