WHAT ARE WE DOING?

By Ruth A. Sheets

Yesterday afternoon, a news brief came on the radio.  The voice of Donald Trump blurted out giving his assessment of NATO and a made-up conversation between (I am guessing) himself and a NATO member about paying their dues.  It was not exactly clear what he was suggesting, but it sounded as though if they don’t pay up, they deserve whatever they get from Russia or whomever and we won’t help.  It was a clear threat, but also a promise to his cult that he was still their guy, their playground bully who if allowed back in power, he would try to force everyone to accommodate his/their prejudices.  Of course, he focused on money, ironic considering how much he ignores paying for things.

I am currently reading a book entitled Becoming Mamma-san by Mary Matsuda Gruenewald.  The author was interned along with other Japanese and Japanese-Americans during World War II. 

These two things suddenly came together for me when Ms. Gruenewald talked about the “loyalty oath” all interned prisoners had to sign.  After depriving these persons of their homes, their livelihoods, their dignity, and their freedom, the United States Government was demanding a loyalty that could put their lives further at risk, requiring young men to go into the army and young women to serve in a women’s service branch.  If they refused to agree, the “no-nos, they were dumped into concentration camp, Tule Lake in California, a remote desert hell, and were considered pariahs by the people of this nation as well as by other interned Japanese people. 

The question that came to me was “what are we doing!  We the People seem to easily forget where we have been and we let people whose humanity is lacking, have power they should never have, then we believe that what they say should matter.  We buy into their “insanity” and pretend the damage done by them isn’t something we can do anything about. 

In one case above, with absolutely no evidence, people of Japanese descent were forced into concentration camps behind barbed wire and towers manned by soldiers with machine guns.  In the other case, with tremendous amounts of evidence that he is a serial liar, a tax cheat, and an insurrectionist who was legally voted out of office is still not behind barbed wire and is trying to get back into office by whatever means necessary.  The difference is pretty obvious it seems to me, no evidence is necessary if it is a group of people different from the majority and no matter how much evidence is presented, a rich white man can actually be disloyal to our nation and not only get away with it, but plans to do it again and take revenge, something the Japanese internees didn’t do, and they had cause where Trump has none.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, numerous investigations were conducted finding there was essentially no evidence of espionage by Japanese people in America.  Major Karl Bendetsen and Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, two officers of the Western Defense Command ignored the FBI and other reports of no evidence and pumped out conspiracy theories that “the fact that nothing has happened so far is more or less . . . ominous.”  DeWitt claimed this indicated there was control being exercised within the Japanese community that would shortly fail and that control ended, the sabotage would be massive.  Gov. Earl Warren of California and President Franklin Roosevelt, again with no evidence, agreed, both responding to their own biases against Japanese people.  Roosevelt signed order 9066 which forced West Coast people of Japanese descent into concentration camps in the most inhospitable places they could find in this country.

Two of the men who perpetrated the crimes against the Japanese community have names few remember but two, Franklin Roosevelt and Earl Warren, are seen as heroes.  The conspiracy theories that Karl Bendetsen and John DeWitt perpetrated took 40+ years to even discuss as a nation.  I suspect the conspiracy theorist in chief of today, Donald Trump knows little or nothing about it and could not possibly care less.

How do conspiracy theories work?  They start with someone who has a bit of recognition, sometimes respect.  The person does not like reality because it does not fit with their biases about a specific person, group, event, or process.  The conspiracy theorist makes up stories about something that has happened and distorts it enough to make the change harmful to the target but still somewhat believable to those receiving the “message.”  The theorist has sufficient prestige to “credibly” pass on information only they know to individuals and groups who also want that special knowledge.  We do have free speech in this country, a critical right.  It permitted two military officers to lie about Japanese people living on the West Coast and for Governor Warren and President Roosevelt to lie to the American people, through the media, enhancing and feeding the public’s fear of Japan and people of color in general.  Trump passed to his cult the idea that the election was stolen from him encouraging them to believe a lie which was reinforced by media platforms and spokesmen tied through loyalty to Trump.  It is one thing when a regular citizen lies to friends and family but something quite different when a prominent person lies or incites hatred of or violence toward others. 

The ones who forced Japanese people into concentration camps were wrong but never held accountable for what they had done.  I believe all were dead by the time President Reagan finally stood up to acknowledge what had been done to Japanese people here in the United States.  We as a nation have not fully come to terms with what was done to somewhere around 120,000 men, women, and children.

Donald Trump has used wealth to promote him to a status where he can make statements that are lies or threats and people will not only listen, but also act on them.  His actions could have brought down our democracy and still could if We the People don’t stand up to him.  He has targeted NATO before, but things are a bit different now that Republicans are following Trump’s move toward favoring Russia’s Putin over our actual Ally Ukraine.  That seems to me as having some similarity to an American favoring Japan or Germany during WWII.  Many Americans did favor Hitler’s Germany over our democracy.  Had the Japanese not attacked Pearl Harbor and the US entered the war, those fascist Americans could have succeeded in seriously damaging our democracy, if not destroying it.  One wonders how Trump’s and Tucker Carlson’s fondness for Putin will impact our current situation.  What conspiracies are they planting among their cult? 

We are going to need a lot of help to counter the anti-democratic moves by Trump and his Republican Party.  It is pretty clear we will not get sufficient help from our courts.  Trump and his Senate appointed so many of his cult to the courts that they will protect  him regardless of the law (Judge Cannon and the Florida classified documents case).  The Supreme Court showed us on Thursday, Feb. 8^th that they will force every state to have Trump on their ballots despite our Constitution because a Republican insurrectionist with enough influence can do pretty much whatever he wants and the SC will back him or at least not get in his way.  They did the same During WWII when Japanese-Americans brought a case against Japanese internment.  The Supreme Court declared it was legal, though without evidence that it should ever have happened.  They ended up protecting Roosevelt’s signature instead of doing the right thing for the incarcerated innocents. 

So, my question, what are we doing?  Why are we not protesting loudly in large numbers?  Why are we not demanding our media call lies what they are?  Why are “journalists” not challenging statements made by Trumpers and Trumpettes that are just plain wrong, and doing it on air?  When someone says he would prefer fascism to democracy, the interviewer needs to ask, WHY!  Do you have any idea what fascism is, what it would mean for you? 

The Democratic Party seems to be spending more effort on begging for money than actually countering the Trump conspiracy theory and lying presentations.  Republicans have decided that racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homo/transphobia, and fascism are their modus operandi and along with their lies and misinformation, are what they will use to get power to do whatever.  They are not clear on exactly what, but they do have a plan for 2025 which is appalling.  In any case, a whole lot of people will suffer if they get their way.  The rising fascists somehow think it won’t be them, rich, white, straight men.  It will be those people.  What are we doing?  Why are we listening to a man every single day who respects no one, lies incessantly, threatens his fellow citizens and the nations of the world, who is losing his ability to think clearly while being led along by people who are as power-hungry and lacking in morality as he is?  Do we really want that crew back in power?  It seems our media thinks so.  Trump is covered in our media broadcasts more than our president and vice president who are competent and working hard on behalf of this nation.  Trump is working for no one but himself.  What are we doing?