Trump's Goat

It's not hard to see why Donald Trump is a hero to some people. He is stirring up the muck from this country's sense of malaise. People are sick of ineffectual government, a growing oligarchy of the rich dominating political decisions in favor of the rich, promises made and not kept, jobs going overseas, unfair trade deals, political correctness, calculated speeches and stilted politicans. Trump is an entertaining mouthpiece for the disenfranchised voter, particularly in the south. And just as politicians and emerging dictators have done so many times before, a scape goat must be found. For Trump, it's the illegal Mexican and their "anchor babies."

Trump would have you believe that by ridding ourselves of the undocumented, our job worries will be over--Americans will do the back breaking work of picking beans and strawberries, potatoes and lettuce. Get rid of the illegals and our national health care will improve, our profits will go up, the sun will shine in the morning, climate change will disappear, the polar bears will come back. It's all the illegals' fault that this country is in such a mess. Every dictator uses this ploy.

For the dictator, it's easier to target a visible minoirity for your troubles than to actually solve serious and complicated problems. Enemies of the state must be targeted, executed, deported. or exiled. Nationalism becomes Fascism. Mussolini, Hitler, Franco and Tito have all used the same fuel to power their dictatorial engines. Use the anger of the masses to target the weak, talk about restoring your country to former greatness, blame the scapegoats for our problems, not ourselves. Make it look like you're achieving something while you achieve nothing.

Trump believes we should round up all undocumented people and their American born babies, by banging on doors, and dragging 11 million people into deportation busses at the cost of $400 to $600 billion dollars over a 20 year period. According to NBC News, "the cost would be huge. By one estimate, removing the entire population of undocumented workers now in the U.S. would wipe out a chunk of the American economy roughly the size of the annual gross domestic product of Texas. "

But that is Trump's morally corrupt solution, in spite of a Gallup poll cited by Newsweek, that indicates 67 percent of Americans believe that unauthorized immigrants should be allowed to get legal status and a pathway to citizenship. Only 19 percent believe they should be deported.

But when people feel disenfranchised from their government, powerless in their lives, and lack the ability to analyze and compromise; when they stop voting, stop thinking and give in to sloganisms, symbolisms and entertainment--they want a Donald Trump to lead them to Nirvana on the back of a scape goat.