America. Oh, America. Ms Liberty must be weeping for you. What happened? Where did it all go wrong? Or was it never right to begin with? An avalanche waiting to happen has finally built enough pressure for it to come crashing down, taking out everyone in its way, and picking up speed with every second that goes by. I wish I could tell you the worst has come and gone. I wish I could tell you that everyone will come out of this a winner. But like any political house of cards, there will be victims and losers, and much pain and suffering to protect the integrity of democracy; a democracy whose foundation was built on the backs of slaves for the few elite families.

First, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the deep-pocketed corporations who paid big money for winning the election. President-Elect, Joe Biden, and President, Donald Trump, are nothing but horses trapped in a never-ending horse race. Or if you prefer, they’re nothing but marionettes on a world stage, putting on the show for which the people had asked. Did you want an episode on climate change? You got it! Did you want someone to caress your hair and tell you they are going to ignore the bureaucratic red tape and lift you out of poverty? No problem, we have someone who can say whatever it is you want to hear. You’re bored and in need of a villain to make yourself more relevant on the world stage? We’ve got just the big Oompa Loompa for you! If you’ve managed to fool yourself into thinking that the same two established political parties who have been failing you since their conception are now going to save you from the very misery in which they put you in the first place, then you, my friend, are a fool.

In honour of Martin Luther King Day, tomorrow, this piece highlights the superficial and deep-seed issues to which MLK was referring and why President Trump is a symptom of these issues rather than the disease itself. If you’d like to know more about my views on MLK’s mission, feel free to check out, MLK: His True Mission.

You scratch my back; I scratch yours.

Politics is not a foreign concept to us. Even if you’re not familiar or aware of the county’s politics in which you live, you’re exposed to politics in different forms of your life. Let’s play out a scenario:

• The self: you’re responsible for your body. Arguably, this could translate to you governing your body and your finances. You’re in charge of getting what you need and prioritizing to ensure a balanced budget.
  • The family: parents have a responsibility to one another and their dependents. Understanding what is needed, being financially responsible, and ensuring active social programs for said dependents.
    • The neighbourhood: Community watch; head watchdog; community events and programs such as swim classes, libraries, etc.
      • The workplace: An organization has a form of leadership and management style to ensure order and productivity. Some leaders manage workers’ tools and resources, while others manage services and finances.
        • The city, state and country: Larger conglomerates, connecting the self, family, community, workplace and other bodies held together by a form of leadership with one leader to whom everyone looks up. 

You get the drift. The point is – at its most basic form – politics exists in everyone’s life. In a perfect world, all of this would operate like a flawless machine. But like any machine, there are viruses ready to infiltrate. In the case of a nation’s political establishment (actually, in any part of these micro-governing bodies), there are two (main) viruses: 

• Bribery, or as the politically correct folks like to call it so not to sound so ugly, Lobbying.
• Self-interest

Lobbying is just bribery in a suit.

The Democratic and Republican Party in the U.S., much like the Liberal and Conservative Party in Canada, teeter-totter from one view to the next, depending on who’s financing their campaigns. I’m sorry to say that your demands haven’t been taken into consideration for a very long time, if at all. Any politician who spoke against war profiteers and corporates tax breaks was immediately vilified or paid off; for example, Tulsi Gabbard and Bernie Sanders, and the latter not once but TWICE removed! These political parties are casts meant to parade a show and act for the people, not deliver. When you see corporations funding the Republican Party one year, and then the Democratic Party, you wonder where these parties’ loyalty lie. For example, once-Republican donor, Michael Bloomberg, who was supposed to fund the Republicans, declared himself a 2020 Democratic candidate just before the midterms or Seth Klarman donating to Democrats suddenly (NewsBeat, 2018). As the saying goes, nothing in life is free, not even one’s support, and so it goes without saying that this (monetary) support has strings attached.

You may be trying to convince yourself that it’ll be different this time; THIS TIME, President-Elect, Joe Biden, gets it because President Trump was the worst president of all time. If you’ve ever attempted to fast for a day and then feast as I have during Ramadan, you’ll know that the bread always tastes sweeter after you’ve fasted even though it’s the same bread you’ve been eating for 30 years. In fact, I’d argue that this was the easiest win for the Democratic Party in the history of Presidential Elections. They didn’t have to campaign at all since President Trump practically handed them the election on a silver platter. Surprisingly, it was still a marginal win which is a little scary if you ask me because this means the U.S. is dangerously polarized. During a normal campaign, both the Republican and Democratic Parties would have to make promises and act as though they cared about the people. But the focus was so much on President Trump’s character that it was enough to campaign, “Anything is better than Trump at this point.” When an election turns into a popularity contest, that’s when the avalanche starts; that’s when Democracy is threatened; that’s when greedy lobbyist corporations pay big money to push for their agenda to be fulfilled because everyone is distracted with social – and superficial – issues.

What would Martin Luther King Jr say?

Imagine if Martin Luther King Jr was alive to see Michelle Obama wrap her arms around President George W. Bush shortly after selling arms to fulfil his profiteering criminal war. Do you still want to try and tell me these political parties represent the people? Why? Because President-Elect, Joe Biden, apologized for his 1994 Crime Bill? Martin Luther King Jr’s initiative was clear. The problems he saw then, and we continue to see today, are more than just racial injustices. Yes, people of colour are disproportionately disadvantaged in North America, especially Black and Indigenous peoples. But MLK recognized the root cause being the rich becoming richer through means like generational wealth and pocketed, self-serving politicians. In contrast, the poor become poorer because they are constantly holding onto the empty promises delivered on an election year, year after year after year. MLK declared War on Poverty and took it to Washington. He uncovered the Establishment’s need for us to focus on superficial social issues to keep us divided so they can continue to profit. Literally, the Establishment has us reenacting the movie, The Warriors (1979), over and over again. As a result of attempting to expose the poisoned establishment and the corruption within, he was assassinated. Dare I entertain another conspiracy: President John F. Kennedy met the same fate for the same reasons.

So what are we going to do about it? What would Martin Luther King Jr do? I wish I had a simple answer for you. We need to follow in the footsteps of our heroes. Don’t claim ignorance, don’t tell yourself that politics doesn’t concern you, and don’t be silent. Use your voice, leverage the tools available for you to speak up against the social injustices and the corruption that is evidently poisoning Democracy as we speak. Don’t let the deaths of MLK, Malcolm X, Elizabeth Freeman, Lucretia Mott, among other wonderful heroes, be in vain. This Martin Luther King Day, reflect on how you can contribute to protecting Democracy. It starts by opening your mind and using your voice.

References

Faces, M. (Host). (2018, Nov 15). Abandoning The Left: Why Democrats Can’t Save Us [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub21ueWNvbnRlbnQuY29tL2QvcGxheWxpc3QvZWQxYzQ1NjctNGEyYS00ZDhiLTg2MmYtYWI2MDAwMDNkNTMwLzI0ZTk1ZTVkLTIwNGEtNGJkZi1iYmY4LWFiNmYwMTY3ODhmZi85YjIzNGRhYi0wNDQ5LTQ0MmMtOTIwMy1hYjZmMDE2Nzg5MDMvcG9kY2FzdC5yc3M/episode/MmY0N2YxMjYwZWVhNGI4ZWI4ZDRmOGNjNGE3NTFiY2M?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjhi8uWicftAhVOrVkKHfMkAXgQkfYCegQIARAF