{"id":15253,"date":"2025-02-20T18:50:58","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T18:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=15253"},"modified":"2025-02-20T18:51:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T18:51:26","slug":"when-they-tell-you-about-their-own-believe-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/20\/when-they-tell-you-about-their-own-believe-them\/","title":{"rendered":"When They Tell You About Their Own, Believe Them"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Wilmer J. Leon, III, PhD<\/em>
\nGuest Column<\/em><\/p>\n

“I don’t know who you are and I don’t know why you like this guy (Trump). I think what you like about him; he appears to be strong and the rest of us are weak\u2026 That’s what he’s selling\u2026Here’s what you’re buying\u2026He’s a race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot. He doesn’t represent my party. He doesn’t represent the values that the men and women who wear the uniform are fighting for… He’s the ISIL man of the year.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on CNN 2015<\/p>\n

There are periods in history\u2026 epochs, distinctive periods in time marked by notable events, that in many instances signal change. Columbus stumbling upon the Americas where Indigenous peoples had been living for thousands of years. The French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the invention of the semiconductor, WWII, the Civil Rights era, etc.<\/p>\n

In many instances, one may not realize that they\u2019re living in the historic moment. It\u2019s only upon reflection that you realize the significance of the time. There are other periods, I call them Oppenheimer moments, where you know that you are in the moment. The first atomic bomb was tested on July 16, 1945. The bomb, nicknamed “Gadget”, released 18.6 kilotons of power. We are told that Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, upon watching the first ever atomic bomb explode, quoted a line from Hindu scripture; the Bhagavad Gita, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”. Oppenheimer knew he was in the moment.<\/p>\n

As we look at the current geopolitical landscape, we find ourselves firmly in the grips of the second Trump administration. There is a dramatic decline in the status of America, both domestically and internationally. The economic outlook is uncertain. America is funding a war in Ukraine and a genocide in Gaza. Homelessness, unemployment and incarceration rates are continuously on the rise. One can only conclude that we are living in a historic moment. Steve Bannon, the former Trump campaign and White House advisor calls it \u201cmanaged decline\u201d.<\/p>\n

One of the ironies in all of this is we have seen this movie before. We are watching Trump Redux. We are not just watching the film; we are actors in it. For those of us that are old enough to remember, watching the news and political programs today is analogous to watching the Rocky Horror Picture Show. We find ourselves constantly yelling at the screen, except this is unscripted.<\/p>\n

People are aghast listening to President Trump attack DEI policies, firing federal Inspectors General, threatening to close the Department of Education and pledging to fire FBI agents that investigated January 6. Steve Bannon told us in 2019 of what was to come, \u201c\u2026we had a whole tiger team of the White House counsel guys, the ‘deconstruction of the administrative state,’ which is a huge element\u2026we want less (government intervention). In fact, we want to start to take apart certain parts of the apparatus.\u201d America, you were warned.<\/p>\n

Now, the authoritarian that over 77M Americans voted for wants to disregard the constitutionally guaranteed right of \u201cbirthright citizenship\u201d. He is impounding funds, freezing nearly all foreign aid, federal grants and loans as if he has been magically granted the power of the \u201cex post facto veto\u201d.<\/p>\n

Almost none of President Trump\u2019s policies have gone through legislation or House votes.\u00a0 Trump issues his edicts through Executive Order. The American people are being subjected to a flurry or whirlwind of executive action. Bannon called it \u201cflooding the zone and muzzle velocity\u201d. \u201cEvery day we hit them with three things. They\u2019ll bite on one, and we\u2019ll get all of our stuff done, bang, bang, bang. These guys will never\u2014will never be able to recover. But we\u2019ve got to start with muzzle velocity.\u201d Some people may think Trump is crazy. If he is, he\u2019s crazy like a fox.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just him. President Trump is not alone. The racist suggestion of Trump saying, the United States should own Gaza and develop it into \u201cthe Riviera of the Middle East\u201d by displacing the Palestinians from their homeland to other countries in the region, was first posited by former President Joe Biden. The AP reported, \u201cA Western diplomat in Cairo said Egypt rejected similar proposals from the Biden administration and European countries early in the war.\u201d Trump\u2019s major faux pas was he made Biden\u2019s secret proposal public.<\/p>\n

Trump is not alone in his racist deportation efforts. CNN reported, \u201cAccording to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute, more than 12 million people were \u201cdeported\u201d \u2013 either removed or returned \u2013 from the US during the Clinton administration. More than 10 million were removed or returned during the Bush administration. Far fewer \u2013 more than 5 million \u2013 were removed or returned during the Obama administration.\u201d Lest we forget, President Obama was dubbed the \u201cDeporter in Chief\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s ideas of deconstructing the administrative state, cutting government agencies or his privatization\/neo-liberal policies via Project 2025 are not new. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich proposed similar tactics with his \u201cContract with America\u201d. Former President Bill Clinton thought he could make government more efficient by employing principals from the private sector by \u201cReinventing Government as We Know It\u201d.<\/p>\n

The major problem with these schemes is very simple. The goal of private sector capitalism is the maximization of profit. The goal of democratic\/republic government is the protection of the people and the delivery of services. Contrary to the beliefs of the oligarchs, government is not in the \u201cbusiness\u201d of making money. It\u2019s lucky if it breaks even.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let this context confuse you. Sen. Graham is correct, President Trump is \u201c\u2026a race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot.\u201d This is evidenced by his baseless rants about Mexican rapists, his proposed Muslim ban, his lie about Barack Obama’s birthplace, his attack on the Central Park 5, his baseless attack on DEI programs, removing historical videos of its storied Black Tuskegee Airmen from Air Force training modules, supporting genocide in Gaza, just to name a few. Remember, all of this resonated with over 77M Americans.<\/p>\n

So, what are we to do? Well, for starters do not listen to Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Anyone who tries to insist that the election was not a rebuke of the Democrats is delusional and anyone who argues that Democrats don\u2019t need to change is clueless.<\/p>\n

I strongly suggest reading Dr. King\u2019s 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail, \u201cWe know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.\u201d Then read Frederick Douglas\u2019, 1857 speech, If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress \u2013\u201cFind out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that, read more and remember, when they tell you about their own, they are also telling you about themselves. Believe them.<\/p>\n

Wilmer Leon, PhD, is a nationally broadcast radio talk-show host. Author of Politics Another Perspective. Host of the podcast Connecting the Dots w\/ Dr. Wilmer Leon. Go to www.wilmerleon.com or email: wjl3us@yahoo.com. www.twitter.com\/drwleon and Dr. Leon\u2019s Prescription at Facebook.com \u00a9 2025 InfoWave Communications, LLC<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Wilmer J. Leon, III, PhD Guest Column “I don’t know who you are and I don’t know why you like this guy (Trump). I think what you like about him; he appears to be strong and the rest of us are weak\u2026 That’s what he’s selling\u2026Here’s what you’re buying\u2026He’s a race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,252],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[281],"class_list":["post-15253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-opinion","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15254,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15253\/revisions\/15254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15253"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=15253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}