Starved peasants on a street in Kharkiv, 1933. Photo by Alexander Wienerberger—Diocesan Archive of Vienna. Wiki Commons
Starved peasants on a street in Kharkiv, 1933. Photo by Alexander Wienerberger—Diocesan Archive of Vienna. Wiki Commons
Perhaps Trump thinks that hungry people won't care whether or not he is in the Epstein files. If so, this will be just another miscalculation that will accelerate the demise of the Republican Party.
People who are truly insane don’t see other people around them. They see wraiths, ghosts and apparitions. They are scared to death of well-meaning humans and will do their utmost to rid them from their environment. This is a broad statement but unfortunately we have seen too many examples of these personalities in positions of power in history.
And now we find them in our present political environment as well. It is nothing short of outrageous that two courts had to issue orders to Trump that require him to release funds that are available to provide SNAP benefits for people who cannot afford to buy food, especially at the highly inflated prices in grocery stores today.
That Trump has both refused to comply and then to only partially—and slowly—comply is not surprising. The “I really don’t care do U?” that was on the back of Melania’s jacket is really Trump’s theme for anyone who isn’t noisily smootching his ass with money. That would of course apply to every poor person in the country, whether they voted for him or not. Why would he care if these riff-raff went hungry?
We are now over a month in the longest shutdown of our government in history. Senate Republicans have steadfastly refused to use their majority to change the filibuster rule and vote to reopen the government. They and Trump remain in lockstep in blaming Democrats for the problem, of course.
It is not inconceivable that this problem will stay in place through the holiday season. How this works in the political calculus of the Republican Party’s future is anyone’s guess. If these folks are envisioning a future at all it could only be in two directions: fantasy or invocation of complete dictatorship.
Voters in New York, Virginia, New Jersey, Detroit and California—to name a few places—delivered startlingly concise rebukes to the Trumpublican view of America. Patterns of campaign success have emerged that can be emulated toward next year’s primary season and the Mid-terms. You would think that this would have Republicans scrambling to change their tunes. But there is no evidence of that. Trump is focused on his ballroom and killing people in boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Maybe he’s hoping an open war—for the “anti-war” president—will shift attention.
Not likely. When people go hungry, that’s where their attention will be. Period. Luckily another thing Trump and his enablers fail to understand is the power of community, of a group. Since he can only envision what he thinks, this power is invisible to him. Trump has strengthened the determination of large swathes of people to say, “not on my watch.”
Stories are beginning to flood the news of small independent grocery stores dropping their prices at their own expense to make sure people have accessible food. Donations to food banks and pantries are skyrocketing. People everywhere are putting up free “take what you need, leave what you can” pantry kiosks at churches, parks or even in their front yards.
That hunger can be used as a weapon is not an exaggeration. Perhaps the most infamous example of this was in Ukraine in 1932–33 when Stalin caused and enforced a famine there killing millions of people. This is what is known as Holodomor, which directly translates to “death by hunger.”
In America we are a community of actual humans that will not allow this to happen here. Whether Trump and his supporters in the Republican Party care or not is unfortunately an open question.
Perhaps Trump thinks that hungry people won’t care whether or not he is in the Epstein files. If so, this will be just another miscalculation that will accelerate the demise of the Republican Party.
Marty Kassowitz is co-founder of Factkeepers. As founder of Interest Factory and View360, he brings more than 30 years experience in effective online communications, social media management, and platform development to the site. He is a writer, designer, editor and long time observer of the ill-logic demonstrated by too many members of the species known as Mankind. After a long history of somewhat private commentary on a subject he totally hates: politics, Marty was encouraged to build this site and put up his own analyses as well as curate relevant content from other sources.
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