News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. July 17, 2020: Whatever you think of Christopher Columbus and whatever you know of Columbus and his voyages to the Americas, the fact is Columbus was an innovative iconoclast, not a member of any elite, and yes a very flawed individual as we all are but …..
October 12, 1492 is the single most important moment in all of human history as Professor Alfred Crosby explains in his epic work “The Columbian Exchange.” On that day two entirely separate worlds met for the first time ever.
Before October 12, 1492, the Old World and the New World might as well have been on different planets as Crosby explains that is how isolated they were from each other. Both Worlds were complex, and each reflected the range of good, bad and evil the human race is known for and capable. Yes, there was slavery and oppression in the Americas even before Columbus.
The result of October 12, 1492 and Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas TRANSFORMED both worlds forever. The very BAD is much in focus today but all the GOOD we can claim also began that day over 500 years ago.
Why this intro to this episode of Trump’s America? To make a point in very dramatic fashion. There is no doubt others reached the Americas from foreign lands prior to Columbus. The difference is NOTHING came of these prior landings they came and went or came and died here. End of their story.
The point here is Covid-19 might completely change the future in ways that would otherwise never happen OR nothing may result at all except the deaths of all those Covid-19 has claimed and will claim until a cure is found. In our case, America and the world may be very different by 2026 or sooner or it might be much as it was before Covid-19. A NEW world or the OLD world.
From the perspective of the upcoming Presidential election as a very significant event, if Donald Trump is somehow re-elected against all the odds just as he was 4 years ago, almost nothing will change. If Joe Biden is elected as expected, they will be some “change” as there always is when the nation transitions from a President who is Republican to Democrat, or Democrat to Republican, but how much will it really change – Covid-19 or no Covid-19?
When Barack Obama replaced George Bush in The White House there was some “change.” When Donald Trump replaced Barack Obama there was some “change.” There is always some policy and personnel changes when this happens but what about REAL change?
NOT REALLY!
So why is it going to be any different this time? When Barack Obama was elected based on his campaign of serious CHANGE, Obama won as easy victory because we expected REAL CHANGE.
All we got was a very flawed Obamacare that as we see only too clearly today, did very little to bring change. The medical and drug industries are stronger than ever after 8 years of Obama.
More pointedly still, the murder of George Floyd and its aftermath proves even more painfully that there was NO real change in racial or economic equality in America from 8 years of Barack Obama as President. It just got worse.
Donald Trump did not inherit some heavenly America from Barack Obama in which there was racial and economic and environmental equality and justice and then Trump DESTROYED all that Barack Obama had accomplished.
It is only because Donald Trump has a character that is so easy to DEMONIZE that many fool themselves into believing the United States was so much better for all Americans when Barack Obama was President not Trump …..
AND HERE IS THE REAL POINT of this episode …
FOOLING ourselves that when we elect Obama’s partner in The White House for 8 years as the next President, Joe Biden, we will experience REAL and fundamental change for our future and even more because of Covid-19.
The very same Democratic POWER brokers who were in control when Barack Obama was President and Joe Biden was Vice President are in CONTROL and will be back in power when Joe Biden is President …
The likes of Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Adam Shiff, Andrew Cuomo, etc. etc. AND the Democratic Party millionaires and billionaires who fund the Party. So what campaign policy statements Joe Biden is releasing or whether or not he chooses an African American woman and his VP choice is irrelevant?
We had an articulate very smart BLACK PRESIDENT who also made ambitious statements about CHANGE when he was running for President in 2008 and all we got for 8 years was a typical Democratic President.
Joe Biden has lived his entire 40-year political career as an integral part of the Democratic Party Status Quo. It got him everything he has “earned” (sic) including personal wealth, many years in the Senate, 8 years as Vice President and now most likely soon to win the ultimate prize the Presidency.
What Joe Biden is not is a CHANGE master and never will be. Yes, better than Donald Trump, but the loudest cheers on election night will not come from you and me, but from the Democratic Party ELITES back in power again.
If this were 1492, Joe Biden would NEVER have crossed the Ocean at great risk because everything Joe Biden wanted was back in the OLD world.
(This series dedicated in honor of the late Liu Xiaobo & Jamal Khashoggi)
