Thread by @Macerty

Until the conservative elite have paid for their costly mistakes such as Iraq, lack of proper health care, jobs and wages, the reasons for the rise of Trump will continue to be misunderstood! nypost.com/2021/01/10/wha… via @nypost

Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was reportedly a Trump supporter sick of the failures of the US’s ruling establishment of past presidents who barely addressed the many problems that affected the daily lives of ordinary American citizens whether they were black or white.

It’s ironic that this officer is now being hailed a hero by the very elite who failed him and countless other fellow Americans. It is also ironic that the common grievances shared by poor black & white US citizens that should have been directed at those in charge became polarised

Instead of being united in solidarity against the corruption on Capital Hill they became the tools of fascists like Donald Trump and white middle class ruling elites whose interests in maintaining wealth, power and the status quo at the political centre have spanned generations.

The lesson here is to beware of false narratives being written by the likes of Trumps, Bush’s, Clintons and the Bidens of this American dream that its citizens have and will prosper much better under their leadership. That is perhaps why it is just that, a very American dream!

Perhaps it’s not any surprise that a white police officer like Brian Sicknick struggled to make sense if a corrupt political system that was loaded heavily against both ordinary black and white Americans ever achieving a tiny piece of that American dream.

In that context, it’s should be no no surprise that there were no clear lines as to who followed which demagogue who spoke to their sense of injustice and anger. Trump supporters were both white and even black or Latino as were Obama’s and now Biden.

That’s because as BBC’s North American correspondent, John Sopel eloquently put it - nothing is clear cut in US politics. Decades of reporting on this great nation led him to see the glaring contradictions that stretch from east to west of this vast and complicated landscape.

From shiny sea to sea the US presents onlookers with a mish mash of obvious inconsistencies and shades of grey that challenge any neat comparison or naive perception of where the truth and the lies exist behind the moral high ground in US politics.

It is in this breeding ground that demagogues both subtle and obvious exist. Loud, divisive and infectiously angry ones like Trump who feed into the oversimplified narrative that the only ruling elite is the one running against him in an election.

Others parade under a more moderate tone presenting themselves as being a bandaid for the sharp divisions caused by the likes of a Trump whilst presenting empty slogans like we can do it if we just come together and work together as a nation.

Meanwhile there is no adequate central government role in reducing the huge poverty, unemployment and lack of proper healthcare that ravages America and affects both the black and white poorer classes, maybe not proportionately so but nonetheless detrimentally.

America is a nation in crisis and Trump vocalised that crisis in the worst possible way. It’s no surprise either that some US politicians view Britain as a socialist state despite decades of Tory destruction of our NHS and social benefits system. Yes it’s that bad and really sad!

No one wants to pay taxes in the US and so nothing really gets done and that includes maintaining vital infrastructure like roads and bridges. The French motorways and German autobahns would put a wealthy America to shame. That’s because Europeans on the whole pay their taxes.

Population demographics are even significantly affected by particularly younger more mobile age groups moving home to other states that offer lower levels of taxation and that has a knock-on affect on funding for older deprived and higher taxation areas.

And so America is in a constant flux of competing tensions between simple economics and social justice and this is the angry stuff that rich demagogues can tap into for their own agenda.

Watching over an increasingly disillusioned America, The Statue of Liberty is meanwhile blushing at the disgraceful behaviour of its ruling elite in manipulating and mistreating its teeming poor who have come to its shores in search of that American dream! 🤷‍♂️

The US is in a bad way at present and only real initiatives at levelling up the quality of life of those ordinary hard working American families and unemployed will restore a sense of healing, trust and respect that will end this malaise at the heart of a once great nation. 🇺🇸

@threadreaderapp please #unroll thanks