HISTORY AND LEADERSHIP - SOUTH AFRICA’S APARTHEID AND AMERICA’S JIM CROW,

 

There has been forever a fight for equality and justice against power and greed. One of the most overriding factors in the outcome of this struggle is leadership. Then there are the prevailing belief systems and the types of government that reflect the way society operates. The current American societal fight is between racial equity and white supremacy. In confronting this dilemma one is comforted by Martin Luther King’s observation that, “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice”. 

As morality advances the remaining inequities and injustices stand out even more. Those that oppose change in turn become more and more desperate as they confront the reality of losing power. Finally, in spite of King’s hopeful prognostication there is no guarantee that the arc of the moral universe will continue to bend towards justice and whether any of those attempts to forestall progress will succeed. It is with this as a background Jay H. Ell will examine where America stands in 2021in relation to the future of true racial equality. In this regard it would be apt to compare the apartheid racialism manifested in South Africa, (RSA), with that of Jim Crow of the United States of America, (USA). 

WHAT SOUTH AFRICA AND AMERICA HAVE IN COMMON 

Both the USA and RSA were settled by Europeans in the seventeenth century who then assumed ownership of the respective countries without any thought of the indigenous peoples. The settlers both fought wars of independence against the British who had incorporated the two countries into their Empire. Two of the four provinces in RSA at the time of their war of independence at the turn of the twentieth century had already put into provision some form of voting rights for those who were of color. However in the amalgamation of the four Provinces of South Africa following the losing of their war of independence each Province continued with their franchise policies. 

The USA all but eliminated the indigenous peoples but had provided voting rights for the freed African slaves in1869 following their war of Independence and a Civil War to liberate the slaves. The geographical division of those who supported the franchise of the slaves and those who didn’t were in the South. 

So much like in South Africa there was a split among the white enfranchised for the rights of those citizens of color. Both in the RSA and the USA determined efforts were made either to nullify the franchise or not allow it to expand. In the 1948 RSA General Election the United Party led by General Smuts, who had been the only architect both of the League of Nations and the United Nations, was poised to expand the voting rights of those of color, was surprisingly defeated by those who strongly opposed this move and were in favor of apartheid. However Smuts handled the whole issue politically ineptly and South Africa was under the cloud of apartheid for the next fifty years), (BLOG:SMUTS: THE MAN WHO MIGHT HAVE PREVENTED APARTHEID) 

The rationale used by the Apartheid segregationists was the same that underlies the American Jim Crow 1 and is unashamedly being used by the Republican Party in attempting Jim Crow 11. The motive for those wanting to limit the voting rights of their non white compatriots was the fear that the coalition of the white liberal elements and those of color would drive them out of power and hamper their way of life of privilege and domination. The objective was the same - whites only vote RSA by not allowing to expand and evolve in the first place and USA preventing its execution via Jim Crow. 

THE ENDING OF APARTHEID AND JIM CROW 1

RSA saw the ending of the racist apartheid laws as a result of a number of factors including the growing influence of Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress. Protracted negotiations took place between them, liberal white leaders and eventually members of the apartheid government who recognized that apartheid had failed. Incidentally a little recognized fact is the role big business played in the planning. Spearheading the Nationalist Apartheid initiative was President de Klerk who recognized that the only solution was for a unified non racial South Africa. He successfully obtained a mandate via a referendum from the whites to go ahead and negotiate a constitution which in effect would give franchise for all. Mandela’s statesmanship has become legend. He and de Klerk shared the Nobel Prize for peace. It must be emphasized that nobody but not nobody had the empathy, gaged the fear of the whites and exhibited the Statesmanship in the Twentieth Century like Mandela. Not short of principle he sat in jail for twenty - eight years, having told the Judge that he was not only prepared to live for his principles he was prepared to die for them. He also recognized that Rome was not built in a day as his autobiography title indicated - “The Long Walk to Freedom”.

The USA got rid of Jim Crow 1 as a result of the Civil Rights Protest movement lead by Martin Luther King. Legislation was enacted by a the Johnson Presidency which was helped by the Republicans led by their Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott. Since the 1960’s till now the political advancement of the African Americans has been significant reaching a zenith in the 2020 elections where their intervention was decisive in securing the Presidency for Biden and the Senate to the Democrats. Their political strength can dictate which party will be the Government.

JIM CROW 11, LEAD BY DONALD TRUMP, EMERGED FOLLOWED BY GROWING INFLUENCE OF THE AFRICAN AMERICANS. 

The Republican Party recognized in 2012, with the changing demographics in America and the re election of Barack Obama that they needed to become more inclusive of citizens of color as well as the youth. Donald Trump who hijacked the Republican Party in 2016 made it quite clear that he wanted to return to white America. His euphemism for his mission was entitled Make America Great Again. He changed the direction of the GOP heralding a return of the Jim Crow era. 

The African American growing influence firmly established the desire of the Republicans to reintroduce Jim Crow 11. Trump and his motley crew attempted to do this retrospectively in the 2020 election which he lost. Then following the failure of Trump to stage a coup and hang onto the Presidency including his inciting of an insurrection in the Capitol, the Republicans proceeded to introduce widespread voter suppression laws that would impede the ability of African Americans to nullify the influence of Jim Crow forever. The very outrageous allegations used by Trump and his co conspirators alleging fraud conducted in the 2020 elections have been introduced as laws. The legislation to limit African American voting is so blatant that in Georgia the Governor signed it behind closed doors. 

Jim Crow 11 is the last ditch stand to return to retain white supremacy. Can the moral arc of history be stopped? There are vast sums of money to assist those with racist authoritarian intent. The question is whether they will succeed. 

THE FORCES ARRAIGNED AGAINST JIM CROW 11 - IS BIDEN A TRANSFORMATIVE LEADER?

Jay H. Ell has time and again argued that leadership matters. America would never have been in the mess that Biden inherited if there had been no Donald J. Trump who demolished the Republican Party establishment. However as Jay H. Ell has blogged for as long as he can remember Biden was the only candidate that could beat Trump in 2020. (At one stage he was terrified that, Biden, desperately short of money was not going to win the Democratic nomination when another statesman of history Jim Clyburn whipped the African American electorate behind him). However the fact that Biden beat Trump and the Democrats won the  Senate via Georgia is illustrative of the fact that the Jim Crow 11 crowd have an up hill fight and the landscape of  America has changed. 

Biden has his pulse on the American electorate as well as being unafraid to lead. Those who believed he was nothing but a political hack and functionary have been proved wrong. His first go at legislation which he passed with only Democratic support in a fifty - fifty Senate plus the tie breaker Vice President Kamala Harris was universally popular, seventy percent of Americans supporting it. Seventy percent of the public supported the nearly two trillion dollar Coronavirus relief bill. The fact that Mitch McConnell let it almost sail through and is relying on court challenges is indicative of the fact that his Republican constituency backs it.

What could end the survival of Trump’s and McConnell’s white supremacy state are two pieces of legislation, HR 1 and HR 4, that ensure voting integrity across the nation which would negate the over two hundred efforts by State Republicans to ensure white minority rule. The New Yorker magazine ran a sensational piece which was backed by a recording that the Republican big money funders had come to the conclusion that the Democratic legislation keeping dark money out of elections as well as making it easier to vote had Conservative electorate support. The report also revealed why McConnell is powerful enough to challenge Trump’s leadership. The Republican billionaires have relied on him to protect white supremacy and their money. 

So it is obvious that Biden’s bold moves with the help of Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Schumer is leading America to a more equitable society. Biden’s subsequent two trillion stimulus legislation for jobs, infrastructure and climate change has rocked Republicans. All this combined with an attack on white supremacy has unleashed a fight to the death by the conservative billionaires that control the Republican Party and the Trump militia,

What else is happening in America to challenge the return to Jim Crow?

THREE VIDEO(S) THAT ARE EDUCATING AMERICA AS TO THE IMPACT OF JIM CROW RACIALISM

There are three iconic video(s) that represent the racism that exists in America today that are being played again and again on television and receiving millions of hits on social media. They are so profound and send a clear message of the current racially slanted American society. The circumstances that these video(s) represent have shocked and stunned  the majority of the electorate, 

The video(s) of the alleged murder of George Floyd which are being played again and again in the trial of a police officer have shattered the nation as to the sheer clinical  brutality of the police officer towards an African Americans suspect. Implicit in the presentation is that it is unimaginable that a white man could have succumbed in similar fashion at the hands of a black officer with the public looking on. In addition the lengths that the prosecution feel they have to go to prove that Floyd isn’t the bad guy is indicative of their fear that still lingering not far below consciousness in the American society is that if Floyd was a thug the homicide would be justified.  

Regardless of the legal outcome of the trial the incident which precipitated the national and international Black Lives Matter movement, was akin to a lynching of a black man. The consequences of white supremacy of Jim Crow and apartheid is violence. This was demonstrated in the trial of the police officer and his apparent disregard for a black life. The whole sordid alleged murder, with the heartbreaking evidence from bystanders including children has become a metaphor for racial supremacy in America. The fact that the whole incident has been met with horror and disgust across the nation is hardly fertile soil for Jim Crow 11 to thrive. 

The storming of the Capitol by tens of thousands of white supremacists who were regarded by Trump and his crowd as peace loving patriots provides material for the second video(s). Trump claimed that the rioters embraced the police and took selfies with them. None of this jives with the visual facts as the police had their heads cracked open, one dying and four hundred injured to a lesser or greater extent. One of the civil litigation complaints by an African American policeman includes that he and his colleagues were subject to racial slurs to an extent they had never experienced the whole of their lives.

The failure to send the National Guard to protect the legislature and allow this crowd to run amuck without the means to immediately arrest them has been the subject of endless debate. The Capitol videos are juxtaposed with the video of an elected African American lawmaker, Park Cannon, being arrested for knocking on the door where the Governor of Georgia was signing into law their Jim Crow 11 voter restriction legislation The woman was seized bodily by several patrolmen and dragged out of the building in handcuffs and locked up. She was immediately charged with two felonies. In this video there was a split screen. On the other side there were six white men, hiding from the public, behind a locked door with a painting of former slave plantation in the background signing the voter suppression legislation into law. You couldn’t make these things up.

All these videos have not made their full impact although several versions of the near ten minute incident where the accused police officer is seen putting his full weight on a handcuffed victim’s neck has already been played again and again as the Floyd trial is televised live. With the criminal and civil litigation still to play out of the insurrection of the Capitol with one of the defendants being Donald J Trump where there were also racial slurs hurled at the African American Capitol police the public will once again be exposed to white supremacists attempting a coup. Like in the Floyd trial there will be even more video angles. Finally the litigation that will follow as a result of a State Representative dragged out in handcuffs from the people’s place to which she was elected and was legitimately entitled to be has not begun to play out will allow for more visual confirmation of racial inequity in America. 

JOE BIDEN THE UNLIKELY TRANSFORMATIVE LEADER

Joe Biden had been lampooned as an inarticulate, bumbling, anti intellectual party even demented apparatchnick. He has articulated a vision which aims to further the ark of the moral universe. Not only has he detailed legislation to pull the country out of its health and economic mess he has set about to make his administration more reflective of all the people’s of this country. He started off by appointing a woman of color as his running mate, appointing a cabinet from all sectors of American society and is about to nominate a whole host of African American women Federal Judges. 

He has vowed that if there is a Supreme Court vacancy his nominee will be a qualified African American woman jurist. In addition, his bold infrastructure, climate, health and welfare initiatives, which have been detailed to the last comma, seek to equalize the yawning wealth gap that exists in the country. He has added in increasing numbers to his coalition Republican voters and is regaining the support of the “workers”. For those who believe he has no philosophical basis to his policies and just flies by the seat of his pants they will be surprised at the rave reviews of the group of historians and constitutionalists he assembled  to discuss where America is now and the directions it can go. 

Indeed history will reflect that Joseph Biden Jnr. not only prevented Jim Crow 11 he bent “The Arc of the Moral Universe” towards justice. It is worth reminding that the powerful business community in RSA played a crucial role in the South African transformation. American business needs to take note and follow the lead of Coca Cola and Delta airlines. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

The attitude of the prosecution witnesses in the murder trial of George Floyd has been depressing, heartening and striking. All of them exhibited frustration, anger, sorrow and horror at what they witnessed. From a nine year old to a martial arts expert, from the cashier who reported the alleged counterfeit note to an old man passing boy, from an EMS trained firefighter to a young girl who videod the whole scene and who now lies sleepless at night at not helping more, they all expressed their pain. In spite of the efforts that they were able to effect they all felt guilt at not being able to stop the passing of George Floyd. They acted as a moral community. The only one who could have, in that court room, avoided this senseless tragedy, Derek Chauvin, has shown no such remorse.

THE RUDDERLESS RACIST GOP RESPONSE TO BIDEN’S TRANSFORMATIVE AGENDA

 

The current state of the Republican Party is so shattered that items of news that would have rocked them or created havoc such as the Russian involvement in the 2020 election in favor of Trump and the Republican Party barely raises an eyebrow in the GOP caucuses. Not only is the GOP leadership fighting each other with a force that dwarfs their inane attacks on the Democrats they have lost any sense of direction and don’t even  bother to represent their constituents in their legislative bodies. Currently the GOP believe it should be much easier to buy an AK rifle than vote. Trump who is a shadow of his former self is still in charge with McConnell flailing in the wind. 

The Democrats seemed poised to attempt to bypass the filibustering one way or another so as to carry out their transformative agenda which by and large has the overwhelming support of the majority of the electorate. McConnell understands that would herald a decade at least of Democratic rule, threatening bedlam if the Dems try. Already Biden’s signature legislation the Covid relief bill has been wildly acclaimed and could be enough to keep the Senate and the House in 2022. The Republicans are making a great show of the border mess. If they are relying on Biden to indiscriminately open up the Southern border so as to give them a platform for something, they haven’t been watching or listening to him. 

The GOP’s disparate actions and policies make it difficult to know what on earth their domestic and foreign policies are. They are however united on voting against anything the Democrats propose. Perhaps the most glaring domestic departure from being part of the USA is on how they view the insurrectionists who attempted revolution in the Capitol on January 6 and on the international front how they are backing Putin over Biden not caring too much about the definitive intelligence report that the Russians intervened in the 2020 election in favor of Trump and the Republican Party. Some of them are still arguing, with Trump, that Putin didn’t participate in 2016,

The dysfunction is such that the more Trump abuses his Republican “allies” the more they cringe and worship at his shrine

TRUMP STILL DOMINATES THE SHOW - THAT IS WHEN HE IS INTERESTED AND CAN GET MEDIA COVERAGE

Trump, who as an incumbent lost the Presidency and then the Senate with his crazy narcissistic display in Georgia, is still the most powerful force in the GOP shambles.The immediate Past President has said Republican candidates cannot use his likeness or name on their election material. He has also enjoined his followers to donate money to his Political Action Committees rather than to other Republican fund raising entities. The reason, he claims, for the latter is because money will be wasted on candidates who are Republicans in name only, (RINOS), or fools. The latter classifications just happen to belong to candidates who have opposed him in one or another way. 

Just for a moment let this sink in. The party is so rudderless, lacking in real leadership or policy direction that a “loser” by his own definition is attempting to take control of all the coffers as well as solely nominate Republican candidates and there isn’t a combined response to tell him to go to hell. Or do they believe he can be trusted with the money and his judgement is divinely inspired? In any case at the moment he is locked in between playing golf and preparing for the load of litigation that is about to be dumped on his orange coiffure. 

Trump has declared war on the Republican leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell. POTUS 45 has vowed to put up his own slate of candidates while McConnell has countered he is going to ignore him and back those that have the best chance of defeating Democrats in the 2022 midterms. McConnell’s behavior vis a vis Trump shows only one objective - clinging onto power. After four years of licking his boots and preventing his conviction  twice he then launched into the most comprehensive attack as to Trump’s seditious behavior in inciting the January 6 insurrection. Less than a month later he stated that he would back Trump if he became the Party’s candidate in 2024. McConnell like everyone else in the GOP establishment has not presented a comprehensive policy plan for the party.

WHAT IS THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM?

The underpinning of their electoral strategy is voter suppression. Two hundred and fifty State legislature bills have been introduced by Republicans to make it more difficult for minorities to vote with Georgia being Ground Zero. Then there is the fact that Biden is “senile” and a “socialist”. (The latter assertion being made while they are supporting “socialist” Putin against him). The GOP opposed the nearly two trillion dollar Covid relief package which contains the first decent social welfare policies passed by American legislature in decades. The problem being for them that having passed an act costing a similar amount of money which was for tax cuts for the rich their cry of fiscal responsibility is hollow. More important is that the majority of the Republican electorate are now at odds with their elected representatives.. 

The GOP believe their best bet is being in favor of  the old “culture”whatever that is while fighting “culture change” whatever that is. They are all id idem at keeping all immigrants out and making America white again. After all that is what got Trump elected in the first place. 

With Biden’s election there has been a rush on the Southern border where the wall that Trump promised to build has not prevented mass illegal immigration. Where Biden’s stated policy differs from that of Trump is in the care of children and humanity not cruelty in dealing with the tragedy. With regard to illegal immigration he has made it quite clear that they should all “not come”. In order to stop the recent flood he has closed the border completely. Biden has sent representatives to Mexico and Guatemala to try and look for solutions at the source. Whether this chaos is a result of Trump or not it is Biden’s problem now. 

For those Republicans that are interested they should examine the immigration policy of Biden in the Obama administration. The concern is with the treatment of the children, which is one of the principal reasons that the suburban Republican women deserted the GOP in 2018. Biden also backs a pathway, which again has a plurality of the electorate behind him, of regularizing citizenry for the children brought here, in most instances decades ago, by their parents. So good luck to Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy who makes regular trips to the border to view the "crisis" which Trump didn’t fix to make political capitol out of it. Needless to say he and McConnell have offered no plan to cope with the problem of children most of whom Trump locked up in cages. 

Before continuing on the moral and policy bankruptcy of the GOP it would be wise to see what Biden is aiming to get through.

BIDEN’S AGENDA AND DEMOCRATIC PARTY COHESION

The seminal Covid legislation did not need sixty votes in the Senate to pass. Biden has on his plate legislation that would if the filibuster law remains in place require ten Republicans in the Senate to pass. He has as a priority to negate the voter restriction activities of the Republicans in the States with a sweeping Federal Law similar to Lyndon Johnson’s in the sixties which has since been castrated by the Conservative Supreme Court. He has two widely popular infrastructure bills which together with building a green energy source would provide the jobs that have been lost in the blue collar sector. In addition he has legislation which would change policing radically by making law enforcement part of the solution not the problem as seen by a large section of the Community. Following the alleged murder of George Floyd police accountability has become more of a front burner issue. The never ending agenda inludes incorcoprating Washington DC as the fifty first state which would give the Democrats two more Senators.

While he has already bolstered Obamacare in the Covid legislation he is looking to create an alternative Government plan for those who are still left without coverage. He has proposed as well a higher tax rate on those earning more than $200,000 a year and families more than $400,000 as well as a small increase in company tax. Then there are a shrove of bills which would fall under his New Deal effort which would be the most revolutionary since Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal”. Finally and for the millionth time, taking on the urgency of gun control.

Needless to say he could not muster one Republican vote, as matters stand, for any of the above. The problems everyone thought Biden would have had with his Progressive Caucus have not materialized. His difficulty lies with two Conservative Democratic Senators. This not with legislation but whether they will agree to dump the filibuster provision which as matters stand needs only fifty one votes to modify. What makes Jay H. Ell believe that something of that nature is on the way is that House of Representative Resolutions 1 and 4 have just been passed which inter alia stops voter suppression. Jim Clyburn the number three Democrat in the House has made it quite clear that his life long fights for Civil Rights are not going to be blown by this band of white supremacists. Just in case anyone forgets if it wasn’t for Jim Clyburn there woudn’t be a Joe Biden. 

 Biden's relationship with key conservative Democrat Joe Manchin who won in a state that Trump won by forty percent will be crucial in effecting his agenda,

REPUBLICANS - WHITE SUPREMACY IS NOW OK.

What has been so revealing is that while the majority of the Republican Party legislators are not racists or white supremacists they are not prepared to speak against those that are, especially their unchallenged leader Donald J Trump. It is not so long ago, two years in fact, that Representative Steve King was booted out of the Republican Party for his support of white supremacy and removed from his committee positions by his own caucus. 

Two years later Majorie Taylor Greene was not sanctioned by the Republicans for her long standing string of racist, conspiratorial and seditious remarks which ranged from that the Speaker should be executed to the Parkland School shooting was a fake and attacking the young spokesperson survivor as a coward. It was left to the Democrats to axe her from her committee positions. Ms. Greene is one of the dozen or so Republicans that live in la la land. They stick to the “Big Lie” like cement and wouldn’t vote for granting the heroic Capitol police gold medals for their bravery because they claimed that January 6 was not an insurrection nor was the Capitol a “temple” of democracy. 

Perhaps the racist statement of the century goes to Texas House Representative Chip Roy, who claimed that Texas was committed to justice as reflected in their old saying, “Find the tallest oak tree and find all the rope in Texas”. He was speaking in the debate on the Atlanta murder of Asian Americans. Again the Republican response was sparse at his obscene reference to lynching as “justice”. Asian - American spokespeople were audibly shocked as lynchings were perpetrated on the Chinese in the twentieth Century.

All this pales into insignificance at the behavior of Ron Johnson the Senator from Wisconsin. Johnson has claimed that the attack on the Capitol was executed by unarmed peace loving Americans. He initially subscribed to the theory that the whole operation was orchestrated by the left wing Antifa. Then followed that up by claiming that the white “rioters” did not create one bit of fear in him. Had they been Black Lives Matter resistors and Antifa that would have been an entirely different matter, he maintained. Johnson to this day is challenging the legitimacy of Biden’s Presidency. When he was Chairman of the Senate Homeland Committee he, in spite of negative intelligence reports, supported an investigation into Hunter Biden the Democratic nominee’s son. He also backed Trump on his playing down of the Corona virus epidemic and claimed, in spite of the medical evidence, that had they given everyone hydroxyquinolone, the President’s bizarre panacea, the epidemic would be over. He needless to say refuses to be vaccinated. It is a reasonable interpretation to believe that now that Trump is banned for life on Twitter for inciting a riot Johnson appears to be his ventriloquist dummy sitting on his lap.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

The GOP is dead and is being dominated by an authoritarian collection of racists, with Trump at the head. The current legislators have to make a decision as where to go with that reality. Currently they are in denial led by Mitch McConnell who sees “no change”.

The Democrats have tactical decisions to make so that they can continue with their transformative agenda. This includes changes to the archaic filibuster rule which makes governance impossible.

One has not heard the last word from Trump as he creates his own social media platform and his court cases begin to roll out. 

One definitely hasn’t heard the last word on Trumpism as long as there are Johnsons, Cruzes, Hawleys and the dirty dozen in the House of Representatives, to mention but a few, hanging around and or voter suppression is allowed to triumph. 

The Republican legislators, who are not comfortable with abandoning democracy, still can speak out and educate their constituencies. Relying on voter suppression and McConnell’s denial that there has been “no change” as well as being associated with the Trump authoritarian fringe, will forever place them on the rubbish dump of history. 

America is obviously very much a work in progress.

WHY THE ROYAL FIRM AXED MEGHAN

With an audience greater than even Donald Trump could engender the British Royal Institution, which Meghan and Harry euphemistically labelled “The Firm” was exposed as being a mob like operation. The gist of the pair’s story was that Meghan was subject to pressure which was opaquely designed to axe her from her position. Oprah Winfrey with clinical precision extracted empathetically and professionally details of The Firm’s operation which visibly shocked her. The couple, exuding authenticity, compassion and honesty, protected the key royals, particularly Queen Elizabeth although, it is highly unlikely that any of Meghan’s treatment could have happened sans the acquiescence of Her Majesty who is the Head of The Firm. If it did, after all  she has been Queen for sixty years, it is time she fired all around her and took control. Elizabeth’s sixty - one word response to her grandson and his wife’s allegations was insulting and paternalistic to say the least and did not jive with the facts or sequence of events. 

However the British seem divided a la Pierce Morgan who has an unshakeable belief in the Monarchy and an unshakeable belief that Meghan is a barefaced liar.  Whichever way this is viewed the Queen is ultimately responsible to provide either a credible response and/or an investigation.  Jay H. Ell believes that the reason Meghan had to be axed as she, with her highly unsuitable biracial pedigree threatened to take over their world like Diana almost did. That is the irresistible conclusion. The only alternative is that every word of their interview with Oprah was fabrication.

MEGHAN AND KATE

The problem directly was not solely racial. Yes that was a part of it but the fact that Meghan was about to dominate “their” world much like Diana did was the real problem. It is almost twenty - five years since the “Peoples’ Princess” was killed in a motor car accident, being chased by the self same paparazzi, that Harry and Meghan were accusing of smearing them off the face of the earth. Diana’s presence still looms over “The Firm”. Harry put his finger on it when comparing his wife’s reception particularly on the South African and Australian royal tours to that of Diana. Prince Charles was noticeably miffed at Diana upstaging him while Prince Harry was extremely proud. Nevertheless the magnetism that a biracial divorcee exhibited was a threat to the establishment which has yet to let go of their colonial past. 

Prior to Meghan’s arrival the Duchess of Cambridge and future queen Kate Middleton, a commoner, had given the Royals cover that they had learned the lesson that their attitude to Diana was toxic. Ms. Middleton was British, very white, a graduate of a a highly exclusive school, undivorced and had been Prince William’s steady for a decade before they married, and obviously knew the rules of the game. Her parents weren’t an embarrassment. She then produced heirs at a regular rate pushing Harry further and further from the throne. 

All in all commoner and affable Kate reinforced the image of the thoroughly modern Royals who were keeping up with the times. However she was completely eclipsed by the arrival of charismatic attractive poised confident but divorced biracial Meghan Markle. The fear was that in the eyes of the British public and the world the union of this oddball couple would become the “optics” of the Royal Firm. Harry himself had barely played by the rules as it was. However in his own right there was a charm, spontaneity and credibility to his persona that had already endeared him to the citizenry. He already was heavily involved in a charitable cause much like his mother was. The magic this couple would conjure up could be explosive. Now if this is obvious to Jay H. Ell it must have been the number one item on the agenda of the consiglieri that reported to the Dons of The Firm.

THE PRESSURE WAS ON FROM THE BEGINNING, WEDDING AND ALL

Not that any of this should have come as a surprise to the couple. Even before the pageantry of the wedding with its carriages and horses and uniforms Harry had been told that there wasn’t enough money to support his bride. It was suggested that she continue acting! At the same time the Head of, dare Jay H. Ell say, The Firm paid for the wedding herself which decreased her eighty - eight billion in assets by a paltry forty - five million dollars. The reason the good cop did this was so that the half African American bride could have her Episcopalian traditions honored at the ceremony. The first African American Head of the Episcopalian Church gave the sermon quoting Martin Luther King. The Negro spiritual Abide By Me was sung and the Anglican purists uncomfortably nodded their heads in approval. The celebration could be held at her beloved Windsor Castle where she had to be dislodged with a crowbar by Prime Minister Tony Blair to go to London where the mob were howling at her disinterest at her former daughter in law’s death.

 

THE FIRM HAD SURVIVED TOUGH TIMES AND THEY WOULD SURVIVE MEGHAN

Most important was that Queen Elizabeth had sent a message to the planet of love, tolerance, understanding and racial equality. Nothing that was to follow nor that had preceded the marriage could be associated with her. What had to be flashing through her mind was that the Royals had come through it all. They had survived the drunken gambling womanizing Duke of Windsor’s abdication of the throne for a thrice divorced American woman, her sister Margaret’s bohemian dissolute life after she had turned down her request to marry a divorced man, Charle’s disastrous ongoing affair with Camilla which had finally been made kosher by his marriage to her and the ending of her three eldest children marriages in divorce. Sordid Prince Andrew and his totally inappropriate wife Sarah Ferguson’s continued abominable behavior and most of all the near take over of “The Firm” in the eyes of the British Public and the world by Diana all were sagas of the past successfully navigated. (It is a wonder that this dysfunctional family is held up as all things bright and beautiful and subsidized by the British citizenry)

Little did anyone know that at that very moment of the wedding pageantry that was being watched by nearly two billion people across the world was the fear that this bond between Diana’s youngest son and an American biracial divorcee produced yet another threat to the image of The Firm. There wasn’t even the hope that there had been with Diana that she had been bred well enough to know that you just grin and bear it and think of England. 

GOODBYE WORLD HULLO PRISON AND TORTURE

As Meghan waved to the adoring crowds in the little town of Windsor did she consciously acknowledge that she was waving good bye to the real world to be totally emerged in the reality of The Firm? What followed and what she detailed to Oprah Winfrey was the total takeover of her life and in retrospect actions that would get rid of her in one way or another. As the Duchess of Sussex outlined, you hand in your wallet, your passport, your keys, your driver’s license at the door of the palace and you become a smiling dutiful prisoner.

It soon became evident on two world tours that Meghan was a star. Harry was beginning to more and more link her persona with that of his late mother. So apparently did The Firm. If the Oprah interview was anything to go by the pressure really mounted during her pregnancy. The message was that her offspring wouldn’t be titled and therefore would not be entitled to security. Meghan was not given permission to go out with friends because the optics were bad. 

Her mental health worsened till she became suicidal. She pleaded with The Firm that she wanted help. They refused because of the bad publicity it might elicit with her at a psychiatric facility. She went to Human Resources and all she got was sympathy because they couldn’t help because she wasn’t on the payroll. However when she was needed to go a function the car rolled up and she had to get in and perform with a smile. The breaking point for Harry and Meghan was when the shade of darkness of baby Archie was brought up and of course the incredible media pressure she was under.

THE BRITISH TABLOIDS 

Harry had obsessed that it was the paparazzi that were paid by the tabloids that had killed his mother. They attacked Meghan relentlessly to the extent that seventy - two women members of  the British Parliament censored the media for their persistent bias against the new royal. It appeared that Prince William’s wife the.Duchess of Cambridge Kate, was the hero and she was the villain. The tell all Sussexes refuted stories that had been headlined again and again. These included that Meghan had made Kate cry when the truth they claimed was just the opposite. In any case the estranged royals said Kate had apologized so why make a deal out of it? Then Harry vigorously denied that he had blindsided his grandmother with his decision to not be a senior royal and would serve the royal mission from Canada. He had had endless discussions about his and his wife’s situation.

What was quite astonishing was the relationship that was revealed between The Firm and the British tabloids. According to the Duchess they held garden parties at the palace with the toxic media. Moreover The Firm would issue denials of stories protecting royals. One can only imagine that there was a kind of quid pro quo so that these two supposedly adversarial entities could exist. The tabloids could be tipped off for example that the Duke of Edinburgh had been admitted to hospital so they could run a story before the conventional media. In return they would shine in a good light someone in favor. As was noted Meghan was hammered for the same actions that Kate would get plaudits for. 

So William’s and his wife’s  mental state, the fact that the media were slaughtering her without any palace denial and that security would not be available for his son drove the couple to their decision which the tabloids claimed was scheming Meghan’s objective from day one to leave The Firm and exploit their royal position in America for money. 

IN CANADA AND THE USA

So off they went to Canada which after all is part of the Commonwealth prepared to continue to bolster the concept of the monarchy and the Commonwealth. Then out of the blue Harry was stripped of his meaningless titles and ribbons not to mention his stipend. But for a couple who had received death threats the removal of security there and then was terrifying. Also their exact whereabouts had been publicized in Vancouver so they had to get out. It was just before the Covid crisis stopped all travel and the African American media mogul, Tyler Perry, lent them a Californian home with security detail for three months. They then purchased a home in Santa Barbara down the road from Oprah and near where the Prince’s mother in law lived. They have secured major contracts with Spotify, Netflix and speaking arrangements which will net them at least twenty - five million dollars per year. (Which the cynics believe that was her objective from day one. She going via Canada one supposes was to not make it obvious).

Meanwhile the attacks on the couple persisted in the British media with no correction by The Firm. As the pregnant Duchess of Sussex exhorted, “Why would they support lies and not challenge reports that were untrue”. Also she claimed that The Firm were still attacking them. Surely they didn’t expect them to remain quiet forever? The one regret she had was she had believed “them” when they promised to protect her against groundless attacks and smears from the media. The Prince had no regrets in what had transpired. He believed he had acted correctly and honestly to protect his family.

WHAT WERE THE FIRM THINKING?

If one believes Meghan and Harry this is an unbelievably shocking story. What would have happened if Meghan had committed suicide? Had they forgotten the storm after Diana’s death? If true the callousness of The Firm”s actions was unconscionable. Did they really think that Harry and Meghan would shut up forever? This could have been leaked by a former palace  employee. Was the bubble so intact and The Firm so wrapped up in their own world that they didn’t envisage that the detailing of this story could bring the whole institution down like a pack of cards. Predictably the same media that attacked the Sussexes are coming out in the royal’s defense - How dare they have this interview while the Queen’s husband was in hospitalL?Loyalty to the institution and the queen was all that matters.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Believe it or not The Firm tried to preempt the bad press they would get with the Oprah interview it was leaked to the tabloids that an investigation was being instigated into Meghan’s bullying of staff. 

The only way any credibility can be restored is if Head of The Firm orders an independent investigation into their grandson and his wife’s allegations. Don’t hold your breath. These matters are settled “in private”.

Whatever happens while Elizabeth II is around the monarchy will survive. How much longer  after that is anyone’s guess. The fact that they need an unholy alliance with the likes of Rupert Murdoch and his tabloids cannot be a healthy sign. By definition, by the way The Firm functions, they cannot represent the mores of modern society. 

This will all die down because Meghan is no longer around to be the British Commonwealth’s Princess. She is doing what The Firm suggested -  supporting herself. The Firm should be satisfied the Monarchy can continue as per usual. 

TRUMP AND THE GOP - MARCH 2021

 

The three day Conservative Political Action Committee, (CPAC), was scheduled to be a celebration and blind worship of Trump and his political “philosophy” of populist totalitarianism. The latter includes near absolute dictatorship and an alternate reality to the world. Trump, in what one would have prayed would be his farewell address, did not surprise in the content which was self congratulatory, full of self pity, denial of responsibility, revenge, vitriolic attacks on his successor, very short on policy and very long on lying. However, once there was a secret ballot only fifty - five percent voted for him to be the Republican presidential nominee for 2024 while only sixty - eight percent wanted him to run at all. (Presumably fifteen percent of those wanted him to lose the nomination). On the other hand ninety - five percent were happy with his policies! So what does all this mean in March of 2021?

SIDELINED TRUMP STILL CONTROLS BUT IN SECRET BALLOTS NOT SO MUCH

The crowd that pitch up to CPAC are the extreme of the extreme and by and large are the movers and shakers of what is left of the movers and shakers of the GOP. That this crowd are not that happy with Trump when the ballot is secret could not have filled “The Leader’s” narcissistic heart with joy. In addition to his tepid support at CPAC, the secret House ballot vote was overwhelmingly in favor of Elizabeth Cheney who advocated his impeachment and the fact that after McConnell had called on the Criminal Justice to investigate his incitement no one in the Senate tried to replace him has to signify that below the surface he is not too loved. Cheney and McConnell are on the list that he is seeking to revenge  Not to mentions all those names he spat out with venom that need to be purged from the party for not blindly following him.

Trump has to be finding it difficult without every word of his being headline news. Verbally undressed having been banned from Twitter, with no WhiteHouse press pool surrounding him reporting every syllable, he is very much off the radar. Even his major CPAC rant was the third or fourth story in the majority of the news outlets visual and digital. Only Fox hung in and they have lost their top rating to MSNBC. They are being out righted by Mickey Mouse news organizations. 

However there is a disconnect because on the ground, even though generalized support is flagging, (see Georgia), it is where Trump really exerts his influence. To be more specific the local Republican State Committees and their legislators are the arenas where Trump’s biggest backing lies as well as the base that vote in the Primaries. So it is at the State level in the Primaries where Trump’s strength lies. Translated into political reality he has the potential of putting up a Primary challenger to anyone who doesn’t worship at the shrine and getting his sycophants the Republican nominations for local offices as well as for national elections. The fact that his national nominees chances are far less against Democrats doesn’t bother him but puts the fear of God into the McConnells and the McCarthys of this world.

WHAT CAN GO WRONG WITH THE REPUBLICAN BELIEF THAT THEY CAN CARRY ON AS USUAL WITH OR WITHOUT TRUMP

Lots could go wrong. 

Premise one: The Republican legislators believe that they can publicly back Trump while secretly hoping that in the intervening few years with all his problems he will become history. They have to be pretty confident that Trump will not even stand because of his legal jeopardy They therefore can presumably carry on as normal, even publicly embracing Trump and populist Trumpism. They are wrong as they don’t understand populism.This type of totalitarianism has to have a charismatic leader who needs time to establish him or herself. Trump will not put himself out of the race till the bitter end leaving very little time for someone who hasn’t the name recognition and known entertainment value to draw massive crowds. The  best bet is Don J. Jnr. but he is in almost as much legal trouble as his daddy, But the Republican legislators might find themselves backing a philosophy that without a leader isn’t politically viable.

Premise two: Trump’s legal woes - from rape to defrauding on his taxes some believe will make his base lose faith in him. No, it won’t. It is just the same old same old in spades. It is a witch hunt he will scream. He will attack and abuse the courts as he has done even with the Supreme Court that he chose. Even the Georgia criminal litigation where he is being investigated for his efforts to change the voters’ choice will not offend the “Stop the Steal” crowd cause that was what he was supposedly doing in Georgia.

Where he is extremely vulnerable is in the investigations and prosecutions relating to the Capitol insurrection. These were carried out by his militia and right wing base, all of whom are pleading in mitigation, “Trump sent us”. They have to be feel betrayed that he has thrown them under the bus by advocating for their prosecution when pleading innocence of his own involvement of the storm on the Capitol. Q,Anon are losing faith because he isn’t still President and didn’t arrest Biden. Even March 4 has passed by and he hasn’t re installed himself. 

Trump called the insurgents “special” and that he “loved” them when he addressed them at the Capitol. He then insulted them by saying it wasn’t really his boys that were on the job but the left wing group ANTIFA disguised as his team which was also the story punted by his most ardent Republican Legislator supporters. His mob reacted angrily to this suggestion as if they were being abandoned again. All this in the light of the background which is incontrovertible that he made arrangements for this protest, egged his thugs on for months ahead to be there on January 6 and even promised to march with them to the Capitol, which of course he didn’t. That large chunk of his coalition are not going to vote for Trump or his anointed one.

The real problem is that the full story is still to come out of his role in this matter. Even in the early hours it doesn’t look good. In the initial Senate hearings for whatever reasons the request for the National Guard to come to the rescue was held up for close on four hours. The chain of command for this delay already extends right up to his Acting Secretary of Defense. The General in command of the National Guard said he received a letter the previous day instructing to await consent. Then in typical subordinate understatement he found this “unusual”. He had the Guardsmen already to go in buses hanging around for hours. There is also evidence of a communication just prior to the insurrection between Roger Stone, his life long aide who he had just pardoned, and a leader of the right wing militia, The Proud Boys.

The problem isn’t only for Trump it is for the Republican legislators as well in that they really colluded with the invaders by carrying on after the insurrection voting to obstruct the ratification of the Biden victory. The fact that there is video of some of the invaders being given tours of the Capitol giving them the lay of the land in the two days prior to January 6 is in the hands of the District Attorney of Washington DC. Congresswoman Lofgren has catalogued in nearly two thousand pages the social media postings of her one hundred and thirty - nine Republican colleagues who voted against ratifying Biden’s Electoral College win with a view to assessing the role they played in inciting violence against the Capitol. Representatives Gosar and Brooks made the most incendiary communications the former claiming  that sedition and treason were justified in reversing the stolen election.

Two persuasive civil cases  have been filed against Trump, Trump Jnr., Rudi Giuliani and Congressman Brooks by Congressmen Thompson and Swalwell for breaking Federal Laws in that they incited a riot, colluded with the insurrectionists and obstructed elected officers from fulfilling their constitutional duties. Close on three hundred insurrectionists have been arrested and they are all singing like birds, Besides naming Trump as their reason for being there, there is evidence of preplanning. There is going to be a ton of damning material arising from this lot. 

There are going to be years of this peeling away of this treasonous act and every step of the way is going to be dynamite. The Democrats control Congress and they are going to get all the assistance they ask from the Biden WhiteHouse such as documents and the like, The newly appointed Attorney General has indicated that getting to the bottom of this seditious act will be his top priority.

The suburban and urban Republican voters will be even further disgusted. On a macro level the fact that there is proven actual collusion between Trump and or his surrogates with the insurrectionists will make it impossible for the GOP traditionalists to be in the same party as him. The Party will have to split.

Premise three: McConnell believes by being the party of No regardless of how popular Biden’s initiatives will create the impression that Biden has failed in his bipartisan initiative.This approach is coupled with the fact that the WhiteHouse occupant’s party invariably loses seats in the midterms and so McConnell will regain control of the Senate. Jay H. Ell is sure with Biden passing his Covid Relief Bill and possibly his Infrastructure Bill together with virtually eradicating Covid by summer, sheer obstructionism can hardly be a winning strategy. The fact that over seventy percent polled are in favor of the Covid legislation including sixty percent of Republicans makes this move asinine. In front of the world McConnell and company are using delaying tactics while food lines are getting longer and unemployment benefits are due to run out on March 14. This may have worked with Obamacare because the smear was that you are going to lose your doctor and health care costs were going to up. Over half the electorate bought into the lies. 

Premise four: Voter Suppression. There are currently over two hundred and fifty legislative initiatives by Republican State Legislatures to restrict voting in a manner that will cut the African American vote, particularly in purple states such as Arizona, Wisconsin and Georgia. This is one strategy that the two constituencies within the Republican Parties agree upon. This is a disgraceful anti democratic maneuver that has been used since the Reconstruction Period in the nineteenth century by the Southern States. In the mid to late sixties it was reversed by the Civil Rights legislation but it has been slowly whittled away by Conservative Supreme Courts. The Robert’s court even without the Trump appointees was gung ho to acquiesce to its castration and is about to strip away the last vestiges in a case before it at the moment.

 The proposed legislation on the books by the States limits Sunday voting, makes mail in voting and even voter registration more difficult, decreases polling places and giving food and water to voters standing in the sun for hours, to name but a few of the stumbling blocks that will impact minority voters the most. This is the Republicans best bet by far. That with gerrymandering the constituencies has stood them in good stead for many years. This will perpetuate minority government for the foreseeable future. 

The Democrats have passed HR 1 in the House which is a new Federal Voters’ Right Bill, which like the Acts in the 1960’s would override the States’ efforts. The fact that most of the Republican electorate support HR 1 will not impact the Republican Senators. This Bill will need ten Republicans to vote for it in the Senate which is not going to happen. Biden might just have to use the nuclear option getting the Democratic slim majority to abandon the filibuster. Biden a traditionalist will find it hard to advise that and then have to persuade two Democratic Party holdouts to go with it. But that remains an option which as the Republicans become more and more intransigent may become more and more inevitable.

An additional danger to the Republicans is that in several states this type of move has mobilized African Americans in greater numbers to go to the polls and wait for hours in line.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

The Republicans split as they are, are united on two issues - oppose every Democratic initiative and minority Government by voter suppression. They are haunted by what is going to arise out of the investigation of Trump’s attempt to overthrow the Government. If the multiple investigations turn out the way they are going there is no way that McConnell et al can pretend that “nothing has changed”. They also are risking losing more “worker” votes to Biden by opposing his financial relief packages. The survival to the GOP at the moment depends on what impact they can make with voter suppression and gerrymandering of districts. As the law stands at the moment the Democrats will get no help in overturning the States’ efforts on the grounds that the actions are unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. 

The Republicans with the party split into those who want to abandon democracy and those who have no party policy, having ceded it all to Trump at the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination convention, are on the verge of imploding.  If HR 1 passes the Senate because the filibuster is forsaken, they will be out of power for the next decade. In fact two parties may well rise up from the ashes.