Observations and random thoughts. Volume 13.1
By WILLIAM LEDFORD
The run-up to the presidential election normally called a campaign is in full swing. I say normally called because I’ve been on this planet for 60 years and I’ve never seen anything quite like this spectacle. On one side you have a candidate that from all appearances has had a opposition that has prepared to oppose for 20 years and conducted a smear campaign so intense that it’s made everyone dislike this person based upon innuendo. The other side offers a narcissistic, racist, misogynist candidate with strange hair and weird skin color who says the stupidest stuff and who has attracted some of the more rabid supporters that the world had ever seen. And be aware, the world IS watching this display of The Ugly American. As I said before, sometime next month, hopefully, thankfully, this whole thing will come to an end, someone’s world will come crashing down and there’ll be the whining, crying and wails of someone who felt cheated. Gods, I love the mute button on my remote.
The debate season is in full swing. Two have been held so far. I watched most of the first but the Packers were playing somebody during the second so I missed much of that debate. In Debate 1 Donald Trump lost his cool and the debate then blamed his microphone, the mediator, actually he blamed everyone but himself. His supporters finally calmed him down by repeatedly kissing his posterior until he went to sleep. Debate 2 was a little different as it came right after Trump was busted describing his favorite sexual assault techniques to Entertainment Tonight’s Billy Bush in a released “hot mike” audio. In that debate he stalked the floor behind Clinton in a creepy manner which might have been semi-threatening had it not been for the clown hair. And what’s up with that sniffling? 0-2 Trump. One more to go.
Speaking of clowns there have been multiple clown sightings across the country these days starting I think in Georgia, no surprise there, but what people don’t seem to understand is that Native people have been sighting clowns for over 200 years in Washington DC. We Cherokee have also had to deal with a few clowns in Raleigh.
Hillary Clinton recently described half of Trump’s supporters as “a basket of deplorables”. That set off an uproar. Odd because it doesn’t include all of his supporters who are lifelong Republicans and support their party loyally. It does aptly describe the others who indeed fit the description. His more rabid supporters are die-hard whiteskins who wouldn’t jump the Trump ship even if the Nazi’s resurfaced as Republicans and wanted to begin implementing their “final solution” again. They physically assault protesters and others who disagree with them, make veiled threats about using guns to get their way and include David Duke of the KKK which generally means that the rest of the sheet wearing dopes also support Trump. That’s the half she was referring to. If you really think about it, Clinton didn’t use harsh enough terms for this basket of whack jobs.
I’ve been waiting for someone to ask the candidates about their support for Indian Country but as usual we are invisible. I’m aware that Trump has made statements against Native tribes after he wasn’t allowed to get involved in Native gaming in Florida and California but then he always has whined when he’s been denied. He supports another Supreme Court justice in the mold of Anton Scalia who was openly anti-Native sovereignty and he’s used the term “Pocahontas” for Elizabeth Warren without even knowing the true story of Pocahontas, it wasn’t a Disney cartoon. I wouldn’t be surprised if he uses the term “squaw” for Native women. That would be so Trump.
Saturday Night Live has had a revival of sorts because of the presidential campaign and the debates. I was actually getting very, very tired of SNL’s attempts at humor after Andy Samberg left the show, his parodies with Justin Timberlake and his impression of Mark Wahlberg were waaaay funny but Alec Baldwin’s take of Donald Trump is spot on and Kate McKinnon is hilarious as Hillary Clinton. Good comedy again, finally.
I’ll close this out in my usual fashion, this time with a joke that would be funny as heck if it happened to Trump and posted on social media. “Some people are like Slinkies…not really good for anything, but you can’t help smiling when you see one tumble down the stairs.” See ya next time.
Ledford is an EBCI tribal member living in Albuquerque, NM.
