By WILLIAM LEDFORD
The inauguration is over, we now officially have a new President…a new POTUS…I love acronyms…he’s been on the job for a couple of weeks and…surprise! He is exactly what we expected. He’s vain, arrogant, abusive, self-centered and even more thin-skinned and insecure than first thought…he’s basically a child in a man’s body, a big baby. With small hands. To his rabid supporters, those brothers from another brother and sister, he is a godsend, a non-politician who is going to shake up the system. To many members of the GOP and the entire Democrat party, he is in way over his head and will eventually need the support of people with knowledge and experience or drown under the weight of his own ego.
The obvious facts that Barack Obama drew a much larger crowd to Washington for his first inauguration and Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 3 million struck a sour note in POTUS Trump and the whining began. Instead of getting down to the real business of running the country he dwelled on disputing these facts. He singled out CNN, a highly respected news agency, for reporting the truth of these events and labeled them as a “fake” news outfit. In fact, a new phrase was born out of his spokesperson’s dispute of actual facts, ladies and gentlemen…thanks to Kellyanne Conway we now have…“alternative facts”.
Among other things the new POTUS signed an executive decree this week with intentions of reinstating the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines. We knew this would happen. Trump is an investor and will benefit if these pipelines are completed. He doesn’t believe that conflict of interest and ethics concerns apply to him. He still has to get the Federal courts to reverse their decisions on the route and move those pesky protestors out of the way so stay tuned. Speaking of, some protestors never left the site and veterans are still there to defend the people, people are coming back to the site and the fight is ready to continue. I will say this, if you’re Native and voted for Trump for whatever reason, congratulations…he’s all yours but, he’ll get around to all of us sooner or later. Don’t go crying around when it happens. This President has made no bones about his dislike for Native people because we stood up to him and prevented him from getting involved in Indian gaming. The rest of us in Indian Country need to get ready for the impending assault on our sovereignty and civil rights. They’re coming. And life goes on.
Call them executive actions, proclamations and decrees, executive whatever, Trump has made a big show while announcing or signing each of these and they’re flying out of the White House like startled bats from a cave. Restarting oil pipelines…see previous. Pulling out of international trade agreements…maybe. A border wall with Mexico…maybe. Repeal of the ACA…maybe. A voter fraud investigation…maybe. CIA “black site” prisons…maybe. Bringing back torture…maybe. Muslims being banned from entering the country…maybe. And the list will go on…and on…and on…infinity.
There is a strong lesson to be learned here. Unfortunately we’ll have to endure this guy for four years to learn it. Who knows what harm will be caused by then but the lesson hopefully will sink in, heck the lesson will be driven in like a stake into the heart of the undead but will we learn anything from it? The lesson? Never rely upon polls, or common perceptions or the media. Never again take anything for granted. They now have shown up for the protests. We’ve always known about the people other than the GOP sheep that voted for Trump, the haters and the intolerant, they’re out there, they’ve always been out there and they always vote…and now that he won they feel vindicated, and justified. In two years we can make a difference by showing up in force to vote to change the Congress. In the meantime keep your ears peeled and eyes open.
My heartfelt condolences go out to the Lambert Family after the loss of a family member. Henrietta was a friend of mine while we were both growing on the Rez and she will be missed. I haven’t seen her since the late 70s but will always remember her smile. Vaya con dios chica.
Ledford is an EBCI tribal member currently living in Albuquerque, NM.
