*(Top image: Ricardo Rossello, Governor of Puerto Rico. Credit: World Travel & Tourism Council Follow/ flickr)
If anyone doubts that political discourse in the United States has descended to the deepest gutter, and Donald Trump isn’t sufficient evidence to prove that, then Puerto Rico’s outgoing governor is another good example of that vile characteristic.
In that island possession of the U.S., stolen from Spain following the Spanish-American War, Governor Ricardo Rossello has just resigned, following massive protests against him. It wasn’t the thirteen-year economic problems plaguing the island that caused his eventual downfall. Nor was it the fact that the U.S. government has exploited the island since it possessed it, in true colonial fashion.
No, it was the governor’s derogatory, profane, misogynistic and homophobic messages between him and his inner circle of advisors that were recently made public.
No one expects politicians and other government officials to always agree with each other. Certainly that is why elections are held, so people with varying and often opposing opinions can have representation in government. Nor is it to be expected that these officials will even like each other; they are there to do a job. But there is a basic level of respect that should be demonstrated to people who are supposed to be representing the people.
What was it that Rossello said that was so offensive as to trigger massive protests, sufficient to drive him from office? We will look at a few examples.
- He called a former speaker of the New York City council a whore, because she made a statement regarding Puerto Rican statehood with which he disagreed.
- In speaking of San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who has often been critical of Rossello, he said if someone shot her it would do him a favor, and called her a b----.
- One would think that the governor of Puerto Rico would have more important things to do than comment on the sexuality of a Puerto Rican singer, but no, he had harsh words for Ricky Martin, due to Martin’s homosexuality.
After days of protests, during which Rosello claimed that he would not resign, he finally accepted the reality that he could no longer govern effectively (as if he ever had!), and he did, in fact, resign.
One wishes that the people of the imperial nation that rules Puerto Rico could be as effective in forcing their crude, incompetent, racist, Islamaphobic, misogynist leader from office. Rossello’s offensive comments pale when compared to statements made and actions performed by Trump. Since he announced his candidacy for the presidency, Trump has said and done the following:
- Tried to keep Muslims from entering the country.
- Said that Mexican immigrants were rapists.
- Told four members of the House of Representatives, three of whom were born in the U.S. and all of whom are women and racial minorities, to go back to “…the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
- Has been accused of sexually molesting at least 10 women.
- Has repeatedly called not only many of his opponents, but some of his own appointees as well, ‘stupid’, ‘not very bright’ and ‘unqualified’.
There are many, many reasons to disagree with Trump’s dangerous policies, which have brought the world closer to a global conflagration than at any time since World War II. They will not be detailed here. Today we are simply looking at political discourse, a trivial matter in comparison to world war, but today’s topic nonetheless.
The hapless people of the United States need to take a close look at who it is that governs them. Yes, there can be polite, courteous monsters and, conversely, crude statesmen and women. But in the U.S., even a cursory look indicates that the government there seems to be headed by the worst combination of the two: crude monsters.
With a presidential election just a little more than a year away, does there appear to be an end in sight? Does it seem that, perhaps, the Democrats will nominate an articulate statesman or woman? Was the election of an ignorant, ill-qualified buffoon only an anomaly, something that will be corrected with the next presidential election?
One would have to be naïve indeed to belief such a tale. The Democratic Party already has twenty (20!) announced candidates, while one lone Republican has announced that he will oppose Trump for the Republican nomination. The Democrats, at least, do indicate a greater level of inclusiveness, since the announced candidates are old and young, black, white and brown, gay and straight. But the candidates getting the most publicity from the corporate-owned, government-supported media are the usual aging white males, with elderly former vice-president Joe Biden the current fair-haired child of the press. No matter how the press tries to portray him, he is still elderly, Zionist and a decades-long member of the Washington establishment.
But during the debates, it is unlikely that the Democratic candidates will comment derisively on the size of an opponent’s hands, or say how unattractive a candidate is. There won’t be any real substance of course; the day of candidates saying what they would do if elected is long past. Today, they simply criticize each other, pounce on statements made yesterday or forty-years ago, and strive to be the last man or woman standing.
So Puerto Rico’s Rossello isn’t some shocking example of a corrupt politician, finally exposed by his own private writing which was somehow exposed to an audience somewhat wider than he ever intended. Like the disgraceful video of Trump bragging about grabbing women, kissing them without asking and generally treating them as possessions to do with as he pleases, Rossello’s words have exposed him. But unlike Trump, Rossello has paid for his disgusting transgressions with his career.
Will Trump suffer the same fate, not in resignation, but at the ballot box? If the Democrats decide to play it safe, and nominate some worn-out, middle-of-the-road, elderly white male candidate, there will be no excited base to volunteer, go door-to-door, man telephones and raise money. In 2016, the Party, incredibly, thought it had a sure thing in nominating the corrupt and baggage-laden former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. That didn’t work out quite as expected, despite the fact that she won the popular vote. Millions of Bernie Sanders supporters, disillusioned by the definitely un-democratic way in which the Democratic Party manipulated primaries and delegates to favor Clinton, either stayed home or voted for third-party candidates.
Such a mistake by the Democratic Party in 2020, which it seems poised to make, could easily grant Trump a second term. This would be a disaster for the entire world.
WRITER
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