We are in the midst of the holidays and I ask myself, what compels me to write when I should instead simply be enjoying the holidays?
The answer: because the proverbial calm before the storm is upon us and it seems a bit too eerie for me. This past week, I filled out that professor watchlist petition because the times remind me of that Tagalog expression, Isang Balsak — when one falls, we all fall, and conversely, when one rises, we all rise. There appears to be a consensus that the incoming administration will be anti-education in general, anti-academic freedom specifically, and even more so, that it will be hostile to undocumented students.
In these past few days I have read and heard an inordinate amount of pleas to keep at least a few days free from politics, if not the entire holiday season. This is no different than every year, except this year feels different. They appear to be nervous pleas.
Without question, there is definitely something ominous in the air. When actor Ronald Reagan, and CIA man George H.W. Bush, were elected president, in 1980, 1984 and 1988, respectively, a similar feeling gripped the nation. The same goes for George W. Bush, in 2000, when half the country viewed his victory as part of a coup, and again in 2004 when his nightmarish ways of worldwide war continued. The same could be said before the days before Richard Nixon took office in 1968 and 1972.
The apprehension turned out to be justified as they all turned out to be warmongers in the tradition of U.S. imperialist leaders partaking in a modern version of manifest destiny, which has resulted in millions of casualties in Asia, Africa and the Americas. And yet there seems to be something radically different about this incoming president.
So why is this president-in-waiting being perceived as even more dangerous? The short answer: he seems to be the embodiment of the Ugly American. He is nasty, rude and offensive, the antithesis of, as he invokes, “politically correct.” While the other presidents listed here have advanced similar policies, they have arguably been civil, whereas the incoming president is actually pompous about being the Ugly American. But it is beyond that.
Some of those policies include waging wars against weaker nations, never against nuclear-armed nations. And on the homefront, it includes carrying out the same anti-people of color, anti-worker, anti-woman, anti-LGBTQ, anti-science and anti-education policies that the incoming president has espoused.
