by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Several weeks ago House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to marginalize four members of the House Democratic Caucus as being little more than a “squad” with very limited political power. She was attempting the send a message to the four young women (two of whom are less than half of Pelosi’s age) that they should be less outspoken and sit quietly and learn from their elders.
Donald Trump, a sewer-dweller, took advantage of Pelosi singling out those particular four ladies and decided to try and make them the face of the Democratic Party. (Okay, it was more than likely some of Trump’s aides who came up with that plan because their boss isn’t actually that bright.)
But now Trump never passes up an opportunity to disrespect the four members that Pelosi labeled as members of “the squad:” Representatives Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This week he managed to make headlines on multiple occasions for personal attacks on Tlaib and Omar as he successfully sought to persuade the government of Israel to not allow them into that country as part of a fact-finding mission.
When Donald Trump isn’t questioning Joe Biden’s mental fitness to be president, or Elizabeth Warren’s native American ancestry, or accusing the Clintons of murder, he falls back to his jingoistic attacks on these four young women of color. He wants America to understand that these ladies are “typical” Democrats – and that they are people to be feared.
So just who are these women who comprise the “face” of the Democratic Party?
Two are Muslims – and Donald Trump has been attacking American and international Muslim communities since the first days of his presidency when he tried to impose a travel ban against several primarily Muslim nations. Trump, a man who studiously avoids churches, has painted himself as some sort of defender of Christian values, especially those hardcore racially-tinged values held by Evangelical Christians. Those people are a big part of his political base, and he will happily insult and threaten Muslims all day long to keep the Evangelicals fired up.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, one of the two Muslims, is a lawyer from Detroit and mother of two. She has Palestinian roots and family still living in the area of Palestine that is occupied and controlled by Israel. Rep. Ilhan Omar is a college-educated mother of three. She is from Minnesota and represents the entire city of Minneapolis in Congress. Rep. Omar is the only member of “the squad” to be born outside of the United States (Somalia), but she has been in this country since the age of nine and is a naturalized citizen.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts’ 7th District is the mother of one child. At one time her district was represented by John F. Kennedy – and at another time by Tip O’Neill. Rep. Pressley was born to American parents – but she is a black American, a demographic not looked on favorably by Trump and Trump supporters.
The final member of “the squad” is the youngest and the best known. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, known on social media as “AOC”, is an unmarried twenty-something who until recently was employed as a waitress and bartender in order to help her mother make ends meet. AOC is also a cum laude graduate of Boston University. She represents part of the New York City boroughs of the Bronx and Queens. Her family roots are in Puerto Rico, a US territory that some seem to regard as one of the “shithole” countries that Trump enjoys railing about.
So let's look at that Democratic Party face, America.
“The Squad” is composed of four hard-working women, the oldest of whom is forty-five and the youngest still in her twenties. All are college-educated and ferociously bright, three are working mothers, and each seems to twist the tail of Donald John Trump just by existing. All-in-all, it’s a fairly positive face, both for a political party as well as for the nation
The face that Donald Trump wants to assign to the Democratic Party is far more diverse and inclusive than the pasty white and very male face of the Republican party – a face that contains elements of Roy Moore, Steve king, Kris Kobach, and Donald John Trump.
The Democrats are facing toward the future and moving America forward. Meanwhile the Republicans are desperately fanning the embers of old racial, economic, and religious fires in an attempt to maintain power over a divided nation. One party is about the future of the nation, and the other party is still struggling to maintain separate and very unequal class distinctions under one flag.
Donald Trump is betting that American voters can be scared by mental images of out-of-control women of color imposing their mad wills on the country. Others of us are looking at the reality of new energies and visions pulsating into Congress and saying “It’s about damned time!”
We’ll see if Trump wins his bet on America's lingering bigotry or not come next year.
Some of us are betting that the nation is ready to move on!
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