Okello Oculi contends that America is at a cross roads - between Trump's 'taking back' and Kamala's no going back'
One of the most catching activities in the mass rally of the Convention of America's Democratic Party was two children directing oldies to alternately shout the sounds 'KAM" and "ALA" as the correct pronunciation of the name of the star of the night, and the elder sister of their mother: "KAMALA".
The political innocence of their ritual was mocking candidate Donald Trump deliberately tripping over the name to suggest to his audience that his opponent, KAMALA HARRIS" is a foreigner, an immigrant who is not qualified to be elected President of USA.
The kids were part of an American political ritual as a combination of funfare and serious collective labour in shaping the future of the country. Delegates from 50 States of their federation assembled to promote their local welfare; and combined roads not yet taken together.
The action of the toddlers was also a serious warning that the country was at a critical crossroad: the clash between TRUMP'S call for "TAKING BACK " his version of racist, violent, economically unequal country, and that of KAMALA rousing her warriors with the chant: "NO GOING BACK" to an America where children are gunned down inside their classrooms by deranged schoolmates and murderous adults while those that make vast profits from manufacturing and selling guns cheer them on.
There was also a childish political game by which Hillary Clinton lost a previous presidential election despite earning three million votes MORE than Donald Trump declared winner. The principle of equity (which gives legitimacy to the country's SENATE by allocating to each state TWO senators), was violated. The so-called "swing states" or 'royal states' cast the vital second votes to anoint a president. Changing that rule has been elusive.
From watching CNN to witness KAMALA'S acceptance ritual, I turned to Britain's "SKY NEWS" television and found TRUMP showing Robert Kennedy to enthralled supporters. Words flowed eloquently from his chest as he served out lies and spiced half-truths. He said Democrats had burnt the American flag; a criminal act.
CNN had just shown a thick forest of American paper flags being deliriously waved by State delegates. They had screamed: "USA,USA,USA,USA" - forever. Trump had timed his rally to be covered by friendly television channels, so that his followers would not be politically contaminated by opposition speeches and drama.
America's "DEMOCRACY" was having severe indigestion. A mass public carrying bitter forms of hunger, illiteracy and intellectual malnutrition was being manipulated to hysterical enthusiasm by a cynical billionaire to follow him to a false paradise.
He had told them that Northern educated people despised them; that Mexicans and Venezuelans and citizens of immigrant countries were taking their jobs. He had seen ONE Nigerian in Alaska and announced that Nigerians were taking jobs in that frozen State. He promised to build a wall along the Atlantic Ocean coast to block immigrants from Islamic African countries, namely: Sudan, Mali, Libya, Iran and Cyprus.
The crowd screamed when he told them of a plan to investigate who killed John and Robert Kennedy, implying that they had been assassinated by a Democratic Party cabal. Earlier claims that Florida mafia had killed President John F. Kennedy because he refused to fight a nuclear war with Communist Russia that protected Fidel Castro of Cuba. This crowd did not care for intricacies of historical events. They enjoyed simple hatred.
Supporters of KAMALA Harris knew about Trump's business interests and his substituting them for America's national interest. They despised his friendship with manufacturers of guns at the expense of gun violence inside supermarkets, schools, cinemas and, in 2023, inside a crowded football stadium.
They are disgusted by millions of Americans dying from cancers from chemicals sold as Ice Cream; crushed wood sold as meat; poisonous medical drugs prescribed by corrupt doctors.
Plato had warned of this mortal conflict between illiterate masses and educated, well informed citizens. American intelligence agencies had reported about liberation movements in China, Cuba, Vietnam, Angola, Algeria, Mozambique rousing people exploited and oppressed by rich people and dictators they controlled. When the oppressed get angry they are unstoppable. Donald Trump knows that information too, and is obviously using it inside American politics.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Foreign spies target and "manage" people with strong ambitions and injured egos. The son of a Japanese Prime Minister sold information from his father's desk at home in exchange for the latest fast cars delivered to him by a foreign intelligence operative.
KAMALA and her Vice-Presidential colleague are emphasizing their education at Howard University and Minnesota which are NOT "Ivy League": Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton for brilliant children of rich political aristocrats. Trump has denounced graduates of those schools. He did not. He gave money to politicians who contested elections; but gatekeepers to power never saw and chose him.
Prof Oculi writes from Abuja
