My spouse and I lived for years in Mexico.  We lived in a neighborhood called “El Centro” because it was the older central section of the city built around the original cathedral.  The older walls of our home were stone, covered in plaster. The newer walls were cinderblock covered in plaster.

In the older walls lived an untold number of ant colonies that had been there for untold years. These voracious insects were most often a problem if you were unwise enough to leave a morsel of food out in the open.

But, they would even invade boxes of crackers with the crackers encased in plastic wrappers. So, a variety of foods you would usually put on shelves in the pantry were only safe in our refrigerator in Mexico.

These insects were at their worst, if you left an unwashed dinner dish out on a counter. The next day you would find it so covered in tiny ants that it seemed (spookily) as if the scraps themselves were moving.

These pests were always there.  But, they only created problems if you were careless or reckless enough to entice them out of hiding with the treats they wanted.

I find the American Nazis, Klansmen, and White Supremacists today are very much like these insects. They are always there (See the publications of the Southern Poverty Law Center if you need proof), living out their lives filled with hate and fury below the surface of our society in the dark underbelly of American society.

But for the most part, they live out their brutal urges in obscurity and fantasies, talking among themselves about all their enemies, using those words in their discussions that they know would have them ejected from any conversation with decent folk.

They incessantly whisper among themselves about the conspiracies they believe are leading their country away from them and down a road of diversity and equality that will surely lead the nation to wreck and ruin.

If our political leaders are careless or reckless, then these groups, like my Mexican insects, emerge into the light in all their foul glory. The light is what they really want.

At some basic level, they know that their fevered dreams of dominance and respectability are fantasies. What they crave is a pedestal or a podium where they can wear their hate and anger on their sleeves and shout their obscene slogans into microphones that will carry their vile messages into the homes of millions.

The election of Donald Trump was an act of insane recklessness on the part of his fervent supporters and their traditional Republican fellow-travelers who voted for him. It was also an insane act on the part of those who abhorred him and failed to show their distaste by voting.  It is these groups that brought the Nazis, Klan, and White Supremacists into the bright light in which they wish to wash themselves.

Trumps pandering to these dark elements in our society in his campaign. He did not use a dog whistle.  He used a foghorn with all his talk of America at risk from “the others” that surround us ― the immigrants, minority activists like BLM, cagey foreign leaders who sold us bad trade deals, those effete limousine liberals who look down on decent folk, and the politicians too weak or too politically correct to speak what they say as the real American truths.

After the orgy of violence in Charlottesville, their president in his first and in his most recent statements to the nation provided the fuel that will light their torches for months to come. To confirm this, all one needs is the tweet by David Duke after Trump’s latest statement:

“Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth bout #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa”

After Charlottesville, these perverted twerps, who see themselves as descendants of The Sons of Liberty, announced numerous rallies around the nation to capitalize on their new visibility and the thin layer of respectability slapped on them by the sitting President of the United States.

In all likelihood, few of these events will occur.  I can’t believe that any will have the impact of Charlottesville. But, neither will they bring any condemnation from the White House.

But, Donald Trump has opened the door to the house of American horrors. I fear that it will take more than a good dose of insecticide to kill whatever monsters emerges.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts seems to have captured something of the moment with a song from decades ago.

What happened to my heroes
They seemed to disappear
The idols keep on singin’
But they don’t sound sincere …

Oh, woe is me.

Yeah, oh, woe is me.

[see Table of Contents post for a topic list of other posts on this blog about social and political issues.]