As the mad Orange King divides, he succeeds in uniting us
“E pluribus unum” is the Latin phrase meaning “Out of many, one.” It was the original motto of the United States. It was created by the Founding Fathers to reflect the idea of a unified nation formed from the original 13 colonies, because in the beginning, they were not very united, except in one common purpose, opposition to mad King George. It appears on the Great Seal of the United States and is often associated with the concept of national unity and diversity.
The one out of many has transformed through the decades to include the diversity of the people who immigrated here from many corners of the world, searching for freedom and liberty. And it is this ideal of freedom codified in our Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments and guarantees that are supposed to protect us against a “mad king.”
It has taken this nation 250 years to confront our own worst enemy, and he now comes draped in the flag, holding the cross, which just happens to be the prediction of how fascism will come to America. And if the immigration raids and the use of the military on the streets of Los Angeles have shown us and the world anything, it’s that we are now facing the American nightmare — homegrown fascism. Everything that this wannabe dictator has done is the direct opposite of our national motto.
The Orange Felon’s strategy is just the opposite: Divide et impera. Divide to rule.
In his efforts to squelch dissent on the War on Gaza, he has unified a wide contingent of students, including many American Jews. In his war on immigrants, he has united an unprecedented outpouring of protest across Los Angeles and the nation, decrying “No Kings.” And the immigration raids have left many industries vacant of workers, turned many areas into virtual ghost towns overnight, and generated a growing number of lawsuits from states, cities and individuals over civil rights violations and abuse of power.
The resistance to the Orange Felon grows with every misstep — dropping bombs on Iran without Congressional approval, ignoring court orders on immigration, and then the cross-eyed miscalculation of tariffs, which has left the twin ports of the San Pedro Bay nearly empty. He has created hardships in agriculture, retail and logistics. The Port of LA says that imports are down 35% and yet when I look out over the main channel on any given day, I see only one large cargo ship being worked and many cranes at other terminals standing idle. Which means hundreds of dock workers and teamsters are out of work. It means some retailers will be hurt.
What all of this exposes is how interdependent we all are, not just between undocumented immigrant workers and those of us with documents, but also internationally between nations.
I once called LA the Athens of the Pacific Rim, and as of this year, the California economy has risen to fourth among nations, surpassing Germany. This status is now threatened by nearly every delusional twist that the Orange Felon takes in attempting to “Make America Great Again” and force California to capitulate to his whims. So excuse me, but if this is what making America great again looks like, I’ll take a little less great with a whole lot more compassion.
What some true believers are beginning to perceive is that all the gaslighting, bullying and blather coming from Truth Social or the multitude of rightwing media is just the opposite of what the Orange Felon is actually doing. The real social truth will come out from the loss of Medicaid benefits, the rise in pharmacy prices, higher food costs, the loss of funding for education, and ultimately, bringing the nation to the brink of an economic recession. All for what purpose? To give tax breaks to billionaires and corporations.
What will unify the resistance to the fascist regime more than it has done in just the first five months, you may ask? When they go after Social Security and attempt to bankrupt the social safety net. You see they have spent an inordinate amount of time and money with DOGE trying to eke out a few hundred millions from the federal budget, but the one area of the budget which is taboo is the defense department and since the beginning of the post-9/11 wars that department has never been able to accurately produce an audit! So, according to military spending reports from 2000 to 2023, the defense budget has eaten up some $15.245 trillion of your tax dollars, which has gone unaudited. But Elon Musk hunted for fraud in SNAP and welfare payments. Notably, the U.S. is the world’s largest military spender, and continues to dominate the rankings by up to 62.3% of the global top five military spenders, followed by China and Russia with 18.6% and 8.8%, respectively.
And what will unite Americans more than anything else across this country is when the Orange Felon uses the U.S. military against its own citizens and violates our First Amendment rights. That confrontation is already here. You’ve witnessed the reaction and will continue to be distracted by it, while the Republican party robs us with the new tax bill in Congress. Don’t be fooled. There is strength in diversity — E Plurbis Unum.