The unthinkable has happened in America. Joe the Plumber, that picture postcard image of a middle class, predominately Protestant, intensely patriotic Anglo-Saxon American – perceiving himself as moral, responsible, and even righteously destined by God to continue in the footprints of his ancestors as a Soldier for God and for the Nation (vigorously defending all its symbols, prejudices, myths and carryover madness) – is being forced to come to grips with the necessity of his own assimilation.

And boy does that scare him and piss him off!

He is faced with daily evidence that the world of his forefathers has passed. He is now represented by a black president, by a Latino female Supreme Court Justice, by 10 states with medical marijuana laws, by a rapidly changing climate conspiracy, by a depletion of natural resources and reduction in the American standard of living, by an economic refutation of laissez-faire capitalism and the collapse of corporate banking and finance, by a rejection of the American martial spirit and a turn toward revitalizing diplomacy, by the survival of Roe vs. Wade, by an increasing acceptance of gay, lesbian and transgender lifestyles and by a burgeoning legion of non-white immigrants bent on realizing the American Dream.

The American Dream has become his nightmare!

The white canvas on which the nation’s portrait was painted has gained color over time, resulting in a hue that can never again be described as white. The generations of Anglo Americans who reveled in their supremacy, in their power, and in their control of the hurtling roller-coaster of  technology and progress are now facing a period in which their values, ideals, and aspirations seem to be in the minority – and it is causing them to go slightly mad.

Witness the organized efforts of corporate America to capitalize on this loss of stature and control, encouraging conservatives to stymie the public discourse about health care and health insurance reform at town hall meetings.

Even in the Congress, conservatively fundamental white men are forming secret brotherhoods, adopting and encouraging tactics of intimidation and a distortion of facts in the best of the Third Reich Brown Shirt tradition. The Neocons of the last administration never revealed that most of their tactics for influencing public opinion were first engineered by Goebbels and his henchmen.  

Now Republicans have embraced the program wholeheartedly. They seem to believe that just because they can say it publicly and loudly--no matter how far-fetched, how distorted, how fanciful the words are – the untruths are justified and the ends justify the means.

Is that Carl Rove clapping? They are like children imagining that the monsters under their beds have become real. They have co-opted the hysteria of the 1960 – once directed at communists – to stir each other up and convince themselves that this is about freedom and responsibility and not about their loss of control.  

Like a child who has been playing with toys by himself, and who is suddenly asked to share and give up control, they prefer to throw a tantrum and break the toys rather than share. Perhaps they are too dense to realize that the tactics being employed by the Republican Party and corporate giants resembles a conspiracy to move the country toward revolution, insurrection, and rebellion. Talk individually to the legions that adhere to the Limbaugh Litany and you hear those words again and again.

They did it to themselves. They encouraged the discussions of how morally superior the American promise was, how anyone could benefit and how all were eligible. They could have spoken with their real voice – that America, founded by whites for whites, didn’t really mean it when they said “melting pot.” In their hearts they never believed it. It was a useful tool to enhance their moral feelings of superiority and racial supremacy, but they never dreamed it might become a reality in their time.

The core of white America is losing its control and is being forced to assimilate into a society full of values and perceptions utterly at odds and foreign to its long-established world view and self-esteem. They are victims of their own propaganda; the myth-becoming-real that America represents a land of new beginnings, welcoming all-comers; a new haven for all the world. That kind of multi-generational open-arms policy during the previous century achieved its purpose but resulted in the inevitable consequences of unpredictable, uncontrollable change.

Yes, the American Dream is moving toward being realized in the countless bloodlines of immigrating peoples; coming here – just as Anglo founding fathers did – to share in a promise of freedom and equality (seldom realized), but always at the forefront of the conversation. Their sheer numbers and the technological changes in communications and awareness have changed the equation.

White America is being forced to follow in the footsteps of the Native Americans they themselves dispossessed; confronting alien attitudes, values, social organization, political policies, even language.

How far will their madness go? For the most part, the majority will respond with restraint – waiting for an opportunity to work within the system for change. But there is a fairly significant fringe being surreptitiously called upon by a few conservative media pundits to heed a covert call intended to stoke desperation and drive them to become a self-proclaimed martyr for traditional America.

Those who know the history of Native peoples in California remember how it was the media, using specific words – much like the words being used today to describe our president and his policies – to enable and encourage the monsters responsible for the most horrific and immoral treatment of human beings possible.

Those words were effective in desensitizing the populace just enough that normal mainstream settlers averted their eyes and allowed a holocaust that normally would have offended their morality, integrity and honor.

Given the American proclivity (even outright glorification) to violence (when adequately rationalized), I fully expect to see this fear and anger at losing their grip on the national reins, resulting in a loss of individual power and racial status, take more overtly racial overtones, and move them further and further toward the fringe belief that only violence, individual or organized, will “save our America.”

Though they perceive the barn burning, the horses have all bolted and there isn’t enough water in the world to put out the fire that is consuming the Anglo Saxon vision of what the United States was, is, and should be.

It is up to their fellow Anglo compatriots to confront them and help them understand that the genie is out of the bottle and will not be put back. As native peoples are told daily – get over it and move on.  

I fear they’ll want to sink the ship rather than row together toward some beautiful, albeit unknown, shore.

James BlueWolf is a poet and author. He lives in Nice.