Sanders Reflection

"Getting Away With It...Is The American Way"

Sanders draws a particularly compelling point regarding the nature of American politicians and historical figures in his texts entitled Looking for Rhonda Honda and Going After Old Man Alabama. In these works, Sanders highlights how American political crusaders in power have the ability to mobilize the public and alter the future of their nation and the affected peoples for good. When a particular force has enough influence over the masses, whether it be through political status or power in numbers, the trajectory of social progress falls in their hands for better or for worse. With this established, Sanders seemingly alludes to the potential of refocusing that power to create a new form of hegemony.

In Looking for Rhonda Honda, Sanders takes a more optimistic approach towards the effects of utilizing a power position for social progress. The U.S. President of the hypothetical future gender-morphed herself, as it is described in the narrative, from male to female. Rhonda Honda, now taking on this new identity, fled from her duties as president to pursue a more desirable lifestyle and partially out of fear of backlash from the American public on her reputation (Sanders 260). Once this is revealed to Noir, he responds to the president with nothing but encouragement, claiming that the public will eat it up and will accept her. It is noted that government officials serve more ceremonial positions in this future narrative rather than prominent dictator-like positions they hold in our present, but that does not mean that the actions of those in political positions do not hold any merit over the public (Sanders 246). They seemingly still serve as representatives and symbols of what their ruling state stands for, which is a different version of influential power. Having a person in the presidential seat that the people support who has gender-morphed sets a socially progressive precedent over the U.S. If the person who serves to represent them in their present age directly embodies aspects of queer life, then the idea of acceptance and support of all people who emulate similar identities is exuded through the president's status thereafter. 

Noir eases the president's worries about reentering office by stating, "'Getting away with it...is the American way,'", which serves a double meaning of succeeding in personal prosperity and avoiding punishment for inflicting irreparable damage on others (Sanders 260). The latter meaning is best emulated in Sanders' second piece, Going After Old Man Alabama, with its notes on colonialism. It is revealed nearing the end of the passage that Old Man Alabama had been working tirelessly to travel back in time and stop Columbus and his crew from arriving in America (Sanders 58). Instead, Old Man Alabama ended up on the Mary Celeste instead of any part of Columbus's fleet. His failure to do so properly is reflective of the idea that change cannot come from altering the past. Old Man Alabama sought to completely eradicate Columbus and his power influence on America from History entirely, but what is done cannot be changed. What can be altered, however, is how history is presented, which in turn could shift the power dynamic from the influential figures of the past to those deserving of restitution in the present. Those colonizers had their power in the past and were never properly reprimanded for their actions. Furthermore, the negative social effects of such continue to burden Natives in our present-day and Sanders' proposed future. The remedies to present wounds, though their causes are rooted in the past, can only be found in the work of the present by preventing further colonization of livelihood, land, and culture. 

The past cannot be changed to affect the future, rather progress towards a greater era lies in the actions of the present. In Sanders' pieces, doing so is a matter of re-claiming the past rather than re-writing it, of seizing the present to establish grounds to build up a future of prosperity for all.