Don Quixote Democrats

By Stone Washington


"When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams – this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness – and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!"

~Miguel Cervantes, Don Quixote

Part 1

It is the early 1600s, and Alonso Quixano, a middle aged country man residing in the Spanish province of La Mancha, spends every waking moment reading various "novels of chivalry" about the romantic era of knight errantry (i.e., stories of knights traveling in search of adventure and rescuing damsels in distress). One day he believes that he to can live as a knight roaming the world with his horse and armor in search for chivalrous adventures. His behavior puzzles his two friends Mister Nicholas, the village barber, and Pedro Perez, the curate (local priest), as well as Quixano's housekeeper and his teenage niece, Antonia, who all live with him. Quixano names his old skinny horse the lofty Rocinante, and eight days later gives himself the chivalric name Don Quixote de la Mancha. Since any self-respecting knight must have a "lady" to love and serve, Don Quixote chooses Aldonza Lorenzo, a country girl from the nearby town of El Toboso, whom he has loved despite her not knowing of his existence. Don Quixote gives her the name Dulcinea del Toboso, a name befitting her stature he believes.

For his first quest, Quixote dressed in armor, journeys on his horse to a local inn, envisioning it to be an enchanted castle, and the two prostitutes serving his meal to be beautiful ladies. The innkeeper, who has also read many books of chivalry, is amused by Quixote's madness and plays along, formally knighting Quixote. The next morning, Quixote sees a 15-year-old shepherd boy being flogged by his master for losing some of his sheep. Quixote demands that the master release the boy and pay him full wages. The master agrees to this, but after Quixote rides away, the master beats the boy almost to death. Next Quixote tells a group of traders from Toledo, on their way to buy silk in Murcia, to admit that the matchless Dulcinea del Toboso is the fairest maiden in the world. When one of the traders challenges him, Quixote attempts to attack, but his nag, Rocinante, stumbles, causing him to crash to the ground, allowing one of the traders to mercilessly beat him.

Quixote is discovered later by one of his neighbor's friends, who takes him to bed. When the housekeeper, niece, and friends ask what happened, Quixote answers that he did battle with 10 giants. Horrified, they blame the "accursed" novels of chivalry for Quixote's obsessive madness. While Quixote was resting in bed, the curate and barber decide to hold an "inquisition" on which of Quixote's books to burn burned most of his books because he believed it caused him to act in a crazy manner. But the curate decides to first examine the books one by one to see if any are worthy to be spared. The first one examined is Amadis of Gaul, a chivalric novel he wishes to burn since it was the first of its kind to be printed in Spain, having all the rest owe their origin to it. The barber however argues to spare the book, since it is unrivaled in style and is superior to the chivalric novels that come after it. The men save a few of Quixote's books while the housekeeper burns the rest, and wall off the entrance to the library.

After two days, Quixote wakes from his bed and is shocked to find the disappearance of his books and library. His niece tells him that an enchanter made them disappear. Quixote remains peaceful at his home for two weeks, but soon begins pondering chivalric adventures. He convinces his neighbor Sancho Panza, an honest but dimwitted peasant, to become his squire, promising that Sancho will become governor of his own island one day. An excited Sancho leaves behind his wife Teresa Panza along with his sons and daughter, in search for wealth and power. Soon they arrive in a field of 30-40 large windmills where Quixote believes the windmills are giants who have been enchanted by the evil wizard Freston, who he believes destroyed his books and library, and who has turned the giants into windmills to "deprive [Quixote] of the glory of victory." He attacks at one of them with his lance but it gets caught up in the sail and rolls him over and over on the ground. Dumbfounded by Quixote's antics, Sancho rushes to assist him. The next morning, the two meet a pair of Benedictine friars traveling with mounted horsemen and a woman in a coach, whom Quixote believes is a captive princess. Quixote attacks one of the Friars and informs the woman that she must go to El Toboso and tell Dulcinea how he liberated her. Meanwhile, Sancho is beaten by her squire in retaliation.


Don Quixote confronting the "monster" (windmill)

Quixote and Sancho spend the night with some hospitable goatherds, and Quixote gives an elegant speech on what he perceives to be the Golden Age of civilization, a time when humans were in communion with nature. He asserts that people became violent and corrupt after losing their purity, and that knighthood came to be in order to eliminate some of this generational violence. The next day the men journey to a shabby inn and Quixote sees the innkeeper's servant girl, whom he believes likes him. Quixote whispers to her that his heart belongs to Dulcinea, which causing a jealous muleteer to strike Quixote, igniting a violent brawl to break out that wakes the innkeeper. Quixote escapes the inn without paying, leaving Sancho behind, who refuses to pay. Some of the men working at the inn wrap Sancho up in blankets and merrily throw him around in the air for fun. After their fun, they later release him after taking his saddle bags as payment, allowing the tired squire to leave, who reluctantly returns to his master.

Quixote then sees a cloud of dust on the horizon and concludes that it is a medieval battle in progress, when in reality it is the dust left by the two flocks of sheep scrambling to escape from Quixote. To punish Quixote from disturbing his flock, the angry shepherd pelts Quixote and Sancho with stones. Later, the two companions encounter 20 white-robbed priests carrying a corpse by torchlight. Quixote misinterprets them to be enchanters carrying the body of a wounded knight and he attacks them with his sword. Seeing the toothless and weary Quixote, Sancho calls him "the Knight of the Sad Countenance." Quixote and Sancho then meet a chain gang of 12 prisoners being escorted by the king's guard to serve as galley slaves. As a proud knight declaring his allegiance to liberty and mercy for all, Quixote beats the guards and frees the criminals, who wickedly repay his valor to them by stoning Quixote mercilessly. In a wild chase, the two men narrowly flee to safety in the Sierra Morena mountains.

From the mountains, Quixote sends out Sancho to deliver love letters to Dulcinea. Despite being surprised that Dulcinea is merely a country girl and not a lofty damsel, Sancho nonetheless ventures out. En route, he meets the barber and curate neighbors of Quixote at an inn, and they convince him to partake in a plan to lure Quixote out of the wilderness. The barber disguises himself as a damsel and the curate as her squire. Together they send fake love letters to Quixote, supposedly from Dulcinea, requesting Quixote at her side immediately. The men briefly stop at the inn where Sancho was bullied early and reconcile with the barkeeper over a mutual admiration for chivalric novels. Sancho and Quixote's friends later remember their mission to return Quixote to his home and they disguise themselves as enchanters and kidnap him by binding him inside a cage while journeying towards Quixote's village. 6 days later the group reaches the village, where Sancho tells his wife of the glorious and exciting adventures as squire of the amazing Don Quixote de la Mancha.


Don Quixote's fanatical quest

Part 2

After Quixote has been at his home for a month, the curate and barber decide to test his recovery from madness by telling him tales of knights, to which Quixote replies how the 17th Century is not an age of knight-errantry, but acknowledges its existence in the past. Later Sancho, who is now more serious and articulate than in Part 1, announces to Quixote that a book has been written on their adventures and that Samson Carrasco, his neighbor's 24-year-old son and college graduate, can explain the book's contents. Excited by Carrasco's interest in him, Quixote sets out on a third round of adventures with Sancho, who still longs to be governor of his own island. Quixote and Sancho spend the night in the forest, where they are suddenly awakened by two newcomers: "The Knight of Mirrors" and his squire.

After a pleasant conversation between the men, the Knight of Mirrors boasts that he has defeated Don Quixote in battle before and that his Dulcinea is not as beautiful as his own fair maiden. An enraged Don Quixote challenges the knight to a duel, and swiftly defeats him, but is shocked when he takes off the knight's helmet revealing him to be Simpson Carrasco, who was secretly sent by the barber and the curate to defeat Quixote in a duel and order him to return home for two years. Despite being defeated, Carrasco is determined that he will beat Quixote in a future match. Quixote however believes that the enchanters are once again at work in that they are making it appear that the knight is Carrasco when he's really not (in Quixote's mind).

Invigorated by his victory, Quixote decides to test out his bravery on a royal envoy carrying a pair of caged lions to a nearby kingdom. Upon Quixote's order, the trainers release the lions from the cage, but to everyone's surprise, the lions simply yawn and lie down. Later Quixote and Sancho are invited by some students and farmers to a local wedding. However, during the ceremony, a fight breaks out against a jealous conspirator toward the bride and groom, causing Quixote to jump into the midst of the fray and protect the wedded couple from harm. Quixote then asks the groom for directions to a certain cave, which he later explores. Upon returning to Sancho, Quixote speaks of his time in the caves seeing strange visions of knights and crystal balls, causing Sancho to conclude that he is truly mad.

Later in the forest, Quixote and Sancho meet a huntress who takes them to the castle of her lady the duchess, who has read Part 1 of the novel: Don Quixote de la Mancha, and hopes to amuse herself and her husband, the duke, at Quixote's expense. At an extravagant ceremony they pretend that Dulcinea has been put on a spell by "Merlin the Magician" and can only be disenchanted if Sancho lashes himself 3,300 times with a whip. Sancho agrees only because the duke promised him a governorship of an island of his. After playing multiple games, Sancho is then granted the governorship and the duke sends him off to rule one of his villages on the isle of Barataria. To everyone's surprise, Sancho proves to be a wise and compassionate leader. But a week later, the duke ends the game by staging an attack on the village, thus forcing Sancho to leave.

Later Quixote and Sancho encounter a man named Don Antonio Moreno who is greatly inspired by the tales of Quixote and invite the men to voyage on his royal ship out on the high seas, later ensuing in battles with multiple pirate ships, which terrifies Sancho. In Quixote's last major adventure, he once again encounters Sampson Carrasco, who is now disguised as the Knight of the White Moon, who has followed Quixote on his voyages on the seas in hopes of taking Quixote home. He challenges Quixote to a battle, and the tired, elderly Quixote loses. Acknowledging his physical defeat, Quixote wearily agrees to return home for 1 year. Upon arrival to his village, Quixote gives thought to becoming a shepherd. But he soon falls ill with a fever, and upon recovering awakes to find that he no longer believes himself to be Don Quixote de la Mancha, only Alonso Quixano the Good. After 20 long years, having fulfilled his dreams to be knight-errant, the goodhearted Quixote gives up his fantasies and dies peacefully.

Message for Modern Day

The timeless Spanish tale of Don Quixote, holds many significant symbolisms and similarities to the modern day 21st century America. Perhaps the paramount relation between the fictional novel and real World elements lies behind the apparent madness of Don Quixote in comparison with the mad political schemes of the Democrat Party, specifically spanning around the destructive Presidency of Barack Obama. Don Quixote's unquenchable obsession with the Golden Age of knight-errantry, which he describes as a perfect era where "All then was peace, all was harmony and friendship," is comparable to Obama, Clinton, and other Progressive elitists' mutual obsession to transform America into a "perfect" utopian society, where the will of the state dominates every aspect of the lives of the American people and where social norms deemed "imperfect" or "unbalanced" by the state such as class distinction, citizen access to weaponry, gender classification, etc. are eliminated from society.

Obama has advocated for many Globalist-utopian ideals throughout his two terms in office in his fanatical Don Quixotic crusade, pushing for Progressive policies such as extreme gun control laws to be passed, seeking to restrict law-abiding Americans from obtaining guns while criminals and terrorists obtain weapons as they always have via illegally through the Black market.

Obama has also stripped billions of dollars in tax payer funds from hardworking Americans and has outspent and contributed to the national debt more than any other U.S President in History, investing hundreds of billions in failed programs such as green energy initiatives, global warming projects, and Obamacare, which has caused care and insurance premiums to rise more in 2016 than in the last 32 years.

Obama has also weakened the strength of the military to levels unseen since Thomas Jefferson's Presidency, while refusing to utter the term "radical Islamic Terrorism" in association to the spread of ISIS over the Middle East and the many Islamic inspired nation-wide terror attacks by radicalized home-grown jihadists. Along with Hillary Clinton, who as Secretary of State aided Obama in deconstructing the Middle East with devastating policies and military coupes to overthrow various authoritarian leaders, leading to further insurrection by the popular classes (mobs) in nations like Egypt, Iraq, and Syria. In this respect Hillary Clinton represents Quixote's loony side-kick Sancho, who blindly mimics Quixote's antics, just as Clinton has and will for Obama acting as his third term if elected. Obama and Clinton seeking to allow hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees into the nation regardless of their undocumented, un-vetted status, reflects Don Quixote's misguided philosophy of chivalric Humanitarianism toward people in troubled conditions, stating in the book,

"It is not the responsibility of knights errant to discover whether the afflicted, the enchained and the oppressed whom they encounter on the road are reduced to these circumstances and suffer this distress for their vices, or for their virtues: the knight's sole responsibility is to succour them as people in need, having eyes only for their sufferings, not for their misdeeds."

Similar to the fantasies of Quixote when he battled against the windmills, in belief that they were giants, and the multiple times he attacked an individual on the basis that they were disguised as an enchanter (or something else fictional), all for the sake of preserving peace as a knight, so are Obama's fanatical Socialist Globalist utopian polices which, in the mind of Obama, appear to be beneficial and necessary for America's wellbeing, but is in fact crippling and inflictive upon the nation and the American people, just as Quixote harmed multiple people in his quests.


Delusion Alert – President Obama stylized as Don Quixote

Samson Carrasco as the "Knight of the White Moon" and the "Knight of Mirrors represents Donald Trump, who by the guidance of the barber and the curate, representing the aid of Trump's closest GOP Republican allies, seeks to remedy Quixote's aimless lunacy by bringing the frail and tired man home to his family and friends. Similar to this Trump seeks to remedy the crippled condition of the U.S following its 8 worst years with a powerful common-sense platform surrounded around American Nationalism and patriotic conservatism focused around making America great again in all sectors of society it currently has underperformed and suffers under the Obama regime. For Tuesday November 8, 2016, It should be the mutual obligation of all American voters to stand behind Trump's solid campaign for reviving America's exceptional position as the greatest country in the History of the World, over the deluded self-inflicting Socialist Globalist Progressive policies of the Don Quixote Democrats pushing "Crooked" Hillary Clinton for the Presidency.

Remember Cervantes' wise words on election day in conjunction to the fanatical lies of the Don Quixote Democrats, "The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always surfaces above lies, as oil floats on water."


Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

~Matthew 15:14

© Stone Washington