The American Crisis

I am an amateur historian. And, a bit sentimental. I've looked back with admiration - and maybe envy - at the Union soldiers who saved a nation, the greatest generation who saved the world, and the civil rights movement who saved our soul. By contrast, our time had always seemed so ordinary, so un-heroic. It seemed that all the dragons were slayed, all the battles were won. The present era just seemed about making money and acquiring things.

Boy was I wrong. In the last two years I've come to understand that we too live in momentous times. The United States stands at a crossroads. We face a choice between ascent and descent. Between xenophobia and internationalism. Between isolationism and leadership, between reason and dogma, authoritarianism and democracy, diversity and tribalism.

How did we get here? Well, I think that the demographic, economic, and political changes that we have experienced in the past 50 years have created an environment in which our darker nature has been fed. Rights can be viewed -mistakenly in my opinion - as a zero sum game by people. Somebody wins. Somebody loses. White protestants came to view the end of their complete dominance of American society as some sort of oppression. Economic changes which disadvantaged blue collar workers since the 1970s further fed into this sense of loss. And politics? Well, the Best and the brightest led us into the disaster that was Vietnam

About a generation ago conservative media became radicalized. First talk radio, and then cable TV became safe zones for bigots, crazy conspiracy theorists, and any of the aggrieved. These outlets nurtured the paranoid class of American politics. They eroded faith in established institutions. They became virulently anti-science, and anti reason. Republican politicians went along with it. They used the paranoia to raise money and get votes, and then ignored the paranoids when governing. The democrats used ridicule to energize their own, used litmus tests to exclude anyone who didn't walk in lock step with them,,,,, and drove white working men into the arms of the crazies.

Then the republicans lost control of their monster. The crazies figured out that mainstream republicans were just using them, and started electing actual crazies.
Congress became a freak show.

Fast forward to 2016. The Crazies decided that the biggest mouth lout at the bar was their preferred candidate.
After a brief moment of resistance, mainstream republicans gave up any principles they claimed to have and fell into line.

Democrats nominated a candidate whose political slogan might have been something about as inspiring as It's my turn.
Evangelicals threw themselves into the arms of Satan for the promise of judgeships and laws that would enshrine their white protestant domination and privilege.

The press - in some bizarre strategy to look 'fair' - pretended that Hillary Clinton's email server was somehow a equivalent to the myriad of disqualifications that the other candidate had.

Pundits, like Morning Joe used the Trump freak show for ratings. They gave Trump tens of millions in free coverage because he was a solid guarantee to produce an outrageous sound bite to titillate the audience.


And here we are, at the American Crisis.

Still, we can reclaim our nation, with vision, decency, and hard work. The damage has been great, but I believe that it can be repaired.

You know, Trump's power is not in his brilliance or vision. Trump's power stems appealing to the dark side of human nature,, and  from the acquiescence of people who should have known better. 

Last edited by Goose (6/18/2018 6:53 am)