WHERE ARE WE?

I just came back from a visit to Europe, which was planned for the purpose of catching up with family and friends as the COVID tide was ebbing away, but took on additional meaning after February 24, when Putin decided to invade Ukraine and broke the long period of European peace that followed the devastation caused by World War II. I was curious to find how Europeans assessed the situation. After all, they know all about invasion wars conducted on their territory, an experience Americans have not had to submit to since the war of 1812 and probably never will again.

We chose to make this trip the old-fashioned way, by boat, taking advantage of Holland America Line repositioning its newest ship in the fleet, the Rotterdam, from the Caribbean trade to the coastal Europe trade. It was a much more comfortable way to travel than an overnight flight and offered stops at the Azores, Normandy, Belgium and its destination, Amsterdam.

We saw a lot of Ukrainian flags and found the Europeans in great solidarity with the Ukrainian people, welcoming their refugees, in contrast with refugees from Africa and the Middle East, with wide open arms. We did not detect a lot of concern about the possibility of a much wider war in Europe but much appreciation of Biden’s insistence on resurrecting the Western alliance. It was poignant that our visit coincided with the 77^th anniversary of the Allied victory over Germany and that it included a visit to the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy. The words “Never Again” kept entering our minds, and yet, here we are, silent party to another European war. After disembarking in Amsterdam, our time was spent in our home country of the Netherlands. The Dutch observe two minutes national silence every year at 8:00 pm on May 4 (Remembrance Day) to pay tribute to the victims of World War II. We watched the ceremonies, including wreath laying by the king and queen of the Netherlands on the Dam in Amsterdam and a solemn memorial service in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. If we did not know it all along, we were reminded again how awful war is.

It was good living in a different world for a while, largely disconnected from social media, but now we are back stateside, and we ask ourselves ‘where are we?’ What has happened during the four weeks we were away and removed from the cable TV circuit. And how do we look at the world now that we have had a refresher course in world history that we don’t want to see repeated?

Where are we? The impression that comes to mind is that we are at the dark side of the moon. The side that is carefully and mostly hidden from view, but always there. And it seems that the moon is turning and that the dark side is more and more presenting itself as the face of the moon. The bright side of the moon gave us the impression that, once the Cold War was won, we were on an inexorably upward course to peace, prosperity, and equality bestowed upon us by a liberal democracy. The theory was that American demographics were favoring progressive over conservative prospects, as America was growing less white and more diverse. The future promised a more just and equal society, where everyone would be able to realize their dreams and ambitions, not just the lucky few. That theory is pretty much out of the window, relegated to the heap of unrealized utopias. What happened?

What happened in America politics is not unlike what happened in the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Church where the people in charge were more concerned about staying in charge than about their pastoral duties and were willing to turn a blind eye to the abuses of power that were rampant under the cloak of ecclesial moral authority. In fact, in American politics it went beyond turning a blind eye to abuse of power, abuse of power became policy. The methods are deceivingly justified by reference to a 235-year-old Constitution and archaic rules of procedure governing the proceedings in Congress. The result is that any attempt to modernize the American political system away from a platform of white incumbency has been thwarted, despite fundamentally changed demographics. It explains why, for instance, the 2019 report ‘Our Common Purpose, Reinventing American Democracy for the 21^st Century’ from the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences has never gained any traction and why suggestions from the National Constitution Center for a new Constitution for the United States in 2020 have been completely ignored. It explains why we still have the ‘filibuster rule’ in the Senate, why we have not expanded the House of Representatives in line with our population growth, and why we have so many octogenarians in leadership roles in Congress.

We know that we are on the dark side of the moon when the issue of the day is not how to reinvent American Democracy for the 21^st Century but if we can fend off a direct attack on our American Democracy from an authoritarian streak in the Republican Party initiated by our 45^th President and his populist followers. Supported by our reverence for our archaic rules of play, the Republican Party has quietly and methodically changed the political landscape by taking control of State and local legislative and executive bodies and by filling the judiciary bench with adherents to an originalist interpretation of the law, mostly members of the Federalist Society. Now that the GOP itself has, at many levels, been hijacked by the populist and authoritarian movement which has its tentacles also in the federal judiciary, America’s democracy is at risk. The American Republic, in contrast to most other world powers, has since its inception been able to pride itself in a peaceful transfer of power based on free and fair election outcomes. That is no longer guaranteed if partisan officials, be it governors, State legislatures, or Secretaries of State, are allowed to overrule the popular vote in appointing the members of the Electoral College. This is what is at stake with the 2022 and 2024 national elections.

The dark side of the moon has come plainly into view during the primaries for the November election. It threatens with the prospect of dictatorial control of our lives, including a ban on abortions, an end to the separation of church and state, dictates on what we can and cannot read and teach in schools, institutionalized inequality, a halt to immigration, and disrespect for the rights of non-white, non-heterosexual, non-Christian, minorities. The dark side of the moon is where we are heading unless we deny the bigots their platform, come out in droves in the upcoming elections, and unequivocally defend democracy.