There is no denying that, ever since I published my book NEITHER HERE NOR THERE in 2014, I have grown increasingly pessimistic about the political future of our beloved country. At a stage of my life, towards the end, that I should be mostly concerned with enjoying my retirement, my beautiful family, and the unshackling of any business obligation, I find myself obsessing with what I see developing as the undoing of the great American experiment in democracy.
I lived so
long with the mantra “do the best with what is within your control and don’t
waste any energy on things that are beyond your control”, but now I can’t help
myself agonizing every waking moment about what I see as an inexorably disintegrating
American dream, realizing full well that, if it is happening, it is completely
beyond my control. It is well known that Benjamin Franklin on September 18,
1787 – the last day of the Constitutional Convention- in answer to the question
‘what have we wrought’ answered: ‘a republic if you can keep it’. For 235 years
we have managed to keep a constitutional republic, but now I fear that we may
not be able to safeguard it any longer.
The source
of my pessimism is found in a message I recently received from an old friend of
mine who represents the populist version of extreme right-wing ideology – the political
undercurrent I fear most – in which he lamented: “Beginning about 1992 America
began to feel guilty about our accomplishments, our exceptionalism, and our
wealth. And from Inauguration Day 1992 (the start of the Clinton presidency) we
have, inch by inch, foot by foot, meter by meter, disassembled the greatest God-fearing
constitutional republic ever formed on earth. But today, 30 years and 6 months
later we are absolutely doomed! I can’t fix it and I damn sure refuse to ruin
my few remaining years on earth trying to understand why my country abandoned
me and traded me for a very small community of left-wing kooks!!! I no longer
believe in the USA. I did my part, so I am comfortable I did my best to help
the USA!!! She’s truly of course, failing fast and sure to collapse.”
This is
America in a nutshell today. We are both afraid that the great American
experiment is doomed, but for diametrically opposed reasons. I am deeply
concerned about the future of our democracy because in our two-party system one
of the parties has chosen to put party over country and is making its case to
the people by fearmongering, appealing to its most primitive nativist instincts,
spinning the craziest conspiracy stories, and taking advantage of a carefully
orchestrated take-over of State governorships, State legislatures, and the Supreme
Court. At the same time, my old friend feels defeated by the threat of a take-over
of the government of the nation by ‘left-wing kooks’. You would think that he
would feel buoyed by the prospect of Republican control of the Congress after
the November election, by the re-emergence of Donald Trump and his
sympathizers, and by the support his ideologies are getting from a retrograde
Supreme Court. But, instead, he believes no longer in the USA.
While I am
concerned about the fact that voting rights are getting trampled in all bright-red
States; that it has proven to be impossible in the current political
constellation to strengthen our democracy by some simple improvements to our
governance model by reducing the money influence in politics, eliminating
gerrymandering, increasing the number of members of the House of
Representatives, eliminating the ‘winner takes all’ rule in the assignment of
members of the Electoral College, and making ‘ranked voting’ the rule in State
elections; my old friend wants us to go back to the time that white male conservatives
controlled all levers of power in the political domain.
While I am
concerned about the cavernous inequality that has split American society; about
peoples’ indulgence with the proliferation of guns in America and the resulting
daily carnage they cause; about peoples’ tolerance for misinformation coming at
us from social media and partisan news channels; about populist attempts to
whitewash all sordid aspects of our checkered history; and about a clear
resurfacing of racist, nativist, sentiment that gets openly spewed in political
campaigns on the right; my old friends frets about our nation slipping into a
socialist wasteland.
How can these
diametrically opposed assessments of where we are heading and what the relevant
threats to our nation are be reconciled? The only point we agree on is that the
outlook is bleak, that we are on a path to doom of our own making. And I’m
afraid my old friend and I are representative of the two camps the nation has
split into and that is the reason for my increased pessimism. With the camps so
diametrically opposed, and seemingly no viable constituency in the middle, how
do we ever get out of this impasse and find a way to regain our democratic élan,
bring our system of government up to speed with modern times, and thus save the
republic that was created 235 years ago?
God forbid
that we just throw in the towel and surrender to the antidemocratic groundswell
that has swept what once was the Grand Old Party. It is now really up to the
People. With the elections of 2022 and 2024 the voting public has the
opportunity to right the ship, save the democracy -and the republic- by
unequivocally denying the populist right-wing zealots access to elected office.
What is needed is the mobilization of every citizen in defense of our constitutional
democracy so that we can prosper under a government of the people, for the
people, and by the people. And I mean all of the people, not just the ones who rule
the roost.
Postscript.
Tonight, in prime time, we will witness the final scheduled hearing of the
January 6 Committee, which will be presided over by Republican Representative Liz
Cheney (since chairman Benny Thompson is in Covid quarantine). The January 6 hearings have been the only serious push-back
against the authoritarian take-over of the GOP by Trump and his sycophants.
Faced with the near certainty that its work will be halted after the mid-term
elections in November, the Committee is working overtime to get the record
established on the insurrection attempted by the former President and condoned
by most Republicans. Liz Cheney is a rare politician who is prepared to put her
political future on the line in pursuit of defense of our democracy. As such,
she is one of only a few bulwarks against a decisive slide into
authoritarianism. Her warning is stern: “As a country, we’re at a moment where
we really do have to step back from the abyss and it’s not totally clear to me
that we’re going to. The forces that want to drag us over the edge are strong
and fighting. But we have to.” I hope all of America will be watching tonight
and be heeding her warning.
