’Twas but a Dream Anyway
The Failure of America
Although many Americans continue to hope and wait for a return of at least the most basic decency this morning, it is obvious that we have failed regardless of who “wins.” Roughly half of us support a racist, misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic, self-centered and amoral bully. In 2016, some of us suggested that perhaps these voters thought those characteristics were simply an act, part of the president’s reality show persona. It is now abundantly clear that a large percentage of his supporters are racist, misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic, self-centered and amoral.
Some of us liberals are still trying to make excuses for them, because that’s what true liberals do — we tend to love everyone, empathize, and support disparate ideas even when we strongly disagree. This is what a democracy is, yes? The “marketplace of ideas,” as it were. We can now see that the best ideas do not always rise to the top.
Some of us talk about a lack of critical thinking, since 99 percent of GOP supporters are worse off than they were four years ago and continue to lose freedoms, but they choose to believe the alternate reality of the GOP and their state-run “media.” Certainly that lack of cognitive ability is true, and the GOP has worked hard to reduce the value of a public education while simultaneously mocking those who pursue higher learning. Like organized religion, which is also culpable here, keeping the masses clueless makes them much easier to control. However, this does not negate the crimes of racism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. — which fewer and fewer of them even try to hide or deny, despite their so-called Christian stance.
Still others of us liberals will ruminate on the powerful force of fear as a tactic for control. Our president and his minions have spent a lot of time othering three fourths of Americans and everyone else, and their followers have fallen in line. To this, I can only call Bullshit. The vast majority of them have never had a moment of imminent danger from any of us “others,” some of whom are their neighbors and even friends until recently. Have they been persecuted for their beliefs? Despite what they might claim, never. Has the specter of the anti-gun boogeyman ever actually appeared? Obviously not. Has the world evolved in ways they don’t like? Certainly; time marches on, the speed of change has accelerated, jobs come and go, some move overseas. But sticking your head in the sand and trying to legislate it away won’t change anything — we embrace the change as best we can, or we become obsolete. Nobody’s going to buy your covered wagon.
At the end of the day, though, the biggest loser in this nightmare (besides Black folks, LGBTQ, etc.) is America itself. Certainly its foundations — liberty and justice for all — were shaky from the get-go, given our early reliance on slavery to drive a lot of the economy and then using the Bible to justify it. We often aspire to more than we’re capable of, but the idea of a melting pot with freedom of religion and speech, the right to vote and protest, etc. is glorious. Now these concepts have been twisted beyond recognition and used to justify the exact opposite. Perhaps the dream finally became just too much for some. And freedoms without accepting the responsibility for upholding them are simply pipe dreams anyway.
Will our country ever recover from this? Hard to say. The potential for a civil war looms, encouraged by our feckless “leader.” Regardless, there are Black people and gay people just trying to live their lives, and others simply exercising their constitutional right to protest, who will not survive to see how it all turns out — while half the country stockpiles their semi-automatics and laughs with demonic glee as the bodies pile up. And that, to me, hurts the most: we took a vote on humanity, and humanity lost.
