Destroying America? Which One?
I watched a lot of the Democratic TV show last week. I’m trying to watch some of the Trump show this week. I didn’t know that Trump invented tele-health.
The Republicans are telling me how the Democrats will destroy America as we know it. I am beginning to realize that in many ways they are correct. It no longer surprises me why Trump, and his followers, are freaking out.
What the Democrats are campaigning for, and what they are made clear on their TV show sounds simple. They kept talking about Liberty and Justice for All. They also used as the title of their show A government for the people.
What I began to realize was that the magnitude of this kind of political change is so much larger than anything that has been accomplished before. Although it sounds so simple and so American. Yet, as a country, we have never come close to actually achieving these goals, nor has this ever happened anywhere in the world.
Much of this began with the philosophers of the Enlightenment. Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Paine, Spinoza, and others, advocated for a sense of equality and justice for all people. Even those philosophers never included women, and the kinds of people they were unfamiliar with, such as those who lived in Africa, the Americas, or Asia. The US is just now trying to confront how badly it has failed to even approach the ideals that were written into the Constitution, (but were also written out of it with the acceptance of slavery).
The idea went something like this:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all “people” are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Now, we include under the “Life” part, the right to live a healthy life, with access to life saving medicine, even treatments for chronic diseases. We expect to be able to have a livable environment, one that is sustainable, and not lost to short-term profits. Since we are the richest country in the world, it seems reasonable that all of our citizens have access to food and shelter, as that is necessary for life
Under the Liberty and Justice part, we have come to believe that all people are of equal value, and they should all be treated equally, in all situations. Again, something that sounds so simple and basic. It means that there should be no discrimination in education, housing, medicine and jobs. But, since there always has been that kind of discrimination, the Dems now feel that a great effort needs to be made to reduce and eliminate that unequal treatment. This also applies to the way police act, and how the courts treat people. Rich and poor, Black, White Brown Yellow, Red and everything mixed together; all equal. In my mind, we are all equal in the level of insignificance that we hold in the universe. You are better than no one, and no one is better than you.
These are all admirable goals, and I think even most Republicans would agree to some of them, but America has never really pursued these goals for ALL of its citizens. Instead, for most of the last forty years, the country we live in has placed profits over people. In that atmosphere the Republicans have flourished. They are fighting hard to maintain the kind of society that they know and love, one in which rich, white, males have very good lives, and the rest of the country waits on them at low wages. Yes, there is a smattering of others who make it to the top. Do those exceptions prove that everyone has the opportunity to make it in America?
Part of the great myth is that in America, with hard work and grit, you can reach the highest goal in life, which is to most Republicans seems to mean greatly surpassing financial security, and amassing great, some would say, obscene wealth. You can do that on your own. You should be admired for doing it, no matter how, or what, you did to achieve that end. The rich are the righteous.
In believing this myth, it is necessary to deny the reality of the world we have created over the last hundred years. It misses something that the world-wide pandemic has proven to all of us: that our lives have become so intertwined and overlapping. Everything we do affects everyone in the world. If someone is sick in Wuhan, soon everyone is sick in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia.
What we are also seeing very clearly now is that in order to become very wealthy it has always been necessary that there is a working class of people that receive low wages for their efforts. In order to make bigger profits costs have to be controlled. That is true of the production for goods, transportation of goods, harvesting of fruits and vegetables, driving people from here to there, cutting lawns, building walls, working in distribution centers, restaurants, or retail stores. And now, since many of those workers are demanding higher wages and health benefits, they are being replaced by robots.
In the pursuit of unlimited wealth the Republicans have fought unions, slashed safety regulations, slashed environmental regulations, and have demonstrated their eagerness to engage in corrupt practices. Just having Eric Trump speak at the convention while he is being dragged into court to answer to a fraud investigation shows how shameless and tone deaf these people are. Again, breaking all of the rules and laws benefits the few while burdening many. But, hasn’t the world always been this way?
What we are also seeing is that the Republicans realize that the deck is stacked and that they are a minority party. To keep the world that they enjoy they find it necessary to cheat at elections, ignore the checks and balances of the Constitution, and tell lies about how well the country is doing, even if the lies may be killing people. Their goal is to retain all of their wealth and power, as well as all their advantages in getting there. They only use all of those underlying racist messages to scare White people and get their votes.
But, what they are saying during their big TV show is correct. If you think that Social Security, Medicare, and then adding access to affordable healthcare for all is “Socialism” then they are correct. If you believe that your life is fine, and everyone else may or may not be suffering, or have access to what you have, but it’s not your problem, then you will probably vote Republican. You may not want to consider how injustice, inequality, and corruption is already truning the US into a divided, crumbling, angry, frightened society.
If you think that everyone really has an equal opportunity for a stable, healthy lifestyle, and that the rich attained wealth by hard work and playing by the rules, and that anyone can do the same, and that we are all individuals, and the actions of each of us do not affect the health and safety of all of us, then I understand why you feel your world is being threatened.
The Democrats are only asking for Truth, Justice, Freedom of speech and religion, Freedom to assemble and protest what is wrong. Freedom of the press to report the truth and have access to the facts. Freedom to live in a safe sustainable environment, and the feeling of not living in a society in which 66% of the people are angry, frightened or feel financially insecure all the time.
Many of these things seem obvious. But they have never been achieved anywhere, at any time, by any society.
Is there enough dedication to those goals? Are there really enough people who realize that caring for each other will benefit everyone while greed and selfishness destorys society? Will there be enough money to get the message out? Will there be enough effort to overcome those whose good lives have always depended upon the inequities of history, and want to preserve them? Is a free society capable of seeking such drastic changes?
We shall see what happens during the decade of the 2020s.
