I had a debate with a friend over breakfast the other day, where it was concluded that I was narrow-minded and intractable in my blanket hatred of ALL Republicans. “NO,” I said, “there are NO Republicans that I want to talk to ANYMORE”. At some point over the past 10 years – maybe it started with the hanging chads, I don’t know – I have become an intolerant lunatic. It’s been cumulative, I guess; the proud public displays of their own lack of education, empathy and IQ points with abject racism thrown in for good measure; the positively psychotic flying in the face of what is good for the country and for themselves; the spitting on the constitution when it no longer suits them to adhere to its principles; Sarah Palin sneering and rolling her eyes at a woman because she is a “teacher” (Sarah Palin period); the birth of a bunch of racist coots who call themselves a Tea Party and the end of collective bargaining and the New Deal. Basically it’s because they ruined the whole country. We share the same political beliefs, my friend and I, and have equal amounts of zeal. But where he is able to engage in clear and practical thinking, with tolerant acceptance of others and open-mindedness, I clap shut like a clam.”They are evil.” “They are stupid!” “We should let them secede! Let them die!” “We could just round them up and SHOOT them”!
My sense of community and good will towards others, I’ll admit, has been severely undermined lately, as it was based upon a (romantic? idiotic? puerile?) belief in the inviolability and essential justness of our constitutional principles. I know that we’ve never actually lived up to these principles, but having grown up in the the dramatic era of post Vietnam War/Civil Rights evolution and during the sexual revolution, I did stupidly believe that we were going to keep moving forward, towards at least that “more perfect union”. Turns out, the Constitution was just a piece of paper to be tossed aside at the first signs of adversity, along with generations of jurisprudence and other quaint notions of “Truth. Justice. And The American Way”.
I am shaped by a specific generation – pre political desensitization by non-political, non-academic programming – when there seemed to be a compelling vision and a great unity of purpose. When action and experimentation took place in a collective spirit of idealism rather than world-weariness, and when there was a single, galvanizing aim over which to come together and react. Our parents and teachers may have lived through The Great Depression, fought Nazis, watched John F Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King get mowed down, and their authority was simultaneously potent, wise, sympathetic, liberal and benign. Via scientist parents, integrated communities, Unitarian church, progressive schools, there was engagement, constant allusions or reminders of right and wrong, doing unto others, etc. (albeit the greatest political malfeasance in our household was when Little House on the Prairie was pre-empted for the Watergate hearings).
I believed/had faith in a few simple things. I believed it was an imperative to a liberal democratic state to secure the status of equal citizenship to everyone, that our most cherished value as Americans was, you know, “all created equal”, “liberty and justice for all”, yadayadayada. I assumed the elevated consciousness about civil rights would continue and grow, that the elevated consciousness about gay and lesbian rights would continue and grow, that the post second wave feminism would protect women’s reproductive rights always, that the participation in profound societal change, no nukes, ecological consciousness, etc. would continue and grow and that the diverse social groups that challenged the consensus that had governed American society since the end of World War II, would, you know, like…. continue to do that.
I believed in what I was taught at Sunday School, that the life and teachings of Jesus constitute the exemplar model for living one’s own life, and that reason, rational thought, science, and philosophy can coexist with faith in God. That humans have the ability to exercise free will in a constructive and ethical manner to remain “good” when the rest of humanity seems to be so bad. When Presidents abuse our trust, when there are indignities afoot, when it seems that no one treats us as they would like to be treated, that is when we do better. Because if we begin with ourselves, the ripple effect will eventually work its way out to encompass everyone. If the interconnected web (not the internet), of existence of which we are all a part is real, then certainly what begins with each of us will benefit the greater whole. If we don’t work towards an ideal, we will never become something better than we are now, and the world won’t become better along with us. As Benjamin Franklin put it, “This religion will be a powerful regulator of our actions, give us peace and tranquility within our own minds, and render us benevolent, useful, and beneficial to society”. If religion had no positive practical consequences, it had no meaning.
And, although I violently reject any notion of “American Exceptionalism” — post-9/11 rhetoric and forced flag-lapel-pin-wearing make me gag — I did have faith in The Constitution. I believed in it. I mean, our flawed natures might keep us from actually reaching the “City on a Hill”, but The Constitution was a rock that could not be moved, a compass that would guide us ever closer to an ideal state. I mean, look how far we’d already come!
Alas, it is so much a different country now. I think that’s evident to even the most brassbound Democrat, who believe they can turn back the clock by electoral victories. Does “The Golden Rule” still apply to anyone? Is it too much to ask that humans be good? Is it even in our nature anymore to realize ideal love for humanity? Because if humans are not going to be “good”, then the damage done to our nation is irreparable. There simply are no mechanisms whatsoever outside of the human soul to address the problem of a system which cannot be anything but corrupt. And as I doubt we’ll see a new “Age of Reason”, we will probably never be able to reconstruct the ideals of The Constitution. Even with our “American Ingenuity”and our commonality of purpose, we can’t smooth these things over. Structural malfeasance cannot ever be ‘fixed’ by the American system of governance, it’s just the old ‘fox guarding the hen house’ all over again. So what kind of “American Ingenuity” can help us now? Can bring back our lost manufacturing sector, our once great American cities, our future? Corporate ownership of speech has turned that once-reliable checks and balances into a clown car and it’s three towns over on an icy road coming at us at .6 MPH. The “City on a Hill” seems as mythical as Narnia. Mandatory flag pin-wearing and brute aggression have been substituted for critical thinking and sacrifice, and Ronald Reagan stands in for the “Founding Fathers”. Maybe the “American Experiment” always was just a carny trick that succeeded as long as we all believed it would. Richard Nixon dragged out the illusion by quitting, and for a while we really thought we had caught Government corruption red-handed and cut it off at the knees. But then Bush/Cheney/Fox, etc. unashamedly yanked away the curtain and revealed the hideous machine at work. They stuffed ballot boxes, started two proxy wars, treated water boarding as a frat house prank, refused to secure our borders, enforce our laws, saw millions of American manufacturing jobs outsourced, admitted to torture then had the gall to refer to the citizenry as nativist, and are now on book tours, not rotting at the Hague. It is evident now that Watergate fixed nothing and I don’t really see any signs of a collective, Watergate-esque disavowal of the Bush regime’s actions happening, ever.
So, I have regressed into a 4 year old and am doing the intellectual equivalent of lying on the floor, kicking and screaming over what never really was, what could have been and what will never be. I am old, and tired. Exhausted, really. I’m an itty-bitty Whoville Who, shrieking and writing and ranting with a voice so tiny and weak that no one hears or cares. I am a speck. I have gotten nowhere, helped no one, and have lost a chunk of my humanity in the process. So that’s that. Engagement: Over. I can’t stop myself from feeling bad, because when one is cursed with empathy, there are no mechanisms to stop the feelings. But my personal pangs of conscience are diversions, I am from this day forward, a rock, and Republicans are people too (technically). Through nobody’s fault, or everybody’s fault, the country has gone to the crapper and I may never rebuild my belief.
“I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates on the flagship Arbella three hundred and thirty-one years ago, as they, too, faced the task of building a new government on a perilous frontier. “We must always consider”, he said, “that we shall be as a city upon a hill ”the eyes of all people are upon us”. Today the eyes of all people are truly upon us and our governments, in every branch, at every level, national, state and local, must be as a city upon a hill constructed and inhabited by men aware of their great trust and their great responsibilities….[2]”
– President-Elect John F. Kennedy in an address to the General Court of Massachusetts, January 9, 1962