I’ve tried to write this post for the past three weeks. Still not sure it passes muster.
The drafts didn’t deliver. Because, what’s happening in our country is so chaotic, so violent, so hateful, it’s hard for me to bring context, let alone hope (admittedly, not my strong suit) to the conversation.
What caused three false starts?
I’ve concluded our political leadership is incapable of rescuing our nation from itself. Just look some of what’s occurred over the past month:
The Mad King is back and bent on vengeance. His party can’t or won’t stop him. They’re willing to submit to his hate to gain more power.
All of us, but most tragically our children and grandchildren, are at extreme risk to die or be hurt in gun violence. The one-year anniversaries of Uvalde and Buffalo will be here soon without either party offering a way to get weapons off the street. Sorry, Senator Murphy, incremental won’t do it.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his Election Denier wife Ginny are on the payroll of a billionaire Republican donor. It is stunningly corrupt behavior. But to Republicans who use government as their personal cash machine, this feels fine.
A Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas has decided he should ignore the FDA and dictate healthcare for millions.
Inflation continues to ravage anyone not a millionaire. Our answer is to push people out of work with a “mild recession,” while bailing out Silicon Valley cowboys, who continue to make kazillions destroying our kids and societal fabric with their social media products.
The Democrats are useless. What the hell is Joe Biden doing in Ireland? State secrets are stolen. Oil barons bleed us. Nine-year-old innocents are murdered in their school. Republicans are gutting the social safety net. China continues to harass us across the globe. Do I really care if Corvette Joe has a soft spot for his ancestors?
“Morning in America,” if there ever was such a thing, is lost. We’re in a Dark Age.
How Dark?
Civil War dark. A recent Wall Street Journal-University of Chicago Poll shows Americans no longer believe in the principles holding our democracy together. Joe Biden advisor, historian and author Jon Meacham, recently told the New Yorker Radio Hour he’s convinced our time parallels 1850.
“I thought that our current moment was like 1933 or 1968, where there were proto-fascist forces, there was a sense that democracy had run out its strength, and that enough conscientious effort went into keeping democracy alive. I am increasingly concerned, however, having made that argument, that this is the 1850s. That, in fact, there are competing visions of reality itself. It was not settled by a congressional debate. It was not settled by Brooking’s seminar. It was not settled through the ordinary protocols of politics. It was settled by the sword."
Illiberal Christianity
The competing “visions of reality” aren’t the South vs. the North this time, though that argument still isn’t settled. It’s more like Christian White Nationalism vs. everyone not White, not Christian, and not Trump Republican.
Those of us who believe in a traditional liberal democracy are faced with people in power, Republicans, who do not respect our rights and do not respect us as human beings. They intend to force our adherence to laws and rules rooted in what authoritarian President Viktor Orban of Hungary has named “illiberal Christianity.”
Illiberal Christianity places its so-called Christian principles over multiculturalism and free thought. It is anti-LGBTQ, It’s anti-immigrant. It’s intolerant at its core.
Further, the American illiberal Christians are armed to the teeth with assault weapons and an absolutist belief in the 2nd Amendment. They own the political system. They bought the courts. They have the guns. They’re energized by power and grievance. They intend to take no prisoners.
Can they be stopped without a shooting war? Maybe. There’s a roadmap in contemporary American history, though it’s not without violence.
Wanted: A 60’s Civil Rights Movement
When Black Americans committed to ending Jim Crow, they also fully committed a generation of leaders and inspired foot soldiers to their cause. They put themselves out there, flesh and blood, and delivered real change.
Their actions didn’t follow a perfect path. There were rival factions, jealousies, infighting, debate over the pace of change. Tragically, some died at the hands of mobs, and in Dr. King’s case, by FBI-sponsored murder. Fatalities and pain were the price The Movement committed to paying to relentlessly push back the segregationists, and ultimately, in asserting the rights of Black America.
Today, we celebrate their accomplishments, their courage facing down Alabama’s state troopers, confronting poll watchers in Mississippi, dragging (kicking and screaming) the Democratic Party to the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act.
Beyond celebrating and honoring them, we need to follow their example. Get deep into the mechanics of our system. Apply the courage and stamina which defined the Civil Rights Movement to counter and defeat Trump’s GOP. Act now, because our current political leadership won’t.
And if that comes to pass, we’ll need to remember what Black Americans know very well. Winning an election or passing a bill is the beginning, not the completion of real change. There remains a long road ahead to create and sustain a multicultural society that embraces democratic and liberal values.
It’s a never ending conflict. The alternative is Trump America, illiberal Christian America.
I told you this is a Dark Age.
A Change in Focus
When I created this Substack in September of 2021, I underestimated the intensity of America’s divisions as lived through Arizona’s politics. There is so much Mad King chaos in Arizona governance, it would take several posts a week to keep up. Thankfully, the Democratic wins of 2022 have, at least temporarily, put a huge speed bump in the path of turning State 48 into Mar-A-Lago West.
And, it gives me some cover to expand the topics you’ll be reading about here in the coming months:
Our squandering of Colorado River water threatens millions and will change the nation’s westward migration and food supply.
The Phoenix Police force remains among the most violent in the nation and is successfully defying reform.
Housing shortages and a growing homeless population has stymied policy makers.
Local oligarchs and their Republican sponsors continue to use local governments like a cash machine.
Native Americans are asserting newfound power based on their land and water holdings.
There’s Interesting stuff coming. Thanks for reading, and please share with a friend.