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We’ve Reached 250

I have to return to 1981, or earlier, to talk about where we are at 250 years out from our founding. I’m driving around a rotary in Narragansett, Rhode Island, when a commentator says, on an FM radio station, that those of us who hold democratic and ethical values need to fight back in the face of the reactionary policies of Ronald Reagan. For those who remember, Reagan began the process of handing power over to those who wanted war over peace, those who wanted a monied elite in positions of power, and who won an election through the incompetence of his predecessor, Jimmy Carter, with an unhealthy dose of racism added to the mix. A massive redistribution of wealth followed, along with attacks against government agencies that helped people. It was “Morning in America.” Actually, what it was, was the long march toward the debacle we see today with endless wars, massive income inequality, and three branches of government that provide no credible opposition. We live in a system in which a duopoly runs the show of the power elite of the military, business, and the investment class. Industry that lifted all boats has long since departed our shores for cheap labor and cheap infrastructure.

For me, pushing back against the Vietnam War, ancient history now, was the most significant action of my life. Both the military and CIA had been operating around the globe with impunity since World War II, but Vietnam put the system on display. Reagan comes into the picture again, since he attempted to launder the horror of the US in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Look at his words about the protest movement of the 1960s and early 1970s for a hint of what was to come, and we see the result in the current disaster that is the Trump regime. Even quoting Reagan today sickens, as he had a lethal hatred for both the free speech movement and protesters against the Vietnam War. Observers can see the results in how protesters are treated near ICE prisons and criminalizing dissent to learn how the movement to the far right turned out.

Going back a bit, yes, there were yahoos on the left, but looking around today, there are far more extreme yahoos on the right. Recall the Capitol insurrection or the Unite the Right in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Following the Vietnam War, I held out hope that the political and economic systems would be reformed, but the opposite is true. Racism is now applied to immigrant communities, and the economy makes it more difficult to find a niche and make a living. The industries that left this nation are not coming back, and whole swaths of former citadels of productivity have left these shores. Weapons production seems to be one of the few growth industries left, with technology following behind. Critical thinking about all of this has been left on the trash heap of history. Genocide in the Middle East and mayhem in Eastern Europe are all the rage now. We come perilously close to igniting the nuclear fuse. The environment is a sinkhole of despair!

The Founders were the pampered elite of their time, mostly slaveowners, who saddled the nation with an Electoral College that gives the few power over the many. Many of the best ideas of a republican form of democratic governance have fallen victim to the elitism and racism of the majority of those who gathered in Philadelphia to found a new nation.

None of this, however, is an endorsement of theocratic forms of government, including those influences here, or dictatorial regimes around the world.