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What is it about this
election?
I’m both ashamed of my country and myself. Rather than energizing me to vote, this campaign makes me feel like taking a shower.
In an attempt to escape the
campaign pollution, I find myself reminiscing back to long ago days, starting
with the presidential campaign of 1962 when I was a junior at Pittsfield high
school.
While ethics and decency
weren’t always on full display in the heat of this campaign between Nixon and
Kennedy, the legitimate nature of government itself was never in question.
It was an idealistic time to
grow up. We were lifted up and empowered when JFK won the election and took his
challenge seriously: “It is not what your country can do for you but what you
can do for your country.”
We felt an integral part of
our larger community – the United States of America – bound together by an
interlocking web of rights and responsibilities. We believed wholeheartedly in
the legitimacy of our government; trusted the mainstream media – think Walter Cronkite;
and looked up to the professionals who served us: our teachers, doctors, and
scientists.
Perhaps, we trusted too much.
Soon, however, fast moving events would challenge our naivety.
After serving in Vietnam and
seeing first-hand how wrong this war was, I returned to UNH, joining with fellow
students in protest: Just because we
were a super power didn’t give us the right to unjustly invade third world
countries who disagreed with us.
As this façade collapsed that
we were the world’s policeman, we challenged other assumptions about how we
could do no wrong, uncovering a dark underbelly: our systematic oppression of
blacks, minorities, and woman, along with the rape of our Earth.
At this point, strangely
enough, I was never so proud of our country: Despite the chaos of those times
and Nixon’s strident call for law and order, we did not hide our dirty laundry
under the bed: Rather, we came together as a nation to pass landmark civil
rights legislation; to elevate woman and minority rights to the top of the
agenda; to pass game-changing laws protect the environment, and initiate a
massive war on poverty.
And, on top of that – as an
acid test for the legitimacy of our government – both democrats and republicans
came together as one to impeach a “crooked president.”
At that time in our history
and with good reason, I was incredibly hopeful about our future as a nation. I
saw my beloved country like a patriarchal family who had gone through dysfunctional
times, but who now were finally able to admit its flaws – and become more open,
equal, and democratic. At long last, we were making apologies, asking
forgiveness, making positive changes, becoming closer again, – ready once again
to move forward together.
But now, sadly, looking
backwards of the last 35 years, we can see it didn’t happen. Instead, rearguard forces dug in their heels
and started a guerilla campaign to reverse that gains of the 1960s and 1970s.
This conservative backlash
has worked to roll back the progress we made in addressing military adventurism
along with racial, gender, and environmental oppression. Worse yet, in terms of
the thrust of this essay, this backlash has attacked the very idea of
government itself.
I’m thinking of President Reagan who said in his 1981 inaugural
address: “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the
problem.”
I’m thinking of Glover
Norquist, supported by 95% of Republicans running for office in 2012, who made
his real objective clear back in 2001: I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it
to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.
The counterattack goes beyond attacking the very idea of
government to subvert the sacrosanct rules of our political life. I’m thinking
of right-wing
groups in 2014, who with the help of Fox News, spread demeaning falsehoods
about a decorated war hero—in this case, John Kerry.
Now in 2016, Trump has done it again to John McCain. Another
example is the “birther” movement, driven in large part by Donald Trump, attacking
the legitimacy of our first black president – to say nothing of Trump’s attack
on minorities, the disabled, Muslims, and let’s not even talk about his views
on women!
But don’t be fooled: Donald
Trump is not an outlier but the natural endgame of the far right’s campaign
against democracy and its relentless opposition to any government action that
fosters community and the public good.
It is time to stand up and
be counted.
The reactionary forces, who
have long been serially assaulting our vulnerable Fair Maiden of Democracy are now
preparing for their final act. Glover Norquist has Her starved and subdued, trussed
inside his bathtub, awaiting Donald Trump to arrive triumphantly to have his
way with her.
Time is growing short.
We have a crucial choice to
make, articulated perfectly in a recent essay by Adam Haslett: Donald Trump, a would-be tyrant, is a
creature born of our already withered public life. He is neither an anomaly nor
the end of his kind. We either find a way to acknowledge together what we
suffer in common, or we live in his world.[i]
I’m hoping the X-rated video
of Trump released last Friday will be the breaking point, causing us to finally
rise up – as one people – to defend the sacred honor of the one who has always
made our country great, our Fair Maiden of Democracy.
May God have mercy upon us.
xxx
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