“A man can smile and smile and be a villain. Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain.” ~~ from Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” ~~ Albert Einstein
I was a military brat, and I was raised Southern Baptist. As such, to a small extent, my foundation was God and Country. Having always been around military bases growing up and seen more than a few military ceremonies of one ilk or another, it was not uncommon for me to get goose bumps when I heard The Star Spangled Banner or God Bless America.
Twenty five years or so ago I made the “mistake” of rereading the whole Bible. When, as an adult, you read the Bible closely it does not stand up. So I started studying other religions which caused me to look at my own religion with the same critical eye. I detailed this in a previous blog article, Rev. Joe Stumbles. The long and the short of it, I lost one of my weak pillars, that of God. My religious faith evaporated. I became a born-again agnostic.
That still left a faith in Country. This had become weakened over the decades beginning with the Vietnam War. But my indoctrination was strong, and I did have a belief buried somewhere deep inside me in American Exceptionalism. I had a strong belief in the value of democracy, and in the basic goodness of people.
Our unwarranted, extraordinary destructive, and in the end counter-productive excursion into the Middle East ruined my belief that America had some special place in the world. It dispelled my conviction that America could be and should be an example to the rest of the world.
The last few years I have watched the Democrats trying in spurts to move us towards a more humanistic social model. I have witnessed the Republicans using every dirty trick possible to prevent this from happening. But my general faith prevailed. I thought, given time, good would prevail over cynicism and greed.
Tuesday night, 8 November 2016, this faith evaporated. The last of my weak pillars was knocked away completely and irrevocably. I understand Donald Trump in all his narcissistic ugliness. What I do not understand is how a country that I had faith in, a people who I thought essentially good could choose him. I have never seen a more stark choice in a presidential election. The seasoned technocrat who was probably better qualified / experienced than 90 percent of the men who have held the office; the politician who at her core truly wanted to do good for the people and the country. Versus the bullying huckster who wants to exclude and tear down, make the rich richer and who has absolutely no record of public service. While I preferred Bernie Sanders in the primary, this choice should have been a no brainer for any adult capable of signing their name. And just in case you cannot sign your name the choice was not Trump.
If this is what democracy does, I wonder about it as a form of government. Then I remind myself that several things have gone awry with the democratic model in the United States. A big one would be Citizens United which allowed special interest to flood the airwaves and spend unprecedented amounts of money.
Secondly, we have become so polarized that we cannot really have a rational political discussion with our fellow citizens that may be of a different persuasion. Discussion is a primary force in any democracy. My knee jerk reaction is to blame this on Fox News and other outlets of its sort. There are other forces in play polarizing us. Fox News while a cause is also a symptom. . For a democracy to work there has to be a spirit of compromise when differences are encountered. This spirit has been lost, at least on the Republican side. With this polarization we seem to have lost respect for each other. I am extremely guilty of this. Support of Trump has become a litmus test for me. You will not find any on my Christmas card list.
Another of the key components of a functioning democracy is an educated population. A population that is capable of at least some degree of critical thinking. I read often that there is a streak of anti-intellectualism that runs through this country. I fear it has become a pandemic. Education has once again become solely a means to earning a living. While there is nothing wrong with education preparing you for a livelihood, it should also be about broadening horizons. It should also be about teaching folks how to think and learn. The attention span of many folks has shorten to point of being almost non-existent. People apologize if they send you an article or video that will take up more than 30 seconds of your time. If people are not able to really explore the issues and candidates deeply and critically, but rely on snippets of information (usually misinformation) feed to them by cynical manipulators how can a democracy truly work?
Donald Trump’s genius was that he did not underestimate the stupidity of the American populace. Since he did not he could exploit it.
If I believed in God I would be praying for our country. Of course, I also believe if there truly were a benevolent, caring God, men, such as Trump, would not come to power…anywhere at any time.
My pillars have crumbled. I am adrift in a violent sea with no safe harbor in sight. I hear the 23rd Psalm echoing in my thoughts, but it is of no solace. For the first time in my life I am truly afraid of the direction this country is taking. The prospect of four or eight years of Trump backed up by the clowns controlling Congress has me pondering the value of living. I truly believe historians will mark down November 8, 2016 as the point where America lost its way and degenerated into a second rate country.
May God have mercy on our souls.
I feel you. I don’t understand it.
We may give out but never give in