Everyone Wants To Know: How Did the American Experiment in Democracy Go So Wrong–So Suddenly?
Eight months into this presidency, we’re under threat of nuclear war and we have lethally violent Nazis marching in our streets, two phenomena so shocking that they’ve relegated the dozens of other unfolding catastrophes (like the demise of environmental regulations and the attack on healthcare and public schooling) to 19th-page news.
We also need to keep in mind that Trump is not the only player in modern U.S. politics, and actually, he may not be the worst, when one considers people like Mike Pence, Ted Cruz and Steve Bannon.
How did this whole thing go so wrong–so quickly? Here’s one explanation. Our society, like all others, is composed of a variety of people with a range of levels of talent, compassion, and values. Throughout the 240-year-long history of the U.S., groups of these people have risen and fallen, with no one side becoming dominant for too long. Though it was the last civilized nation on Earth to permit slavery, enlightenment finally won out over brutality in the mid-19th Century. Fifty years later, U.S. industrial might, controlled by the social and financial top 0.1%, had created horrific working conditions for the common American, but organized labor was strong enough to fight for (and ultimately win) things like occupational health and safety, a 40-hour work week, legal holidays and a ban on child labor. The political system of the day also busted huge monopolies that threatened to enslave the American people economically. The rise of fascism in Europe was fought by a huge army of American heroes. The Depression was fought by the New Deal. The thinking behind the New Deal was fought by the Reaganites. And so on.
All these complicated yet powerful forces seemed to balance out nicely, until two things happened:
• The U.S. educational system, which had been steadily falling apart, finally reached an all-time low in terms of its standards. Some say it was deliberately sabotaged over a period of decades by the people at the top who realized that a citizenry capable of critical thinking offered them no value, and in fact formed an impediment to the full dominance of their interests.
• Communications technology had advanced to the point where people could share their ideas and form groups far faster and more effectively than they could in the past. People whose ideas were most intense and fanatical had a far greater incentive to use this technology than their less zealous counterparts. These fires were fanned by the advent of extremely profitable faux “news” outlets that used disinformation to inspire hatred and further reduce their viewers’ ability to think clearly.
For the first time ever, there existed a large population of ignorant and super-passionate people with an extremely easy-to-use method of connecting with one another. Before this time, a political party’s attempt to reach and inspire these people would have failed utterly. Yes, there had always been radical right-wing Christians, Koch-brothers-style libertarians, xenophobes, Klansmen, abortion-clinic bombers, gay-bashers, anti-Semites, people born devoid of compassion, and the like scattered all over the nation, but now it had become possible to form a successful political party based squarely on ignorance and hate. To everyone’s astonishment, there were tens of millions of these people who share essentially the same values, and best of all, tend to be extremely politically active. This immediately gave rise to politicians who are incredibly effective at tapping into the raw intensity of this constituency’s beliefs, which tend to come as a bundle: racism, social conservatism, religious extremism, and blind adoration of powerful, charismatic white men who reflect their story back to them, each time with more ferocity.
The rest is history.
Or is it? Some of us think this is unsustainable, that our civilization has had far too much progress to have it fall apart and step back 75 years or so in a matter of 24 months or so. Some liken this to Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, a dramatic though short-lived disappearance of reason and decency, surrounded by the steady drumbeat of social progress that re-absorbed this terrifying little perturbation in society almost as quickly as it had flared up.
Which way, USA?
Craig,
What a very revealing insight into how you view American social history.
No wonder you are so alarmed an pessimistic !
Reading your analysis, reveals the cause of your fear. Your fear is derived from viewing all historical events from a leftist and idealized basis. Naturally such an inaccurate and unbalanced assessment of history, would lead anyone misinterpretations.
You are correct, there have always been, and always will be, fringe radical elements in any large democracy. Ultra-right, Ultra-left, and the downright crazy will always appeal to some people who feel disadvantaged or inadequate.
Just as at Charlottesville a collection of absurd “Nazis” White Supremists, and other assorted riff-raff decided to use a a local event to publicize their beliefs, so too assembled their opposite numbers comprising of anarchists,socialist-left radicals, armed leftist militia (Antifa) and the usual collection of activist troublemakers who collect on the fringe of any political demonstration or event.
But the numbers are very small. In a nation of 313 million, there were less than 200 ultra-right malcontents.
Unlike the left, these tragic, pathetic groups receive no recognition or support from mainstream conservatives.
Again, you are correct, the media sensationalists and dramatizes these events, fueling and encouraging the fire, long after the original issue is forgotten. These events are becoming a form of entertainment, like festivals.
(What remains of the Morton county pipeline protests, apart from 35,000 tones of garbage ?)
Like wise your view of history, lacks perceptive.
There is no ‘imminent’ danger of “Nuclear War” ! North Korea hasn’t yet the capacity to launch an attack on the US, and the US along with it’s allies is quite capable of crushing the North Korean regime which is bereft of allies, by conventional means.
The threat of Nuclear War was much greater in the early sixties.
Sadly, you seem to miss the importance of what’s right with America. By viewing history solely through a leftist prism, you forget America also shrugged off the radical Weather Underground, Yippies, Black Panthers, Symbionese Liberation Army,United Freedom Front, May 19th Communist Organization, and other murderous leftist fanatics.
Along the way, other self-important fringe groups have arisen and disappeared, The Molly Maguires, Anarchists etc.
Riots, and civil disorder, have been a hallmark of US society from its inception.
But the real USA is not with these over publicized fringe misanthropes and trouble makers, but is found among ordinary American people.
Yesterday and last night I stayed in Danville VA. This city was at the forefront of conflict during the civil rights movement in the 1960’s.
Today, the bitterness and hatred consigned to history,the city of Danville celebrates is unique and often confronting past, while all citizens of Danville move forward to meet the challenges of the future.
The Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History occupies the carefully preserved “Sutherlin Mansion”. This building was the site of the last “White House” of the Confederacy after the fall of Richmond.
There is no desecration of Confederate monuments, or commentaries,these are as important to the cities histories as the monuments to Martin Luther King jnr.
In Fredericksburg, VA we breakfasted at Braehead Manor, which proudly boasts of being where Robert E Lee had breakfast and tied his horse,Traveler, to a black walnut tree.
One of the civic leaders explained to me how many outsiders are astonished when he tells them his ancestors were never slaves but free workers on the old canal. One even served in the Confederate Army ! (His wife delighted in the joke,”history is seldom black and white”).
Everywhere I travel in Virginia I see amazing progress in reconciliation and the old fears and hatreds disappeared. The local people seem bewildered by the events in Charlottesville.
Most blame small groups of outsiders, or student activists for creating problems where none existed.
Craig, having visited the “south’ in the late sixties, the transformation is truly astounding and inspiring.
Your outrage and wildly exaggerated assertions are not solutions, you’re part of the problem. The American left is throwing a tantrum, unwilling to accept, much less work with fellow citizens who don’t share the same ideology.
In turn, this outrage and unwillingness to accept the result of the ballot box, fuels an extreme reaction from those who feel their voices are being shouted down.
In the words of the great American singer-poet Phil Oches:
Oh, I know you’re set on fightin’
but what are you fightin’ for ?