Restoration of Core American Values

German-born playwright Bertold Brecht escaped Nazi Germany in 1933; after brief stints in Prague and Paris, he ultimately landed in Copenhagen.  At left is the warning he gave the rest of the world when Hitler fell in 1945.

The reason that this admonition is so relevant in today’s world is obvious: At the surface, what has come to be called “Trumpism” will soon be repudiated.  At that point, the United States will experience some level of sanity and decency from its new president, for the first time in four years, and this has the nation hoping for the best: the application of science in handling the pandemic, the return of rule of law, a cabinet that is put in place to serve the American people (rather than to punish them), a revival of environmental responsibility, and a refocus on quality public education.   

Yes, it’s rational to hope for all these things.  But here’s something we need to accept: the new presidential administration will absolutely not be able to extinguish the forces that brought Trump to power in the first place.  We have seen an intensely ugly side to the American psyche: one of racist hate, of cruelty and brutality, of ignorance and unquestioning acceptance of asinine conspiracy theories, of terror, of selfishness and greed.  As the cliché goes, the genie has been released, and he’s not going back into the bottle.

Yes, over time, it’s possible that some of the pressure that brought all this to the surface can be relieved.  This will start with the presidential inauguration, and the soon-to-follow realization that Trump lost a free and fair election, and committed many felonies during his tenure in office.  It took many Americans years and years to accept the fact that Nixon was, in fact, a crook after all; there is no reason to expect anything different here.

With a bit of luck and a great deal of common sense on the part of the American public, we can get a grip on the pandemic and a productive return to the workplace.  From there, we may be able to refashion a country rooted in a stable middle class, and a life defined by the values that were prevalent in the years where the U.S. actually was at its zenith, i.e., post World War II and prior to the dawn of neoliberalism in the early 1980s.  These values included truth, lawfulness, compassion, and a respect for science.

It’s really not that much to ask.  Keep in mind: we really were very good at all this for a considerable period of time.