The State of American Democracy, the Body Politic

Over the course of almost 250 years, American democracy has often been a raucous place, both at the level of the citizenry and elected officials.   But throughout those years, despite the divisions caused in our country by racism, income inequality, and ethnic bigotry, when it came time for receiving the results of elections, they have always been respected.   Majority rule has prevailed.   

And despite many people, especially Blacks, having ample cause to be aggrieved by the physical, psychic, or economic violence they experienced, America has been a place of overwhelmingly peaceful coexistence, on the surface.   Yes, there have been riots and protests that have resulted usually from cataclysmic events, but these disturbances generally did not result in a hardening of the divisions among us. 

The centripetal force has been greater than the centrifugal force.   One could be cynical and say that the centripetal force was mostly due to the aggrieved's weakness.   While that was certainly a factor, I believe that the fact that people felt that we were all Americans, regardless of our backgrounds and place of origin, and that we shared a history even though it was not really ours, because we believed in the promise of America regardless how distant it was – this was the essence of the centripetal force.   There was at some level a belief in the good-hearted nature of the body politic, there was hope, despite all the nastiness that was observed at an individual or even group level. 

The threat to our democracy now is not coming from these traditionally aggrieved groups, the classic source of revolution, but ironically from those who have been privileged but feel threatened by the aggrieved groups. 

Starting during the Reagan years, the attitude of those on the right began to harden.   The sense of conviviality with their opponents, and later even civility, was lost.   People became angry.

Partly it stemmed from Reagan's famous line that, "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."  And so the division came to be not just the traditional liberal/conservative argument about big government v small government, but government v private rights, often the de facto rights of white privilege.   

The other factor was the advent of Lee Atwater and his combative, dirty tricks, form of campaigning.   This was the beginning of the Republican's national embrace of the big lie, racial fear-mongering, smears and winning at all costs. 

And so over the next three decades, the Republicans became obstructionists when they weren't in power because they saw that as the best way to win the next election, by making it difficult if not impossible for the Democrats to make good on their promises.   Bi-partisanship was out the door, except when they were in power. 

With the election of Obama, this principle reached a fever pitch.    The epitome was probably Senator McConnell's not giving Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, a hearing, flouting all precedent, the excuse being a presidential election 7 1/2 months off. 

The election of Obama did something else.   The election of a Black President enabled the Republicans to really put fear into the hearts and minds of their base – the fear of whites losing their privileged position in American society and workplace.   Now not only were legislators in Washington nasty, people on the streets became nasty. 

But that was all just rehearsal for the real "show" - the election and presidency of Donald Trump.   Trump was able to build on the long held-in-check fears and bigotry of many Americans – towards non-whites, be they Blacks, Hispanics, or Muslims and their distrust of government, and Evangelicals' frustration at being excluded from the halls of power and not being listened to by the larger society – and turn his base and the majority of Republicans into a mob that hates liberals and distrusts the government as an agent of liberals.   He gave bigotry, distrust, and hatred legitimacy; people no longer needed to keep their voices to themselves.

The explosion of social media during this same period provided an unchecked petri dish for the expansion this animus, misinformation, and outright lies into the deepest recesses of the minds of most Republicans.   That this is no longer just the state of what was thought of as Trump's core base can be seen in the fact that 75% of Republicans surveyed by PEW Research in January 2021 believed that the election of President Biden was not legitimate; they bought the Trump argument, they bought the fake news. 

We have reached a point in the public arena where most Republicans will believe anything they are told by Trump, his allies, and FOX News, and will not believe anything the Democrats or the rest of the media says to the contrary.   What is up is down for them; there is no objective truth.  Irrationality has been mainstreamed.

This distrust has even impacted the legitimacy of government and science regarding efforts to control the pandemic.  The misinformation coursing through social media regarding the vaccine is beyond bizarre, yet that is what these people believe.   And when Republican leaders tell them that vaccine mandates and mask mandates are an assault on their Constitutional freedoms, they believe that too.

Trump said once during the campaign that "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters. "   That unfortunately might be true.   It is hard to imagine anything happening that would discredit Trump and his sycophantic allies in the eyes of their base, because all Trump has to do is label the truth "fake news" and his minions will believe him. 

The latest act of hypocritical mendacity by the Republican leadership is that they are calling President Biden to task for not meeting his campaign pledge to control the virus, when it is their stand against vaccine mandates and mask mandates that has removed the only power he potentially had to control the virus.   The large number of unvaccinated Americans, and thus the ongoing surges, is largely a product of their failure to support science and proven epidemiological methods.

Regardless whether Democrats manage to maintain power in the midterms and 2024, it is highly likely, given Republican gerrymandering and the situation I've described, that Congress will remain evenly and combatively divided.   I fear we will have reached a situation in which the electorate, the body politic, is divided more deeply than at any time in our history, except for the Civil War. 

And I can think of nothing that would turn the tide, barring a near-total turnabout by Republican elected officials.   But even when Trump at some point ceases to be in the picture,  and it is inevitable that that will occur, it is pretty clear that they will not lead but instead pander to their base in order to get elected.   They have created a monster and it must be fed.   They have no ethics and they have no shame. 

It seems likely that we are struck with this dynamic until there is a generational change or some major event occurs that shakes up the status quo.   How sad. 

The False Promise of the Future

We as a society/culture are very future-oriented.   Why?  Because we feel the future holds the promise of having better lives, often through advances in science and technology. 

This perspective was boldly stated 50-60 years ago by companies such as DuPont, "Better living through chemistry," and General Electric, "Progress is our most important product."  The common thought was that everyone's lives would be made easier, not just housewives', by advances in science and technology.   As a result we would spend less time working – it was expected that the work-week would shrink to 35 hours – and more time relaxing and playing. 

As we know, however, although women do spend less time, certainly less arduous time, in keeping house and clothes clean and cooking than they did pre-WWII, it is safe to say that no one's life has gotten easier, that our work time has reduced and play time increased.   In fact just the opposite. 

We live now in a world where everyone is constantly connected through technology and is therefore expected to be available at all times, whether for work or otherwise.   We live in a world where the demands of work have become more oppressive.   And where mothers, while they spend less time on certain tasks, have been given a whole new set of tasks which take up a huge amount of time and energy, e.g. soccer moms.

Everything has become more complicated, not easier, and with it, the frustrations of completing tasks, of knowing how to move forward has increased.   This is not how it was supposed to be.   This is not what the prophets of progress, of the future, had promised us. 

But it gets worse.   It's not only that the promise hasn't panned out, the whole premise is an example of wrong thinking. 

What would make our lives truly better than they are now?  Let me list a few things for starters.   Feeling secure.   Feeling good about yourself.   Feeling you are loved.   Feeling you can trust others.   Feeling you will be ok regardless what life throws your way. 

It is safe to say that for most people, the feelings I just listed would not be descriptive.   Yet what is life if one does not have these feelings/knowledge.   You can have all the material wealth in the world, and still not be happy, still not feel secure.   We see evidence of that all around us, both among the rich and powerful and those at the other end of the affluence/power scale. 

The problem is how our culture – and it's not just America's, it's now the world's – defines happiness.   Happiness in this scenario, as portrayed in countless movies, ads, and media, consists of having the financial ability to acquire the things that make for the "good" life.   To get what you want, to be successful, on any level.   If you do, you will be happy; if you don't, you will be frustrated and upset. 

From practical experience we all know this is not true.   Even when people get what they want, they still want more, they aren't satisfied, they worry about losing what they have.   Our masked insecurity gives us no peace.

What is needed to allow the vast majority of people to lead a meaningfully better life, to experience peace, happiness, and security, not necessarily materially, is a major shift in how our culture defines happiness. 

Luckily we don't have to look very far.   The teachings of Buddhism and that of the mystical traditions of all three major Abrahamic faiths (not the organized religions) all teach that happiness means to be at peace with oneself, to have good self-esteem, to know that you will be ok regardless what life throws your way.   That happiness comes from within and is not dependent on anything outside you. 

But how do we get to there from here?  The answer is back to the future.   Advances of science and technology are all well and good.   But they are meaningless, if not destructive, if people are not grounded in the past – not in the sense of their past, but the past of mankind.   And first and foremost, that involves a connection to and faith in a cosmic force larger than ourselves, and derivatively faith in ourselves.   

Whether it's the cosmic force of the Buddhist universe (Buddha is not a God, a deity, so the faith is not in him) or the Divine essence that the mystical traditions of the Abrahamic faiths teach is in each of us, or whether it's a more new-age concept of God, or the Universe or your higher power – humans must know that they are not put on this earth to fulfill some banal material or sexual desire. 

They are instead put on earth to be good human beings.   Human beings are born with the divine essence inside them.   And what is that divine essence?  It is light, love, faith, trust, compassion, humility, gratefulness, joy, contentment, strength, courage, and wisdom.   A human being treats other people with kindness, which is why inhumanity is defined as cruelty.   A human being has lived his life well if he has offered joy to himself and others and made a positive difference in the lives of others. 

If we were grounded in this faith in ourselves and the universe, we would have no fear of the future, of death, or of anything else.  We would do, commit our lives to, whatever we felt inside us that we were meant to do, not what our culture or our parents want us to do.  And we would be happy doing what we felt we were meant to do, regardless whether we were "successful. "  True happiness is derived from the doing, not by the outcome. 

And if we lived in a world where everyone was grounded in this faith, we would not be faced with the competitive forces we experience today.   Society would be more communal in nature with people helping others.   Everyone would have their acknowledged place at the table (not as in 'know your place").   And if people could not provide for themselves, government would provide the resources so all people could live a life of dignity and respect. 

There would still be the rich and the poor, but the difference would be far less and the poor would want for none of the essentials of life or of the equal opportunity to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. 

Does this sound like a utopia?   I guess the answer would have to be, yes.  But the sad thing is that man has it in his ability to create such a world.   He has been given a highly developed brain but has not used that brain to make human life better, on a higher plane, than animal life.   Instead, man's brain, his mind, has in many ways made his life worse; there is no such thing as a neurotic animal, unless he has come under the control of man; whereas neurosis in man, psychic suffering, is universal.   Animals are wise in ways which men have ceased to be. 

I don't know what the answer to these observations is.   But the observation, the truth, needs to be spoken.   If there is any hope for man, it is with people becoming aware of this truth, understanding its impact, and vowing to change their approach to life accordingly.   The change will come one person at a time.   Perhaps over the course of a generation, this movement will create a sufficient mass to have an impact on the rest of society. 

Are the Reborn Truly Reborn?

For years now, it's been a common experience to hear of people, even politicians, boast of being reborn; that they have a personal relationship with Christ.   Yet they never act very Christ-like.   What are we to make of this?

Buddhism teaches that we are all born with a luminous mind, with the true Buddha nature inside us.   But as in the Garden of Eden, we partake of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, which is learned experience, and so are drawn into the world of conflict, insecurity, and suffering.

In Buddhism, spiritual rebirth is a mind-altering experience.  It takes you back to that time when you were freshly born and were free of all judgmental thoughts, all learned emotions and cravings – free of the products of your temporal mind – and were at one with Buddha nature, your divine essence.   While anyone can have this experience, few do because it means disavowing all one's learned experience, all one has learned from the prevailing culture.  It requires not just deep faith but great discipline.

To be reborn in Christianity means something quite different.   The Evangelical community is particularly rife with people saying they are reborn and have a personal relationship with Christ because it is a rite of passage.   But Evangelical rebirth means being saved; it is a commitment to Christ in the form they have been taught.   While they thus may no longer be "sinners" and have this personal relationship, and in that sense begin a new life and are reborn, they have not connected with their divine essence, with the fundamental teachings of Jesus Christ, and so they are not spiritually reborn. 

The proof is in their actions.   The God they connect to, as they have been taught he exists, is a God who views with skepticism if not contempt those, including other Christians, who do not accept his truths as stated in the Bible, which they view as His word and inerrant.  They thus have a holier-than-thou, a self-righteous attitude towards both other Christians and other religions.   They are prideful.   

And on moral/cultural issues, anyone who argues against their view of God's truth is viewed with prejudice and hatred for they are not just against God, but they are trying to influence others in their belief, which is a threat to the Evangelical's duty to spread the word.  This threatens the salvation of those who as a result, in their view, walk in error.

Thus the reborn Evangelical will typically express emotions that are not reflective of divine essence.   It is quite astounding to a non-Christian, and I'm sure disconcerting to many Christians, to see people who claim to be fervent followers of Jesus Christ act and think in ways that are massively contrary to "what Jesus would do" as evidenced by his teachings and actions as related in the New Testament. 

On one level, you could say, "So what."  To each his own.   But Evangelicals feel it is their duty to spread the word, which has come to mean forcing others to follow their belief in God's truth through the force of law.   

For example, in the abortion debate, from their perspective, any threat to the mother's health by not having an abortion is irrelevant; saving the unborn fetus, not murdering it, predominates in importance.   Thus right-wing pro-life legislation of late does not provide for an exception if the mother's life is endangered.   

To be convinced that you have a lock on the truth, and that those who disagree are not only wrong but therefore against God, anti-Christ, is a dangerous state of mind.   Certainly if one is a leader with enormous power, such as President George W. Bush.   

His religious conversion, being reborn, was a major influence in his life; he thought that God wanted him to run for President, and he thought in the Presidency that he was doing God's work.   There was thus no ambivalence; there was a moral certainty to his actions that was scary.   And he brooked no disagreement .   As he famously said, "You're either with us or against us."

This feeling of moral certainty among the religious Right is one reason why the current political divide in our country is so deep.

Last Month in Afghanistan - The Month that Could Have Been

This post is not about the last 20 years in Afghanistan and all the wrong policies that have been implemented.   Nor is it about the fact that the Taliban wanted to surrender after several months of American bombing in 2001, but the Bush administration said that the U.S. does not negotiate surrender.  That is, the Taliban would have to surrender; no terms.  Nor is it about Trump's terrible decision to negotiate our withdrawal with the Taliban.

This is about what could/should have happened in the last month or two leading up to the departure of U.S. troops.  Everyone, including The New York Times, says that regardless what Biden would have done, the pullout would have been a mess.   I respectfully disagree. 

While our forces did not have the advantage in the wilds of Afghanistan - it never has the advantage in a guerrilla war - it still had the advantage in the plains around Kabul.   What the President should have done, before the collapse of Kabul security, was announce that he has ordered the military to redeploy in order to:

1. secure the airport,
2. secure the road to the airport
3. secure Kabul until all Americans and Afghans [situated in Kabul] who helped our effort and wanted to leave were evacuated. 

Only then, would U.S forces withdraw and leave.  

This last phase should not have been left to the Afghan security forces.   Yes, American intelligence thought they would hold on for a few months, but that wasn't a chance they should have taken

This would have been a conditioned withdrawal, rather than time-certain, which Biden has rejected.   But it would have been a pullout in which the U.S. would have been in control and it would have been orderly.   No repeat of Saigon. 

Instead, it appears to the world as if the Taliban is in control, which they are, and the greatest military force in the world is running around like a chicken with its head cut off, depending on the Taliban to protect them from ISIS.   Not pretty. 

Trump and the Vaccine Conundrum

Where is Trump when you need him?  Did I really say that?

Unfortunately, yes.  There is only one person who could convince most of the rest of the country to get vaccinated – Trump.  If he came out with a strong PSA, stressing his role in getting the vaccines developed and approved ASAP to stop the virus from crippling our country, and urging his supporters to do their patriotic duty and get vaccinated, that probably would make a major difference. 

Between his personalizing the issue and making it an act of patriotism, his supporters would probably march lock-step to the vaccination clinics. 

This is really our only hope.  There is no chance that the federal government, or most state governments, will follow the example of New York City and San Francisco and impose vaccination passport mandates.  That and a renewed mask mandate would have sufficed to get the virus under control again.  But that's not going to happen. 

So someone must appeal to Trump.  This is no time for politics or self-righteousness.  Right now, we need Trump.   

President Biden can't make that appeal because Trump doesn't recognize him.  And it can't be one of his allies.  It must be someone from the other side who comes to him asking for his help. And who better to make the appeal probably than Dr. Fauci?  Someone Trump respects despite past disagreements.

We Must Stop the Virus NOW

Most of the country – both governments and people – has diddled over the course of the last 17 months while the virus has taken its toll, surged again, taken its toll, and surged again.  With the availability of effective vaccines last January (I hate to say it, but thanks to Trump's urgency), we all breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that if the vast majority of people get vaccinated, the virus would be stopped, even if not eliminated. 

But there was a major problem with this scenario:  almost half the people did not want to get vaccinated for one reason or another.   Whether the reason was political, misinformation, or fear, the result is the same.   And despite the best efforts of government and NGOs to turn this around, nothing to date has been effective. 

The only solution, short of declaring a national health emergency and forcing everyone to get vaccinated, is to separate the vaccinated from the unvaccinated to the extent possible.   Requiring a vaccine passport to enter any indoor establishment that is not essential, including airplanes.   For essential indoor venues, like grocery stores, it means mandating masks for everyone..

Airplanes must be included because if you look at the New York Times hot spot map, what is clearly happening in the coastal south is that unvaccinated tourists are bringing the virus to resort areas and from there it is spreading.    To control unvaccinated people driving to resort areas, hotels must be told to require proof of vaccination (that was done in New England earlier in the pandemic).

This must be done nationally, not left to the states.  And it must be done now.   States like Texas and Florida are actually prohibiting both vaccine mandates and mask mandates by local governments.   There  can be no hesitation.   We know what hesitation brings.  Actually, we have already hesitated again and the horse is out of the barn, but the virus can still be corralled. 

If people continue to choose not to get vaccinated, then they cannot be allowed to infect others.  This is not about their freedom not to get vaccinated to protect themselves; it's about their not having the freedom to infect others.    They must pay the price for their socially irresponsible behavior by being segregated. 

The Present Holding Pattern

I haven't written a post in a month.   The reason is that there is really nothing new to post about.   

1.   Republicans are being true to their conversion to Trumpism, whether at the national or state level (although it is more rabid at the state  level).   In Congress, they are either just interested in blocking Biden's agenda, regardless of the interests of their constituents, whose interests they are supposed to represent.   Or they continue to further the falsehood that Biden won the election fraudulently and the January 6 storming of the capitol had nothing to do with Trump and the people in the riot were just patriots. 

I would love to see a video that juxtaposed Speaker McCarthy's statements on January 6 and immediately thereafter, and his statements now.   You can't even call it a shift.   It's a total reversal from truth to lies.  The man and his party have no shame, no ethics.

2.   The virus is doing its thing, and the millions of unvaccinated people in the US are enabling it to have another surge with the Delta variant which is causing, in areas with low vaccination rates, numbers of cases to rival the worst part of the pandemic.   And when these unvaccinated people get infected and travel to areas with high vaccination rates and partake in crowded indoor activities (restaurants, bars, dance clubs), even those vaccinated (who aren't wearing masks anymore) get infected. 

There is no indication that anything much will change on this front.   Many people who choose not to be vaccinated are adamant.   Some are undecided still, and so perhaps they will get the shots, but the majority are in the first group. 

Bottom line, while we were never going to be free of the virus, it looks like our return to normal in most areas of the country is a thing of the past.   Even the vaccinated will have to wear a mask indoors, certainly in a reasonably crowded venue.   

Some places, like Broadway theaters, are requiring people to be fully vaccinated and wear masks in order to attend.  Some employers are requiring works to be vaccinated,  All indoor venues, except those that are essential, should have this requirement.   This includes airlines.   And if they aren't essential, all visitors must be required to wear a mask. 

3.   No news on the climate change front.   We continue to experience increased numbers of and severity of natural disasters, whether it's heat, rain, flooding, drought, wildfires, etc.   As with the virus, too many people take no responsibility for their actions and efforts by the government will have minimal impact, and too late.   We are it seems past the tipping point and the only question is how bad will it get.   That's the only thing we/government can impact now. 

So we as a country and as a government are in a stalemated, holding, pattern.   It is in all regards a sad state of affairs.   Whatever euphoria and hope there was after Trump lost the election are long since gone.   For the foreseeable future,  posts will come when matters warrant or there is some important observation to make.