I Never Would Have Predicted That the US Democracy Could Fall Apart So Easily

I always thought that even though there were people like Reagan, Nixon, McCarthy, Trump etc, they would always be in the minority

When I was growing up, most nights at our family dinner table my father would bring up a potential political issue and challenge us to debate it. He always took the Far-Right position and we were assigned the Far Left.

Why did he do that?

As a high school history teacher, he was committed to teaching his students the critical thinking skills they needed to defend themselves in any political argument and to learn about the history underlying the positions that people took when they formed their opinions and beliefs about an issue.

To do that, he felt they needed to know the stances that all the different political parties had on current issues. In order to help them get that information, he taught an elective class for juniors and seniors called “Problems in American Democracy. And he and another history teacher friend, Herbert Robb, wrote a series of books called “From Right To Left; Readings on the Socio-Political Spectrum”.

A veteran of World War II, he was committed to the right to free speech. I often heard him say “I may not agree with what they’re saying but I will protect their right to say it!” And that was no idle saying. Much to the protest of the school administration, he even brought in white supremacists and other speakers with fringe ideologies to speak to his classes. As an ethnic Jew, this was at times, a very difficult position for him to take but he felt that it was what the right to free speech demanded.

As a committed political left-winger, he was committed to teaching us the principles of social justice; to care about other people, not just ourselves. My grandmother told me that when he was growing up, she called him “my little communist”.

Dad was not a communist but he believed strongly that the government had an obligation to take care of ALL of its citizens; that no one should have to live in our wealthy country without a roof over their head, clothes on their back, and food in their bellies.

And he also taught us to fight for the rights of the underprivileged people in America and other countries. As a white person, I grew up also playing with black children. He also took me on the civil rights march on Washington in August 1963.

Bottom line: Dad loved and cherished all kinds of people. He did not discriminate against any person regardless of their sex, gender, colour, ethnicity, etc. And he raged incessantly against bias, racism, white supremacist movements and any other belief system that treated people in such an unethical manner.

So that’s how I was raised and acquired many of the beliefs I have based my life on; about how a fair and ethical democratic society should organize itself and support its members.

This brings me to our troubled current times.

I always thought that even though there were people like Reagan, Nixon, McCarthy, Trump etc, they would always be in the minority. I believed that eventually reason would prevail and they would be forgotten and fade into distant history. But now I can see that’s not the case and never has been.

Like all other countries in the world, the US also has a history speckled with corrupt politicians at all levels of government from city to state to federal positions including some of our presidents; Ray Nagin, The Keating 5, Warren G. Harding and the Teapot Dome Scandal, Richard Nixon and Watergate, Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed; the list goes on.

And now we have Donald Trump and The Big Lie and his loyal followers determined to destroy the democracy our founders fought so hard to bring into existence. To bring the US down to the level of countries with autocratic dictators like Vladimir Putin in Russia, and so many others.

It is quite interesting to note that not a single one of the current dictators in that image is a woman! But there have been women dictators in the past and there will likely be others in the future, too.

Thankfully, we have people like Heather Cox Richardson, who passionately defend those rights and freedoms and use social media to keep us informed on the comings and goings of the Trumpers.

But is it enough?

And do the majority of people in our great country constitute a sufficient political force to put a stop to this movement to manifest previous white supremacist racist and dictatorial ideology in today’s US?

Remember, Biden won the election by a huge majority — 7 million more votes than Trump got.

Unfortunately, even with those numbers, I think not. And it saddens me greatly.

Were my father still alive, I can only imagine how it would make him feel. He would be in a state of constant fury or it would profoundly depress him. He firmly believed if people were given the facts, they would eventually make the correct choices. And he always took some satisfaction in the fact that if we look at the progression of humanity over the long haul — hundreds of years — it has inexorably moved to greater freedoms for the common person.

But we all live in the short term, 90 years give or take a few if we’re lucky!

I don’t pretend to have any new profound ideas or answers for you. Sorry about that.

But I do have hope for the future.

I think that ultimately, the will of the people will come back to taking care of each other and this planet we all live on. There are strong undercurrents of Indigenous reconciliation, anti-racism and taking care of the Lands and its Peoples. And young people who want to have a world in which they can live, love and be proud to bring up their generations.

So let’s hope that these ideas succeed because if they don’t, I think we’re in deep dooh dooh.

And that’s all the political ranting I have in me today.

Until later,

Rich