POLITICS/HISTORY

In This New Wave of Fascism, Who Will Save the United States?

Or will the world celebrate our demise?

I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. That’s how the song goes, right? But are we truly free?

I remember my early education about the history of our country and the pride I felt as my teachers described how we helped to spread democracy and defended the world against tyrants. I was especially proud of our role during World War II and how we helped to liberate Hitler’s concentration camps. I thought my country’s actions were heroic.

In a Western Civilization class I took one summer at community college, I recall getting into a spirited debate with my professor. He stated that the United States was the only Western nation in the world that wasn’t imperialistic. I had a lot to say about that, including pointing out how we acquired all 50 states, our occupation of the Philippines, and our failure to grant Puerto Rico statehood. He didn’t appreciate my comments because I proved him wrong.

Our country has a history of involvement in conflict with the outward goal of promoting democracy and freedom of all people. But is that actually our goal, or is it for other purposes?

Is spreading the gospel of democracy really of benefit to everyone? Perhaps some cultures are thriving just fine without our intervention. Just because it’s different doesn’t mean it’s bad.

How is it, then, that we are failing at saving ourselves as our country becomes enthralled by the rise of the very principles we claim to hate?

Do we not see that a certain ex-president thinks of himself as a dictator for the ages? And that if we neglect to punish him for his crimes, including inciting an insurrection, he will return to power? Just like Hitler.

The parallels are striking. The rhetoric of blaming non-whites for the ills of our nation. The banning of books. The celebration of ignorance and blind obedience. The worshiping of guns. And with an added declaration that Jesus was American. Seriously?

If we have viewed our nation throughout history as a savior, who will save us if we fail to deviate from this awful path toward a theocracy?

America is not becoming great again. It’s not thriving. The traditional Republican rhetoric of avoiding government overreach is no longer true. As women are stripped of their bodily autonomy, ignorance is celebrated, immigrants are demonized, and our for-profit prison system exploits the poor, where, exactly, are we headed as a nation?

In this age of the parental rights movement, our educational systems are suffering. How did we get to the point where librarians and teachers are demonized? How did being well-educated become elitist?

It feels like we are drowning in fascism, democracy hanging on, desperately treading water, arms flapping, almost ready to beg for help. And I don’t think any other countries feel sorry for us. Sometimes I think we are viewed as the bullies in the schoolyard rather than the beacon of hope.

Those who continue to believe the myth of American exceptionalism fail to see the truth.

The United States does not have its own unique culture. Rather, it’s built on a foundation of the displacement of indigenous people and the labor of the enslaved. Upon this are layers of the cultures of other countries that existed long before ours, brought here by the imperialism of those invading nations and enhanced by immigrants who continue to seek the good life here. It is frosted with a generous layer of corrupted capitalism and sprinkled with bits of the moral code of Christianity, seeping into and contaminating any of the good parts of those underlying cultural layers.

Capitalism, just like any version of economic concepts, has its good. The problems arise when those in power figure out how to tweak the system to accumulate more power and wealth. And that’s what we have now. I think it’s safe to say that the theory of trickle-down economics has failed. Instead of sharing the wealth, these policies have created the largest wealth gap in American history.

Those crying about the evils of socialism don’t understand how much of this already exists in America. We have income to spend through taxation on various programs and infrastructure to benefit all. This includes things like roadways, libraries, and public schools.

Furthermore, the idea of meritocracy is also damning. Blaming the poor for staying poor as some kind of a moral failure on their part deflects from the very real policies in place to provide as many obstacles as possible for pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and climbing out of the hole of poverty. And it means that this society does not respect basic human rights; this belief system implores you to earn your rights. The principle that everyone is born with equal opportunity is merely a myth and is certainly not reality.

Some will argue that the United States remains the best country in the world. Traveling and seeing different cultures would prove that we have a lot to learn.

Where do we go from here?

If we do not make the leaders who have participated in the rise of anti-democratic legislation answer for their mistakes, I’m afraid we will lose democracy forever.

As a child, you believe the good things your teachers taught you about our country’s history. Why would you not? But as you age and discover other truths by word of mouth and through books, you realize your nation isn’t as noble as it seems.

We wish our country were completely moral, but it’s disgusting when we learn the truth. There were no “happy slaves” and “good masters.”Just like the U.S. is fully capable of creating concentration camps and committing genocide, just as we did to citizens of Asian descent during World War II as we fought these very atrocities in Europe.

We take pride in fighting the Nazis but fail to recognize the patterns happening in our own country right now, allowing the path to fascism and theocracy to be paved. We are already on the journey. The pieces are falling in line. People are so hungry to blame their problems on someone else. And we are failing to halt the slide into theocracy and authoritarian government.

We have some choices to make this year. I fear that we have lost our place as the purveyors of democracy. But I wonder if anyone will be there to help us if we don’t make the right ones. At the very least, please vote. This is no time for apathy.

These are among the thoughts that keep me awake at night. They plague my dreams and fuel nightmares of women being rounded up by the men and sequestered into dorms. Of having to escape by shimmying down flaming elevator shafts. Of knowing that what little power I had over my life no longer remains.

If you want to dive deeper into our failings in U.S. education, I encourage you to read Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen.

As always, I hope you all are safe and healthy.