We’re Spiraling Down Into Amorality, Paranoia, and Collapse

Tracing America’s tortuous right-wing path to Hell

When I was a teenager, my father, a conservative political science professor, often complained about all the awful things “liberals” and free-thinking liberalism were doing to undermine our nation’s morality. Like many of his generation, he looked askance (that’s putting it mildly) at the sexual experimentation, social rebellion, and protests taking place during the 60s and 70s, and was quick to lay the blame for America’s “moral decline” on the political left.

I also remember how, on numerous occasions, he repeated that the first telltale sign of this intensifying decline was… rebellious, self-centered Americans (meaning lefties??) starting to ignore and break traffic laws. To him, this was a significant early indicator of moral regression and impending social chaos: the first warning sign of societal collapse.

At the time, I thought this idea was simplistic and absurd. But today, all these decades later, I have to admit: He was actually on to something. Our mushrooming sociopolitical problems are all interconnected, and they feed off each other… grow… and spread… and often worsen. As a popular 80s song put it, “One thing leads to another”.

Starting from some seemingly minor, fairly benign beginnings in the mid-60s, including minor law-breaking (traffic laws and rules, smoking pot, etc.) and quiet social protest and rebellion… well, one thing led to another, and events began escalating rather quickly. Mini-rebellions and occasional protests soon became… more widespread, much larger, and much more intense and disruptive.

Of course, conservatives were aghast; they felt like their orderly world was falling apart. Their preferred, dominant worldview was threatened — so they struck back hard. (This same pattern recurred in 2020–21 during and after all the massive George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests.)

Put differently, in the late 60s-70s the rapid rise of the hippies, yippies, the Black Power movement, the anti-war movement, and widespread political protests led — quite predictably — to a massive, angry conservative backlash, which attempted to stuff the evil liberal genie back into its bottle, and to squash the “immorality” and newfound social freedom that many conservatives and Christians found offensive.

Of course, it never really worked: The “evil genie” was already circulating freely among us, spreading its potent mischief (or enlightenment, depending on your viewpoint), and our morality would truly never be the same again.

The crucial “X factor” the right always ignores or denies

But beyond all this… there was a crucial factor propelling America’s moral decline that my father and other conservatives consistently missed or denied — and still do: The long-term tendency of the political right to bend and twist morality and the law to its own ends (think Nixon and Trump), and to use any means necessary to “win at any cost”.

Burglary, deception, voter suppression, intense gerrymandering, demagoguery, slander, race-baiting, inciting racial violence, mass-distributing disinformation, running crude, misleading attack ads, overt character assassination, actual public assassinations… no method is too low or too despicable to utilize if it gets the desired result: prevailing politically. (Ever notice that every public figure successfully assassinated over the past 60 years — JFK, RFK, MLK, Harvey Milk, and others — has been a Democrat or liberal? It’s a very sobering and revealing fact.)

It’s the right’s heinous “No Principles” principle in action: No method is too low or too despicable to utilize to maintain power. This was true of the whole sordid Watergate mess…the shocking Iran-Contra scandal and cover-up under Reagan…the series of democracy-defeating court decisions that handed the 2000 election victory to the loser of the popular vote, George Bush… and the incendiary disinformation campaign re: Iraq’s supposed “weapons of mass destruction” that became the main pretext for the Iraq war.

More recently, it was true of the ridiculously successful, Russia-assisted disinformation blitz that undermined Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, primarily via the hugely overblown “email controversy”. It’s true of Trump’s and the GOP’s unconscionable, ongoing attempts to smear and overturn Biden’s 2020 election win. And of course, there’s Trump and his far-right “Stop the Steal!” collaborators egging on the assembled mob and instigating the bloody Jan. 6 insurrection/coup attempt.

These are just the worst and most well-known examples. There are many others.

Now, I can almost hear the loud angry cries and protests from the right, “What about Bill Clinton and the horrible Monica Lewinsky scandal? What about Obama and Hillary Clinton and the whole Benghazi debacle? What about all of Obama’s and Biden’s terrible failures?” On and on: What about this “liberal disaster”… and what about that one…?!

But the problem with the right’s knee-jerk “what-about-ism” is that it’s usually employed to deflect serious inquiry and to draw false equivalencies — to “prove” that the other side’s actions are just as or more immoral or destructive than theirs, or that one political point of view is just as bad or ill-informed as the other, etc.

In this case, though, it’s simply not accurate and is actually a kind of clever cover-up.

Sure, there have been some major mistakes or scandals involving the left, including Benghazi, but in my opinion, none of the Left’s political scandals carry the immense, immoral weight or pernicious aftereffects of those perpetrated by the right.

Even our horribly botched withdrawal from Afghanistan was set up and largely predetermined by Trump (via his disastrous Feb. 2020 agreement with the Taliban) — and then Biden foolishly went ahead with a poorly-planned withdrawal and got saddled with/judged for its awful consequences.

Who’s really the most amoral and destructive? (Hint: It starts with “R”)

When I — and others — recall the various political scandals of the past 50 years, it’s clear that the ones that have hurt America the most, and had the worst long-lasting effects, were usually those enacted or encouraged by “conservatives” and the right (as described above). In terms of sheer wicked willfulness and amorality, the left and the Democrats can’t hold a candle to the wily, devious plans and anti-democratic (small “d”) actions of the right.

It’s no contest; it’s not even close.

Here’s my assessment of America’s “moral decline”: I agree — to a point — that the excessive rebellion and experimentation of the liberals and hippies during the 60s-70s did have some damaging effects, did undermine our past morality in some ways, and were too disruptive and provocative.

However… I think that the strongest, most damaging influence, by far, has been the amoral “win at any cost”, “might makes right” attitude that prevails on the right.

This is especially ironic — and infuriating — because the right and American conservatives always paint themselves as the patriotic proponents of “law and order” — the loyal, real Americans — who are proudly defending our way of life from the immoral, “socialist” left.

There’s just one tiny problem: It isn’t true. It just… isn’t… true. Most of the time, most folks on the right don’t really give a damn about “law and order” — not really. What they DO care about is appearing to care about it, and using their loud “law and order” mantra to force through laws or results they favor. They want — and push hard for — a political and justice system that works quite well for them. That’s it.

It really must be said now: Overall, the right is not more moral, nor does it hold any moral “high ground” — though they are often highly moralistic and harshly judgmental.

In fact, the truth is more the opposite: Many people on the right rank quite high on the “hostility index”, have a pronounced empathy deficit and a self-serving “morality”, and are much more concerned about protecting white folks’ rights and freedom (to do and say what they want, to whomever they want) than about others’ rights and freedom.

That’s what they actually seem to mean when they reverentially call our nation “the land of the free”. And in the right’s fevered pursuit of individual (white) freedom, its partisans usually end up oppressing others and limiting or denying others’ rights — invariably in the name of morality, or “God’s will”, or “election integrity”, or defending our nation against the “evil socialist left”, or protecting the U.S. from “invading” immigrant hordes, etc.

Some unwanted advice for those on the right

So here’s a word of advice to folks on the right, especially the far-right: don’t even bother, anymore, with your hypocritical, deceitful attempts to claim the moral high ground. Forget all your super-annoying, judgmental nonsense about being somehow “morally superior”. Truth is, you forfeited the right to any admiration or respect a long time ago, through your rampant, cruel divisiveness and your own highly immoral and amoral actions.

Instead, try being honest for a change, and admit that what you really, deeply believe in is amassing and keeping raw power “at any cost”. Admit, for once, that what you really believe in the most is “might makes right”, and keeping America “free” for you — meaning, keeping a firm grasp on your much-loved freedom to oppress and limit non-white or non-Christian Americans (and now even women in general!).

But hey, I’m a realist. I know you’ll never admit to any such thing. You’ll keep pretending that you’re morally upright, and represent the “real” America… and you’ll keep attacking the left, and immigrants, and non-white Americans, and non-Christians mercilessly.

You’ll keep parroting Trump’s election lies, badly undermining democracy and America’s stability, and endangering its (our) very survival. And you’ll likely do it all wearing a big, surly grin, cocksure of your “moral uprightness”.

Thanks a lot. Thanks for contributing so much to the escalating destruction of America, its moral compass, and its precious freedoms.

It couldn’t have happened without you.