In a couple of my last posts where I was talking about the Iraq War, I kept thinking about something that seemed a bit like over-speculation. But the thought lingers. It’s about the recession and the economy. It’s about the Tea Party and the persistence of the conservative white right even in the face of a failed presidency. It’s about the birthers and the notion that Obama is a Muslim. It’s about the prominence of some of those crazy charlatans like Limbaugh and Beck.
I said, "We are not a people like the Germans are a people with a homogeneous ethnic heritage. Only our principles and our history bind us" … and that’s been a hard road. We had a disasterous Civil War over racial differences in our first century. A hundred years later, the country was gripped with another civil conflict we now call the Civil Rights Movement. At an earlier time, we said "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore." Now we’re building border fences and talking about immigration reform. We’re a heterogeneous lot in a big place. All we have in common are a few good documents from our founding and a short history [234 years].
During the last Administration, we sustained the first real attack on our soil. We rallied around the flag like at no other time in my lifetime. And then our own government betrayed us. In secret, it plotted a war of aggression. In secret, it tapped our citizens’ phones. In secret, it tortured prisoners of war. In secret, the Department of Justice became part of a political apparatus. In quiet, it deconstructed our Civil Rights Institutions. It lied outright to start a war. It lied to the UN, then ignored it. The Administration, besides being secret was divisively partisan. And the slogans of patriotism were used to cover a government that was much more like a Monarchy than a Democracy.
Those few good documents were tarnished, at times beyond recognition. The covenant of our founders was not honored. Our history was betrayed with duplicity, direct lies, and omissions. All of those forces that bind us were besmirched. The people on the conservative side were inflamed about the liberals. The liberals were disdained and the butt of contempt. One nation under God became Two nations – one under a specific version of God, another under seige. We are divided now in a different way than ever before, suffused with hatred. The net product of the Bush years was to fragment us into warring tribes. I personally believe a lot of that was done on purpose.
What can we do to stop this terrible situation? I really didn’t think I could go through another Clinton Administration after 8 years with Republicans and their investigations etc. with Bill Clinton. I never dreamed this would happen with President Obama. My own twin said to me the other day while listening to the tv that what he’s doing (Obama)ugh. I didn’t ask her what she meant. I do know she watches Foxnews for her updates on the world. I stopped at my friends and neighbors yard to say hithe other day and the husband said something about the mess we have with our health insurance and he said you think it’s bad now wait until the new health insurance bill starts up. I didn’t say anything. They also watch Foxnews. I’m scared, sad. I am not watching any tv. As long as we have the Koch brothers giving hundreds of millions to the Tea Party and all the dirty tricks people of the Republican party and have Ruport Murdock’s group spinning lies we’re in trouble. If you have any hope to spare about the people, please share it now.
Bless my eyes, I do believe that what you’ve come up with here is nothing less than a unified field theory to explain the ontogeny of our national discontent. And what’s more, I believe you hit the bullseye! What’s keeping us from becoming a people is the poisonous legacy of our previous administration. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap. . . .â€
from Chief Seattle’s response to the governor of the young state of Washington when informed that the state intended to move his people to a reservation:
“It matters little where we pass the remnant of our days. They will not be many. The Indian’s night promises to be dark. Not a single star of hope hovers above his horizon. Sad-voiced winds moan in the distance. Grim fate seems to be on the Red Man’s trail, and wherever he will hear the approaching footsteps of his fell destroyer and prepare stolidly to meet his doom, as does the wounded doe that hears the approaching footsteps of the hunter.”
“A few more moons, a few more winters, and not one of the descendants of the mighty hosts that once moved over this broad land or lived in happy homes, protected by the Great Spirit, will remain to mourn over the graves of a people once more powerful and hopeful than yours. But why should I mourn at the untimely fate of my people? Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the White Man whose God walked and talked with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We will see.”
“Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea.” What a beautiful, if not depressing quote. I’m not ready for a new tribe here yet, but I suppose one never is. In my next post [the State Department summary of the world’s reaction to Bush’s withdrawing us from the world court] there are a number of allusions to the fact that it’s America’s own principles that America was rejecting. It’s as if we taught the world something, but then forgot we knew it – things like the rule of law, and adherence to the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions. It’s hard to believe we wandered so far afield in just a few years. I want to say that we’re the “conservatives” now. We’re the ones that want to “conserve” our heritage…