“We can be grateful that the assorted criminals and white supremacists Trump chose to fill so many of the highest positions were too incompetent to keep this descent into fascism going any longer.
But most all we owe gigantic thanks to the 80 million decent Americans who voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It is because of their courage and determination that our badly corroded but still functioning democratic apparatus has proved able to survive.”
Charles Kaiser, THE GUARDIAN 11/25/2020
The recent election and its exciting aftermath plainly show how fragile America’s system of self-government, which we have bragged about throughout our history, has become. We staved off lurking fascism, but power worshippers will keep on fomenting discontent and rebellion against all attempts Joe Biden might make to get things done. Our free society is suffering a gaping wound, and a mere bandage cannot stem the loss. We require major surgery, massive reconstruction, and intense therapy if we hope to revive democracy. And the rehabilitation must be done peacefully, if we hope to make meaningful changes. With the election of two moderate Democrats, there is a strong temptation to relax into “normalcy.” But over time the forces of corporate autocracy—fascism—have found their way into every niche of our “normal” polity. These entrenched forces remain ready to stonewall even moderate reforms. Republicans could work with Joe Biden, but we know from their eight-year example during Obama’s presidency, they won’t. They constantly demonstrate complete indifference to the good of the nation, beyond the top one percent. They will have no compunction about doing nothing throughout Biden’s term, hoping to embarrass the new administration, hoping they can retake power for the corporate state. Normalcy, whatever it was, is no longer attainable.
Progressives face a balancing act between building a new normal of government reform, and compromising with any conservatives willing to actually compromise in order to run a government. We can only hold our balance by maintaining and increasing our electoral strength—keeping the record number of voters, and recruiting new ones, which means going to any, all, and extra lengths to keep the promises made to them. Giving up after a few halfhearted tries is not an option. Jailing the vandals who invaded the Capitol will not suffice. Biden proposed some specific policy changes, the gist of which is we become in reality one nation. The current, unspoken reality is that within the borders of the United States there are two countries: one for people of European descent, the other a colony composed of everybody else. Though the two do not co-exist peacefully, geography prevents America from simply setting the colony free and walking away, as the European colonial powers could, as the United States did with the Philippines. Still, our colonial citizens, like people everywhere (including white Americans in 1776) want independence, to make their own decisions and mistakes. In America’s unique situation, independence means equality and true democracy.
A senior white male, having lived a lifetime in the first country, I voted against the side most of my peers (for reasons of their own) chose. A victory for my peer group’s side would have cemented authoritarian rule, which I have vocally opposed. It was easy for me to vote, but other Americans had to brave a raging pandemic and many barriers the corporate state had erected against their voting. Vote they did, though, for their independence, and also for mine. Thanks to them, I have no worries now about having to meet the American version of the Thought Police—in fact the very idea seems strange again, to my tremendous relief. To show my thanks, I favor making the new president keep his promise of independence, by making the country truly a unified democracy: politically, socially and economically. This means we keep the pressure on to make the promised reforms.
When we take an honest look at history, we can see that the more people share wealth and liberty, the more society circulates wealth and exchanges ideas, leading to increased prosperity, progress, and social stability. Indeed, when most people have their needs met, more people actually get rich. We need not outlaw free enterprise, we merely need to make it responsible to the greater whole—a reality that we have actually experienced, somewhat, in the United States. Between the mid-1930’s and mid-1970’s, wealth was shared, the safety net was strong, unions were powerful, and America had a celebrated large middle class. We had not yet included everybody, but we were in the process, when corporate insiders began slowly but steadily retaking power, in a long coup that neared absolute takeover in 2020. This year’s election was about independence (meaning true democracy) nationwide. We must commit from now on to “one nation…indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Right-wingers enjoy griping that schools no longer require students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. A “non-alternative” fact is that schools still do. This election was about matching words with deeds.
Whether the colonies are within national boundaries or across the seas, maintaining a colonial empire impoverishes and exhausts everyone but a small minority of well-placed plutocrats. In fact, average European-Americans have had their general prosperity considerably reduced since America became an unabashed empire and began dismantling the New Deal, about the time of the Vietnam War. Non-Europeans have suffered more, but aside from the obscenely wealthy, economic conditions for everyone continue to worsen. I was saved from American fascism by voters from colonial America—in ghettos, barrios, and reservations. In gratitude for their courageous acts, I support sharing America’s wealth with everyone—in reality, not just flowery speeches. Since I no longer need fear American Gulags or Gestapo visits, and strongly wish not to resume that fear, it is in my self-interest to keep these brave people (who voted for their independence and mine) voting. That means their well-being, and that of everyone else, must start to improve.
Specific programs to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” have been proposed: Green New Deal, progressive tax rates, strengthening unions, eliminating the Electoral College, ending corporate personhood, police reform, among others. These will be opposed, not only by servants of the corporate state, but by many commoners, mostly in my peer group, who would benefit from these changes, along with everyone else. Apparently fearing these changes would impair their social status, my peers like the preservation of two countries. Some of those who do not storm government buildings could eventually be reachable, but in the meantime we must keep intact the “rainbow” coalition that won 2020’s election. We can only do this by striving as hard as we can to bring about the changes that were promised to us. Since we’re all in this together, we need to stay together to do what we know we need to do. We face a tough fight, with fascism stopped, but not defeated—still strong, and obviously still aggressive, with no intention of yielding. The brave people who voted for independence for us all need to know we are still together in the struggle to make the changes that were promised with the same amount of courage and determination they demonstrated by voting. The time has come to get busy making America the “land of the free” for everyone—hard work, but easier than maintaining our internal empire.