A great many who read this will reflexively filter it through the very predictable lens that I am strictly talking about the big, bad, ugly Republicans. And as a result, summarily dismiss it as not pertaining to us “good progressives”. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am pointing out the character flaws of America. Not just Republican America. And not just the last 40-odd years, but 500 years.
Let us begin.
It is mind-bogglingly paradoxical, but there are very few things that these United States of America need to be more afraid of than allowing a return to what we have collectively defined as “normal”over the last five centuries. Because history has shown, again and again (in an endlessly repeating pattern) that, without exception,all empires either rise or fall on the basis of one frighteningly simple, yet endlessly overlooked, principle. How are the weakest,sickest, hungriest, oldest, poorest and simply most vulnerable in society being treated? (And likewise, how have they been treated throughout our collective national history?) In the distant past that history defining principle has been very succinctly known as simply “justice and mercy”. So...as we glance through the many chapters of the book of “The American Empire”, how faithful has that “exceptional” empire been at dispensing justice and mercy to the least among us? Because contrary to near universal popular belief, it is not a nation's ability to accumulate ever-increasing wealth and/or military power that insures it's continued survival. Rather, it is the endlessly overlooked ability (In fact, often throughout history, it has been in spite of immense wealth and military might.) to remain collectively humble and self-disciplined enough to keep recognizing our shared humanity with the least fortunate among us.
So...if it was hypothetically in their hands, how would the least among us tell the story of America from their perspective? If they were the one's writing the book on how we should define normal in the American empire going forward? Would they say that returning to normal should be defined as tens of millions having no access to medical care, in the wealthiest nation in history? Should returning to normal be defined as black Americans dying at 7 times the rate of whites from COVID-19 (for a multitude of unnecessary institutional reasons)? Or black females dying at 4 times the rate of white women during pregnancy? Or a thousand other dehumanizing things related to simply being black? Should it be families crowded like sardines (ala train cars in Nazi Germany) into urine and feces infested dog cages, for months and years on end, without trial? Should it be their children being simply taken from them (and for many, never to be seen again),in the name of “sending a message”? Should normal be millions of Native Americans dying of many of the same deeply institutionalized infirmities that they were being inflicted with 150 years ago? Should returning to normal be millions of women being victimized by sexual assault and rape in insane numbers? Only to be systemically victimized all over again when it's time tell their stories and seek justice? Or how about the homeless? How about 1.5 million people being homeless in the wealthiest nation in history? Would they say that we should hunger for that normal as well? And lastly, living in poverty. Should 40 million people be considered a normal number of people living in poverty in the wealthiest nation in history? Again,if the lowest among us wrote the story, what would they tell us about what is normal and what needs to be normal in America going forward?
But ultimately, the point of this diary is not just about pointing out and knowing these things. I said we need to be afraid. Why? Because we know undoubtedly that these people will most assuredly not get that opportunity to write the book of America. In fact, what we know beyond a shadow of a doubt after five centuries of empire building is that the accumulated pleas and cries of these people for justice and mercy have mostly not been heard virtually at all. And therein lies the invisible yet fast approaching danger to America. When empires begin to come undone, that is the point when those folks generally not considered to be the least among us begin to get their opportunity to feel some of the same miseries that their lessors have been forced to endure by their hands (yes, tacit indifference counts) for many generations. And it is a truism of life, that when the folks above them on the social totem pole begin to feel some of the same pain, almost no one that those folks have harmed will hear their pleas for justice and mercy either.
Willful ignorance and indifference to human suffering eventually costs everyone. And to the degree that we on the Left refuse to face up to our tacit role in the inescapable reality of our “normal”, we too will wake up one day and find that we unknowingly contributed to this empire joining so many others in the dustbin of history. A new normal that involves justice and mercy for the least of us will either save us, or inevitably be the number one factor in our undoing.