The World According to Opa

Democracy’s a very fragile thing. You have to take care of it. As soon as you stop being responsible to it and you allow it to turn into scare tactics, it’s no longer democracy, is it? It’s something else. It may be an inch away from totalitarianism.

~ Sam Shepherd

The polarization of political thinking in America, with conservative thinkers on one side of the political divide and liberal thinkers on the other side, culminated with the demise of democracy and the election of Donald Trump. This happened in stages over time. Most historians tell us that it got started long, long ago. They trace this separation of thinking back to the very beginning of our country, to the thinking of our nation’s Founding Father’s. Among them were Federalists and Anti-Federalists.

Stage I — The Federalists felt that the addition of a Bill of Rights wasn’t necessary. They believed that the Constitution, as it stood, only limited the government not the people. The Anti-Federalists claimed that the Constitution gave the central government too much power, and without a Bill of Rights, the people would be at risk of oppression. These Founders, the Anti-Federalists, tended to be slave owners. They feared that a strong Federal government would eventually outlaw slavery as was being done at that time by European governments.

Stage II — In time, we had to fight Civil War over this, a war to end slavery. But the war did not end the cultural attitude of racial bigotry which was engrained into the hearts and minds of former slave owners and into the hearts and minds of their issue over the generations since.

Stage III — Then came the Civil Rights movement during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations in the 1960s. Eventually, we got the Civil Rights Amendment. Before this, racist sentiment in America was dispersed among the general population, but largely found among Democrats, Southern Democrats. The Civil Rights Amendment, the end of Jim Crow and the integration of black children with white children in public schools, drove these Southern Democrats into the waiting arms of the GOP.

Stage IV — Then Nixon’s Southern Strategy, recognizing how strong the feelings of fear and hate are among conservative thinkers, capitalized on the racism in the South and conservative thinking throughout the nation to cement the emotional appeal of social separation of the races and Goldwater-style conservative thinking into a political strategy. Nixon, elected in 1968, resigned in 1974 rather than face impeachment over the Watergate scandal.

Stage V — In the late 70s, industrialists and libertarian economists found the perfect actor to promote their vision for expanding the nation’s wealth and concentrating it among the wealthy few. This actor was Ronald Reagan who was elected in 1980. The effects of their vision, trickle-down economics with tax cuts favoring the wealthy and deregulation for businesses, exacerbated the gap between the wealthy and the rest of us. But the widening gap was mostly felt by the working poor and minority members of society. So long as it wasn’t too painful for white, middle-class Americans and they were able to feel progress on social issues that they most cared about, gun rights, abortion, and immigration, they were able to rationalize the economic injustice. It became easy for them to believe that the poor are poor because they are lazy or stupid.

Stage VI — Then came 911, the War on Terrorism and the Great Recession during the Bush years, 2001 through 2008. Reeling from social and economic pain caused by another round of trickle-down tax cuts and deregulation, the invasion and occupation of Iraq and subsequent human rights atrocities (recall Abu Ghraib and the enhanced interrogation techniques), we elected Barack Obama, our first black President. He turned our economy around. He saved the auto industry, forged alliances with other nations to address climate change, got Affordable Healthcare passed, relieved deportation fears of the Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children, and he improved our standing with other nations and peoples. To this day he remains the most respected and admired man on earth. But having a black man in the White House was just too much for some Americans. It drove the craziness of racial bigotry to a fanatical level among many Republicans.

Stage VII — On January 21, 2010, in a case brought forward against the government by the conservative, non-profit organization, Citizens United, the Supreme Court held that the free speech clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for communications by nonprofit corporations, for-profit corporations, labor unions, and other associations. Overturning the bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, this made it legal for corporations, not just voting citizens, to use their general treasuries to fund “electioneering communications,” broadcasting advertisements mentioning particular candidates.

Stage VIII — It was to the fanatically racist base within the Republican Party, the basket of deplorables that Hilary Clinton spoke about during her 2016 campaign for President, that Vladimir Putin and his Russian oligarchs played, and the GOP welcomed their help to defeat Clinton. They colluded with the Russians (yes, I believe the collusion went beyond Donald Trump and his election campaign). The conspiracy was engineered to divide the liberal vote and exploit an aspect of the Founding Fathers’ Constitutional genius, the Electoral College. The Founders meant the Electoral College to prevent the election of a charismatic despot. But it had a much different effect.

All three branches of our nation’s government are controlled today by one party, the Republican Party. Congress is controlled by big-money special interest dollars funneled through Political Action Groups (PACs) and the National Rifle Association (NRA). So, with Citizens United now being law of the land, campaign contributions are the votes that really count. Election shaping by states with gerrymandering and restrictive voting laws have been deemed constitutional, and we have a charismatic, narcissistic puppet of a foreign power in the White House. The most unpopular President ever, this person, an unindicted co-conspirator, some say traitor, is systematically destroying our economy, our defense, trade and other treaties with our traditional allies, our confidence and reliance in the free press to keep us informed, our collective sense of human decency, our respect in diplomatic circles elsewhere in the world, and our civil discourse here at home. He has obstructed justice and violated the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution that he swore to protect and defend. He my even be personally responsible for violation of campaign finance laws. Yet Congress, with the power to impeach him for these crimes, is loath for political reasons to hold him accountable. This makes those in Congress who are preventing a vote on the articles of impeachment put forward by Democratic members of the House, guilty of aiding and abetting the President’s crimes.

What a sorry state of affairs. With the Senate likely soon to confirm a judge who, as a Supreme Court Justice, would rule that a sitting President is immune to indictment, we may indeed be just a proverbial inch away from totalitarianism. This is an American tragedy and Vladimir Putin, no doubt, is well-pleased with his man’s progress do far.

Please feel free to post a rebuttal or other comment.