It’s been a while since this writer last posted. He’s been thinking about a great many issues of the day, but distracted and even disheartened by the absurdity of much of today’s political and cultural discourse.
To understand all that is going on in our domestic politics, we must focus on what I will refer to metaphorically as the long pole in the tent. By this I mean the controlling issue to which all other issues are truly subsidiary.
What is this controlling issue, you may ask? Well, I’m very glad you asked.
Which political party (and its constituencies) will maintain or assume control of the levers of power in our system of government? At most points in our history, the impact of a national election was not nearly as impactful on the lives of our citizens as will be the case this November.
Let’s first look at the Republicans and their standard bearer, Donald Trump. They seek to preserve current controls on the levers of power by the mainly white, wealthy and conservative Christian constituencies, including whites on the lower end of the social and economic spectra, to protect their wealth, cultural and religious values, and social status from the perceived threat posed by a more liberal coalition of multiracial and multicultural groups who are now more than half of our eligible voters.
For a minority to retain power, it needs not only the antiquated electoral college, but also voter suppression, dirty tricks that would make Nixon proud, disinformation and foreign influence. It needs to sow fear into the hearts and minds of voters in the middle, or convince them to stay home (rather than choose what may be perceived as the lesser of two evils).
In some areas, the Republicans want to maintain the status quo, in the sense of voting down any large social programs that would effectively shift wealth from those at the upper rungs of the economic ladder to those way down at or near the bottom rungs of that ladder. In this category would be more government controlled health care, major climate change initiatives, reparations for past slavery and systemic discrimination against African Americans, more power for labor unions, simplified voting systems, greater and more equitable funding for public education systems nationwide, criminal justice reforms, massive public infrastructure programs and tax reforms that focus on helping the middle and lower economic classes, while repealing special interest tax breaks that shelter from tax certain income of the ultra rich (real estate developers, hedge funds, oil companies, pharmaceuticals, and so on).
A second category of Republican interests are rooted in culture wars. Here we find the NRA and its adamant push back against any government restrictions upon the Second Amendment right to bear arms. So we now see civilians dressed in military fatigues, openly carrying fully loaded military style assault rifles and wearing protective vests, as they “exercise“ their free speech and assembly rights by confronting legislators and fellow citizens who oppose sensible, public safety based limitations on bearing arms. And, talk about strange bedfellows, overlap the NRA with activist Christian groups who want to preserve not only their power and influence on public policy but also to forge their beliefs into legislation or court decisions that apply those beliefs to everyone else. This is not merely preserving the status quo, but rolling back the clock on relatively recent developments in the area of women’s rights, same sex marriage, and LBGTQ rights (did I get all the right letters?).
The long pole in the tent here is not the divisive issue of race, even though maintenance of white supremacy or white privilege (choose your label) lies at the very heart of the Republican implied agenda. Nor is it immigration, climate change, gun control, tax policy, public health policy or abortion rights, or economic disparities. No, it is all about maintaining control of the levers of power, through which favored policies and outcomes will become reality, and all policies that are disfavored will never see the light of day. It doesn’t matter who the President is. Character does not appear to be an issue for the great majority of Republicans. Nor does it seem to matter that the price of holding on to power may be the destruction of our system of government by, for and of the people.
Our founding fathers only agreed to our Constitution when the vote was limited to white men who owned land, and black slaves were counted as three fifths of one person for determining the number of members of the House of Representatives. For most of them, the Second Amendment was for preserving an organized militia from future federal attempts to take their weapons. So here we are almost two and a half centuries later, and almost any adult can vote, even if he or she pays nothing into the tax system. Is it any wonder our system is under great strain? Human nature as well as human history inform us that the wealthy will not voluntarily agree to significant transfers of that wealth to those well below them on that economic ladder. The system will implode. A democratic republic will extralegally and radically be supplanted by an oligarchy or dictatorship. And for all those who screamed about their rights while eschewing responsibility, welcome to a new world.
But I digress. Let’s talk a bit about systemic racism in America. Not many white people want to acknowledge it or even talk about it, but it is real and in my mind it renders parts of the “status quo” unsustainable. The very first public police force was established in Charleston, South Carolina, with the main purpose of protecting the white establishment from the descendants of black slaves who lived in segregated neighborhoods with substandard everything. Today we still see this. Interstate highways often were built right down the middle of thriving black communities, forcing those who could afford it to move and leaving most to live in public housing complexes blocked in by the highways. Families in crisis, substandard schools, a huge deficit of hope, the sense that most residents had no real stake in America’s future, welfare gone amuck, nightly gunfire and drug markets, mean streets, now that is a pressure cooker whose dangerous contents can no longer be contained. They must be addressed in a positive way, not merely with more police and a larger high school to prison pipeline.
I get it. I’m one of the privileged whites. I grew up in a military family and then served a career in the military, and only saw the very fringes of the race problem in my country. I get the President’s message of fear. I live in a suburb of the former Capitol of the Confederacy. Only a trickle of the six hundred plus houses in my neighborhood are owned or occupied by minorities. I don’t want young people from the “projects” spilling over into my neighborhood with gangs, loud and profanity laced music blaring from their vehicles, more guns, anger and resentment. No one wants that. But if we persist with current containment policies, spillover is inevitable. The forces are simply too great. What are the answers? Mainstream Christianity seems quite content with racial segregation, and its religious private schools are key to keeping high education standards for its children. Republicans clearly have no compassionate response. Their main goal is to maintain the racial status quo and contain all the spillover into white peace.
Let’s take a look at the Democrats. For sure, they have a good number of far left extremists, just as the Republicans have their own extremists on the far right. They want government to do much more to help those on the lower rungs of the economic and social ladders. They want sensible immigration policies rather than illusory walls and harsh treatment of asylum seekers and their children. They acknowledge the reality of our rapidly changing climate, and are unwilling to shift all the burdens and costs to future generations. They also acknowledge the need for bringing our multi racial citizenry closer together to discuss our differences. They bring the true Judeo Christian ethos of caring for those who are unable to care for themselves into the public policy arena, from health care to education to housing and real economic opportunity.
We haven’t even mentioned national security and foreign relations. But our societal fault lines impact the military and our foreign relations, just as they do our domestic law enforcement institutions and courts. Many of the members of armed white supremacist groups are former soldiers, well trained in killing and destroying. Remember the Oklahoma City bomber? And the reality is that down in the ranks of our armed forces, there are strong white supremacist elements. Our senior military leadership is aware of this, and do their best to contain it, but look at the recent murders at Fort Hood. Notice the gender and race of the victims?
Overseas, our European ancestors were clearly white supremacists at heart, even if they did not all admit it. They colonized Africa and the Americas with harsh policies to benefit whites and enslave or abuse blacks and browns. Their forays into Asia were also marked by racial superiority and exploitation of indigenous peoples. Their missionaries brought “superior“ culture as well as the Gospel, hence the King James translation of Matthew as taking the Gospel to the “heathen.”
Back to my long pole in the tent. Who is better as the holders of the levers of political power for our highly conflicted society? To me, it is not so much a Republican or Democratic issue, even though that is our choice. The imperative is to heal our wounds, try to unite our people behind common sense public policies, stop throwing gasoline on the fires in our inner cities, and realistically address our many challenges. The status quo is a recipe for disaster. I cannot and will not turn a blind eye to our President’s manifest failures of leadership. And his enablers in the Congress, especially in the Senate, they must be wrested from continued control of the public policy agenda.
As a committed Christian, I cannot confine my focus on what is best for me and my family. I must live my life according to the teachings of Jesus and the Golden Rule. I cannot look the other way when I see manifest injustice. I am a dual citizen, living simultaneously in two kingdoms: the one.. my US homeland, is temporal; the other, the Kingdom of God, is eternal. Moving about in both dimensions can be a real challenge, but I am at peace and will use my voice and vote for moderation, middle ground, racial reconciliation, empathy, equal justice, civility, generosity of spirit, and reconnecting rights with responsibility. To me, a man a year or two older than me, Joe Biden, a man well familiar with sorrow and sacrifice, he is my choice. I would prefer we could elect a younger person, but am satisfied that Biden and Harris represent our best hope. Thanks for listening, and have a blessed day!
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