What is the solution to the crisis of democracy in the United States? Is there no chance for us to reverse our slide into corporate fascism?
By nature, I am a pessimist. That is to say, whether the glass is half full or half empty doesn’t matter because what’s in the glass is usually poisonous. So my gut instinct is to respond with a loud “Hell no!” and return to placidly sipping a gin and tonic.
But my task was to find reason to hope. Which may require more gin and tonic.
I’m pretty certain that the days of the United States as the preeminent world power are numbered. The U.S. economy simply cannot sustain itself at its current level of pure consumption with very little production – that is, we are nation built upon gluttony, which is fine if you’re also a world-class athlete with a hyper metabolism. But as an economic power the U.S. is flabby – we produce next to nothing ourselves – yet we continue to suck in an inordinate amount of the world’s resources, particularly energy, to feed our addiction to easy living. Obesity isn’t just an affliction of the individual American; our economy is likewise overweight, our infrastructure – the nation’s arteries – are “hardening”, our industrial muscle is sagging, our collective brainpower is showing signs of dementia. As an empire, the United States has entered middle age. Certainly our libido is still robust – that is, our military is still capable of defeating any other on the planet. And we certainly do like to drop our bombs pretty regularly, as George Carlin pointed out in the 90s.
from “Jammin’ in New York”
So, yes, the United States is growing old (despite the Obama comb-over and the occasional dose of military-adventure Viagra). Worse, the U.S. is growing paranoid, and as a result our individual freedoms are being eroded at home while we murder those we think might harm us, eventually, overseas. The U.S. Congress is like an old schizophrenic, arguing with himself over trivialities while nodding approvingly as corporate thieves carry the stereo out the window.
Oops! It appears I’ve gone off-track. This post was supposed to offer hope.
There is reason to be optimistic. For instance, I believe that Barack Obama was elected for the best reasons – despite the fact that he hasn’t lived up to the expectations of many who voted for him. Obama’s candidacy tapped into the latent progressive steam that flows beneath the center-right crust of the American body politic. (It’s partly his, and partly our, fault for him not fully tapping that wellspring of liberalism, but oh well.) I firmly believe that America is, at its core, an experiment in individual liberty tempered by a sense of social justice; that there are enough people of good will who, if forced to wake up, can beat back the worst aspects of conservatism that now hold far too much power in our country. The election of Obama was a vote for moving forward, not backward – and that is reason to be optimistic.
I see reason for optimism in the continued spread of information technology, so that motivated individuals can do the work that many mainstream media outlets can no longer, or now refuse to, perform: that of being the watchdogs of democracy. There is nothing more hateful to a government than the free flow of information – as any authoritarian knows, control of the media is as important as control of the army. The attempts by both Republican and Democratic Presidents to keep more and more secrets is generating a backlash that may eventually lead to a more open and, in Obama’s (unfulfilled) words, “transparent” government.
The fact that we are a nation of immigrants can only lead to better things. The more diverse we are, the more open to difference we allow ourselves to be, the more likely it is that we will find a way toward that middle ground that is uniquely American. Being American is to be forged of an alloy; as steel is stronger than iron, so too have we been stronger for our ability to incorporate peoples from all other parts of the world into a nation where it is possible (albeit after overcoming hurdles of varying types) for the individual to excel, regardless of his or her background.*
Finally, the recent unpleasantness in Wisconsin, pitting the unions against the undemocratic power-grab by Governor Adams and his Republican enablers in the state house, may presage the liberal equivalent of the Tea Party (except that it will actually be a populist grassroots movement, and not a pro-business populist front created by the Koch brothers). A popular uprising by the lower, working, and middle classes against the continuing outrages of the wealthy is possibly the only way to bring meaningful change to the country. And that may be the best hope of all.
So there are reasons to hope. True, these are mere glints of goodness in an otherwise murky fog of American apathy and forgetfulness. But it may be that there are just enough people concerned with the future of the country to actually force those changes that ensure that the country does, indeed, have a future.
_____________________________________________
* Yes, I’m probably referring more to the unrealized ideal, than the reality.