THE ENEMY WITHIN
“We have met the enemy and he is us.” Pogo
It’s very
hard to talk about people behaving badly without talking about Donald Trump
when his antics dominate the news cycle and the Internet all day every day.
It’s as if the whole country, and much of the rest of the world, is glued to
the Donald Trump Show on their televisions, I-pads and smart phones. The
problem I have with all the attention Donald Trump is getting is he is not what
is wrong with the United States of America. He is just the entertainment – a
distraction. The real damage is being done by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan
and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who are hell bent on erasing every
trace of the black guy who lived in the White House for 8 years. They are also
intent on making it clear to everyone that rich, white men of European
ancestry, like those who founded this country and have run it ever since, are
back in charge. But they are not what is wrong with the United States, either.
They are just the symptom. What is wrong with this country is the 63 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump and enough other Republicans to control both
houses of Congress, both chambers in 32 state legislatures and 33 Governor’s
mansions. They are getting exactly what they voted for and they are as happy
about it as a flea with a whole dog to itself.
I said in an
earlier post that the United States is morally bankrupt. You know who else said
that? Osama bin Laden. Only he said it almost two decades ago. He also said
that if the United States was pushed out of its smug, self-righteous, nobody-can-touch-us comfort
zone our true national character would reveal itself and that would quickly
lead to our demise as the Leader of the Free World. I hate to say this, but I
have to give credit where credit is due. Osama bin Laden was right. The 63 million
Americans who voted for Donald Trump and the Republican ticket voted their
values, not their politics, and I‘m pretty sure those values are not the
values they were taught while they were growing up in this country. They are certainly not the values the United States has stood for and defended throughout its history.
Impeach Mr.
Trump and we get Mr. Pence. Impeach him and we get Mr. Ryan. By then the next
presidential election will be here and those same 63 million people who elected
Donald Trump will elect someone else just like him who shares their values,
with or without the Russian’s help. Real Americans, Americans who believe in
the principles upon which this nation was founded, are in a war and we are
fighting for those very principles. And we won’t win that war by cutting off
the head. The monster will just grow another one. We have to take the battle to
the trenches, to the 63 million Americans who have decided that the moral
imperative that has guided and characterized this nation throughout its history
- Do the Right Thing - is no longer relevant. And we have to convince them that
the principles upon which our nation was founded and the values we were
taught growing up in this country are worth holding on to.
How do we do
that? Anyone have any ideas? These are our family members, our friends and
neighbors, our co-workers. How do we show them the error of their ways? I don’t
have all the answers, but I know one thing for certain, treating them like
nothing has changed is not going to do the trick.
I know what
you’re saying. “But they’re really "good people" at heart.” No, they are not. If they are defending Donald Trump’s behavior and supporting the cruel, draconian legislation the
Republicans are pushing in Congress, they are not "good people". They may have been at one time, or they never were and had us fooled all these years, but they are not "good people" now. We have to face that fact.
We all need to do some soul searching and decide just how serious we are about preserving the values Americans have fought and died for over the past 241 years. I say that because, if we are really serious about preserving those values, we are going to have to start holding people accountable for abandoning them. How
about unfriending that Facebook friend who goes off on Hillary’s e-mails and
Benghazi every time you express a concern about something Donald Trump has
done, or not lending your lawnmower to the guy with the Make America Great
Again hat down the street, or not inviting your Trump-defending sister to your
birthday party - and telling them exactly why you are cutting them off. Do you think that might get their attention? They may not think
they are behaving badly, but based on the values upon which the United States
was founded, and most of us were raised with, they are. And they need to hear that from each of us, the people they suposedly care about. This is not about need.
The people I am talking about have made a choice to behave the way they are behaving. I don't know why they made that choice, but I do know that unless we start imposing some very serious consequences
on their behavior they are going to keep behaving badly until none of has any
choices left.
posted by Jose de Olivares @ 7:01 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
I do not agree with everything in this blog. I will respond later. Testing to make sure this is visible.
You have produced a most perceptive analysis of the situation, and suggested a real world remedy. I agree that it's pointless; an exercise in Polyanna Think, to expect some wonderful White Knight -- or knight of any hue -- to emerge suddenly with the decency, power and will to banish all the Trumpian evils. This would be the political equivalent of the economic fantasy of "trickle down." You have nailed it: we must each do what we can to "trickle upwards." Bravo. Let the trickling begin!"
I think you have been striking at the heart, at the core, of behaviors that have led to our current state of demise. I'm not trying to over simplify but I translate what you are saying is that we have moved away from our core set of values as individuals and collectively. And yes, we do have to identify, define, and TEACH those values AGAIN. The truism we know, from working with the populations with which we've worked, is we cannot assume that they know and hold the universal values we hold.
This political and behavioral environment has taken situational ethics to a new low. It's not a matter of semantics when the POTUS shrugs and calls colluding with the Russians "oppositional research" and learned, knowledgeable people just walk away, or go on to the next feature story. And that is preceded by a decorated military leader leading the "lock her up" chant during the RNC while having accepted a half million dollars from a foreign government to use his influence on their behalf, which was never disclosed...and it goes on and on!
And we all know that this country was founded on and thrived on situational ethics. Men and women who escaped religious oppression set up camp on these shores, took the land from Native Americans, enslaved Africans, later interned the Japanese and continued to define different realities based on our differences. But, perhaps the silver lining in this tortured history is there were men and women who refused to acquiesce to those standards and behaviors and they did the right thing. They engaged, preached, taught, wrote, demonstrated and would not sit down. They used their pulpits and platforms to get the message out. They had far fewer means than we, but were far more effective than we.
So, how how do we move this forward? I think your suggestions are valid and achievable. We begin at home and with those with whom we have close contact and the chance for dialogue. I think we need a huge voter education/civics education initiative, across the country. What we have to do and say is not sexy, pretty or headline grabbing but it is so, so necessary! We need to universally agree on some basic CORE values that we and THEY will accept and be held accountable. Just my 2 cents!
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