Fight For the Soul of America – Facts vs Fiction (#300)

Under Trump, America has changed and arguably for the worse. It no longer represents leadership in the World for liberal progressive values that were written into its much admired ‘Constitution’ by its ‘Founders’; values of freedom, democracy, equality, truthfulness, institutionalized justice and fairness,  sanctuary for all who sought its shores from political tyranny, economic servitude and hardship. For decades after WWII, America was the ‘Shining Light on the Hill’ for humanity, who for the most part were still in some ways held back by political, religious and cultural bonds that were decades or centuries old.

America was the new ‘Land of the Free’ for all comers, where everyone could pursue their own version of the ‘American Dream’, and find greater acceptance and fairness, more than less, than in their former homelands.

The Country was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, what with its history of slavery, genocidal treatment of its indigenous peoples, and its endless wars that treated millions of devastated people as ‘collateral damage’ in pursuit of its ‘National interests’.  But, overall it still stood out as the Country that came closest to the human ideal of a ‘Just Society’, where everyone was free and accepted, more or less (even though there were always those that were freer and more accepted than others).

America was never perfect, but it was idealized as the closest thing to it.

That idealistic image of America is no more. In the past few years, particularly under the Trump Presidency, America has morphed towards the image of the man leading the Country, Donald J. Trump, and his enabling political party, the Republicans. Under both, America has been in a losing fight for its very soul as they collectively destroy truth, facts, laws, democratic institutions and its Constitution, by denying the daily actions they themselves undertake to destroy its democracy (through Gerrymandering), and its idealism and humanity.

Trump lies all the time. As do the Republicans, who now protect him, no matter what. And this daily assault on reality, truth, facts and its most famous and cherished institutions, has deformed America into a caricature of Trump.

In these days of 24 hour news coverage, the World watches as America transforms itself under the Trump and Republican rule, from a democracy, freedom, equality loving, welcoming society, and the ‘Leader of the Free World’, to a self-isolated, democracy hating, dictator loving, closed-minded and closed-hearted Country, with all its traditional ‘American’ values systems shattered, its international image tarnished, and its trust broken, within itself, and with its longstanding allies. America today is a Nation at war with itself, literally.

To be fair, the transformation of America started well before Trump, but he took all of America’s worst characteristics and tendencies, and made them the defining qualities of the current hostile, fevered and deeply divided America - friend to the worst autocracies in the World, and foe to its democratic friends.

American society is in a social and ideological civil war, with the worst of conservatism besieging all that had been decent, humane, progressive and democratic in American society. And that conflicted America is the result of its morphing Republicanism which is an anathema to the word Republic - a State of equality among all its members. The Republican Party has been steadily moving away from that ideal for a very long time, but under Trump, the Republicans found their ‘Anti-Christ’, one that seduced with grand promises while unleashing the worst in human tendencies. That particular accomplishment of Trump the Republicans have loved wholeheartedly and unconditionally accepted.    

In part, the current (Trump’s) Republican Party stands for:

It is the Republican Party’s selling-out of the American people to the healthcare industries, which they do year-after-year with massive propaganda that labels ‘Universal HealthCare’ as dreaded ‘Socialism’, even though America’s capitalist allies have done very well by it for decades, and proven, it is the best health care for everyone living in advanced countries.

The Republicans have always preached fiscal discipline in economic matters, but consistently ran the biggest deficits (and Trump is going to be the all-time deficit champ with near Trillion dollar annual deficits) without a crisis such as Obama had (a Republican (Bush II) tanked financial system and economy) to justify it. Considering the track record of successive Republican Administrations, they believe in running massive deficits.

[Ironically, Democrat administrations have demonstrably managed the economy better, time and again. But the Republicans keep misstating that they do a better job at managing the economy, and in spite of repeated disastrous results, they convince people that they are better than Democrats for the ordinary Americans.]

It all leads one to conclude - pity the ordinary Americans that still believe the Republicans, and their never ending myriad lies.

Additionally, approximately 40% of Americans that are ‘Republicans’, are fully committed to these conflicted and opposing views:

That thousands of ordinary American lives lost to domestic gun violence are somehow less precious than unborn fetuses, and therefore acceptable ‘collateral damage’ to the sanctity of gun ownership.

That unlimited salaries/profits and all privileges, for the richest and most powerful are absolutely acceptable and preferable, to a ‘minimum wage’ and ‘basic Rights’ for the poorest; minimalist work values which are not acceptable to Republicans, as they are socialist values.

They also believe, corporate and financial industry protections are necessary, and consumer (people) protection from ‘Industry Predatory Practices’ are unnecessary, undesirable, un-capitalistic and therefore un-American.

[It’s hard to imagine that a literate people can be convinced that removal of regulations that protect them from financial predators, is somehow better for them. It’s happened regularly under Republican administrations, and again under Trump’s and Mitch McConnell’s administration.]

Republicans apply the same logic to environmental protection - as Americans are told that corporate profits are far more important than people’s health and well being. Therefore air, water, and soil protection is unnecessary, and people’s well-being is subordinate to corporate well-being and profitability.  

Republican politicians and Republican voters also like to promote their Christian piety publicly (especially the Evangelicals amongst them), and find progressive liberal, secular values of Women’s Rights, LGBQT rights, racial and religious tolerance, social and welfare programs, gun controls and such, rather un-Christian, distasteful and therefore un-American.

But, they find Trump, with his publicly stated lifelong abuse of women, regular adulterous affairs, moral and business bankruptcies, chronic lying and cheating, self-indulgence, narcissism, promotion of racial hatred, acceptance and promotion of White Supremacy, lack of ethics and honesty, refreshingly ‘Christian’, ‘Conservative’, and downright ‘Messianic’.

America was founded ‘by the people and for the people’ (to paraphrase), but increasing Republican sell-out, in totality, to big money corruption and corporations, at the expense of the lives of ordinary American people, has become their defining political ideology and modus operandi – and about 40% of ordinary people buy it all without reservation or questioning – and that to the observing World is absolutely stunning.

Through the successive Republican administrations over the past decades, America started to lose its ‘people’ oriented soul, for an overarching spirit of the land of the all-powerful ‘Military Industrial Empire’, with little to no soul.

Trump in his run for the US Presidency gleefully took the heartlessness and the rampant hypocrisy of the Republicans and made it totally his own, and in doing so, made the Republican Party – totally his own. Trump has decimated that which had defined America institutionally, and robbed it of its very soul. But, the forces of Democracy and Secularism have been fighting back, and have been steadily gaining back, a little bit at a time, the lost America that the World once knew. The battle is fully-on, with no assurance that the good guys will win back America’s destroyed soul.