Think of this as Volume 11, Number 31 of A-Clue.com, the online newsletter I’ve written since 1997. Enjoy.
In looking at the historical patterns which mark American history I have been searching for a comparison to the present decade.
- The 1960s were the turbulent decade. The heart of the Nixon Thesis was the divide on what you thought of those times.
- The 1920s were great times, followed by the sharp fall of the Hoover years. The period of turmoil leading to 1932 was relatively brief — less than the distance in time from Katrina to here.
- The 1890s were only bad for some people. Labor and agriculture suffered, but we also saw the development of a stable middle class and real national markets.
Only the 1850s seems faintly comparable.
The evils of slavery, and
the passivity with which our system reacted (more like Africans before
Zimbabwe than anything else) drew increasing outrage, which
divided Americans north from south and finally exploded into a Civil
War Lincoln could do nothing to prevent, because his very election
precipitated the conflict.
The evils of this decade, beginning with the stolen election of
2000, have been carried out with far more malice aforethought. And these crimes have been much more far-reaching than what occurred 150 years ago.
They have reached into every facet of our lives. No department of the
government has been untouched by scandal. The reaction of the Bush
Administration, its apologists and supporters, has been absolutely
maddening. It’s as though these people were not even human.
But of course they are. And of course they are us. The historical parallel, to me, is now clear.
- Slavery lay coiled around the chairs in Philadelphia when the
Constitution was written, and the struggle of the later era was
eventually seen as inevitable. - This era began on December 7, 1941. Americans have felt themselves
at war, besieged, ever since Pearl Harbor. We simply transferred our
feelings from Japanese, to Communists, eventually to Arabists and each other.
There were few alive in 1860 with any real, living memory of the era
before the Constitution’s compromises cemented slavery into our
society. Just as there are, today, very few who have serious memories
of the era before Pearl Harbor, of a time when Republicans were
isolationists, either blind to what the Nazis represented or business
collaborators.
It’s the journey of the Republican Party from that date which will
live in infamy that brings us directly here. From having to prove
their loyalty under FDR, to questioning the loyalty of everyone under
Truman. From being hated to engaging in active hate. From gaining power
on a platform of fear, surrounded by enemies both without and (most
important) within, to acting on that fear. Generation after generation of paranoia building to
this grand climax.
Once you let yourself be defined by a paranoid world view, as this
President and those around him have throughout their lives, then
anything becomes excusable. The banality with which the evils of Abu
Ghraib, the destruction of Justice, the depredations on the
environment, the callous disregard for law were carried out, speaks to
that mindset.
Paranoid lefties have sometimes gone so far as to compare
Republicans to Nazis, but in many ways the comparison is not inapt.
Grievances held over decades, anger kept in check only to be suddenly
let rampant, it’s the only explanation I can find which ties all the
policies, the attitudes, and the supporters of this regime together.
You may see my own views here as paranoid. But there is going to be
a reckoning with history. At some point, in some way, this great
national fever will break, and the events of this time will be judged.
The destruction of New Orleans. The politicization of Justice. Torture.
War crimes in Iraq which make what went on in Bosnia look like a Sunday
picnic. Destruction of the Civil Service. Stolen elections. Willfully
ignoring Congress. Actively debasing the currency, destroying our
ability to finance our way out of any of this.
They built a bridge to the 19th century then blew up the bridge.
Only raving paranoia can tie it all together. Us or them, the
zero-sum game. These policies only make sense, together, from that one
perspective. All done with a banality which would make Mengele blush.
It took a tremendous effort of national will to get off the mat in
1942 and beat back those who seriously threatened to destroy liberty.
Those who engaged in such work were as great a generation as those who
fought for American Independence from England. But that struggle slowly
changed them, and the people who followed. It changed us, and made us
the paranoid, fearful people we have become.
It will take much more than an election to turn this around. The
2008 election, if conducted fairly, is just the first step in a long
process that won’t be finished in my lifetime, or in yours. But it’s a
necessary process. It must include not just reform, but an honest
appraisal of what we have done in our time, a confrontation with the
angels which have haunted us since Florida in 2000, and which keep so
many millions, still, in their thrall.
War won’t cure what ails us. But peace can. Justice can. And these act slowly. It’s going to be a hard ask of us all.
Can we do it? Yes, we can.
But there are no guarantees.
