One thing I have learned reading American history is that every generation feels it’s in an existential crisis.
Usually, they’re right.
In the Founders’ generation, John Adams passed a Sedition Law against Thomas Jefferson and his supporters. Then James Madison, the “father of the Constitution,” lost a war and saw his Capitol burned. America was only saved by Bonaparte’s downfall, which caused Great Britain to lose interest in us.
Jackson Democrats saw Whigs as oligarchs, looking to destroy the poor for the benefit of a few. The death of Whig President W.H. Harrison in 1841 destroyed Nathaniel Hawthorne’s faith in democracy. Abraham Lincoln was a Whig, then 1 in every 50 Americans died during the Civil War, which was nearly lost.
Mark Twain’s faith was destroyed when Samuel Tilden’s 1876 victory was stolen by segregationists. He became a cynic, convinced America was no better than any European empire after the Spanish-American War.
William Randolph Hearst’s political career wasn’t wrecked by an affair, as portrayed in Citizen Kane. His victory was stolen by New York’s political machine, which installed George McClellan’s son as Mayor. Franklin D. Roosevelt learned the lesson and started his career upstate. Then came the Depression and World War II, both of which nearly wrecked us.
Veterans of the Greatest Generation faced the dogs and hoses of the Jim Crow South, where their rights and votes had been denied for a century. The Cold War split generations, leaving a legacy of distrust that abides today.
Compared with all that, the present Crisis is all in our imagination. The Trump Uprising is fueled by the upper middle-class, people who have it relatively easy in a nation richer than any empire has ever been. It’s a revolt by people who are more comfortable than anyone else ever, living longer than all previous generations of mankind.
There is no good reason to threaten our system. It’s a hissy fit by those who hold economic power, aimed at a monopoly of political power. Yet the defeatism I read in the mainstream press, and from Democrats online, exceeds anything in all American history. More Americans see America failing today than during the rise of Hitler, or of Robert E. Lee.
What America has, in other words, is a mental illness. There’s nothing physically wrong with us. Russia isn’t threatening us, they’re threatening Ukraine. China isn’t threatening us, they’re threatening Taiwan. Our economy is bigger than both of theirs, put together. So is our defense budget.
We’re just spoiled by our comforts and cosplaying at revolution.
Once we understand that, the solution becomes obvious. We need to look at what we have, not what we lack. We need to gear up for the Real War, the War Against Oil, which threatens to wipe all mankind from this planet.
Today’s crisis is a crisis of choice, a crisis of convenience. It ends when we decide it ends.
