The American dream is a young one. One that changed the world, and ushered in a new age of hope. Hope that the people can choose their own path, in effect their own future through democratic rule of law. Is that dream now, once again, in danger of dissolving into carnage?
Last night, we saw a sight that will forever remain burned into our collective consciousness. The sight of an angry mob storming the Congressional building. The seat and symbol of our democracy.
Who were the insurgents? People who have lost all faith in the institutuions of American law and government. Who believe the words of a pseudo-populist demagogue who condemns and slanders the system itself rather than admit political defeat. The sheer madness of the moment lay in the hypocrisy of a movement that claims to treasure law and order, which condemns and even brutally suppresses protests by African American citizens challenging racism and destroying monuments to white patriarchy while itself brutally vandalizing the nation's capital and disrupting the system of government they claim to revere. One can only imagine the extent of police brutality that might have occurred had this riot been led by Black Lives Matter instead of the Proud Boys.
What flags do these pro-Trump insurgents carry? Some carry the American flag (whatever that still means to them). Some carry the Confederate flag. The symbol of rebellion, racism, and slavery. Most, of course, carry the Trump banner. The cult of one man who, it seems, must rule this country or destroy it. White supremacists, misogynists, neo-nazis and Klansmen invariably rally to the Trump banner. That is no coincidence.
These insurgents refuse to believe in the system because it will not give them what they want. What they want is what Trump has promised them. Isolation. Walls to hide behind. A system of white rule in which racist brutality is practiced but never acknowledged. Where the past is romanticized and never questioned. Where science is suppressed, truth malleable and all things unwelcome...global climate change, pandemics...are simply denied. The path to disaster and desolation.
At its heart, the age of Trump is based on racism, homophobia and above all...anger and ignorance.
Will this insurgency continue and grow beyond the end of the Trump presidency? More urgently, what will Trump do next in the 13 days remaining until the end of his presidency? 13 days with one man's finger on the nuclear trigger. A man with no respect for the system, the republic, freedom or truth.
History holds its breath through each of those 13 days to come. Like a prelude to the conclusion of some fictional melodrama. This time reminds us how fragile our democracy truly is. How our arrogant comfort in all our wealth and military might comes to nothing if we turn on eachother. And,our national unity seems now undeniably marred by fissures, racial, economic and ideological which seem to strain at the fragile veneer of our supposedly indivisible nation. One nation under God? Whose God?
Could America be at the brink of a second civil war? Who would win? What would follow? Could our nation even survive in any unified form?
13 days and counting...
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