" Every kingdom
divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every house divided
against itself will not stand and every city or house divided against itself
shall not stand."
(Matthew 12:25) and
quoted by Abraham Lincoln June 16, 1858
in Springfield, Illinois referring to the divisions among the states of
the Union.
American
cultural polarity, fueled by social media and a lack of civic education, results
in ideological tribalization of both Political parties, threatening our democracy. We will not be the first to fail becoming
indifferent to the people's needs, the corrupting influence of wealth and power
falling to a smaller percentage of the elites. Of these things, revolutions are born, autocracies arise and
freedom vanishes, often overnight.
Throughout
history, democracies have failed: Greece, Rome, and now throughout Eastern
Europe, Hungary, Turkey and Russia. But not yet here at home, because our
institutions are still strong. But
that is not a guarantee.
Totalitarian
governments rise upon economic and cultural fears, and a leader arises appealing
to reptilian human instincts of humans.
History abounds with such personages--Hitler, Stalin, Peron, Chavez,
Castro, and in America, Huey Long, Father Coughlin, Joseph McCarthy, George
Wallace and Donald Trump, demagogues all.
Trump
preyed upon tribal fears of displacement, unemployment, and racism (loss of
turf). In the 1950s, Joseph
McCarthy used paranoiac fear of Communism as his entrée to power, his hubris
finally imploding, people realizing how loathsome his scapegoating and character
assassination, "Have you no decency, sir? At long last?" cried legal
icon Joseph Welch, pounding the final nail in McCarthy's coffin at nationally
televised hearings, captivating the nation. His colleagues, and President Eisenhower, previously cowed
by McCarthy’s blatant demagoguery during the “Communist under every rock”
witch-hunt, finally censured McCarthy.
Trump
says, "other" people are enemies who will steal our jobs. We trial lawyers learn in seminars
called "The Reptile," to evoke primeval self-preservation instincts
in juries in order to achieve stellar verdicts based upon the theory that those
serving do not actually care about the victim, but instead about how negligence
by defendants endanger "the community" (themselves). Trump masterfully evoked these
fears. He understood his audience
better than any of the other Republican candidates. He appealed to the emotion
of self-preservation, galvanizing his
base through apocalyptic imaging.
Republicans
and Democrats have ignored their constituents. Neither party had the foresight to plan for
exponentially expanding global, political and technological revolution. Both parties shared in the creation of
Trumpenstein. The left calls Trump "Hitler," and the right accuse Democrats
as abetting immigrants "overrunning the country," stealing jobs from
"real Americans." This
fantastical notion, exacerbated by Fox news propaganda provokes an
intellectually dishonest, Orwellian newspeak, threatening institutions our
country has enjoyed for 242 years.
Social media played an enormous role in this civic catastrophe. People believe unsourced, false stories
on Facebook more than from respected journals whose editors check facts before publishing. The Russians used legal social media
platforms to nefariously meddle with our elections.
Trump's
anti-immigrant policies stem from his concern that the base of voters supporting
him (now about 35%) are repulsed by his abandonment of their tribal interests, (their
jobs), no longer viable despite his promises.
Now,
our house divided, threatens our institutions more than at any time since the
Civil War. This has happened many times. Roosevelt tried a power grab to pack the Supreme
Court, and the Senate, for a
almost year rejected a qualified Supreme Court justice (Merrick Garland)
to manipulate the weight of the
institution. Now, President Trump
denigrates the Justice Department and the FBI to sever pending investigations
of himself and his sycophantic brood.
These are vital institutions whose dedicated civil servants labor to
protect our democracy.
Democrats
and Republicans are more tribal than ever. Discourse and accommodation are as distant as the dark side
of the moon, presenting an enormous threat to our democracy. Even if Trump is removed from office,
the reasons which got him there still remain. Identity politics instead of ideas prevail, fatally
dangerous to any democracy.
During
early human history, tribal cohesiveness arose to ensure the success of one
tribe over the other, their primary success derived from war. Negotiation to avoid war really arose
after the dawn of civilized societies and did not really become prevalent until
the 19th century. Until then, war was the primary solution to differences among
tribes (represented by nation states).
Humans,
anthropologist Lawrence Keeley argues, that our ancestors were universally war-like,
studying the bloodthirsty tribes of South America where 60 percent of the males
died in combat to ensure dominance. Some psychologists argue that many hunter-gatherer tribes
were not consumed with war, and that the war-like turf protectoral tendencies
of humans arose with the dawn of agriculture 10,000 years ago. Trump seems a
troglodytic avatar of those times, his concept of "winning," not
including any bones for the other side. He has conducted his wars on many fields of battle including
profligate litigation, carrying it into the White House to the detriment of all
Americans and even other countries.
He combines most of the bad tendencies of any leader, dominating the
news cycle and the body politic with his singularly repugnant intolerance and
not very thinly veiled racism.
But
resistance to Trump has energized a previously apathetic public and in 2018,
there may be a new congress. The issues relating to the disparity of wealth in
our new gilded age has not disappeared and will not until government institutes
policies that ensure a level playing field. This cannot be accomplished without tolerant dialog between adversaries.
