While in a book store, I saw at least one book that discussed Trump's road to the White House. I believe such a title has the cart before the horse. Why? I don't believe that Trump was elected because of any path he consciously chose as much as I believe that the American people elected Trump because of the path we chose. So we shouldn't be discussing Trump's road to the White House as much as we should be discussing America's road to electing Trump.
Today is a reason why we should be discussing the road that led us to Trump. Why? Because today is election day and we are still pretty much traveling along that same road. That road has a couple of characteristics that define American democracy. And what those traits point to is the fact that for all of the freedom we boast about having, we Americans still find change as not only the road less traveled, but the road never chosen.
There are understandable reasons for our resistance to change. Psychologically speaking, because of the energy it requires, change is often our last resort. We are willing to believe almost anything before we are willing to change. Americans' reaction to the overwhelming evidence pointing to man-made causes of climate change provides a perfect example. To accept what the vast majority of scientists say about climate would entail making many changes to our economy and our way of life. But since it is easier to deny what scientists and the evidence say than to change, we pick the former.
And so it is with our democracy. We have grown comfortable with a bipolar, lazy democracy that even when the choice of Presidential candidates become as poor as they have been during this century, we still cling to our present approach to democracy.
We can call our democracy bipolar because we rely on a two-party system. In that system, we have two political parties that portray themselves as vanguards while actually working as proxies for those with extreme wealth. The Republican Party portrays itself as a vanguard for what is regarded as traditional America while the Democratic Party portrays itself as a vanguard for the marginalized. In reality, both major political parties serve those with extreme wealth (click here for some evidence). That degree of service to those with extreme wealth has caused some to reclassify America's political system from a democracy to an oligarchy (click here). And yet, the only negative reaction that any significant number of Americans have expressed toward our political state is to refrain from participating. There are very few Americans who are willing to support third party candidates despite the fact that the two party system causes many to often vote for the lesser of two evils.
What keeps us stuck the mire we have created? My guess is that we tend to be an authoritarian lot who naturally resist change. That resistance to change keeps many Democrats and Republicans within both the two party system and in their respective folds. Erich Fromm provides some useful insights on what it means to be an authoritarian (click here). There, he talks about active authoritarians as well as passive authoritarians. And those American voters who continue to vote within the two party system regardless of the results they see could possibly be doing so possibly because they are passive authoritarians who give up their own interests for the sake of some political or ideological label and/or because of their political heroes.
But we also need to address what it means to call our democracy a lazy one. By that I mean that at the most our participation in democracy consists of voting every x number of years. That indicates the kind of candidates we want to vote for. We want to vote for political heroes whom we can ignore until the next election so that we can go on pursuing personal prosperity and happiness. We don't think of democracy as something we should participate in all year long. BTW, this voting for heroes is another sign of the authoritarian of our society. Seeing ourselves as authoritarians would also explain the deep divisions that exist in our society. For authoritarianism is hostile and acts aggressively toward any challenges.
The American people have not significantly changed since the election of President Trump. Perhaps we might vote in the Democratic Party as the ruling party for one or both houses of Congress. But here we should note the codependent relationship that exists between the Republicans and Democrats. We can call the relationship codependent because their massive failures to truly represent the interests of most Americans ensures job security for each other. We elect Democrats to protect us from continuing the failures of the Republicans and visa-versa. As a result, neither political party has to change from acting as proxies for those with extreme wealth. And while we are focusing on the Republican and Democratic parties, we should note that a significant portion of those with extreme wealth have adopted an Ayn Rand, Me-First cultural mentality. Such a mentality objectifies all others in order to maximize personal profit.
Yes, we might elect a Democratic Party controlled House and/or Senate tomorrow. But whom will they really serve and how long will it be until the House and or Senate switches back to being Republican Party controlled House and/or Senate? Will we ever change? And will we ever see the irony of how people who brag about being the people from the land of the free and the home of the brave are too scared to change for their own good?
No comments:
Post a Comment