When, as a nation, did we become less patriotic? I see more flags flying than at any point of my life but they seem to lack the true meaning of what America is. The flag was meant to signify 13 states united to form one country governed by our Constitution. As we expanded, a star was added for every additional state but it still has 13 strips so we will remember what started it all. As a nation we got our strength by our unity forming that one nation. The whole concept was one of a representative government so we all had a voice in our nation. It was a pretty new concept, breaking away from the so called rulers that were supposedly appointed by God, to a form of government appointed by the people. We did away with the ruling class that through their wealth and power suppressed the majority so the majority served the few. The purpose now of the government was to do the will of the people and not the people do the will of the rich ruling class of the government. If we didn’t like what the government was doing it was the responsibility of the people to go to the polls and vote for new people to run the government. I just think that we have gotten away from the concept of government that our Forefathers wanted us to have.
When did it start? I think I could ask 10 people and get 10 different answers. I think it may have started with the division that was caused in the 60s by the Vietnam War. But then again we had many things happen back then that united the nation like the Apollo moon landing. In my opinion it started with Reagan and his campaign on the fact that government was bad. Wasn’t he the one to say that the scariest four words were “I’m from the Government”? His whole campaign was to instill a fear into the capabilities of our Government. He wanted everyone to believe that the private sector was much more efficient than our Government. In some cases he is probably right but in others he is dead wrong. That is when we started cutting taxes for the ultra rich and this is when we started taxing social security payments to the elderly. Those tax cuts have led directly to the national dept that the Republicans want to cut services, Medicare and Social Security, to pay for. Just think about it. Taking benefits from the poor and making the Rich even Richer. This is when government talked about privatizing everything from education to social security. They even tried to privatize functions of the Army in Iraq with them privatizing security contractors with disastrous results. Privatization is just a way to filter our tax dollars into the private sector. At the time it sounded great to many, including me, but I think that this was the start of much more corporate corruption in this country. This was the start of money controlling our Government and not the people. I haven’t even mentioned that we lose the ability to maintain the accountability of how our money is being spent.
Today we are close to having the same thing that we rebelled against almost two hundred and fifty years ago. Today we have ultra billionaires that think because of their money they should rule. The richer they got, the more powerful they got. The more powerful they got, the weaker our democracy got. We have a system that breeds poverty because of a minimum wage that is not a livable wage yet the richest 1 percent have more money than the other 99 percent. I swear that some sound like they would bring back slavery. We have billionaires controlling the press and many of the other forms of communication which will influence how people vote. Enabling systems and networks that lie to the American People is not what I would call freedom of speech. Making it so that the people with money have such a loud voice that it drowns out everyone else’s is not what I call Freedom of Speech. Freedom of the Press was supposed to be so the people with the money and the power did not suppress the truth, not so that Billionaires could have entire networks spreading their lies and misinformation. When money controls our press, our social media, and our news networks we no longer have a democratic republic like our forefathers wanted. We have a system more like the one they fought against. We have a healthcare system that enslaves people to their employers because of the need for insurance. Our freedoms are being diminished for the welfare of our corporations and our billionaires.
The money in Washington is what has corrupted our Government so much in the last 50 years. We have gone from Presidents covering up a break in like Nixon to now Presidents stealing government secrets like Trump. We have gone from “I am not a crook” to “so what if I am a crook?”. We have gone from people having their voices heard to where corporations now drown out those very voices that our Fore Fathers wanted to have a voice. We now have Supreme Court Justices being taken on lavish trips and getting taken to exclusive gun clubs in hopes that their decisions can be bought by the people that want to control the government. That is what has happened because the rich no longer want a government that is “Of the people and by the people”. The Rich want to own the government.
Freedom is a thing that is diminishing in this country. Many things contribute to that like healthcare. Our liberties are being stripped by a society that want to control not just our speech but our lives. I swear that they are trying to take away our liberties and replacing them with a religious indoctrinization that suppress the very freedoms that I believe are god given rights. What I find, it so hard is that so many people want to give up those freedoms and liberties. I am surprised that so many people are so willing to be a tool that suppresses the freedoms and liberties that were so coveted by our Forefathers.
This is a thoughtful rant and I liked that you point to Reagan as a moment our government told us not to trust it. Other points fell flat for me like and I found myself asking "the wealthy controlling our media is new?" but the main theme, that our country is becoming more divided, rings true to me.
ReplyDeleteWe used to as a country teach a morning pledge of allegiance in school, and few thought to kneel during the National Anthem. Perhaps that is a factor.
I bought the GOP line of "conservatism" for 30 years before Trump made me question if "conservatism" is even real, and if my ideology wasn't actually worse than the alternative "liberalism/socialism." Now I'm pretty sure I'm a very dumb man who sees through a clouded haze of my unchallenged preconceptions.
I now consider myself "woke" and I harbor massive anger at the GOP and their stupid zombie followers. I can't believe how they are restricting rights and cheering on a traitor dictator named Trump. I hate them for what they are doing to our country, but I can't square this with the fact that most of them are good people who pray to God, give to charity, love their family, and are fellow Americans.
As you can tell, I'm a conflicted mess, but I do see the same American division you see, I know somehow we, as a nation, have to find a way to forgive each other, yet I can't do that while "they" push to re-elect a monster.
I hope when Trump is gone I can look them in the eyes and call them Americans again.
I grew up in a time when my local newspaper was owned by a fellow here in town, when the TV stations when social media was the telephone and when cable TV was the wire that connected the TV to the antenna. Yes, "corporate media" is new, and, yes, I voted for nixon. But unlike you, I am not confused. Repuglicans are the enemy of the people even though their voters are, like you said, kind and caring people brainwashed by that corporate media.
DeleteThere is much emotion in this essay that resonates, and I believe your words help to peel away the shroud that obfuscates what is underneath what you describe is the diminishing of patriotism. There are many aspects that I believe contributed to this, but, despite the risk of brevity, I'd like to offer some suggestions as to the why. It is no secret that there is a billionaire class, and they have truly gamed the system to their favor, but gaming the system is not a new phenomenon either. Europeans invading the Americas and stealing land from indigenous cultures was a particularly egregious "gaming of the system" as was transporting millions of Africans for enslavement. I believe there is a vast psychology that shares the feeling that things are not quite right, that there is some hidden agency that is corrupting our best intentions, but the ability to articulate or identify clearly what that is can lead to sometimes bizarre theories about a "deep state," or other variation. What is true, verifiably, is that there is a consortium of transnational corporations, loyal to no sovereignty, that have enormous political power on every country in the world. Some of these corporations have existed before any Administration or dictatorship and even some monarchies, and they have also determined who these leaders should be (too many to list here, but a cursory look through a history book can show examples. Howard Zinn's, "A People's History of the United States" would be an excellent resource, or any debate with Noam Chomsky about the US involvement in Chile; another is "A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide" by Samantha Power). To your reference about Reagan and his "government Is the problem" comment, this phrase was designed specifically to demoralize and make more impotent the power of the US voter. "We, the People" is the biggest threat against an authoritarian government, and by saying "government IS the problem" is a direct attack on voters' will. In the end, democracy is a messy thing that requires involvement, accountability, anger at times, capacity for disappointment, and tenacity. It also requires an evolution of attitude and a broadening of one's perspective. When I learn more about indigenous cultures and enslaved people, I become more humble in my learning and also realize that some of the best heroes in our Country have been these very people who, despite having faced struggles far worse than I can ever imagine, still rose to the occasion to do what is right, and this gives me more hope, and more courage, to keeping fighting for the aspiration of "We, the People."
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