Politics in the United States appears to have disintegrated into factionalism, and not just in the Republican party. Although the Democratic party gives a semblance of unity in the face of Republican turmoil, there are decisive groups within the party. In 2019, the Pew Research Centre found that 14% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters identify as conservative or very conservative, 38% identify as moderate, and 47% identify as liberal or very liberal. As with most surveys, education has a lot to do with political inclinations. So far as white democrats are concerned, those with college degrees were more likely to describe their views as liberal.
What I find surprising, so far as the republican party is concerned, is that Kevin McCarthy, arch Trump loyalist, is having trouble fulfilling his goal to become speaker of the House. The facsimile storm troopers Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert are leading a far right group of congressmen and women in the hope of gaining some sort of advantage from Mr McCarthy, presumably being appointed chair of important Congressional Committees.
Since writing the above paragraphs McCarthy has been finally elected speaker, and it is clear that the concessions he has made will mean a disjointed, divided and disagreeable ugly house of representatives. The current make-up of the United States Congress does not represent the American people, nor does it reflect their aspirations. They are far removed from the ideals so bitterly fought for by the men and women of 1776. Whilst they did not behave, individually or necessarily, in an exemplary manner, what they put down on paper, signed up to, fought and died for, was a set of principles and method of governance that people around the world have, to some extent, aspired to. The numbers of people who flocked to the United States during the next 175 year is testament to that. The very nature of the principles of liberty were reinforced during the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in October of 1886. Emma Lazarus’s poem The New Colossus was engraved on a bronze plaque and place on the pedestal in 1903. It was written in 1883 and donated to an auction to raise funds to build the pedestal of the statue, hence the placing of the plaque, which again rededicated the United States to the principles of liberty.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Just two score years before the plaque was fixed to the pedestal, the United States was on the verge of splitting apart, and in that year of 1863 President Lincoln, in a dedication ceremony at a cemetery uttered 271 words urging Americans:
that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
A new birth of freedom. Coupled with that freedom was an acceptance of a duty of care. It is very simply put:
Give me your tired,
your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door
That is as clear an invitation as one could make. People from all over the world seem to believe it is true.
It would appear from the rhetoric of the right wing conservative republican faction, including the unhinged Trump acolytes, that the definition of American, is an isolationist, rigid religious fundamentalist, sporting a gun, forever ready to defend himself and his kin. (Note the republican holdouts have succeeded in having the metal detectors removed from the Capitol so as to allow anyone carrying a concealed weapon free access – is this in self-defence?) To them, the definition of American is a mirror image of themselves. They do not compromise but they do ‘do deals”. They seek a return to some mythical era depicted by Hollywood legends, John’s Ford and Wayne, together with James Stewart and Ward Bond - the old frontier. Indeed the ‘frontier’ is the dreamworld encompassing America. “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend”
At what point did the fairy tale so completely take over the American psyche or should one say the conservative republican? One has to accept that the American electorate is a total confusion. The majority in the Senate of the United States has been retained by the Democratic party, whilst the House of Representatives has been handed over to the right wing. It seems that local State constituencies favour a more conservative electorate, whereas most States as a whole seem to lean towards a more moderate centrist position, or at least towards Democratic Party candidates. That does not entirely account for the confusion and the current political divide. Where does the frontier fantasy so embedded begin?
I lived in America in the fifties and sixties. I was born under Roosevelt, saw in Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson. I voted in the 1964 election for the Democratic Party and Lyndon Johnson. Goldwater and the conservatives were not popular in my family and most of my friends. The post war years of recovery and the popularity and prosperity under Eisenhower gave way to a man born in the 20th Century. The first President not born in the 1800’s. He appealed to the youth of America, mainly to the burgeoning college educated young and the more socially conscious who responded to Kennedy’s more contemporary approach and his embracing of the cool sixties. The beatniks and the hippies whose influence began to spread across the country, and who in turn embraced the young and handsome erudite Kennedys. There clearly was a leaning towards the left of centre. Freedom marches, integration, free speech movements a great deal of political activity; but, JFK too turned to the dream with his New Frontier. He knew that the dream of the pioneer setting across the country, creating their own way of life, free to do as they liked away from a central government that meant nothing to them, was still very much alive. He therefore added his own twist by proposing a “new” frontier. (Tony Blair was equally successful with “New” Labour). He won the presidency by a very narrow margin, but the resultant celebrity of the new frontier’s new ‘first couple’ was electric. Like a bright spark it was snuffed out and the man became legend. To this day people who were alive at the time, knew where they were when Kennedy was shot.
Somewhere along the line, between Kennedy and Trump, things began to atrophy in the American mind. The new frontier lost its direction and reverted to the old frontier mentality. Gun toting and xenophobia were back in action. The country folk of America turned to isolation, towards Oath Keepers, QAnon and other extremist separatist politics. A me-first generation has swept the country. They have prised into congress and are causing great consternations. They like to think of themselves as upholding liberty and the constitution.
In terms of analysis of “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”, they are the quiet man who is behind the legend, the true American Tom Doniphon, played by John Wayne, who had the grit to shoot Liberty Valance, and allow the ‘do-gooder’, Ransom Stoddard, played by James Stewart, to take the credit and create the legend. What they fail to realize is, that it is they who are in fact playing Liberty Valance. Their confusion that they are fighting for Liberty, is just that. They are the bullies who seek power at the expense of everyone else. They see themselves as John Wayne, but they are in fact bad boy Lee Marvin. Indeed, they are the real bandits who run roughshod over the villagers. They are not the magnificent seven, but the twenty plus scoundrels and thieves of democracy.
So I ponder again, just when did the mind of America change from something approaching basic intelligence and the promotion of a caring civilised society, and the closed rigid support of populist barbarism and division? When did it start to go so horribly wrong?.
Perhaps it was always there below the surface. I have no answer. I know many people in the United States who do not form part of that crew of bandits. They also care about America. It is sad to see the turmoil so graphically displayed on YouTube and other venues. It is also sad to note what we do not see displayed, which is the prosecution of Donald Trump for the damage that he has wrought in the country. Since the press conference given by Gabriel Sterling 2 years ago in December 2020, the clearest evidence of incitement has been available. I post it here again:
Why has nothing been done?
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