Category: Politics

[I present here a thoughtful essay by my long time friend and fellow liberal. It makes some thoughtful distinctions between the individual and the community based in part on what we both learned in Catholic schools in Iowa 1957-1965]

Greg Cusack                                   March 27, 2021

            Many years ago now, when mostly conservative religious voices began calling for the need for us to return to values, I actually resonated with that call, even though I recognized that the values they were calling for were primarily those that applied to personal behavior, sexuality issues specifically.  If I recall correctly, this was during the 1970s when the US was reeling from the aftermath of the divisive Vietnam war and wrestling with many of the cultural issues raised during the 1960s.

            I thought that their observation that the United States had become an overwhelmingly secular society that needed to rethink its direction was right on.

            I promise that I am not going to be writing a moralistic lecture.  Rather, I want to focus on what I believe has been lost in our conversations for some time – the revitalization of communitarian ethics.  And, no, these are not the same thing as socialist rhetoric under a disguise!

            Rather, a communitarian understanding stands in sharp contrast to an individualistic one, and it is this latter that pretty much represents our country’s mindset these days, as it has for some time.

During the first wave of our COVID-19 “shutdown” last year, talking heads on TV spoke with excitement about the “new normal” that would follow our conquest of the new virus. Things would be different, they predicted.  We would take less for granted, appreciate each other more, become more environmentally conscious as we drove less, worked from home, enjoyed our families and lived at a more relaxed pace.

Now that the light at the end of the tunnel of conquest seems to be moving further and further into the future, I am beginning to hear less talk of the “new normal.” 

It is as if the dream of living in a new, healthier way post-COVID-19 has worn off.  Are we just tired of being trapped inside our home, wearing uncomfortable masks when going out, and not being able to see our parents, children, or friends “until we are vaccinated?”

And who know when that will happen?  And then there are those “variants” of the virus that will continue to spread, especially among the “anti-vaxxers”?

 It seems we may have become like the two characters in Samuel Beckett’s famous play “Waiting for Godot” first performed in 1953.  Two men meet under a tree and discover that they are both there to meet a man named Godot.  They wait hours, and even come back the next day, but Godot never appears.

“Waiting for Godot” has become a way of saying that we are waiting for something that  never happens.  Is our “new normal” coming or are we waiting for Godot?

Many of us have heard the phrase “the only constant is change.”  As a historian, I can vouch for its truth, despite the widespread misconception that “History repeats itself.”  Although the History Channel and human nature do repeat, human history does not! It only often appears that way.

Of course, we do truly crave predictability.  We want a world where not everything is “unprecedented,” as we hear so often on the news. We just want it all to stop—and go back to normal, the way things were—or do we, really?

Here are some of the things that were normal before we entered Coronaville: 

1. a vast economic and cultural gap in America between the very rich whose power seemed endless and the very large number of poor who couldn’t make ends meet;
2. two major political parties, both of which often put greed for money and power ahead of governance, and division into hostile camps ahead of “democracy for the people”;
3. many people in positions of power at all levels who thought that “the greatest good for the greatest number,” the “common good,” referred to Socialism—even though three states in the USA, including Kentucky, are titled “Commonwealths;”
4. millions of stressed-out people educated and uneducated, who felt so ignored by their leaders, so eager for change, and so tired of watching ‘rich people TV commercials’ for things they couldn’t afford that they turned to conspiracy theories to explain their plight;
5. a planet experiencing intense rains, huge fires, more violent hurricanes,, warming and rising oceans—all due to  climate changes not taken seriously by many of us;
6. and of course, a systematic racism or sense of white privilege built into our institutions and our subconscious minds, despite our easy talk about the importance of racial justice;

These are some of the reasons we might not want to return to being normal—new or old.

            It is time for some serious rethinking of what we really value It is time to be “abnormally” attentive to each other needs and to those of our planet?  Are we really happy with the kind of capitalism and rampant individualism that allows, even encourages, the rich to get richer and the poor poorer? Is money the measure of our worth?

            Finally, are we still content to blame “the other guy” (or other political party) for all our problems instead of thinking about and demanding change?  We may have taken a small step forward by our votes in the 2020 election?

            We can we change our fate or we can just continue waiting for Godot?

It was nearly five years ago that I made a mistake for which I must ask forgiveness. In early December of 2015, I wrote and published in one of those liberal California digital magazines called the L.A. Progressive an article entitled “Donald Trump: Anti-Prophet and Blessing.” 

In this article, I said that Trump was an anti-prophet because, unlike the Old Testament prophets who chided rulers and people when they strayed from the path of ethical righteousness, Trump’s message was the opposite. “His job,” I wrote, “is to encourage us be our worst (unethical) rather than our best selves.”  I called Trump “a demagogue who appeals to the prejudice of the masses” as well as “to the dark side of our character.”

But that is not what I want to apologize for.

Two New York Times opinion columns in early October triggered an outburst of optimism during this chaotic election season.

The first, on October 9, by midwestern novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson, was titled “Don’t Give Up On America.”  Robinson, who calls herself a “liberal, loyal to the country in ways that make me a pragmatist,” is willing to acknowledge the “many flaws” of the previous Democratic administration while also denouncing the contemptible behavior of the current Republican one.

She hoped that we could “find our way back to equilibrium” by “restoring a sense of the dignity, even the beauty, of individual ethical behavior, of self-restraint, of courtesy in all things.” Doing this, she said, “might help us to like one another, even trust one another, both necessary to a functioning democracy.”

The following day the Times ran a column by the more conservative Russ Douthat assuring readers that “there will be no Trump coup” should the Donald lose the election.  Douthat tried to calm liberal Democratic fear of an authoritarian take-over by pointing out that successful authoritarian leaders control the military and the media in their countries and that Trump controls neither.

 “Our weak, ranting, infected-by-Covid chief executive is not plotting a coup,” he wrote, “because a term like ‘plotting’ implies capabilities he conspicuously lacks.”

These two Times opinion writers, one liberal and the other more conservative, are really (in a normal world) moderates who shoot arrows at those on both the Left and Right sides of the political wall separating the parties.  This wall used to be just a fence with gates that opened.

Can we “find our way back to equilibrium” as Robinson hoped? Can we liberals calm our fears enough to put our remaining energy into getting out the vote instead of writing about a possible Trump coup?

Can we Democrats restore even just a small sense of dignity to our political conversations and display a modicum of respect for democratic behavior instead of gloating in the wake of a Biden victory next month?

Perhaps we can, but only if we first secure that victory by removing Trump and his enablers in the Senate, people like McConnell, Graham, and Grassley who now hold power, and electing a Democratic majority to that body.

And in that event, Democrats also need to avoid the overconfidence and hubris (pride) that Douthat says led to Democratic defeat in 2016.

We can only improve America, a better slogan than “making America great again” by solving problems like the spread of Covid-19 and its accompanying economic recession instead of politicizing these problems.

That course of action might even help create the equilibrium that Robinson seeks; it would certainly be more rational. One might even wonder if problem-solving on the eve of an election might secure President Trump a few more votes.  Wouldn’t this be politically wiser than just proclaiming that the virus is disappearing when it clearly is not?

            Not too long ago, it was common to hear people tell their anxious friends to “just chill.”  The national mood could change after a Democratic victory in November, but only if we can all—Republicans and Democrats alike—“just chill” enough to allow that to happen.

In previous columns I have said that I am not an opponent of capitalism itself, but only of unregulated or uncontrolled capitalism, the sort that puts money ahead of ALL else and makes everything a commodity, including human values.

That is self-defeating capitalism, the kind that is weakening and could destroy our democracy, and one would think economists would deplore this.