The End of Democracy?`
January 15th, 2017 06:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunadelcorvoI wondered recently if I was being hyperbolic to suggest that we are seeing the death of American Democracy. It's a harder question than one might think. Certainly, one's first instinct is to dismiss it as overly dramatic pearl-clutching. After all, don't we see enough of the 'chicken Little' theatrics from the evangelical loonies who sweat gay marriage will bring doom raining down from the offended heavens? Seriously!
Then again, look at where we are, and the trends that promise to become the 'new normal:' suppression of the press, the disconnect from reality, the major shifts in policies both domestic and foreign - there is much about which to be concerned.
I think, at the very least, much of the progressive work we have done will be reversed. Women, minorities, immigrants, non-Christians—in short anyone who is not a Christian white straight male—is going to find much of their social power and equity eroded if not erased. That, together with the wide-reaching implications of repealing the ACA and gutting support for the most vulnerable in society will, I suspect, have a deeply destructive effect on the economy. Healthcare prices will skyrocket while the industry itself shrinks (both of which will follow fewer people using any formal healthcare at all), and the effects of poor health and shrinking healthcare access will bleed over into rising unemployment, homelessness, and poverty. Add in sinking wages, deeper penetration of 'right to work' laws which simply hamper unions and enable corporate abuse of workers, and the spending power of the poor & middle classes will vanish. We are looking at a deep, deep crash, and in incredible era of human suffering.
Meanwhile, our ideologue in chief presses an ever more aggressive, blame-filled, and fascist agenda. The 'middle ground' between the sides simply no longer exists. We keep hearing the urging to 'reach out,' to 'bridge the divide.' Where? How? Reach out to what middle ground? Women are people who deserve full equality and autonomy; or they don't. LGBTQ persons deserve the basic civil right to marry the person of their choosing and receive the same protections and considerations as every other person; or they don't. People of color, Muslims, immigrants, and non-Christians are people who deserve respect, full civil rights, and full equality; or not. Health care is a right; or it isn't. Climate change is a thing; or it's not. Either a democratic society has an obligation to put our resources to work protecting the most vulnerable and ensuring that every person has the basic necessities for a life of human dignity and meaning; or it does not, and screw them; if they are poor they are lazy and dissolute and they deserve what they get. There's not really a '...but...' in there anywhere. Women are not going back into the kitchen, gays are not going back into the closet, climate temperatures are not going back down because we say they never went up, and measles is not going to go away if we treat it with garlic and coconut oil. How do you compromise on such things?
I seriously think we have run out of middle ground. There are two narratives at play in American culture, and they are completely, totally, existentially irreconcilable. One is based in facts, in the imperative to guard the rights and well being of ALL human beings, and in the presupposition that all must share in the opportunity to build a meaningful life. The other is based on self-aggrandizing extremism, hate of what is different, and a disconnect from reality. And it is the latter that is currently winning. We are a 'post-factual' culture. We get on our smart phones on the internet and deny science and reality. We accept doublespeak, and blame others for the failures we create with out fear and bigotry and xenophobia. And that narrative is becoming the dominant one, within which there is no place for diversity; of race, gender, orientation, faith, creed, or opinion. We call that fascism. Is it really excessive to suggest we are seeing the end of American democracy?
Then again, look at where we are, and the trends that promise to become the 'new normal:' suppression of the press, the disconnect from reality, the major shifts in policies both domestic and foreign - there is much about which to be concerned.
I think, at the very least, much of the progressive work we have done will be reversed. Women, minorities, immigrants, non-Christians—in short anyone who is not a Christian white straight male—is going to find much of their social power and equity eroded if not erased. That, together with the wide-reaching implications of repealing the ACA and gutting support for the most vulnerable in society will, I suspect, have a deeply destructive effect on the economy. Healthcare prices will skyrocket while the industry itself shrinks (both of which will follow fewer people using any formal healthcare at all), and the effects of poor health and shrinking healthcare access will bleed over into rising unemployment, homelessness, and poverty. Add in sinking wages, deeper penetration of 'right to work' laws which simply hamper unions and enable corporate abuse of workers, and the spending power of the poor & middle classes will vanish. We are looking at a deep, deep crash, and in incredible era of human suffering.
Meanwhile, our ideologue in chief presses an ever more aggressive, blame-filled, and fascist agenda. The 'middle ground' between the sides simply no longer exists. We keep hearing the urging to 'reach out,' to 'bridge the divide.' Where? How? Reach out to what middle ground? Women are people who deserve full equality and autonomy; or they don't. LGBTQ persons deserve the basic civil right to marry the person of their choosing and receive the same protections and considerations as every other person; or they don't. People of color, Muslims, immigrants, and non-Christians are people who deserve respect, full civil rights, and full equality; or not. Health care is a right; or it isn't. Climate change is a thing; or it's not. Either a democratic society has an obligation to put our resources to work protecting the most vulnerable and ensuring that every person has the basic necessities for a life of human dignity and meaning; or it does not, and screw them; if they are poor they are lazy and dissolute and they deserve what they get. There's not really a '...but...' in there anywhere. Women are not going back into the kitchen, gays are not going back into the closet, climate temperatures are not going back down because we say they never went up, and measles is not going to go away if we treat it with garlic and coconut oil. How do you compromise on such things?
I seriously think we have run out of middle ground. There are two narratives at play in American culture, and they are completely, totally, existentially irreconcilable. One is based in facts, in the imperative to guard the rights and well being of ALL human beings, and in the presupposition that all must share in the opportunity to build a meaningful life. The other is based on self-aggrandizing extremism, hate of what is different, and a disconnect from reality. And it is the latter that is currently winning. We are a 'post-factual' culture. We get on our smart phones on the internet and deny science and reality. We accept doublespeak, and blame others for the failures we create with out fear and bigotry and xenophobia. And that narrative is becoming the dominant one, within which there is no place for diversity; of race, gender, orientation, faith, creed, or opinion. We call that fascism. Is it really excessive to suggest we are seeing the end of American democracy?
