A Troubled America

Originally written January 2017

An Update January 2019

How did we get here?  Where, exactly are we ?

“Where Do We Go from Here” was MLK’s analysis of the state of American race relations and the movement after a decade of U.S. civil rights struggles. ‘‘With Selma and the Voting Rights Act one phase of development in the civil rights revolution came to an end,’’ he observed (King, 3). King believed that the next phase in the movement would bring its own challenges, as African Americans continued to make demands for better jobs, higher wages, decent housing, an education equal to that of whites, and a guarantee that the rights won in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would be enforced by the federal government. He warned that ‘‘The persistence of racism in depth and the dawning awareness that Negro demands will necessitate structural changes in society have generated a new phase of white resistance in North and South’’ (King, 12).

White people are potential humans - they haven't evolved yet. 

Louis Farrakhan

Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, has long expressed anti-Semitic and anti-white rhetoric which has marked him as a notable figure on the extremist scene. This demagogue is a frequent speaker on college campuses and at rallies, where he has been received enthusiastically by thousands of people. During the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign, Farrakhan came out in support of controversial Republican candidate Donald Trump, stating that he admired how Trump had steered clear of Jewish special interest money.

In 1984, the Indianapolis Jewish community was attacked by Reverend Louis Farrakhan.  Reverend Farrakhan at a meeting of 2,000 Hoosiers preached anti semitism. blaming us for all the social ills in the country.  A few Indiana activists came together to decide whether ‘to go high or to go low’. And this was before Michelle Obama.  We decided that giving people an opportunity to vent and plan was better than our attacking our attacker.  We chose to ‘go high’ and Dialogue.

When the organization formally incorporated in 1987, it stated as its purpose:  “To consider and address our common concerns through a coalition of Black and Jewish women.” Theresa Guise, Diane Meyer Simon, and Carole Stein formed a coalition between African-American and Jewish women in Indianapolis. One hundred Black and Jewish women were invited to be the founding group of ‘Dialogue Today’.  

And now Farrakhan is back in the news:

During his Feb. 25, 2019 speech, at an event for Saviour’ Day, a religious gathering of the Nation of Islam, Mr. Farrakhan said that the ‘powerful Jews” were his enemies, and that Jews were responsible for all of this fifth and degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting out turning men into women and women into men,” as well as other incendiary remarks. And, it continues.

My response: I have spent much of my life reading and blogging about American politics, but nothing I’ve seen before has prepared me for what has happened these past months.  Increasingly, it feels as though the country is careening out of control and heading straight off a cliff — and nothing can slow it down.  I fear that we are on our way to an autocratic system of government:

“An autocracy is a system of government in which supreme power is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control”

We have a president fully prepared to violate the Constitution. We have allegations that his advisers have worked directly with a foreign government to win his presidential election. We have a Congress indifferent to these potential crises and focused instead on repealing

legislation that will literally cause premature hardships of thousands of Americans. It’s almost hard to take all of this in. Since Trump does not believe that conflict of interest laws apply to him and that he’s under no obligation to ensure that he is not profiting from being president, he will take office under an ethical cloud that we’ve never seen in the 240-year history of the United States.

Emoluments Clause - Heritage Foundation

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign States.

Taken all together, this confluence of events represents perhaps the most profound and political crisis that this country has faced since Watergate.  And during this period, people are talking about ‘normalizing Trump,’  broadly defined as the act of treating his sexism, xenophobia and fascist dog-whistles as just another policy difference against equally valid opponents.  The Oxford English Dictionary defines “normalize” as “to make normal; to bring or return to a normal or standard condition or state.” It’s a word, then, as nebulous and conditional as the idea of normalcy itself — and one whose many meanings have been debated throughout a campaign season of unusual self-scrutiny within America’s professional political class.

And I am saying this now in January 2019. This is wrong, both tactically and ethically. Trump isn’t normal and he should never be treated as such. The overall message of normalizing Trump is that you can steamroll women, LGBT people, the disabled, Muslims, and people of color, yet everything will be okay so long as you win. Indeed, when asked if he thought his rhetoric had gone too far, Trump responded, “No, I won.” This is the logic of a fascist, and liberals are acquiescing to him by pivoting to “Trump as our kooky uncle” normalization mode.  Let us all stay awake and aware and speak up when we are shaken. We are older and we have seen so much of this behavior and sets of events that we probably want to remain untouched - I cannot feel untouched.  

My concern is for my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  I feel an obligation to leave them a better world and safer world