It Ain’t Easy

                If anyone thought that the transition to a more inclusive and radical form of democracy was going to be smooth and easy, the last week in Trump world should have ended that.  Once again, we were treated to the spectacle of racism and hate in American politics.  Once again, we heard small minded and xenophobic people act like a democracy was just for them and people who look, talk and believe like them.  We are a long way from anything resembling real democracy.  In fact, the most ‘democratic’ voices in the debate are the women being vilified by this poor excuse for a president.  His failures are too banal and numerous to comment on, but the consistent support of his followers is a sobering reminder that even the weak form of democracy we enjoy is in peril.

                Of course, none of this is new.  American democracy is built on a racist, misogynist and intolerant strain of thought that bubbles to the surface whenever things seem like they’re about to get more progressive and inclusive.  George Wallace ran a racist, populist campaign in the wake of MLK’s defining triumphs in civil rights.  It is no coincidence that Trump follows the inspirational presidency of Obama.  In both cases, people who claim to be “Christians” lend credibility and support to the worst forms of bigotry and hate.  What we have to do is figure out how to move beyond this chapter of this same old story to open a new horizon on what American democracy can become.

                Multicultural and multiracial democracies have never really succeeded.  If America is going to reinvent itself as a radical democracy, this battle has to be won and it has to be won decisively.  Tolerance is not virtue in the face of tyranny.  We have to be willing to fight the next election on every street corner, barbershop and coffee shop.  We have to confront and beat back ignorance and hate.  As I’ve written in earlier posts, violence will only feed the monster.  Our confrontations have to be peaceful and intelligent.  They have to patient and persistent, leaving no incident of prejudice and hatred unchallenged.  This is a time for vigilance.  It doesn’t matter if it’s your uncle or father-in-law at a family gathering or stranger berating someone in public.  It doesn’t matter if it makes you feel uncomfortable.

                I’m tired of hearing the false patriotism and hate of these same old rearguard assaults.  When I was a teenager, people who thought it was justifiable to tell people they had to ‘love it or leave it.’  They thought they could defend a war that looks worse and worse the more we know about it by shutting off decent.  They thought they could literally beat back protest and democracy the same way Bull Conner thought he could stop civil rights in Selma.  Maybe we thought those battles were over, but they’re not.  We fought a civil war, but we let the twisted legacy of a traitorous general remain.  We have avoided the bigots and Puritans thinking they had to come around sometime.  They won’t.

                This election is about whatever hope is left for American democracy.  The corporations don’t care.  The Evangelicals don’t care.  The cops don’t care.  The only real democratic vision of America is a multiracial and multicultural vision.  We have got to figure out what holds us together and what we can let go.  I can live next to you without agreeing with you or being like you.  We can live together without trying to be the same.  We are united by the faith we have in each other not our similarities to each other.  Democracies aren’t pure.  They don’t ground themselves in race or religion.  Democracies are dynamic and not stagnant. 

                This week, Trump decided the only way to stay in power is to play the dirtiest card from the bottom of the deck.  Even if this isn’t the fight you wanted, it’s the fight you are fated to wage.  In this historical context, with this Republican party and this president, it is a fight that we cannot ignore or afford to lose.  Every generation has to confront some enemy.  Every generation has an obligation to stand for what we think is the best vision of who we are and what we can be.  This time around, the enemy is among us.  It is an old and familiar foe, one of our blood relatives.  It’s high time we settled this.