Many in the U.S. are either running around with their hair on fire about the upcoming election for President in 2024 or they feel like they are going to sit this one out. It is no secret that I am not excited about either predicted candidate. Some of my friends think that I don’t understand the crisis before us. I do. I don’t believe that either candidate is the solution to our collective problems. The former president will accelerate our race towards the precipice. The current president may slow us down some, but we will still be heading towards the cliff. Either one will be a place holder for the inevitable if we don’t address the root causes of why our democracy is in crisis and stop focusing only on the symptoms like, partisanship, inequalities, bought and paid for politicians and justices, and political violence. Granted, the symptoms are easier to see, but we must look deeper. Few believe in the mission statement from the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed… We don’t need a strong man, nor do we need someone to uphold the crumbling status quo. We need to sincerely review and implement our mission. Many still believe that if we just get the right party in the Capitol and Whitehouse things will get better and go back to normal. We have been through this process with every national election. Some improvements are made, but without significant overall change. Now we are at this tipping point.
What fascinates me is that the people who have the least trust in government were at one time considered the most “patriotic,” always waving their guns, bibles, and flags. For years we were told that the threat to democracy were the Communists and Marxists, people like Angela Davis or the Black Panther Party, or Civil Rights Leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, or anti-war protesters like the students at Kent State and the Chicago 7. These were the kind of people who wanted to destroy America, but they weren’t the kind of people that showed up at the Capitol on January 6th. There were no members of ANTIFA or Black Lives Matter storming the Capitol, just American Patriots.
The 2016 election and the insurrection of January 6th point to far deeper problems than a re-election alone can remedy. While democracy is in danger, the house is also on fire. Some have forgotten that the government should represent the majority, not just the financially well off or politically connected. That was not the intention of the founders. Somehow Americans were lulled to sleep. We gave in to the economic theory of market rule (neoliberalism) and believed that markets were more efficient and could replace government. We gave our “representatives” too much leeway and they caved into corporate control and manipulation of the “free” market to benefit shareholders. American consumers were blinded by the influx of cheaper goods flooding the market while wages became stagnant and decent paying jobs went overseas and weren’t replaced.
Belief in the mission of government must be restored, so it can begin serving the American people and not just the donors who provide the representatives with money to run their re-election campaigns to stay in power. Those in office often speak of the “American people,” as though they are separate from them. They don’t say, “us” or “we.” No wonder people feel like the folks on Capitol Hill are elitists and out of touch with the rest of the country.
There could be another January 6th like event or worse if it isn’t recognized that Government must serve by providing an economic and social environment that allows all people, not just a chosen few, to thrive, not just survive. If the government was doing its job for the majority, the person elected in 2016 may not have even run for office and there would not have been a January 6th insurrection.
The attack on the U.S. Capitol is the pinnacle example of the breakdown of faith in government as an institution. It was a scream for help and an outburst of anger. People were compelled to violence by their own fear and desperation because the government was not doing its job. I am not excusing the violence. It is easy to say that the rioters were just crazy from drinking the Kool-Aid. They weren’t forced to ingest it. This violence came from people who are desperate to be heard and for something to believe in that could help them live better lives. There are many desperate people in this country who are minorities. They can’t afford to be violent lest that violence be turned back on them tenfold. Many of the January 6th rioters were in the shrinking racial majority and were treated with much deference. They were allowed to return to their hotel rooms and homes after the insurrection without immediate arrest.
They believed in the lie that the election was stolen from them and that they were victims of an undemocratic system that no longer represented them. Underneath that was the fear that the man they believed to be their last hope was not going to be there to give voice to their concerns. Who was going to protect their position in the pecking order? Desperate and fearful people make desperate and fearful choices. That is how their guy got into the Whitehouse to begin with. He told them that he was one of them and that he knew their pain. The incoming administration would not understand them because they are Washington elites.
In 2016 Hillary was unable to connect with that populace. She was seen as too mired in elitism and an example of what is wrong in D.C. The Democrats misread the energy of the 2016 election, and they run the risk of doing it again because instead of listening they are anointing, orchestrating, and directing. They believe that they know what is best for the country. Biden may get another term, but the crisis will be far from over if nothing is done to make the country livable for more than just 20% of Americans.
I have said it before and will repeat that the challenges facing the U.S. can’t be resolved with the same toolset that we have relied upon in the past. We are in the 21st century now. The 20th century is behind us. We are being challenged to do things differently. The country is losing its leadership role. The Israeli government, our allies, won’t listen to us even though we provide them with significant aide. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) are challenging America’s economic dominance.
Recently Boeing, a stellar example of U.S. aircraft and weapons superiority, suffered the indignity of a huge quality control issue for their Max 737 model. It almost cost lives as a door blew out shortly after takeoff in 2023. An investigation into two fatal crashes of Boeing Max 737 air crafts which killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019 found that “faulty technical assumptions by Boeing's engineers was among the causes responsible for the crashes. We are having difficulty keeping planes in the air. The empire is deteriorating. America will have to pass on the baton of leadership. Maybe in the 21st century the concept of world leadership solely through military and economic might will become a relic of the 20th century.