Metaphor, Fascism and Democracy: America at 250
Some thoughts about our country on the august occasion of the 250th anniversary of our independence.
One of the extraordinary things about the Donald Trump is that he, his movement and his regime provide all the metaphors we need, making coming up with metaphors ourselves unnecessary. We don’t need to think of a metaphor to describe the US as petulant, addled, unhealthy, sugared up and on its last legs, because we have Trump himself.
No need to come up with an image of something turned a sickly green because of avarice and corruption when we have the reflecting pool. Want to describe an obsession with magnitude and the crudest visages of wealth that destroys tradition and dignity-we have the new White House ballroom. Need to portray a country that, due to anger and frustration, lashes out with no clear strategy or goals and is too delusional to recognize defeat when it is staring them in the face, look no further than the war in Iran.
The unhealthy, glutinous, sleazy, bigoted and dishonest character of the current American President, the absurdities surrounding the reflecting pool and the White House ballroom as well as the horrors and stupidity around the war in Iran capture important aspects of where the US finds itself on the eve of its 250th birthday-teetering on the edge of, or perhaps already falling into, an ugly fascist abyss.
This reality raises numerous questions, but two seem very central. One is more academic; the other more prescriptive. The first question is whether this was inevitable. Was there something about the long and winding history of the US that was always going to lead us here at the 250th anniversary of our founding?
Our failure to definitively address and correct the horrors of slavery and its legacy, the enduring power of various forms of religious fundamentalism, financially powerful forces’ consistent ability to stifle efforts to build a modern functioning social welfare state, the inability to resist the desire to intervene seemingly wantonly in every corner of the world even after the twentieth century victories over fascism and communism all reflect something deep about our history, political structures and what some might call our national character.
If reaching this point was inevitable it is because more liberal or progressive elements within American political life were always fighting an uphill battle that ultimately became unwinnable. The better angels of American political life that have always sought to push us towards greater racial and economic equality, a focus on human rights at home and globally, and on expanding our democracy, have been been there all along, but perhaps they were simply never strong enough. In that scenario Donald Trump himself is less significant than the events and history that made his rise possible.
The counterargument to this is not that these bigotries and demons have not existed, but that they have come to dominate our political life over the last decade through a combination of bad luck, bad timing and a confluence of new technologies and global crises. The core of this argument is that a smaller Republican field in 2016 and Trump does not get nominated, the ball bounces a different way in 2016 or 2024 and Trump does not get elected. Similarly, if social media arrives a few years later, Trump does not win. You get the point.
A bigger picture way to make this argument would be to identify events or times in American history where policy that would have addressed these problems fell short. If George W. Bush does not lead us into foolish and terrible war in Iraq, if the New Deal had been more expansive or even if Barack Obama had passed more impactful legislation while he was President, then the environment that made Trump and MAGA possible would not have occurred. This is an interesting debate that helps us understand and reflect upon our history, but it does not help us figure out what to do now.
This leads to the second question-what do we do now? A corollary question might be is it too late? Platitudes about the US being worth fighting for, not letting the fascists take the country or that we are the real patriots may be true, but are no longer helpful. If the country is worth fighting for, then we must ask difficult questions about what that fight might look like and for what vision, precisely we are fighting.
Those questions are still ones that much of the political class, even those who strongly oppose the president, does not want to confront. Recognizing that swinging a few votes from Republican to Democrat, winning some court cases and tinkering at the very edges of our Constitution is not sufficient is not easy for many, but it is essential. If you will allow me one last metaphor-this one of my own making-,the political class is in danger of becoming a baseball fan who discovers that everybody is now playing cricket, or in some cases lacrosse, and still insists on showing up every day at the playground with the baseball glove and bat.
Today the future of American democracy depends on all of us recognizing the depth of the damage of the last decade and the profundity of the new political world in which we now find ourselves. The founding of this country is shrouded in myth, jingoism and the fog of history, but on its 250th anniversary, we need to channel some of the courage, wisdom and strength-real or mythical-of the founders and be brave enough to envision a real democracy, smart enough to craft a strategy for how to get from here to there and strong enough to fight for it.
Happy Fourth of July, everybody.
European countries are also threatened by racist, fascistic populist parties like Maga. it would be useful to inspect how democratic regimes respond. What was behind the defeat of Victor Orban in Hungary for example?