An Absence of Hope
On finally getting the government that we deserve
In the days after the attempted trumpist insurrection on January 6, 2021, I noted that we had moved to a place where American society was now beset by an actively fascist political movement. The remedies that I suggested — clear and unapologetic accounting for what has happened to the American body politic, along with criminal consequences for all political leaders who eagerly worked to subvert the democratic process — seemed obvious to me. That they did not subsequently occur was disappointing, if unsurprising. Surprise comes from believing things are different from what they really are. After this past week’s election, I don’t think there’s any surprise left in me.
Things are very much what they are, and what they are is not good. The American political project of the post-World War 2 era is clearly dead. America is no longer interested in working to advance a vision of itself as a place that works to improve the lives of all of the people who live within it. It is not a place that seeks to be safer for anyone perceived as other than some bizarre, figmented vision of what Americans used to be. It is not a place that wishes to do anything of substance to reckon with its various original sins (against women, or people of color, or the land’s native inhabitants). It does not seek to improve the world for anyone other than a very narrow version of what Americans are. Wherever those dynamics conflict with pesky notions of democracy, human rights, or providing a social safety net for those less fortunate, well…all of that is just so much that America is no longer interested in thinking about.
Speaking about America in this way obscures nuance. I don’t mean to suggest that the diversity of Americans are somehow monolithic in their willingness to go along with this claimed vision of what America should be. The various strains of American thought and activism that have stood in resistance to fascism over our history will not accept our recent anti-democratic lurch any more than they have accepted any preceding injustice. Undoubtedly, there will be strong resistance to what is heading our way. But for all of that, the fact remains that as far as the next period of time is concerned, American government is captured by something as repugnant as it is radical. And whatever comes from this will be both frightening and profoundly damaging.
It is in the American character to have a strong sense of one’s self-importance. I’m not sure that I know of any other country that is quite so loud in insisting that it’s the “greatest place on Earth,” while simultaneously maintaining such disinterest in both its own governance and the rest of the world. I hope that my life, now seven years outside the physical borders of the US, has somewhat helped to disabuse me of this tendency. And from the privilege of being partially outside, I will propose that our national self-centeredness may hopefully be one of the deserved casualties of the coming era. For as much as we like to pretend otherwise, the world needs America much less than America needs the world. I am heartbroken that our ugliest impulses as a nation have brought us to a place where our position in the global community will only continue to diminish.
But perhaps this is what is necessary. Perhaps whatever humility might come from the lessons we have now chosen to learn through bitter experience — the loss of allies, the erosion of our remaining democratic values, the accelerating decay of our social fabric — may serve to refocus us on what we can be when we are at our best, and away from what we are when we are at our worst. If any grace exists in this current moment, may it lie in what we might take from these onrushing losses.
My thoughts and best wishes go to all of us in this terrible moment. May we find the courage to face what comes next with clear eyes and humane purpose.
