“All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”. Professor Pangloss in Candide – Voltaire
Donald Trump and his regime have been scrutinized and satirized from every possible angle imaginable – as the apotheosis of Reaganism, to the hopes that Trump will become more presidential, a modern-day Candide – while featuring the smirky Bill Kristol and a befuddled George Will earnestly clutching their pearls in disbelief at the anarchy their ideas have unleashed. But due to Trump’s habit of throwing stinkpots onto our national deck, we have failed to define a strategy to defeat him using the powers granted by the Constitution. We can impeach now, but will a Republican Senate refuse to convict, giving Trump an electoral home run? Will choosing to draw this fight out until the 2020 election succeed in defaming Trump sufficiently to dampen Republican turnout? Will simply doing the right thing by impeaching this traitor now be its own reward, or will it be remembered in history as the moment when we decided to fire in the name of outrage – before we saw the whites of their eyes? Republicans, to their great disgrace, lack the moral courage to stop Trump’s offensive, and co-conspirators like Mitch McConnell are playing their parts as collaborators with a degree of smarmy evil worthy of Hannibal Lecter.
But how did we get here in the first place. I think we’re here precisely because of the multitude of individual worldviews granted to the citizens of the land of the free and the home of the brave. We have too many “isms” and too many “ites”. And all have been cultivated over 243 years of peace, economic growth, and a creed of tolerance that has made us so open minded that our brains have actually fallen out of our heads. We have the luxury of maintaining an elaborate patchwork of what is called our national Weltanschauung – the ideas and beliefs through which we observe and interpret the world and that inform our decisions. And because these different takes on our interpretation of events is so varied, they have become increasingly incompatible and hard to consolidate into one system of governing. We are facing a genuine clash of civilizations across and within America. And these camps are impervious to factual data because they have been incubated in philosophical bubbles without any disputation. Too many Americans belong to cults. Too many are indifferent to the actual nature of reality, or worse, believe that they possess a special back channel to the universe that permits them to exercise whatever “rights” they personally deem unalienable.
A thorough reading of the list of American “ists” animating our political discourse is a walk through a house of mirrors. But if you squint, you’ll see where Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric comes from. You’ll get to meet the folks who promote isolationism, the virulence of anti-establishment rhetoric, and the abandonment of foreign alliances. You’ll recognize the cross-burners who now appear confused as to who is inferior to them: their surgeon from India or their boss from China. And you’ll meet the Left and Right-Wing Populists who use bombastic oratory to convince their already primed, faith-based believers to vote against their own self-interests.
Can America have too many freedoms? Has our political discourse become so incoherent that all that remains are the ashes of a 243-year-old democracy that fought for unity but then refused to defend it?
We have quislings in the presidency and in the Republican Party. We have a tyrant in the highest office of the land. Here is an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence that lists the reasons why Americans were justified in fighting a revolution to free themselves from the tyranny of King George III – and a chilling reminder of just how far we have fallen with Donald Trump:
“To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries…”
Voltaire’s, Candide, is a coming of age story – a Bildungsroman – where Candide, through his adventures, discovers the corrupt society of men, a society that is the opposite of the optimistic worldview of his teacher, Professor Pangloss. Pangloss teaches optimism with his belief that “all is for the best” in the “best of all possible worlds”.
We are no longer living in the best of all possible worlds. We must demand that Democrats stop pandering and start defending our democracy. They must stop endlessly splitting the hairs of healthcare and gather the moral courage to bring the fight to the Republicans who coddle this tyrant. They must throw the first punch because the constitution they love has been set on fire by a quisling, and every Republican is holding a burnt match. Impeach this traitor now.
Deborah Long is a Principal at Development Management Group, Inc. and founder of several non-profit, charitable organizations. If you find her perspectives interesting, controversial, or provocative, you can follow her at: https://www.facebook.com/debby.long.98499?ref=br_rs