Two Parties

I’m a two-party guy.  That does not mean I have a full social agenda tonight.  I’m talking about politics and decision-making.  Yes, I am a progressive Democrat, but I absolutely do not want Democrats to be the only party.  I do not want the Republicans to be the only party either. 

H. L. Mencken wrote that for every complex human problem, there is a solution that is neat, simple and wrong.  Smart man.

 

As a species, we are facing the greatest challenges ever.  Can we survive on our home planet or have we done so much damage our climate and atmosphere are irreparable?  How many humans can our planet support?  How do we resolve conflicts that are driven by deeply held belief systems that are not subject to logic and science?  Now that 99% of all life that has ever existed on this planet is extinct, how shall we ensure that we do not follow that same path?  How do we get to a position of collaboration rather than competition with others of our kind?  How do we reconcile the wealth of the 1% with the extreme poverty of the 36% who are daily on the verge of death?  Shall barriers between humans grow stronger or should we be breaking down barriers? 

We so want someone to just step up and say “Here are the answers.”  But no one person can do that, and if they do we know upfront they are wrong.  We cannot solve human mobility across national boundaries by building walls.  We cannot solve our climate crisis by saying there is nothing to worry about and life should go on as usual.  We cannot solve the conflict between religious groups by government institution and support of one religious belief and casting other belief systems as evil.  We cannot solve the conflict between the haves and the have nots by writing off the have nots and ensuring the continuation of the haves.  We cannot solve the tension between members of our species based on DNA and skin pigment by suppressing those groups we deem somehow unworthy.  We cannot mandate the reduction in human rights and freedom and expect positive outcomes, especially if the reduction in freedom is the result of a religious belief.  Each of those paths has been tried and each has failed again and again, and yet we try again and again.

Democrats do not have a patent on the best answers to these challenges.  Nor do the Republicans.  I am a Democrat because I have looked at the proposed solutions of each party and I perceive that the proposed Democrat solutions are much more likely to yield a long-term resolution of the problems and I perceive that the Republican solutions appear to protect the status quo.  And I believe the status quo is killing us.  But, I truly believe the more minds that are brought to a problem increases the likelihood of problem solution.  For our survival we must, we absolutely must gather at the same table and discuss the issues.  We will disagree.  We will argue.  But solutions generated by open contribution and respectful debate are much more likely to ensure our survival than petty power politics.

Democracy is hard.  We must defend the right of someone to articulate what we absolutely oppose and yet be willing to seek truth in what they say.  We must confront the misuse of power for selfish ends.  We must view our entire planet, not our little square on the planet.  We must see each other, not just those who look like us and think like us.  We must plan for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren and on and on, not plan for the next quarterly report and this year’s contribution to our total wealth.  We must regain integrity.  We must pursue truth, embrace it no matter how painful, and act on fact. 

If it turns out that as a species we are incapable of the pursuit of such a noble mission then archeologists of another species will make that note on our tombstones.  The pursuit of such a mission in this nation will require two political parties both of whom are more interested in the mission than sustaining temporary majorities.  No one will care if a party has the majority and the decisions they make doom us.

Birds of a feather may flock together, but I deeply hope we are smarter than birds.  One party could foster tyranny.  Multiple parties would result in chaos and divisiveness.  Two parties, respectful of each other, can do it.  Have done it.  But we must confront those who are building walls in the petty game of politics and say to them our great-grandchildren mean more than your re-election.  We must care more about the world and America’s role in the world than we do about our own temporal power.  Just ask Genghis Kahn, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, etc. how long power lasts.  It is a false goal.  

Our mission must be to save the planet, pursue equality and equity, pursue human rights, save each other, and thereby save ourselves. 

Accountability in 2030

As I approach my 80^th birthday I review my life.  Something about being this old triggers looking in the rearview mirror rather than the windshield.  I reflect on my life, what I have done, what I have not done, the good things I did and the mistakes I made.  Some of those mistakes haunt me to this day.

My 18-year-old grandson came to me the other day with a series of questions I had a hard time answering.  He was in his senior year in high school and was studying American Government.  He had already had American History.  He was confused about the past and my take on the situation.

“Grandpa,” he began.  “Can I ask you some questions about what was going on in our country back in the 2016 to 2020 time frame?  We are looking at our government during that time and some of my classmates have very strong feelings that I do not understand.”  

“Sure.  Ask away.”  I said.

“Did you support President Trump?”

“Well, yes I did,” I said reluctantly.

“Why?”

“There are several things you have to understand about those days for any of this to make sense.  Barak Obama was elected President in 2008 and took office in 2009.  He inherited one of the worst economies this nation had ever seen.  Stocks tumbled, foreclosures were skyrocketing, plants were shutting down, unemployment was rising, the national debt was climbing, and on and on.  The nation turned to a Democrat to fix the economic fiasco left by Bush and handed him a Congress controlled by Democrats.  In other words, the Republicans really took it on the chin in the 2008 election.

But the Republican machine was a long way from dead.  During the campaign conservative talk show hosts and Fox News continued to imply that Obama was a Muslim and that he was born in Africa, not Hawaii.  It was a constant blitz of false information.  I did not know it was false.  In fact, I had voted Republican every year since the late 1970’s so I hated that the Democrats were in control.  Hearing that their leader was possibly ineligible to be President and that he was a member of a religious group that attacked us helped me feel better about hating Democrats.  I was uncomfortable with a Black President.  It seemed to me that our nation was turning more and more to protecting minorities and less and less to protecting the Anglo middle class.  That upset me.  It seemed to me that we were being taxed just so people who could not or would not work would have benefits.  That upset me.  It seemed that our judicial system was always siding with minority rights.  That upset me.

But what really upset me was the Democratic Party stand on two issues.  Gun control and abortion.  I was opposed to stricter gun control and believed it was my 2^nd amendment right to own firearms.  The NRA constantly told us that the Democrats were going to take our guns away, so did Fox News.  When Obama won there was a rush on firearm and ammunition purchases.  We now know that was the goal of the NRA who represent firearm manufacturers.  But many believed the Democrats would take away our guns.

The Democrats also supported Roe v. Wade which gave women the right to decide whether to have an abortion or not.  I was strongly, emotionally opposed to that.  I felt that unborn babies needed protection.  I felt that only God should judge which baby survives and which ones become miscarriages.  I felt like abortion was murder and I stood on holy ground opposing it.  No matter what the Democrats did regarding the economy, or health care, or international treaties, or protections against future crashes, or protection for American workers, or efforts to reduce global warming I could not see it.  I was told over and over again that Obama was terrible.  Democrats were terrible.  

And I believed it because I wanted to believe it.  As long as I listened to just some news sources and read some books and talked to only certain friends all these beliefs were strongly reinforced and I believed they were factual, not propaganda.  It was as though my team had lost the Super Bowl and I believed the other team cheated to win.  I could never forgive that other team even if they in fact did not cheat.

Obama won a second term.  Unbelievable.  At least Congress was now controlled by Republicans and every effort the Democrats made to pass legislation was thwarted.  Republicans even allowed the government to shut down to stop Democratic spending even though the national debt created by Bush was coming down under Obama’s budget.  The debt was coming down because employment was improving, homes were being built, and the economy was rebounding.  But again, I could not see it because I hated Democrats. 

So, when 2016 rolled around and Trump won the Republican nomination I was all in.  He promised to reduce the number of Hispanics entering our country illegally by building a wall.  He convinced us that those people were killers and drug dealers.  He promised to protect gun rights and oppose abortion. He promised to stimulate the economy with a huge tax cut.  He promised to improve our standing in the world by not taking any gruff off anyone, standing up to NATO, the UN, the EU, China, North Korea, Iran, ISIS, etc.  He said everything I wanted to hear.  So yes, I supported him.”

“But Grandpa, did you know he was a liar?  Did you know he was charged with sexual assault?  Did you know he used women and hated minorities?  Did you know he would protect oil companies at the expense of the environment?”

“Yes, I guess I knew all that at the time.  It didn’t matter.  I hated Democrats so much and Trump was talking my kind of talk.  Make America Great Again sounded wonderful, back to the good old days where men were men, and white men ruled.  I really liked it.  I loved it, in fact, and the more I loved it the more impossible it became for me to see the truth and the more impossible it became for me to listen to Democrats.”

“I don’t understand.  You knew he was corrupt and his administration was corrupt and he committed impeachable offenses, and yet you continued to support him?  Just does not make sense to me.”

“In hindsight, it does not make sense to me either,” I said.  “I was living in an echo chamber.  The news I saw and heard, the friends I had, everyone around me was strongly supportive of Trump.  And my hatred of Democrats and the belief that Democrats wanted our nation to be a socialistic/communistic country scared me.  It took a long time for me to see what was really going on, and when I did I felt great guilt and embarrassment.”

“What changed your mind, Grandpa?”

“I watched the impeachment proceedings.  Witness after witness confirmed what the Democrats had been saying all along.  I began to doubt what I believed so I started listening to other sources of news.  Suddenly I realized I had been living in a cave.  This man was corrupt.  He was guilty as charged.  And no matter how many times I heard him say he did nothing wrong and how many conservative editorials attempted to dismiss the facts, the facts were the facts.  I read the Meuller Report and realized that there was collusion, there was obstruction.  He obstructed justice.  He abused his power.  He opposed the US Constitution.  I was sick at heart.  I think I felt much like the Germans did when they saw Hitler as the savior of their country only to realize he was a horrible war criminal. 

“But I changed before he was removed from office.  I began to share facts with my friends, but they did not want to hear them.  They had an excuse for everything.  It wasn’t that Trump was bad it was that the Democrats were bad.  To this day I am amazed I ever swallowed all that.  I don’t anymore.”

“Thanks, Grandpa.  There are still a lot of kids whose parents think removing Trump went against God’s will and was the beginning of the end of our nation.  How do you respond to them?”

“I believe the truth will set you free and the truth will come out.  When I opened my eyes I saw the truth of Trump and I will never go back to believing the ultra-conservative propaganda machine again.  It may take a generation to recognize what almost happened here, but thank goodness democracy and our law prevailed.  We will eventually right the course this man set.  I am so sorry I did not help do that sooner.  If I and others had done so you would not be facing these tough questions now.  I am so sorry.”

“It’s OK, Grandpa.  I still love you.”