For most of my life, at least since I developed a mind of my own and thought about such things, I had two unshakeable beliefs. One was that everything will be okay. And I believed that because of the second one – that things are getting better. Progress may not be dramatic or even perceivable, but it was there, happening on some macro-social level.
If you leave out the extremes, on both sides of the political spectrum, that progress looked more or less like employment and decent housing for all who wanted it, regular periods of leisure time with some paid holidays, healthcare as a right not a privilege, inclusion for people with disabilities, primary and secondary education provided to all at no cost, freedom to form a relationship and maybe a family with a person you are naturally attracted to (straight or gay), tolerance of everyone regardless of faith (or lack thereof), race, or national origin, freedom of expression, democratic elections under fair conditions, and some level of concern for the natural environment and our interaction with it.
In 1937, the poet W. H. Auden and his friend Louis MacNeice published a book-length travelogue, Letters from Iceland, in which they memorialize a trip they’d made there the year before. The highlight of the book is Auden’s lengthy “Letter to Lord Byron,” an interesting literary device, a commentary-in-verse addressed to the long-dead poet in which he compliments Lord Byron’s life and career, and then introduces his thoughts on the then-contemporary world of the 1930s, a time not unlike our own. He writes:
Today, alas, that happy crowded floor
Looks very different: many are in tears:
Some have retired to bed and locked the door;
And some swing madly from the chandeliers;
Some have passed out entirely in the rears;
Some have been sick in corners; the sobering few
Are trying hard to think of something new.
Auden, in far more poetic fashion than my own ramblings, was lamenting a world in which society was backsliding, giving up on the challenges of progress, giving into the fear that springs from ignorance. Over the last week, it’s become harder to remain optimistic about the future. The US military squaring off with frustrated citizens in the second most populous city in the country exercising their 1st amendment right to protest their government’s actions, a high ranking senator of that government doing the same and being treated like a common criminal, a grotesquely vulgar military parade the likes of which are only seen under the regimes of dictators and totalitarian autocrats, the obscene expense of said parade juxtaposed with a ‘tax cuts for the wealthy’ bill winding its way through congress that will make up lost tax revenue by cutting programs the less advantaged rely on like Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, and other programs in the social safety net, 1200 cases of measles across 34 states in the face of vaccine skepticism, a not insignificant number of places across the country, including Miami-Dade County in Florida, Peshtigo in Wisconsin, and the state of Utah banning the fluoridation of public drinking water, with the entire state of Florida set to follow suit the beginning of next month, and, speaking of Florida, a state actively considering legislation which would loosen child labor laws to make up for the shortfall of workers brought on by deporting immigrants.
Given this waking nightmare, I know people who have retired to bed and locked the door, including one friend who refuses to watch the news and has taken to watching HGTV and home improvement shows exclusively. And I even know people who swing madly from the chandeliers; they may not be burning Teslas, but they’re talking about revolution, unaware that when they say they want to “take the country back” that is exactly what their opponents think they are doing.
Progressives want to move forward; conservatives want to pump the brakes and make sure our forward movement isn’t reckless – they want to slow it and examine it, not stop it. That is a healthy tension. I’d even go so far as to suggest that political dichotomy is what makes America great. But this current administration in Washington has gone beyond the conservatism their party once stood for – a healthy check and balance on liberalism which can get caught up in the momentum of its own progress – and embraced a reactionary posture that would see us as a country turn back the clock on the advancements we’ve made in creating a more perfect union, the foundational aspiration and ongoing effort to improve and strengthen the United States as a nation that strives for a society which embodies the ideals of liberty, equality, and justice for all, that’s all its citizens. Again, that’s all its citizens.
They, and by that I mean this administration, bang on about the Constitution, seemingly ignorant of the fact that its very first sentence reads, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union…”
That’s not only the first sentence, those are the first words! I think the wording and the placement of that sentence make one thing abundantly clear: the Founders saw the initial union as a starting point for the country, from which continuous progress toward a more ideal and equitable society would be needed.
And throughout our history we have seen efforts made to achieve that progress. The first major effort in pursuit of a more perfect union was the abolitionist movement that fought to end slavery. It was followed by a push to expand the democratic participation of the citizenry embodied in the women’s suffrage movement. The civil rights movement of the last century challenged segregation and discrimination, leading to greater legal and social status for marginalized groups shut out from the promise of equality because of race, gender, or sexual orientation. And the Americans with Disabilities Act, which we commemorate and celebrate next month, ensured access and inclusion for individuals impaired by physical and mental limitations.
But my lifelong belief that progress was being made has been shattered. Worse than that, this administration – this president – is not only blocking our forward momentum, but actively pushing us backward. The slogan “Make America Great Again” or MAGA implies a return to some former moment of glory. But even the founding document of the country from which our laws are derived would contradict the notion that we ever were “perfect” at one time; we have been, since day one, a nation perfecting the idea of being a nation. That is where our greatness lies.
Or laid, as I fear the party in power, and the sizable number of my fellow countrymen and women who support them, have given up on the idea of us becoming (not being, but becoming) “a more perfect union.”