# 4 in the primal Issues that face America
Throughout the entire Trump era, irrespective of what the president elect and the president in office has said or done, his base of supporters have remained loyal with some minor fluctuation. This is astounding since he has clearly and openly shown himself to be a deranged, self-centered, despotic, psychopath with no interest in truth or the well-being of anyone other than himself.
In an interview with Seattle reporters in February of this year, retired General Barry McCaffrey suggested that the issue we face in the coming election is not Donald Trump since we do not need any more information about him to know his danger. Instead our concern should be the 40% of the citizenry that continue to support him despite who he is and what he does. McCaffrey offered no further comments about why this is the case and what we need to do to address this group.
I suggest he is right. And if we expect to bring our divided nation together, we need to understand what the division is about and how to engage it. Here is my understanding of what this 40% represents. They are a coalition of citizen groupings who, for varied reasons, continue their support and cannot see that Trump is their worst enemy.
The first grouping largely shares his view of reality biases – his demeaning racial prejudice, his utilitarian view toward women, his focus on economics as the measure of democracy, and his total commitment to a self-centered and unfettered individualism. They share the notion that these biases have made America great and they wish to up-hold this glory. The most extreme of them are willing to express their support through violence. And they are energized by the rhetoric and behaviors that display these attitudes. Trump knows this and insists on the kind of political rallies that feed their biases and emotional needs. The old adage is still true:
Birds of a feather flock together.
They remain faithful to Trump because they are of the same view of reality flock.
The second grouping is citizens of ignorant unknowing. There can be no knowing when there is no exposure to knowledge. One of the greatest threats to democracy is the rise of the fake media and all the social media platforms that are being used by the citizenry in the place of traditional news groups devoted to truth telling. It is not that the fake media gives an alternative view of reality – it is that they are devoted to the distortion of truth and the creation of lies to fit their view of reality. It is not that it is wrong to express one’s opinion via social media – it is that these opinions are usually held as truth without being reality checked. As much as anything else, the communications revolution threatens a vital prerequisite of democracy which is dialogue based on truth exploration. There are no longer any legal or social rules that govern this dialogue. Ignorance is now synonymous with wisdom. And as Martin Luther King Jr. avowed:
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
They remain faithful because they share a common devotion to ignorance.
The third grouping is supporters who feel they have been short-changed when it comes to economic blessing. They have been hood-winked into believing that democracy and economic dream fulfillment are synonymous. They see the rich growing wealthier while they are deprived. They are angry and Trump feeds that anger with false reasons for their plight and false promises for its correction. And they are too knowledge deprived and vision distorted to discern that Trump represents the very economic corruption that is responsible for their plight. They are some of the conservative populists, nationalists, and nativists whose attitudes and actions despotism often feeds on. Their politics of dissatisfaction and distortion are the platform upon which despotism easily rises to power. The writer E. L. Doctorow was insightful:
I am often asked the question: How can the masses permit themselves to be exploited by the few. The answer is: By being persuaded to identify with them.
They remain faithful to Trump because they cannot see democracy beyond economics.
The fourth factor is not a grouping but a lack that is pervasive of all of the groupings. It is the absence of any understanding of democratic civics. The notion of civics evolved during the 1500s in Europe. It was originally an award given to those who saved others in the community from some threat or disaster. It recognized their willingness to sacrifice for the sake of the community. It eventually came to refer to the responsibilities citizens had toward the community’s common good. Our national educational system has failed to adequately teach the civics of democracy. All we need to confirm this educational default, aside from this 40%, is that in 2016 around 60% of our youth did not vote in a critical election. Thomas Jefferson was vitally concerned about an ignorant citizenry undermining democracy. This concern included understanding the meaning of democracy and its civic responsibilities. Here are two different ways he expressed this concern:
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. No nation is permitted to live in ignorance with impunity.
These groupings remain faithful to Trump because they lack any grasp of democratic civic responsibility.
What holds this disparate coalition of groupings together aside from their overlapping in focus and concern? It is the leadership of a syndicate of devoted economic imperialists, represented by the Trump family and the Republican Party, who have no interest in democracy except as a utility for profit-making. They are despots clothed as democrats who will tell any lie and do any devious thing necessary to maintain their control over the nation as their private gold mine. This syndicate provides the glue that conjoins these citizenry groupings.
How do you dialogue with a coalition of citizens that is so ill-informed and lacking in critical political perspectives, let alone its controlling syndicate? Perhaps you don’t. Perhaps you can only reduce their influence by reducing their numbers and their occupancy of the seats of political power. To reduce their occupancy of power seats we must vote both Trump and the Republican Party out of office. That we can do immediately. To reduce their numbers will demand a national education system devoted to democratic civics as its motivating soul. That will probably require a generation or more before the reduction becomes visible.
Beyond voting in democratic leadership, the nation must realize that what is taught and not taught in its education system dynamically molds the heart of the culture. If we want democracy to prevail we must have a citizenry devoted, above all else, to the civic intents of democracy: Its spirit of citizenry equality, its focus on the common good, and its devotion to citizenry rule.
Here is the bottom line of this moment in history: This election will be as decisive as the Civil War in determining America’s destiny.
Robert
Robert T. Latham
mythinglink.com
Christians in the United States are deeply divided about our country’s imperial role. As Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan have suggested in their book THE LAST WEEK, about 20 percent of Christians are very critical of American imperial policy and about 20 percent are strong supporters of it. So, about 20 percent on the two ends of the spectrum are deeply committed to two different versions of Christian faithfulness. And the middle 40-60 percent is crucial for the future of the United States and the church in this country. Of course, we are not and have never been a Christian nation. We are a nation composed of many faiths and of no faith whatsoever. Robert, you are right to say that this election will be decisive and determinative of America’s destiny. I pray that the spirit of citizenry equality, with its focus on the common good, will prevail!