Unity means freedom from prejudices and illusions

That the United States today is a starkly divided country is undeniable. The more the wishful thinkers in the media, and politicians and some corporate leaders repeat that “what unites us is greater than what divides us,” something happens that reveals that mantra as bunk.

The last five years, from the beginning of the presidential campaign in 2015 to the acquittal after his second impeachment this week, Donald Trump exacerbated divisions that have always existed and had been building for years to the point of criticality. The explosion came on January 6. Trump pushed all the buttons—the lie about the steal, the hatred against the Democrats, the contempt against even loyal Trump Republicans unwilling to set fire to the Constitution to save the loser of a free and fair election. The atomic unity of the polity was shattered under the enormous pressure of a demagogue with a fanatical following larger than the population of France. With the nucleus split, the violent, killing chain reaction ensued, self-feeding and terrifying.

It was the culmination of not just four years of an administration of epic malevolence but of a four-decade Republican/Right wing backlash against the reforms of 1960s and 1970s, an era tending toward a greater degree of economic, gender and cultural equality.

“The revolution will not be televised” was a famous saying in the 1960s. But the last gasp of the counterrevolution was televised, live and from multiple angles. Republicans sensed the turning of the tide with the election of Biden and Harris, the humiliating defeat of Donald Trump, and the new reality of Democratic control of both chambers of Congress. With the demographic makeup of the country continually changing against them, GOP leaders and followers had hoped that the trifecta they achieved in 2016—control of Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court—they had built an impregnable wall against change.

But the 2020 election showed that, like the Maginot Line meant to keep the Germans out of France, their wall could and would fall. Their counterrevolution would unravel just when they were expecting a second Trump term to lock in the right-wing program for good.

That threw the Republicans into desperation. Desperate people do and back desperate actions. The nuts assaulting the building, and the GOP members of Congress, almost all white, who lacked the nuts to hold the president responsible for the murderous assault, were on the same page, actors and apologists in one of the ugliest, most shameful, most savage and most disgraceful events in U.S. legislative history.

No more racist rhetoric from the top. No more cruel immigration policies to stem the browning of America. No more homophobic and misogynistic policies. No more colossal tax cuts for the super-rich. No more afflicting the afflicted through cuts to every social program that the GOP has yet to cut out of the miserable, tattered U.S. safety net.

How could they live with this reality, a nightmare for the most mean-spirited faction in American politics? They couldn’t, any more than the Confederacy could live without its slaves. So, they exploded, responded with treasonous violence.

It’s time we came to terms that there are two Americas, disunited and for now irreconcilable. Let me pose a thought experiment. What would happen if white American men were to be disenfranchised for a period of time like women and  black Americans had been disenfranchised for most of the country’s history?

America would look very different since most black and brown voters lean strongly toward a social democratic political economy with ample provisions for family leave, free child-care, a minimum wage of around $20 an hour, a basic minimum income, increased Medicare, Medicaid or full-fledged socialized medicine, more generous food stamp benefits, lower military spending, more money for education and training, a more progressive income tax, and a wealth tax.

What would happen is that this country would become more like Denmark, inequality and poverty would drop significantly, life expectancy would rise, infant and maternal mortality would drop, GDP would rise with productivity gains from a healthier and more educated population. What would be wrong with that? Who would oppose that?

The problem is that getting from here to there would be very difficult. The reality is that if by some miracle it did happen, most white people would be better off than they are now, not just black and brown people. But a lot of whites don’t believe that.

The obstacles on the way to a more just society are tremendous. Americans have been brainwashed against anything that could be construed as “socialism.” The vested interests and the Republican Party would scream that it’s all a Communist plot to take freedom away.

Untrue. The only freedom lessened would be the freedom to amass vast amounts of wealth without having to contribute to the commonweal, the freedom to pass colossal estates to offspring which makes the whole idea of meritocracy and equal opportunity a cruel joke. The children of the wealthy would still start life at least on second base. But they would have a harder time constituting into a permanent upper class based solely on their ability to pick their parents well. The rest of us would lose the freedom to choose whether to pay for food and rent or health care and medicines.

The Poles were not really free when Gerald Ford made the infamous gaffe asserting the contrary; they were inside the Iron Curtain. But the Danes are free, and they don’t have to live under a constant anxiety that a streak of bad luck such as a series of illnesses or a pandemic would thrust them into indigence. They enjoy longer vacations which refresh them and make them more productive.

We could enjoy all the freedoms we do now—speech, assembly voting—with less fear and more free time to enjoy life, travel and learning rather than being chained to a culture of workaholism that degrades the body, lowers life expectancy, saps the spirit, impoverishes the mind, leads to deaths from despair-induced addiction and from violence fueled by hopelessness. Ultimately, the current status quo benefits only a tiny minority of the richest and most selfish.

It will take a lot, an epiphany, imagination, courage, and trust. It won’t be easy, but it is achievable and has been achieved by other countries less endowed than this one.

The one essential thing required is to unshackle the mind and discard the ultra-individualistic, hoary dog-eat-dog ideology that prevails and that makes people suspect that any socio-economic arrangement premised on fairness, decency and kindness will redound only to the benefit of those lazy and shiftless people who don’t look like us.

The only thing we have to lose is our racial stereotypes and the illusions that we have been fed and that prevent us from seeing where our real interests lie. It’s time to open our eyes.