Political parties have their place, but they must be kept in their place. In the best of times, they serve as mediating institutions that can interpret issues and their implications. At their worst, they serve as a veneer for powerful interests that uses the populace as proxies for their own gain.
George Washington, in his farewell address, warned against political parties “however [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterward the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” The Trump administration is a clear example of President Washington’s warning.
It would be hyperbole to suggest that the nation has never been this polarized. When you look at America’s history from slavery, the Civil War, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, it is clear the country has gone through many periods of polarization. Nonetheless, the nation is in a political and civic crisis. One of the Hippocratic oath aspects is a crisis, which means that the patient is at a point where they will succumb to the disease or recover. The nation is at that point.
While issues typically feed polarization, the last four years seem to be less issue-based and more about a cult of personality.
With exception, this cult of personality attracted a wide range of supporters. Men who believe they can live vicariously through Donald Trump joined with non-college-educated white males who thought that this particular male, who claims to be a billionaire and conned thousands of people through his so-called university, had their best interest at heart. They joined with millions of white women who thought a misogynistic male accused of sexual impropriety by 18 women (perhaps their support for Trump was more a critique of the men in their lives) would be their protector from a world they deemed dangerous.
This support included Black conservatives who engaged in an embarrassing “I am free” performance during the RNC convention and various uninformed rap stars who sought to anoint themselves as spokespersons for the black community. They wound up becoming fodder for SNL skits.
The result has been a mishandled pandemic, economic calamity, increased racial tension, and increased white supremacist activity.
Nevertheless, one of the unintended consequences of the Trump presidency is the unlikely alliance formed between democrats and various republicans who viewed Trump as anathema to the nation’s civic culture.
This alliance is temporary, but the opportunity exists to expand this political marriage of convenience to include other important issues such as minimum wage, climate change, taxes, economic development, farmers.
While a significant portion of the nation seems to be sycophantic in their support of the current administration, most of the country is open to hearing ideas no matter what side of the political spectrum it may emanate.
It is also true that some will not come along, such as the caravans and those who were willing to freeze to hear Donald Trump’s nonsensical rhetoric. While attempts to reach that segment of the community should be undertaken, it should not consume a large proportion of the effort.
The notion of red and blue states is a permanent part of the political vernacular, making it imperative to begin deconstructing this terminology, which protects the powerful but not the average family’s interests. As President Washington alluded to in his farewell address, the conservative and progressive designation is too often nothing more than an organizing paradigm with its own language that serves to incite rather than inform.
One of the goals of a new organizing effort would be to diminish ideological labels’ power, which creates an inability to hear the other side. Whether it’s Lindsay Graham saying, “If you’re a young, African American or an immigrant, you can go anywhere in this state, you just need to be conservative, not liberal.” or Bernie Sanders embrace of socialism. Both ideologies are insufficient and too self-absorbed in their belief.
Electoral politics will always be the central act of the nation, but often it leads people to defend something because it falls under the banner of their political party. Witness the recent veiled threats of violence by Trump supporters who harassed a Biden campaign bus. In support of them, because they were Trump supporters, Senator Marco Rubio said he’s proud of them. He then followed up with a tweet about Jesus. It is imperative for a new way of discussing issues to be established now.
Two constituencies that went against the Trump debacle were black women and suburban white women. Imagine a mediating institution that could deal with the critical issues to both sides.
It is not unimaginable for relationships to be built between urban, rural, and farm communities. All sides can begin to understand each community’s issues and seek ways to support each other to resolve those issues.
Any organizing effort will not organize these two disparate groups around progressive or conservative ideology but rather self-interest.
This would not be an effort to organize around a pollyannish sense of reality but a real effort to deal with a diverse set of self-interests.
As tragic as the Trump administration has been, there is a great organizing opportunity to create a new politics created out of mutual disdain for the last four years’ incompetence and indecent leader. The question is, who will begin this. It cannot start with partisans whose self-interest is political dominance by one political party but with those who want to see a renewed, vibrant civic life.
As critical as this is, time will be of the essence because of the quadrennial distraction known as a political campaign, which, by necessity, must create division.
The issue of who sits in the Oval Office is critical for many reasons, but an informed and organized electorate across ideological lines is just as important. Community organizers who believe in a vibrant civic culture must also move beyond their own limited sphere of influence and engage different constituencies.
The nation got a break today, but it is not out of the political words yet. There will be what is known as a political autopsy to determine what went wrong. The purists will decide that they didn’t go far enough in their purity and seek to find another smarter brighter one
The United States is not immune to collapse. It is also not going to fall within this generation. Nonetheless, the seeds of America’s fall have been sown and nurtured with the initial election of Donald Trump. China will overtake the United States and Russia will continue to try to make a mockery of the American system.
It is still early enough for this to be reversed by creating a new form of political engagement and discourse. It must be understood that the majority of the white population hates and fears diversity. Organizers will have to engage with the segment of white Americans who do not fear the other and are open to forming a new dialogue that will benefit the. Majority of Americans.
Plato said, “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. The last four years has certainly borne that out.
Many people are not engaged in politics but have resigned to adopting the party line. The challenge and opportunity for organizers, across the political spectrum. are to create a new dialogue. The survival of the nation may depend upon it.