Make America Beautiful Again

This title slogan is a riff on Trump’s MAGA campaign and both mottos assume America was either beautiful or great at some time in the past. On both points, it may be argued that we have been better off.  Make America Whole Again would have worked as well.  This young nation was never completely united in a common mindset with the possible exceptions of World War II and after 911. In both those instances, we were under attack and, as a na+tion, we responded with a common purpose. In most other periods, our country has been more or less divided.  We fought our Civil War amongst ourselves and we were deeply divided during our involvement in Southeast Asia (Vietnam).  Just like any large family, we have had our differences, but we all still love our country-family.

A collection of photos from my travels across America the Beautiful

There was a 1958 political novel titled, The Ugly American.  While it criticized American diplomacy for its lack of understanding of other cultures, it also highlighted American arrogance.  “Our way or the highway” was a common attitude of American foreign policy and now we see it metastasizing within our own domestic political scene.  Politically, we have many disagreements, much like members of any large family.  Most families, however, place the family above all disagreements and will still work things out through compromise. Working through our political disagreements was historically our strength, but the current death-match, the winner-take-all attitude has worked to our detriment. The solution to our problem lies in understanding the needs and motivations of others.

Classic 1958 political novel

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In response to a recent Facebook posting, which asked how many states each person had visited, I proudly boasted that I had made it to all 50. I finished my every-state quest in 2016 with a trip to Hawaii. The FB post mentioned that the average for most Americans is around eight states. I didn’t verify this but it sounded about right. I mention this as it relates to the topic of making our nation whole. I remember in one transcontinental sojourn stopping in a small southern town for lunch.  We ate at the local restaurant.  You know the one.  It’s on Main Street just past the stoplight, the only stoplight.  With true southern hospitality, we had a discussion with our waitress.  She was a young girl, perhaps in her early twenties. She asked where we were from. I’m sure she knew everyone in town and spotting strangers was easy. We mentioned Miami and that drew instant recognition. I guess it helps when your town is larger than 15 states.

Typical small-town diner

During our casual conversation, we found out that this young woman had basically never been more than 100 miles from where we were eating. She had spent her entire life in an all-white southern town with all that that entails. She was educated in local schools. She had only traveled to a few nearby towns to shop and to visit relatives and friends.  Her experience was culturally limited and she knew none but people who were just like herself.  I mention this in the context of this discussion to provide a reference for some of what ails this country. We instinctively fear the unfamiliar and some may be easily coerced to strike out against those who may be different.  Unscrupulous politicians will use this fear to their political advantage.

I don’t necessarily blame the people who may not possess a set of life experiences that would afford them a more meaningful perspective. I do however blame the politicians who would exploit the pliable. The rhetoric that instills fear of the [insert any ethnic identity here] and which accuses them of (1) coming for your jobs, (2) coming to rape your women, (3) coming to spread disease, (4) coming to sell drugs, are all the tools of the deceitful, looking to divide our nation for their own personal gain.

The face of anger and hatred

When you look at the broadcasts from some recent political rallies, you will often see the hatred in the faces of the attendees. Certainly, more hatred and anger than I would deem healthy for a country looking to be whole or great.  Tapping into that fear, anger, and hatred is the line of least resistance for the unscrupulous political scoundrel.  They use these rallies to fan the flames of racial tension and xenophobia and to set up the scapegoats for that anger and hatred within the assembled masses.  The event is then televised and captured on cellphones to be spread far and wide.  Instead of examining the problems of the day and extolling reasonable solutions to those problems, they point to “the others” who are to blame for all our nation’s ills.  I give you a lazy politician. I give you a divisive politician.

Welcome to the Hate Zone

These same politicians also use religion and/or patriotism as a crutch.  I would venture to say that the overwhelming majority of Americans are a patriotic bunch who may or may not follow a specific religion but who minimally have a moral compass to guide them.  In my travels, I find that I can have a pleasant conversation with almost anyone as long as I stay away from politics and religion.  I learned early in my brief stint as a bartender to avoid those two topics like the plague, which is a topic for another discussion altogether.

Yes, Americans of all parties and political persuasions can be descent well-meaning folks.  My friends include Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and the non-committal confused. Everyone is entitled to an opinion.  Reasonable discussions to weigh the pros and cons of any point had previously been accepted and/or a tolerated form of expression guaranteed by our constitution.  Recently, however, reasonable discussions and thoughtful compromise have gone the way of the California condor. Tolerance of other opinions is as threatened as the eastern red wolf, of which there are fewer than 35 who have survived in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge of eastern North Carolina.

Eastern Red Wolf

I am not here to offer any solutions to the problem of national division but I will suggest a starting point.  That would be to never again elect to any political office someone who extols the “virtues” or uses the tactics described above.  Any politician who regularly assigns blame or uses ethnic generalities to dodge meaningful solutions should be assigned to the trash heap.  Anyone who uses unsubstantiated rumors and innuendo to attack political opponents should be castigated at the ballot box.  All who prey on racist tendencies or xenophobic fears to further their own chances in an election should have those hopes dashed.  Without using any names, I’m sure someone comes to mind that fits this bill; perhaps several.

Enter the plague.

Reopening America was a mistake; where we've gone in one month

Rolling 7-day average per 1 million population for new Corona cases (6/30/2020)

Bob Dylan's recent comments on the coronavirus pandemic, "It's an invasion for sure, but biblical?  Like some sort of warning sign for people to repent?"  "That would imply that the world is in line for some sort of divine punishment.  Extreme arrogance can have some disastrous penalties.  Maybe we are on the eve of destruction.

Eve of destruction.

America needs unity, not division.  The current global pandemic and the splintered US response, has highlighted our need for cohesive leadership.  The Covid-19 epidemic in America has crippled our economy, killed over 126 thousand of our neighbors, and has permanently damaged the health of many.  It has been totally mishandled since the outset.  We made mistakes but, unlike other countries, we have not learned from these mistakes.  We seem to be making political decisions during a health crisis when we should be following the science and listening to health professionals.  Many of the recent decisions have been self-serving to whichever politician or political group makes them. 

Our rudderless national ship is headed for a similar fate

We are now in desperate need of a national leader to actually lead. We need someone to take over this rudderless ship, make the necessary repairs, and steer a course that will keep our nation off the rocks.  The current captain is clueless and has provided this nation with an upward spiraling infection rate that will lengthen our crisis and further decimate our economy.  Our captain is not asleep at the helm, he’s snoring in his bunk below decks.  He refuses to listen to the experts and thinks only in terms of how decisions will affect his poll numbers. It’s not that the solution hasn’t been made clear by almost every other nation in the world. This is a time for unity and a cohesive strategy. This is not a time for finger-pointing and name-calling.

I would hate to think our great nation, barely 244 years old, will be brought down by a reality TV star on a power trip and an unseen virus.  Rome eventually fell, but after surviving 507 years.  Greece lasted 350 years.  I was hoping for something like the Ottoman Empire that held power for 600 years or the Egyptians who hung around for 30 centuries.  The reigning champions are the Chinese with 3,500 years and counting.  Certainly, we can do better than two and a half centuries.

To be sung "with dignity"

It was mentioned in the opening paragraph that this nation came together during World War II and after 911 as we were under attack.  Well, we are again under attack but this time the enemy is all but invisible.  An unseen virus has killed more Americans than were lost in many years of fighting in Vietnam.  Let us hope that we can come together right now (someone should write a song) and put our differences aside to heal our wounded nation.  It’s fine to be a proud American but wrong to be an arrogant one.  The arrogant American is an Ugly American. We need to again sing, America the Beautiful, proudly.  We can start making America beautiful again by getting rid of "Ugly American" leaders.  This does not refer to physical ugliness but the ugliness of spirit.  The ugliness of arrogance.  The ugliness of division.  The ugliness of hate.  The ugliness of racism.  It’s time to lead, follow, or get out of the way.  Make America beautiful once again.

The Year 2020 Was a Time for Greatness; America Came Up Short

Whatever your feelings about President Donald J. Trump as a former Democrat, changed to a Republican, changed to a New Republican, he had a rare opportunity in the last year of his first term. The “Every 100 Years” crisis materialized; the same one that scientists and researchers had warned us about for decades and we had all ignored. The president could have risen to the occasion and shown us that he is truly a great leader. He hadn’t prepared for the pandemic and he ignored the early warnings but he could have still shown us the leadership we expect from our presidents.

Little Man With Big Ego

Yes, these are the times that test the mettle of a leader. To quote Thomas Paine from his December 23, 1776 article titled The Crisis, “THESE are the times that try men's souls.  The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.  Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.  What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value.”

Even with his early missteps, Donald Trump could have risen to the occasion and taken charge. He could have really shut down virtually all foreign travel into the US. He could have nationalized the production of PPE for our hospitals. He could have set aside his ego and listened to the experts in the field of epidemiology. He could have established early shutdowns and quarantines. He could have prioritized contact tracing. He could have not dumped responsibility on the various 50 state governors leading to confusion and chaos. By adopting any or all of these plans, he could have flattened our infection curve, minimized our human losses, and lessened the financial impact on our nation. That would have been what a great leader would have done. Sadly, such clarity of thought is not in the Trump wheelhouse. His concern seemed to be, “what if I make a mistake” and “how will this affect my reelection chances?” His timidity of purpose belied his normal bluster. His claims of mental acuity and enlightenment were shown to be merely the illusions of a showman. Donald Trump proved to be that “summer soldier” and “sunshine patriot” despised by Thomas Paine.

Trump’s second opportunity came with the multi-events of racial unrest that gripped our nation even while we feared for our lives with the viral epidemic. Donald J. Trump had risen to fame and fortune exploiting racial division and now he had a chance to make amends for his prior attitude and mistakes.  Alas, it was not in his nature to alter his racist disposition. It was always about the undercurrent of racial tension flowing through the mostly white audiences of his campaign rallies.  He could not abandon the crowd that brought him to the dance; especially for some singular event that would surely fade away in the 10-day news cycle.  That didn’t happen. In the racially charged atmosphere, invigorated by the thinly veiled racist comments, attitudes, and legislative actions of our president, there was another event and then another. The protests spread from city to city and then they went global.

History I fear will not be kind to Donald Trump. Kennedy had his Cuban missile crisis and his Bay of Pigs. GW Bush had Hurricane Katrina and 911. Herbert Hoover had the Great Depression. Jimmy Carter failed to end the Iranian hostage standoff until the last minutes of his presidency. Roosevelt, the first Democrat to win the presidency since 1892, took office with the clouds of WWII on the horizon.  He invited Republicans to the White House to promote unity. Lyndon Johnson visited a darkened New Orleans hurricane shelter after hurricane Betsy and, using a flashlight on his face called out, “I am your president and I’m here to make sure you have the help you need.” Contrast that last one with Trump’s handling of Hurricane Maria when he attempted to deny disaster relief to Puerto Rico because he thought they might use the money to pay off old debts.  Almost all presidents will be tested in their term in office.  It is the nature of the job.  It is how they handle times of crisis for which they will be remembered.  Trump won’t be long remembered for his wall or other missteps, but he will be remembered for the 122,000 Americans dead in the first six months of 2020 which is more than double our losses in Vietnam.  How many of these losses could have been prevented with great leadership?  We will never know because such leadership didn’t exist on Trump’s watch.

I believe the fairy tale that will surely be the Trump legacy will begin with, “Once upon a time, in a land too close for comfort...” As world leaders go, Donald Trump will be seen, not as a great one but more like another famous Don who tilted at windmills and jousted with imaginary enemies. He will be remembered for his nationalism, his divisiveness, and his mismanagement of two major crises near the end of his term that resulted in economic meltdown and massive unemployment. He will be known for the needless loss of life due to a pandemic and his failed attempts to deal with that crisis. He will be known for his failure to heal, or even attempt to heal the wounds of systemic racism. To quote Walt Kelly’s Pogo who was paraphrasing Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s famous quote during the War of 1812, “we have met the enemy, and he is us.”

Pogo

Yes, Trump had his opportunity for greatness, even in light of his previous misdeeds, but he missed the boat. He squandered two crises where had he managed them properly his chances of reelection would have been high. Certainly higher than his current 40% approval rating would show.  Frosted Flakes are G-R-E-A-T, but Donald Trump, not so much.

Conspiracy Theory: "I heard that....,"

Conspiracy theories have been around since people learned to talk. A conspiracy theory is a belief that a nefarious group of individuals has secretly plotted and caused some event or circumstance. Some such theories have foundations in fact and could be true, but have not yet been proven. Other theories are pure fabrications created to further some belief. Some conspiracy theories are just a combination of a few facts with a large dose of pure conjecture. Some are likely or even plausible but lack enough evidence to provide an unquestioned foundation.

The Deep State

If you analyze popular conspiracy theories surrounding say the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, there are obviously enough holes in the lone gunman theory and its surrounding unanswered questions that it is easy to suggest better and more plausible scenarios. If such theories analyze all of the available information and come to some reasonable conclusion, I have no problem. On the other hand, those conspiracy theories that take some very limited or narrow view of an event and then go on to invent, through pure conjecture, a story that is easily debunked, those I find troubling and potentially harmful. They are especially despicable when the made-up theory is designed only to hurt someone. I also find fault with those theories that, without foundation, are designed to scapegoat someone to protect a guilty party or responsible group.

In politics, we find the “spin doctors” who take facts and then twist those facts so that they become unrecognizable. Outside the official political spin, we find others who want to support a political cause and they just make up outlandish crap. I find that anyone who begins a conversation with the words, “I heard that…,” I know whatever follows will be, to use polite terminology, crap.

I was recently told a story that began with those dreaded three words. The theory that followed was an easy to discredit tale. It was one of many circulating about the pandemic. There’s the one about Bill and Melina Gates using their money to develop a vaccine that would include some special microchips that would let them monitor everyone vaccinated or could be used for birth control.  There was one that blamed the spread of the Coronavirus on 5G cell towers that prompted activists to burn the towers. Then there’s the one about Anthony Fauci who secretly developed this virus with his friends in Wuhan China where they infected the world in order to make billions selling a vaccine.  The anti-vax group took a debunked scientific study that tried to connect vaccinations with autism and then denied all scientific evidence to the contrary. You can bombard these people all day long with studies and facts but it all falls on the deaf ears of the “true believers.” You can’t argue with anyone who doesn’t use logic but believes in something just because they know it to be true.

It doesn’t help that our president has used his bully pulpit to spread nonsensical information and theories to further some other aspiration or goal. His desire to get the economy back to where it had been last year so as to improve his reelection chances has him scapegoating the Chinese. He is promoting disinfectant injections, asking if the scientific community could just figure out how to get sunshine into the body, and pushing Chloroquine as a treatment before it could be tested and rejected by science. Conspiracy theories and just general misinformation have found fertile ground in the midst of this pandemic.

I believe that many aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic are so complex that many find it much easier to regurgitate simple explanations. Understanding antibody testing versus CRISPR based DETECTR assay methods is beyond most people outside the medical research field. I don’t understand how viral RNA is extracted then subjected to isothermal amplification by primers, but I trust the scientists who do. If you don’t trust science, the natural response is to believe something much simpler; enter the conspiracy.

Psychologists believe proponents of conspiracies often have intense authoritarian attitudes, high narcissism, and low self-esteem. These same psychiatrists divide conspiracy theories into two groups: ideation and skepticism. The first, ideation, generally involves the government and secret society cover-ups with goals of public influence. Skepticism involves a general belief that people are inherently devious and will go to great lengths to cover-up the truth. While we know generally some of the who & why the question remains; how will we deal with those who are promoting theories that may be harmful?

In some suggestions, professionals recommend asking the person if they really believe what they are saying and in a non-confrontational way offer a possible alternative. You could cite some factual evidence to consider. A second suggestion is to personalize the subject to try to clarify their position. This is thought to evoke emotion that will circumvent some prejudice. My personal experience has been that challenging conspiracy theorists is a waste of time but can occasionally be amusing. You can always say, “You know, I heard that too but the way it was told to me was that the whole thing started a long, long, time ago in a land far, far away. Do you have an hour or two because it’s a really interesting story?” Works every time.