https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/what-is-america-and-for-whom
"“Why is America suddenly so divided? Why is the oldest democracy in the world
falling apart all of a sudden?”
I have done scores of interviews with US and international media since the
election: Some variation of these questions has almost invariably come up. Most
of my conversations about the political situation in the United States with
journalists, politicians, and diplomats – but also with family, friends, and
neighbors – have centered around the perception that something must have
changed recently, causing American society to go off the rails rather abruptly,
forcing us to suffer through some dark departure timeline.
Why is America suddenly so divided? Why is the oldest democracy in the world
falling apart all of a sudden? Before you scoff at these questions: I actually
appreciate it when people ask them directly. They are based on misleading, but
pervasive assumptions about the nation’s history and I much prefer to discuss
them in the open rather than let them fester under the surface. Confronting the
erroneous ideas that inform these questions is not merely of abstract academic
interest. Someone starting from the assumption that America has been a stable,
consolidated democracy for two and a half centuries must struggle to adequately
understand the current political conflict: The contortions necessary to explain
why so many millions of Americans are now embracing a blatantly authoritarian
leader when they had supposedly been fully on board with liberal democracy
until quite recently will quickly lead you to strange, unhelpful places. And if
you depart from such a premise, you have no chance of developing a proper
response to the current crisis either: If there had been a broad consensus
around democratic ideals until Trump came down the golden escalator, it would
be reasonable to assume that the restoration of the pre-2016 status quo ante
might be an adequate solution. But if the rise of Trumpism is a manifestation,
rather than the cause, of forces and ideas that have always prevented the
nation from living up to the egalitarian aspirations it has often proclaimed,
then restoration is not enough. If our existential crisis is the latest
iteration of a conflict that has defined the nation since its inception,
America needs a truly transformative effort to propel the country closer to the
kind of multiracial, pluralistic democracy it never has been yet and finally
establish a stable democratic consensus that has so far eluded these United
States."
Via Janet Logan.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
