Forces

We shouldn’t be surprised if, as a nation, we are viewed around the world as childish and ridiculous when it comes to politics of late. And by “of late,” I mean the last 8 or 9 years, probably longer.

If the world has been looking to us as a beacon of liberty and sanity during this time, it has likely been disillusioned, finding instead a nation that in 2016 elected a buffoon to its highest office, and with prospects of doing the same thing with the same person again this year!

We are a nation at war with itself, struggling to define itself, licking old wounds.

Even as there are legitimate public servants trying to do their jobs, there are powerful players in the media and foreign adversaries hellbent on perpetuating a ruse, making sure the ones who get outsized attention are the misfit toys, the loudmouths, the jaded children clamoring to get on a train headed out into a desert full of tumbleweed and Gila monsters, the ones on some mission to fuel a myopic beeline back to “simpler times,” i.e. when white people ruled, and Christianity had a vibrant, steepled presence on every corner.

How else to explain a Republican Party that spends so little time working on substantive legislation and considers Democrats the enemy, while pouring all its energies into baseless, politically motivated efforts to impeach the Homeland Security Chief, and the President!

This is the example the rest of the world sees: children at play, preoccupied with overtly vengeful efforts to distract from the sad reality of a party bereft of a sense of direction, a party without substance, splintered by a faction who dares call itself the “Freedom” Caucus. Motivated in no small part by fear and self-interest, spooked by ogres and apparitions. A dark, unwelcoming conservatism bogged down by ignorance masquerading as patriotism, and religious faith that has lost its way.

Of course, America is not without other voices, more rational and equally insistent on being heard. One might harbor enough optimism to dare believe that these will carry the day, but not without a slog through the mud first.