Thoughts about the holiday

[soldierant]

Today, I read Robert Reich's and Heather Cox Richardson's Fourth-of-July essays, which came in, one late last night, and one very early this morning. In a way they say the same thing in different words. And in a way, both are wrong - not in the wrong direction, but not going far enough. It was this that struck me in Richardson's piece (referencing the Gettysburg Address): "the Civil War was 'testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.' It did, of course." No. It didn't. The same issues which divided us in 1776 and 1865 and 1964 have never gone away. We just managed to push them underground for a few years (a trifle longer the second time). And Trump** did not bring them to a boil. They were always at a boil. All he did was give the wrong side permission to speak.

If we are ever going to heal this divide, we have to do more than trying harder, because that isn't working. The most recent time around (the 1960s), psychology had become a science, and there have been all kinds of psychological studies about perceptions which have provided new information about the states of mind of Americans - but not one (and no combination) has given any insight into what to do to make it go away. Now, again, some states are talking about seceding. And some progressives are saying (and more are secretly thinking) perhaps we should let it happen (at least some of us are talking about the need to rescue sane people from the departing states, and how difficult that would be.) We already have a Civil War on our hands now - right now. It's not yet a shooting war. But that doesn't mean it won't be. And way too few appear to realize it.

Oddly, it may be Steve Schmidt who puts it the most clearly: "Then [the beginning of the Civil War, speaking of Congress] like now, there were some who looked at the empty desks and saw crisis in the absence – not [in] the cause of the absence." But I wish I could share his optimism.

Sources
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/on-this-july-4-the-true-meaning-of
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-3-2022
https://steveschmidt.substack.com/p/dont-be-troubled-i-guess-we-shall

[elleng]

1. On this Fourth of July, it's worth pondering the true meaning of American patriotism.

It is not the meaning propounded by the “America First” crowd, who define it as securing our borders. For most of its existence America has been open to people from the rest of the world fleeing tyranny and violence.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/on-this-july-4-the-true-meaning-of?

[soldierant]

3. Yes, he had a lot to say.

Which of course is why I subscribe to his substack, I just wan't expecting him to top Reich and Richardson.

[Walleye]

2. The right wingers don't seem to understand that the United States is so important to the world

We are the symbol of hope for freedom to millions maybe billions of people. America first is such nonsense. Where is the United Nations located? Here. The backward Republicans among us simply refuse to acknowledge the fact that we really are the essential country. The rest of the world is looking at us in horror.

[soldierant]

4. Not sure they're capable of understanding that.