While America Slept: A July 4th Warning

In 1938, as Nazism advanced across Europe, Winston Churchill published While England Slept, a collection of his speeches condemning the British government for its lack of military preparations during the 1930s.  In 1940, John F. Kennedy published Why England Slept, his analysis of the forces in English society that made it fail to restrain Hitler.  Both books argued that a nation that consistently avoids hard challenges courts disaster.

The United States is prepared for foreign attack, but democracies also die from within.  Sadly, we assume we’ll survive festering problems under the safety net of the Constitution.   

Some future historian writing “While America Slept” might focus on the hard challenges we failed to face.  Looking back from that future time, these would make the list:

·       The Failure of the American Dream: the concentration of wealth among too few Americans and the inability of so many in the middle class to afford housing and health care while also mired in education debt was a prescription for social unrest.  So was the failure to deal with generational poverty and the hunger, poor education and crime that grew in its soil.  Largely unaddressed, climate and environmental damage also fell hardest on the poor.  Faced with fading hope, Americans grew angry at “elites,” searched for whom to blame, and questioned democracy.  They became ripe to accept an authoritarian to rescue them, unaware they were sacrificing liberty in the search for security.

 ·       Value Conflicts: Americans grouped themselves into political, social and geographic enclaves with others who shared like values, acting as if those who differed represented not points of view demanding dialogue but enemies to defeat.  Political, interest group and religious leaders stoked fear and anger as their path to win power, turning Americans against each other. Though self-labeled “true Americans” were usually vocal but angry minorities, they turned the republican principle of majority rule on its head.  Too many Americans who saw this happening stayed on the sidelines.  Moderate voices were then suppressed as the “winners” took power.  

 ·       Unconstrained Freedom of Speech: The danger of social media to spread lies was the subject of Congressional hand-wringing, but no useful legislation emerged to protect the republic.  “Freedom of speech” was held as a higher value than protection of the democracy it was intended to strengthen. The result was inability to agree on facts and truth and the untamed spread of conspiracy theories.  These fertilized the soil of authoritarianism, which grows in a confused and fearful public eager for someone to make sense of what they cannot. Thomas Jefferson famously said “we may tolerate error so long as reason is free to combat it,” but Americans lost faith in reason. What’s left was emotion, putting government at the whim of mobs and strongmen who rose on the anger they generated. 

 ·       Failure of Governmental Institutions: Congress, deadlocked by extremists, failed to respond to critical needs.  Compromises, the work of democracy, were never achieved as extremists dug in with their assumed moral superiority and pursued winning at any cost. The courts, increasingly populated by state and federal judges selected for partisan orthodoxy, became another politically-driven branch of government. Its rulings thus weakened public faith in blind justice and the rule of law.  That trend was exacerbated by Congressional gridlock which pushed political decisions onto the courts.  National governmental institutions also grew weaker, hollowed out by budget cuts, bashing by politicians and the suppression of their expertise. 

 ·       Corruption of the Electoral System: Political parties gerrymandered electoral districts and passed laws to ensure success at the polls even if it meant suppressing voters or ignoring election results.  Unrestrained wealthy donors increased power over election campaigns and those they helped elect.  When neither Congress nor the Supreme Court corrected these abuses, Americans lost faith in elections and denied legitimacy to many of those elected, making it hard for them to govern.  Americans were no longer demanded the peaceful transition of power and violent resistance became more acceptable.    

 ·       Concentration of Executive Authority:  Despite efforts to overthrow the 2020 election by corrupting the system of electors and electoral votes, Congress failed to fully address this critical weakness.   This encouraged states and politicians to ignore the spirit of the law in order to place preferred candidates in power.  With a perennially polarized Congress, removal of an authoritarian president became impossible in the Senate.  Invoking the 25th Amendment to temporarily remove a dangerous president was a hollow vehicle.  It required the Vice-President’s approval, which was impossible as extreme partisans were the only ones selected as presidential running mates.

In 1964, Ronald Reagan spoke at the Republican National Convention.  “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction,” he said.   One hundred years before, Abraham Lincoln issued a similar warning in his 1962 Message to Congress: 

“The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. . . . We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power, and bear the responsibility. . . .We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.”

Both warnings travel through time to now test our own generation.

Photo Credit: geralt@pixabay.com