History buffs will recall that the Weimar Republic was the democratic government which ruled Germany from the end of the first world war until the ultimate victory at the polls, ascension to power, and then consolidation of total power of the national socialists was a centrist government. It was a democratic moderate government, ultimately weakened to destruction by extremists on the right and the left. Neither the communists nor the nazis wanted a democratic moderate and central, progressive and inclusive government, and, in effect, they conspired to destroy it.
In their insistence, each, on their own non-reconciliatory and uncompromising stances, and in the continual escalation of violence in the streets, they together, by design, rendered Germany “unregierbar”, un-governable. The hatred of each side for each other, their attacks, their intolerance, their lies, and the violence destroyed any chance Germany might have had to become a peaceful prosperous nation. Ultimately it fell prey to the designs of a megalomanic who proposed order, and ultimately brought chaos, destruction and terrible suffering. I know it is extreme, and I hope certainly too early, but I am genuinely frightened that the current momentum in the extremes of both the right and the left are taking on lives of their own, and that the unstoppable momentum of that chaos, if not addressed very responsibly, could make the USA ‘ungovernable’, that it could weaken our best chance to come back together, to come home to our real values, to come home to the America we love and yearn for.
As those who have done me the honor of reading so far know, I am desperate to find some way back as Americans to a shared sense of values and purpose, and a common unified ground. I have tried to identify core American values, and to question whether our current administration is taking us closer to these values, or further away. Spoiler alert, my conclusion has been that in this particular election, in order to come home to who we truly wish to be, our true purpose as a nation, we must elect a democratic slate, and reject the current demonism of adversaries as enemies that is making us more divided, polarized and in battle with each other than we have been in 150 years. I have been careful to say that this might not always be the case, that in my opinion we could easily entertain other republican administrations, even conservative ones, and not lose our essential nature and goodness as a nation. I voted for President Obama, but would not have been in the least ashamed had John McCain or Mitt Romney been president.
In previous posts, I have investigated values such as respect for fact, honesty and truth, decency, impartiality of justice, and, for the most part, derived our regard for those values from our history, literature, judicial writings, and such. Sadly, at this moment, I am much more viscerally than intellectually disturbed, anxious, angry. I feel this post more deeply than I have those previous. I fear we are tearing ourselves apart. I know this may seem over the top, hyped up, and melodramatic, and the analogy perhaps too extreme, but when I see pitched battles in the streets, I have to fear that we might be heading towards making something looking like a Weimar Republic out of our United States.
The weakening and erosion of our own American essential common unity and humanity as a people is hastened when each side exploits the natural fault lines in our society, attempts to locate in the ‘other side’ weaknesses and target them, ignores truths which are inconvenient for their own position and exaggerates or heightens issues which make them feel they are winning. Each group has very sore spots, each ‘hot buttons’, and, ominously, each may have ‘red lines’. It serves no purpose to drive wedges into these fault lines, but that is exactly what we are being led into doing. Those fault lines are being, I fear, purposely exploited by those who wish to do us harm. But I will suspend that line of argument for the moment, and without attributing ultimate blame, just look at the evidence.
Let’s look at our so called “memes”, our Facebook posts, our Tweets, the images on our nightly news, and the focus directed at the most incendiary images, the most inflammatory narratives.
In the interest of fairness, I recognize that no one “side” has the monopoly on the exploitation of these wounds. I believe I can demonstrate that there are those on one side who more intentionally uses such fault lines to divide, but it is necessary and fair to realize the tendency among both. I will start by pointing a finger at the left, the “side” I most lean towards.
There are more than enough of those who lean left who, in the name of being “fed up”, go way beyond reasonable protest and responsible discourse. Thinking you are on the right side of history gives no one license to practice random mayhem. The notion that any liberal wants destruction is not accurate, I loathe it. Most of us do. Most Americans on both left and right loathe the violence and the chaos. It does not give anyone cause for affection for the liberal agenda to see angry crowds burn cities, trash buildings, break windows. That is true even if one can feel their anger. It does not make anyone want more to respect the pain of those truly oppressed to see them dancing on our flag. The most reasonable, rational and compelling demands for improved community police relations are in no way served when the widely touted “defund the police” mantra sounds. No sensible person thinks a society devoid of a service who can enforce laws would long thrive.
Most to the point, when those who want to end police violence dress up as combatants, and all but dare the police to engage in nightly pitched battles, they do no service, but in fact do great harm to the cause they, or we, are trying to represent. By becoming – or acting like – the radical and anarchistic left that the right accuses us of being, we play right into the hands of the worst instincts of the radical right.
Because that is exactly what the radical right wants. A radical right which has far more influence in this government than it has any right to have. They have, recent event show, much more leeway and license from the powers that be, and they want nothing more than a chance to fight. And the current administration seems to want nothing more than a chance to assert its military dominance over its citizens. That passes, in their mind, for order. It is, they believe, a value they can win on. Because the more chaos their rhetoric invokes, the more compelling the nightly images on the TV, facebook, instagram or twitter accounts.
But we can do nothing about what is happening on a national level until we make some sincere effort to address the pitched street battles on a personal level, and a social level, the “street warfare” among ourselves. We must recognize that the rhetoric we love to post, which makes us feel we have really scored the point, is also “drawing battle line” and weakening our chances to come together to continue to perfect our intended to be self perfecting union.
Here is a typical current Facebook meme..
Let’s leave aside the fact that Obama is spelled without an apostrophe. Perhaps it does not mean that the piece originated in a non-English speaking country. I don’t know – have my suspicions, but let’s let that go.
I know it is a visceral instinct to justify ones positions and to defend against attacks, and the best defense may be a good offense. But, and now, and with an eye to examining the effect of such a “meme”, let’s make a closer review of these assertions and see if we find them all to be accurate. If a friend were saying them, de novo, I would just feel my friend to be inaccurate. But because, I believe, facebook friends are just pushing a share button to pass along that which is written by others, I will call them what they are, lies. Because I don’t believe these inaccuracies were written by , and spread into our society by anyone who wishes well to the unity and success of our nation.
Let us just take a look at the first assertion. Although the clearly mis-quoted and purposely misunderstood “Christian country line”, and the patently false jobs growth claim are easily demonstrated to be wrong and intentionally so, I am particularly sensitive about the first statement, the claim that the right had to endure Obama’s “apologies”. It is meant as a personal insult, and to make us look weak. If it is not designed to anger and divide it could be. And it is wrong, it is not an accurate rendition of anything Obama actually said. I know, because I had to research that very question in some depth. My next door neighbor, and very close actual personal friend, someone I would trust with my life, is, I am sorry, a committed Trump supporter. He is a rock solid citizen, a true patriot, and a war hero, and so when he says something that strikes me as way off, I at least take as much time and effort as it needs to refute the claim. That was exactly what happened when he was particularly incensed one evening around August 6th about the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, and how Obama’s “apology” had ruined so much. It angered me to hear him say it, but I could not exactly put my finger on why it was so incendiary.
And so I researched it. I researched the claim in much more detail than it would serve here to lay out comprehensively. But suffice it to say that in an in depth analysis, word for word, several readings, of the speech given by President Obama at Hiroshima, there is not a single word of apology. Not a breath. The speech is about the necessity of man, having such destructive weapons, to go forward to diplomatic relationships. Progressives at the time in fact faulted the president for refusing to apologize. The Japanese press, though gracious about Obama having even come to Hiroshima when no other sitting president had done so, obviously did not miss the fact that Obama had not apologized.
Having reviewed this literature in depth (the skeptical reader is invited to do the same, the full text of his remarks and current commentary are readily available) I remembered Romney’s attack, during their first debate on Obama as having started his presidency with an “apology” tour. Again, the memory offended me, and it struck me as false. Again, an in – depth review of the actual text and the supposed statements found no such apology, not a trace, and, in fact, in his acceptance of the Nobel prize Obama made it clear that he would never apologize for, or hesitate to use force in defending American interests. (I personally wish he had not hesitated in using force against Bashar Al Asad, but that is a longer discussion, on which I think I would agree with most right wing commentators anyway.)
Continuing to throw this offensive apology lie at President Obama is the sort of rhetoric which clearly divides rather than unites. It angers us. It is not true. And it does nothing to unite, but everything to divide.
To be fair, those of us leaning so called “left”, of which I count myself to some extent, have at times fallen into the temptation to do the same thing. We could have had plenty of moral grounds from which to criticize this administration about the detention of children at the southern boarder. That is especially true given that their wish to seek asylum here celebrates what has traditionally been great about this country. But calling the detention centers “concentration camps”, rhetoric of which I have to plead guilty, is inflammatory, it is incendiary, it does not seek agreement, it does not unit, and its does play into the worsening divide. We seem to have, each of us, conspired in the loss of a logical, rhetorical or “communication-able” center. We can all, with reason, analyze whether Donald Trump’s interpretation of the rule of law leads us closer or further away from the rule of law. But calling him a Nazi (as I must confess I have also, in heated discussion, done) is not accurate, and simply serves to divide, to insert another wedge, and to make reconciliation more difficult. So it is harmful when we call the right Nazis, and harmful when the right calls the left anarchists, and in both sides it is hyperbole to the degree of falsehood, leading to further division.
But now, it is not just rhetoric.
No, things are taking a dangerous turn for the worse, now, and very rapidly.
Probably our deepest fault line, the only fault which goes so far into our foundation that its rupture could have the potential to rupture our society is the fault line around race. The fault line between black and white. So many of the others, rich and poor, those with opportunity and those without, those who view their society as primarily good and those who view it as predominantly harmful, those who see the local authorities as their friends, and those who fear them as enemies, those other fault lines start with race. For the last sixty years that fault line has been growing, we hoped, less dangerous, less divisive. Things progressed slowly, by fits and starts, but progressed consistently to be fairer, and we hoped less dangerous. Or perhaps that fault line was just hidden and simmering, because over the last ten years, someone has been hammering a wedge into that fault. And it is starting to cause an earthquake. Who would want to do that?
I do not believe that the hammering of a wedge into this fault line is innocent, I believe it intentional. But whether its origin is organic or planned, foreign born or domestic, simply and sincere or deviously planned and propagated, we do ourselves, our nation and our dreams great danger by promulgating it.
In what follows, there are a number of racial images and memes. I sincerely hope that I am not passing along these often incendiary images to in anyway endorse them. I want to suggest that the images do not have the effect to provoke meaningful dialogue, but rather to stoke divisions, fears and hatred.
In one sense one could ask what business do I, as a an older white guy, have in focusing attention on such a personal and provocative issue, but I think it would be willfully ignorant to ignore how this very deep sore spot is being exploited against the unity of our nationalpurpose.
I also do not suggest that those who pass along these images tropes and memes have explicitly racist agendas. But I would want those who do pass them to recognize that these images and memes are provocative, not of healing dialogue, but rather of increasing mutual distrust, hostility and the potential, and at times reality, of street violence. This does no one any service, other than those who wish to damage America’s essence and core.
The following Facebook meme recently received some national traction. I do not know who created it and placed it into circulation.
I would be surprised if the very image above itself is not right this moment generating visceral anger in readers of all political persuasions. I question whether that isn’t exactly what it is meant to do.
Let us investigate further what this interposition of memes is meant to evoke.
The reason that race features prominently in the police brutality story is that there is a pervasive pattern of white officers with excessive violence against black Americans in custody.
Is there a suggestion that there is a pattern of white children being killed by their black neighbors? I would think this meme is more appropriate as a crazy person having access to a gun.
The murder of a child is an awful, sickening, horrific event, and unforgivable. That is true for Cannon Hinnant. It was true for Emmet Till. It is true for the 1500 or so children who die a year in gang violence and drive by shootings. But let’s look at the comparison. The intention seems clear to me, it is to say that the protests against the killing of unarmed black men gaining national traction while the killing of this little child surely shows how biased the liberal media is, and is meant to say, essentially that the black lives you say matter, don’t really so much matter if you aren’t as outraged against Cannon Hinnant’s murder. Why are their no burning buildings over him, seems to be the implication?
One could answer that the obvious reason that one got universal attention and the other not, is that while the murderer of Cannon Hinnant is immediately apprehended and appropriately jailed, those who wear blue and kill black, albeit a tiny minority of those who wear blue to serve, often escape any sort of accountability. One could further point out that the occurrence of black men killing white children with impunity is not a common event in this country. It does not frequently happen. A search into the murders children, and there are about a thousand a year, finds almost no murders of white little children by black men. I searched for it.
It just isn’t there. This instance was the only one I found. There may be a few others.
Police who kill unarmed African Americans, yes that is a pervasive thing. And that is why it gets a larger share of national attention. We could all name half a dozen cases this year. And it shouldn’t take much to be able to fairly realize why a common and increasing national occurrence should get national attention, when an event of the sort you can’t find when searching for doesn’t. That doesn’t have to imply a widespread press conspiracy to ignore white deaths. That would not be an accurate assessment to any impartial analysis.
Such an attempt to have a careful and reasoned response however, is not meant with a return attempt to find reason and reconciliation. It does not serve the sense of righteousness to give in to a middle ground.
It is easier to get to feel that you are in the right, and that those of another opinion are the enemy:
The left, we are told, is the “Cancer of Society”. Do you think it helps a spirit of finding any sort of common ground when you call me “the cancer of society”.
I have to wonder. Is there another hidden implication? Does the meme give a subliminal message to white people to be afraid of black men, that they are coming for you. That meme is too old to be ignored.
I don’t know who created the original image, but if their intention were to subvert reasonable national dialogue and replace it with civil dissension, mutual distrust and hatred, and to invoke a level of anger which lessens the possibility of civil dialogue, then they would have succeeded. Who would benefit from that? Serious question. Cui bono?
Another meme:
Let’s just look at a handful of the responses (names of friends obviously deleted)
The fact is that both of these images are being used to bolster the passion, and not the reasonable dialogue between us. We should be Americans seeing both as instances of serious systemic problems in a nation which affects us all. Instead we are allowing ourselves to be polarized into warring camps.
A seventeen year old killing people with an assault weapon is lionized by some as hero and patriot. By others as a monster and a murderer.
The real issues are how, in this great, free and generally prosperous society, do children become taught to hate, and how do they get access to military weapons? And to ask whether it is true, and if so why, that one group of Americans gets a relative pass for actions which get another group shot in the street.
Calling for the death penalty, or even life in prison, for a seventeen year old can’t really seem quite right. But whatever penalties or rehabilitation or justice which we decide, as a society, is appropriate for 17 year olds who have become violent felons should apply to all Americans. That is not so unreasonable a thing to ask.
So as the rhetoric hardens and divides us, those who would like to hold the center feel a sinking fear that we have seen this before. The Weimar Republic’s center did not hold, it was replaced with street battles and chaos. One side, which was along with their opponents fomenting it, came out on top, and while that one extreme bathed in spectacular success – for a time, ultimately all was lost.
In citing, circulating, these clearly incendiary memes, are we all falling into a trap, which may have been set for us by our adversaries. Are we being lead steadily and I think not entirely innocently towards going to war with each other?
We become no longer commonly seeking to be Americans, seeking together to solve common problems. We become increasingly mortal enemies on opposite sides of a progressively unbridgeable divide.
So, finally, we come to the major question of the day, which of the candidates seeking (re)election to the United States Presidency leads us closer to unity, and which closer to division? Who will support the vision of a common cause, and who is more likely to suggest, promulgate, propose and encourage the memes which drive wedges into our most vulnerable fault lines?
Which candidate, do you think is most likely to make all Americans seek to find an increasingly elusive common cause with one another?
From my standpoint, the answer is clear. One side is clearly asking our citizens to find common ground. One is demonizing its opponents, calling them enemies of the people, and encouraging and celebrating the use of violence to suppress them.
This fall, unity is on the ballot.
We are not yet at the point or even, I pray not near the point where the sadly doomed Weimar Republic fell prey to the vicious political agendas of the Nazis on one side and the Communists on the other. Neither of those seemingly opposed visions sought to share values or common ground. They sought to destroy each other. And in doing so, ultimately brought destruction to their own nation, and the world.
We are not the Weimer Republic. Not yet.
But we may be hurtling in that direction.