“This
is
not who we are.”
“This
is
not the America we know.”
“This
is
not how the Leader of the Free World acts.”
These
are some phrases we have consistently heard
during the first year of
Trump 2.0. I understand that when people use
these phrases, they
probably mean that certain behaviors or
statements do not align with
“ideals.” However, these sentiments are a
reflection of who this
country truly is. More or less.
Let’s
start with lying to the country. Since
George Washington, presidents
and members of their cabinets have lied to
our faces, or we’ve
learned about the lies years later. Their
deception has always been
explained away as a matter of national
security or predicated on a
concern that the American public would go
into a panic if the truth
were known.
If
I start with just the presidents in my
lifetime, there’s good
reason not to ever believe a word they say.
Harry Truman knew the
Japanese were about to surrender, but
ordered the dropping of the
atomic bomb anyway, allegedly to see its
real-life effect. John
Kennedy pumped up the threat of Communism as
a pretext for the failed
invasion of Cuba. Richard “Tricky Dick”
Nixon claimed to know
nothing about the Watergate break-in. Lyndon
Johnson said the U.S.
was winning the war in Vietnam, and General
William Westmoreland
assured the country that victory was in
sight. Ronald Reagan lied
about running guns and selling drugs to fund
the Contra
counterrevolutionaries in Nicaragua. We read
George H.W. Bush’s
lying lips when he said, “No new taxes.”
Bill Clinton “did not
have sexual relations with that woman.”
George Bush swore there
were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,
with backup from his
Secretary of State, General Colin Powell.
Obama told us we could keep
our health care plan as he pushed the
Affordable Healthcare Act. Joe
Biden told us Al-Qaeda had been pushed out
of Afghanistan.
The
lies were coming so fast and furious that
they ignited the phenomenon
of fact-checking presidents and their
administrations. Trump is in a
category all by himself. He even lies about
the lies he’s already
told.
These
men have looked us straight in the eye
through our televisions and
lied. It is especially despicable when they
do so under the guise of
protecting our precious democracy. Our tax
dollars and the lives of
our loved ones are the collateral damage of
their efforts to keep us
embroiled in endless wars.
What
about the killing or detaining of citizens?
There was a systematic
campaign to push Indigenous Peoples from
their lands into
reservations. During slavery, free Blacks
were captured and resold
without any due process. Franklin
Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066
stripped Japanese Americans of their rights,
their property, and
their dignity before forcibly relocating
them to concentration camps.
For generations, unarmed Black people have
been shot in the streets
of America. Yes, this is exactly who the
United States is.
When
people
of color hear these phrases about what this
country is not, it
exposes either the political naivete of the
speaker or their dormant
racism. We are saddened by the deaths of
Rene Good and Alex Pretti in
broad daylight by military thugs. We
shouldn’t be outraged at their
deaths without the proper understanding of
the historic violence of
this country against all its people, not
just white individuals. This
is
the American that a lot of us know.
The
violence and lawlessness from the U.S.
government should not come as
a surprise. The façade of a democracy has
been unveiled. An
authoritarian government has no regard for
who becomes collateral
damage as it accumulates wealth and
consolidates power. It has no
concern about public opinion or about the
lack of adherence to laws
and regulations. The only thing it
understands is absolute power by
any means necessary.
As
the
billionaire class implements its diabolical
strategy, we who
believe in democracy must boldly project
what this country could
become. The vision of a humane, moral,
inclusive, and equitable
society is just that right now - a vision.
It is an important vision
that we can courageously fight for so that
in the coming years, we
can truly say, “This is
who we are.”
