“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.”
