Every time a group of people come together to begin to form a society, there are certain rules and expectations for how they will behave. They are generally accepted and followed, but there always seems to be a dark underbelly…those who rebel against those standards in large or small ways.
Much of the time that underbelly remains hidden. The societal pressures see to that.
But what happens when those societal pressures dissipate? Unfortunately, we’re currently seeing the result of that in the United States.
There has always been a dark underbelly to American democracy. That dark side burst into the open periodically, but then would be pushed back underground…to fester and grow.
And it burst into the open with a vengeance with the election of Donald Trump in 2016. During his campaign he made it “acceptable” to break standards that had been generally accepted, even if not always honored.
- He mocked a disabled reporter.
- He boasted about getting away with sexual harassment.
- He attacked a Gold Star family because they were not native-born.
In a better world, these actions would have been totally unacceptable. But he burst onto the political scene as an outsider, claiming that any criticism of his behavior just proved the need for his outsider status.
And it’s only gotten worse.
- He has cozied up with dictators, claiming that they were “great leaders.”
- He used the White House as a means of making more money for himself and his family.
- He had no interest in learning about foreign policy.
- He was careless with documents related to national security.
- He lied–and did nothing–about Covid when it could have been possible to get a better handle on it before it killed a million Americans.
- He has attacked immigrants.
- He refused to denounce hate speech and actions, in fact claiming that there were “good people” on both sides of a Nazi rally.
- He has refused to accept the results of an election he lost, continuing to claim without evidence that there was massive fraud, even though multiple investigations have failed to find any.
- His words incited an attack on members of Congress doing their constitutional duty to certify the election–and despite numerous requests, he did nothing for hours.
- He has threatened reporters with prison time and prison rape if they do not reveal their sources of stories he does not like.
- He convinced thousands who claim to be Christian to ignore the values and beliefs they loudly proclaim in order to support a man who has ignored all of them–and proclaim him to be “God’s anointed.”
We have seen hate speech and acts of hate increase.We are seeing doubts raised about the integrity of our elections. Members of minority populations are finding protections removed. Librarians and educators are under attack for trying to provide our children with access to a more nuanced history.
Is this really what we want? Do we really want the dark underbelly to take over?
The longer we allow these actions to be the norm, the harder it will be to change direction. It is up to each of us to determine what we will become.
Preacher's Kid 