Battle Lines
Anyone who knows me well enough to hear the music in the background while I write these essays probably can hear the harmonies of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young playing. They are my “standard”; they have been since the early 1970’s when I wore out two complete vinyl versions of their live album, Four Way Street. But recently I have spent some time listening to their predecessor bands: The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield (sorry Graham not so much the Hollies).
They evolved from the “pop” music, “…I lost my girl” sound of the mid-1960’s, to the psychedelic California valley sound of the later protest generation. Into their music crept the crises of their time, the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement. And while amazing songs came from their efforts: Four Dead in Ohio, Find the Cost of Freedom, Almost Cut My Hair, Wooden Ships and more; one song shot through from Buffalo Springfield, to CSNY, and even to last month’s Democratic Convention. Stephen Stills wrote For What It’s Worth, best known for it’s opening line, “There’s something’s happening here, but what it is ain’t exactly clear”.
What is clear to me is that the battle lines we are drawing today are as stark as those that I remember from the sixties. As an historian, today seems as divisive and polarized as any in our nations’ past, perhaps even the pre-Civil War era. As Stills explained: “…Battle lines are being drawn, nobody’s right, if everybody’s wrong”.
What’s Going Down
Many of us have considered ourselves part of “the Resistance” to the Trump Administration from the very beginning. Some marched in Washington the day after the inauguration, many protested against the “Muslim Ban” and “Fine people on both sides” at Charlottesville. The streets filled with demands to stop child separation at the border, and the deaths of Black people at the hands of the authorities.
We look with almost frantic despair at the United States’ failure to address the environment: today the West burns and another hurricane gains strength in the Gulf of Mexico. The “one hundred year weather event” seems to be happening with annual frequency in all parts of our nation. Who ever heard of a “derecho” until this decade?
And we do all this in the midst of a national pandemic crisis. This morning’s “butcher’s bill”: 198,150 Americans dead, over twenty percent of the world’s total. One side says we must regroup and deal with the disease, the other says it’s all “good”, and the death toll is the price we must pay to protect Wall Street and suburban jobs. It has turned into a form of class warfare: if you can afford it, you can avoid COVID-19. If you can’t, you are an “essential worker” who must take “essential risks”.
We are in an existential crisis: the very fate of the American experiment seems on the line. Fifty days from now, we will begin the process of counting the votes to decide who will lead America. And even that process has been brought into doubt: one side is doing everything it can to make Americans question the veracity of the election outcome, if Donald Trump is not re-elected.
Everybody’s Wrong
But, my fellow Resistance members, my fellow Democrats, we should never forget this one thing. We are fighting for the United States of America that WE believe in. Do not let the “others” abscond with our nation, our symbols, and America’s virtue. WE are the Patriots, working to fulfill the American dream.
There is an outcry against the idea of “American Exceptionalism”, pointing out the flaws and failures of our past to say that, “there’s nothing exceptional here”. But the exceptional part of our history is the dream, even though many have tried to subvert that Dream for their own personal gain. The Dream is the “arc” described by Dr. King, bending inexorably forward towards justice.
America is a nation founded on exceptional goals. Yes, our founding fathers were full of flaws, the men of their times. Do not let those flaws blind us to their dreams, and the extensions of those dreams to all peoples. The American Dream includes Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights, gender equality, welcoming immigrants, and it includes saving the world from our own environmental transgressions.
The American Flag is our flag. Do not let it, or our national history and patriotism get subverted to some right-wing talking point. We are fighting for the heart and soul of America, those exceptional goals represented by the Stars and Stripes. And whether we stand to honor or kneel to demand it changes, it is symbolic of what we can be.
What’s That Sound?
Fifty days to save America. The choice is stark. We have the opportunity to move towards a “more perfect union” (Mr. Madison, I so love that phrase) or continue towards more division and destruction. Fifty days: to determine what the reality of the American experiment will be: forward towards our “exceptional” dreams, or backwards towards our troubled past.
For what it’s worth – sing songs, carry signs, and march with the flag towards justice: OUR flag.
