Month: January 2021

OUT OF CRISIS AND CHAOS COMES A RARE SHOT AT MEANINGFUL CHANGE

As the aspirational glow of the Biden-Harris inauguration begins to recede, there remains a residue of hope that we are entering a period of significant metamorphous.  This optimism reaches beyond a mere change of presidents.  

After all, the toxic division in this country wasn’t invented by Donald Trump. He just exploited and deepened it.  Similarly, it won’t be eliminated by Joe Biden, although he is likely to reduce and mitigate it. 

Cultures rarely experience rapid and profound change. There are, however, exceptions, unique times when stasis suddenly succumbs to transformation. A strong case can be made that we are now in one of those moments. 

The Atlantic’s George Packer recently dug out an old nugget of thought on this subject from the late German philosopher Gershom Scholem. There are, Scholem wrote, “crucial moments when it is possible to act. If you move then, something happens.”  He called such periods “plastic hours,” and said they occur very rarely.  Based on Scholem’s work, Packer wrote that plastic hours require a major crisis and the “right alignment” of public opinion.

Clearly, we can check the crisis box on this prerequisite form. For a year now, we’ve been stacking crises on top of each other:  a deadly pandemic, an economic collapse for the middle and working class, a racial injustice reckoning and a violent insurrection by white supremacists and nationalists.  

Collectively and individually, these events have already altered the status quo and recalibrated the rhythms of our lives.  From the workplace to the schoolhouse, from renaming athletic teams to using a capital “B” when writing about Black people, our culture – in large ways and small – has been in a perpetual sea change since early 2020. 

Based on the theory articulated by Packer and Scholem, these multiple crises have knocked inertia on its rear end, leaving us in a state of flux and fertile ground for substantial change, provided that the other box of the plastic hours’ test can be checked:  the right alignment of public opinion.

At first glance, it might seem dubious to think that a deeply divided electorate could produce such an alignment.  Political scientists have referred to America as a “49 percent nation,” based on the relatively close results of presidential elections in this century.  George Washington University professor Lara Brown put it this way: “As there is no sort of long-term winner, the fighting gets fiercer.”

Yet, our perpetual partisan divide masks a robust consensus on some of our most pressing issues. Substantial majorities of Americans want some form of universal health care. They believe much more should be done to combat climate change.  They want the rich to pay higher taxes. They see racial inequality as a significant problem. They support the right of workers to join unions. They hold positive views of immigration.  As Packer noted in his Atlantic piece, these majorities have been there for some time.  What’s new, he says, is an environment conducive to change.  Rather than a return to normal, the pain, turmoil and chaos of the past year may well be a launching pad for a shot at something far better than the old normal.

If this all sounds a bit obtuse, think of it this way:  For years, you’ve wanted to make changes in your house, knock out a wall and go for the open kitchen concept, attach a screened porch, upgrade the windows.  But life’s inertia and routine dominated, and none of it ever got done.  Then along comes a tornado. The house is destroyed.  A devastating trauma to be sure, but also a rebuilding opportunity that will finally execute those long-ignored design changes.  Welcome to the plastic hours.

Colorado Senator Michael Bennet used a different term to describe this dynamic. “I think we are at a hinge moment in history; it’s one of those moments that arises every 50 years or so,” he said. “We have the opportunity to set the stage for decades of progressive work that can improve the lives of tens of millions of Americans.”

There is, of course, nothing automatic about hinge moments or plastic hours. Dramatic change isn’t driven by a clock or a calendar. It takes smart, strategic leaders to seize those opportunities, to tap into a profoundly evolving environment in order to do what once couldn’t be done. There are strong signs that we are now in such an environment. The  crises of the past year – particularly the events in recent weeks – have left our normally static body politic in a rare state of flux.

For example:

  • Political Action Committees of most major corporations, including AT&T, Nike, Marriott, General Electric, Honeywell, Comcast and Verizon, have cut off all contributions to the 147 Republican members of Congress who voted against certifying the results of the presidential election.
  • Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, after four years of marching in lockstep with Donald Trump, has broken with him and is reportedly working to block the former president from playing any role in the party.
  • Former top Trump administration officials are quietly lobbying for Trump’s impeachment.
  • Many leaders of the pro-Trump Capitol riot have disavowed their hero on social media because he eventually criticized their violence and did not pardon them.
  • QAnon, a bizarre, conspiracy-loving contingent in Trump’s base, was left morose and crestfallen when Biden became president because the Qs had been assured that that the Bidens, Obamas and Clintons would be executed at the last minute during Wednesday’s inauguration, somehow allowing Trump to get one more term.

That may not be exactly what Bob Dylan had in mind when he wrote The Times They Are A-Changin’.  Yet, for a demon leader, who since 2017, reigned supreme over his base and most Congressional Republicans, it’s a major transformation. 

This window of rebuilding from the twister of the past four years will not remain open long. Now is the time to act, with focused determination and agile grace. And with respectful compromise that retains the essence of the agenda for meaningful change. 

In other words, and with apologies to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

Between the dark of then and the light ahead,

When changes emerge to alter the power,

Comes a pause in our rhythmic thread,

That is known as the Plastic Hour.

DEMOCRACY DESECRATED BY DONALD ALMIGHTY’S MOB

For his End of Days’ performance, Donald Trump should have just gone to the middle of New York’s 5th Avenue and shot someone. As he predicted in 2016, it probably wouldn’t have altered his standing. But no, he had to incite a riotous takeover of the Capitol that terrorized Congress, left five people dead and a nation sick to its stomach.

Many of us spent four years wondering if there is any dastardly move this guy could make that would penetrate his cloak of invincibility. At long last we have our answer, although it comes without an ounce of solace. Let the record show that Trump’s instigation of a violent attempted coup d’état was, in fact, the bridge too far that we thought would never come.

The 45th president has been excoriated by members of his own staff and Cabinet. Influential – and not exactly left leaning – groups as divergent as the National Council of Churches, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Union of Concerned Scientists have called for Trump to resign or be removed from office. The House of Representatives appears ready to impeach him for a second time. Even worse for him, he’s been kicked off of Twitter.

Yet, he persists.  Two days after the Trump-inspired assault on the Capitol, the Republican National Committee sang his praises and encouraged his continued leadership of the party. According to social media chatter reported by The Washington Post, the president’s hard core base is so pleased with last week’s riot that they are planning an encore for the inauguration of Joe Biden, the guy they believe stole their hero’s office.

How in the world did we get to this point?  In large part, through faith. It wasn’t just the Donald’s lie about a stolen election that triggered this war. It was his army’s unwavering faith in the sanctity of Donald John Trump.  After stirring up his troops last Wednesday, this false prophet sent them off to invade the Capitol with these words of inspiration: “You will never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.” 

To be sure, many in that invading mob were veteran white supremacist agitators who were symbiotically using Trump as much as he was using them.  But others were clearly on a mission of faith. The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg reported that a portion of the pre-riot rally consisted of prayers conflating Jesus and The Donald. Goldberg wrote that one large group formed a circle and cheered when their leader said, “Give it up if you believe in Jesus,” but were even louder in their response to, “Give it up if you believe in Donald Trump.”   

This is not, in any way, a knock on religion. Abiding faith in a power greater than ourselves, or in principles and values that guide our lives, is as essential to our existence as the air we breathe and the food we eat. Yet, the slope between a faith that nourishes and enhances, and one that diminishes and endangers, is extremely slippery.  

Most organized religions – including Christianity, Judaism and Islam – recognize this conundrum through strict prohibitions against idolatry, the worshipping of other gods.  Think of it as an exclusive jurisdiction clause: Embrace only the one true God and the religion’s articles of faith with unquestioning acceptance, but don’t do that for anyone else.

Unfortunately, many in Trump’s base never got the false prophet  memo.  More than any other political figure in our lifetime, he has been worshiped by supporters who follow him on total faith, without doubt or question. His former press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump was called by God. Conservative radio host Wayne Allyn Root called him the “second coming of God,” and the “King of Israel.” Evangelical leaders Paula White, Robert Jeffress and Franklin Graham have repeatedly asserted that Trump’s presidency is divinely inspired and mandated.

Then there is the QAnon phenomenon. This growing contingent of hard core Trumpians believe the president has been divinely anointed to defend the world against a massive network of Satanic pedophiles in the Democratic party and the deep state. Many of the Capitol rioters were QAnon followers, including a woman who was killed in the melee.  

In his book, The Cult of Trump, cult expert Steven Hassan says Trump checks every box on the list of what it takes to have an effective cult.  “It’s a black-and-white, all-or-nothing, good-versus-evil, authoritarian view of reality,” he said in an interview with Vox. “And there’s a deliberate focus on denying facts in order to protect the leader.” One of the chapters in Hassan’s book is on malignant narcissism as a characteristic of destructive cult leaders.

To have faith is to accept without doubt, without question. In a religious context, faith has brought peace and comfort to millions of believers. It removes the angst of uncertainty over deeply profound questions about existence, including the ultimate: What happens when we die?”  

In the political context, however, doubt is an essential intellectual tool for drafting, synthesizing and reviewing ideas, policies, legislation and candidates. Truth and knowledge come from exploring doubts. Doubt begs the question, “Are you sure?” Doubt seeks more data, more opinions, more input. Used in moderation, it is also a healthy introspective tool. Who, besides our 45th president, has not indulged in self-doubt to become a better person?  

These past four years have taught us that the deity delusion is the of bane of democracy. Donald (“I alone can fix it”) Trump worships himself and believes in nothing outside of his own infallibility. Worse than that, he has an enormous contingent of venerating followers who accept his every word as gospel, and are willing to desecrate and destroy the citadel of our government along with the democracy that drives it.

As we evaluate the damage and devastation inflicted by the outgoing administration, as we make our list of needed repairs, let’s put this one at or near the top: Truth matters. 

And the road to truth is paved with doubt.