Cowardice

Misanthropic Boomer

The current shameful episode is a direct result of the cowardice which is in the nation’s DNA. Whenever anything has threatened the status quo the nation’s shepherds have chosen  the path creating the least conflict. It began when the founders, brave enough to rebel against the Crown, feared the same failure that accompanied the Articles of the Confederation. The result was that the men who put into writing that, “All men are created equal...” allowed the disenfranchisement of women, and the Three-Fifths Compromise in order to avoid possible civil conflict.

The resultant conflict came seventy-four years later...The Civil war. Following the war of secession the government again acted in its comfortable cowardly fashion when, during “Reconstruction,” the Southern states were allowed to create barriers to persons of color for the same opportunities that the White minority enjoyed.

This cowardice has continued throughout the nation’s history: always in support of White Privilege. It created a schism between women seeking the right to vote and people of color on the same mission. Persons of color were granted the right to vote because they were concentrated, for the most part, in the South and would be controlled through a varity of disenfranchisement  techniques, e.g. Poll taxes, literacy requirements, etc. Women would not be so easy to control.

The industrial Revolution once again allowed the nation’s cowardly nature to come to the fore. Large corporations were being created, having large sums of money and influence. Elected officials began  allowing these corporations to write their own laws out of fear of losing their support.

The fear of losing White Privilege drove Manifest Destiny, laws restricting the rights of Persons of Color and Indigenous Persons.  That same cowardly approach to life allowed the justification of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during the Second World War. It also prompted Congress to create the Taft-Hartley legislation to prevent unions from having complete autonomy: in essence the validation of spying.

The national affliction allowed Joe McCarthy to ruin lives with near impunity. It supported our excursions into interfering with the sovereignty of other nations. And now, we have Republican Congress Persons supporting a coup because they fear the influence Trump has over Right Wing voters.

A revolution of sorts is the only way to alter our National DNA and cure ourselves. Our immediate goals should be to force term limit restrictions on Congress...as long as there are no term limits Congress Person is a profession, and as such supports the fear of losing one’s job...it was never meant to be more than a part time job. 

Congress Persons must also be subject to the same laws and accountability as are all citizens. They must also participate in Social Security and Medicare...they will then protect not abuse those programs. Lobbying must also have restrictions put in place; and finally corporate money must be removed from politics entirely.

I am not completely certain how to force these changes. Perhaps something similar to Iceland’s “Pots and Pans Rebellion” could work as a start. What I am certain of is that unless the reforms I have delineated are carried out we will remain a nation of cowards.