Everything's Political

The title of this blog post comes from the chorus of the song "Yes It's Fucking Political" by Skunk Anansie. I referenced it in my first post on here, and it's a good reminder for me that my actions and choices don't happen in a vacuum but instead contribute to the character of our culture and society in their own small way. Given that, and the the trampling of rights going on in the US today, I am compelled to put my views in writing for posterity and a brighter tomorrow or whatever. For background, I was raised with a hyperdeveloped sense of justice and a commitment to the Rule of Law, both of which I retain as an adult and are core components of my identity. While I have many criticisms of the United States, I've sworn oaths to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution several times in my life, and I did so without compunction or reservation because the U.S. Constitution is just a document that lays out the baseline terms of governance in the time and place where I happen to be. In my view - and despite current affairs - a constitutional republic is one of the better forms of government humanity has ever devised -- we're free to adapt, amend, and revise the Constitution whenever the political will exists. I've also formally studied (i.e. accredited institutions of higher learning, not youtube university) government, politics, law, religion, communications, and sociology. I even have degrees in some of those things, but that just means I'm familiar with how others much smarter than myself have engaged with these issues before.

With my starting point summarized, let me get to the core of my thesis: what is going on at present in the United States is an abject betrayal of our founding documents and core principles and undermines everything that has made the US a geopolitical, economic, scientific, technological, and cultural superpower. This is copy-pasta authoritarian takeover 101, and yet a sizeable portion of our population seems downright enthusiastic to live steeped in a climate of fear where their rights exist at the pleasure of the President. I can only conclude they don't grasp that, while the egregious rights violations are falling on vulnerable populations for now, they're next. Again, it's authoritarian takeover 101. As a scholar of law, government, sociology, etc. etc., I am distraught watching this unfold. The moves of the governing coalition are so transparent and ham-fisted, I refuse to dignify them by going into details. Suffice it to say that anyone with the barest semblance of historical context should be able to see what's going on. It's like a parody of an authoritarian takeover, and yet it has been so undeniably effective I am forced to conclude we're ignorant enough as a population to welcome it.

Looking back over the last 10 years, I think I've spotted the flaw that the framers of the US Constitution failed to anticipate: they couldn't imagine a world where citizens would vote for an empirically demonstrable bad-faith self-serving charlatan for chief executive. With all three branches of government effectively unified in their desire to subvert the Rule of Law, the electorate were the final moral backstop in this constitutional experiment, and we have abdicated that role entirely. Or, worse, we've made it known that we no longer care and can't be bothered to participate. This, even as the government rounds up and disappears our neighbors, our healthcare system collapses into a for-profit cesspit, and our very environment violently destabilizes to destroy our homes.

Much has been made of the longstanding "norms" ignored by the current administration - the unspoken rules of agreement by which an administration typically conducts itself. These "norms" are really offshoots of the common goal of all prior administrations: to do what is best for the United States and its citizens. While "best" has been interpreted in many ways I fundamentally and vehemently disagree with, I don't think that even Ronald Reagan (pro-feces-in-chicken) or Richard Nixon (pro-Elvis-on-drugs) wanted the US to suffer or be a weaker state. By contrast, the present administration has shown they would betray decades-old alliances for a Super Big Gulp and sacrifice soft-power painstakingly cultivated over generations for a photo op. Is it malicious? I doubt it - this administration has made it abundantly clear that its sole lodestar is its self interest. If things like national security, economic stability, healthcare, education, scientific and technological leadership suffer, it's only as a collateral consequence of the petty myopic avarice that pervades the West Wing.

Reading personal historical records as a student (the diary of Anne Frank, the letters of John Adams, etc.), I was deeply moved and would imagine myself in their time and place, being certain I would never stand for injustice, that I would risk everything on a revolution because it was the right thing to do -- all while quietly certain that the injustices of their epoch would never visit me. Now, in the thick of it, I try every day to combat the United States' march into authoritarianism, to do something meaningful in defense of human rights and the Rule of Law, to stand up especially when it's to my detriment and I have something to lose. I have no illusion that a blog post matters -- I have written nothing new here and I don't propose any grand solution. Best-case, perhaps it's another grain of sand that tips the moral balance scales toward justice. Truly though, this post is just to document that my eyes were open when it counted, that I am doing what I can with the resources I have, so that if others come across it in the future, there will be no ambiguity or debate about where I stood.