I'm spending my Fourth of July in exile from the land I love. There will be no fireworks for us tonight; we saw our fireworks on Tuesday, Canada Day, over English Bay in Vancouver. We will spend our America Day as foreigners, blowing nothing up (though the seagulls sound a bit like whistler rockets) and adventuring in the big city surrounded by shops on normal business hours and lots of generally polite citizens on bicycles reveling in their long and rare sunshine.
If you think that's a funny way to spend to spend the Fourth of July, try Leo Kallis's recommendation that we watch Conspiracy, HBO's 2001 movie about the Nazis coming up with genocide:
If nothing else, the film is a firm and frightening reminder of what happens when those in power actively act against the principle "that all . . .are created equal and . . . endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. . . " It took less than ninety minutes to begin the process that took six million lives [Leo Kallis, "This Independence Day Be A Patriotic American: Watch A Movie About Nazis," The Displaced Plainsman, 2014.07.03].
Kallis offers his cinematic advice in the context of a recent Pew study that finds more Americans deeming members of the political party opposite their own "threaten the nation's well-being." Law professor Jedediah Purdy says partisan division wouldn't be a problem if we could channel it into effective action. Purdy says our nation's much greater problem is a deep-seated denial of real problems like income inequality and climate change, which are inherently conflictual:
Rejecting the politics of denial before things get more desperate would mean embracing a politics of conflict, a politics that recognizes the legitimacy and persistence of competing interests. Economic inequality is not just an unfortunate trend that is happening to all of us; it is deprivation, and sometimes exploitation, that is harming some of us and, often enough, benefiting others....
Climate change also presents distributive questions. Climate policy is a choice among futures—future energy economies, future atmospheric chemistry, future versions of seasons and weather. Each of these will be better for some industries, regions and people than for others. Even the catastrophic but likely scenario, where greenhouse-gas emissions keep growing at present rates, will work out especially well for the global elites now buying property in places like Vancouver, which are expected to be climate-resilient. Conversely, emissions controls 20 years ago would have been a boon to poor and low-lying populations from Bangladesh to New Orleans’s Ninth Ward. Now it’s probably too late [Jedediah Purdy, "Time Bomb," Politico Magazine, 2014.07.03].
Vancouver's nice to visit, but I won't be staying with the global elites. $3,000 a month for an apartment... and tsunamis.
Those people across the aisle aren't threats to America's well-being; they are fellow citizens with competing yet legitimate interests that must be resolved in compromise, not, à la Heydrich, extermination.
Purdy says dealing with inequality and climate change would be worth some conflict, but our stilted polarization drives us toward theatrics instead of real debates:
[Our polarization] produces infernos of political passion—think of the Obama campaigns of 2008 and 2012—followed at most by trickles of change. All this confirms the suspicion that government is always ineffective, that politics is a show of empty gestures and hollow promises. That kind of cynicism doesn’t make politics less engaging; it just makes it less consequential. Politics becomes a form of middle-class entertainment: a highbrow soap opera, sports for nerds, Hollywood for ugly people. This kind of politics could never produce a constructive engagement with America’s biggest problems. At best, it amuses us while we await the guillotine of austerity. In this guise, the politics of denial denies politics itself [Purdy, 2014.07.03].
I won't see any candidates handing out candy at parades today, but you might, in Lennox, Ramona, Belle Fourche, and other fine American towns. If you do, take some Smarties and a sticker, and then ask some questions about the economy and the environment. Ask how we fly alongside people who have different economic and environmental interests. Ask how we reach compromise that encompasses 100% of nobody's principles but keeps the country together. Asking such questions is not impolite. It's the kind of serious, even fireworky discourse that the Fourth of July and every day in America should be all about.
Related Holiday Reading:
- University of Houston historian Gerald Horne contends that the American Revolution, while a welcome step away from monarchy, sought to protect slavery from abolitionist sentiment in Europe.
- Zinn Education Project director Bill Bigelow discusses Horne's thesis and other under-covered aspects of the American Revolution.
Lucky you, Cory!!! Vancouver's my favorite city to visit and I absolutely love Vancouver Island and the drive up to Whistler. Amazing vertical scenery!
I agree with the observations that our nation is creeping toward some kind of violent revolt. The politics of irrationality has seized America with the conservatives and their corporate overlords pinioning Congress and state legislatures to ignore highly destructive climate change and worsening income disparities. Instead, they want to keep people agitated over silly stuff, like guns. Or God. Or gays. Those in the middle and the left are forced to stand and wait until these anti-American tools cease destroying our nation from the inside.
How do you force bullies from destroying your nation with their distractions on issues that don't matter? Like guns. They seem to think guns are essential to preserving freedom, while nothing has happened to pose a threat to their obsession with guns designed specifically for killing many human beings in a minimum amount of time. What kind of message is that to those of us who don't share their obsession with guns? Get a gun to protect yourself from gun bullies or else?
This is but one of their core beliefs underpinning their narrative that our freedoms are more vulnerable than ever. The lie that gets repeated again and again until it becomes believed.
Welcome to the 21st Century, America. You're half-way through the second decade and you can no longer create the resolve to do big things and solve big problems. You're stymied by a loud, shrewd, well financed minority of bullies who are grabbing Liberty by the throat, clawing away to take power.
Here in South Dakota, they want to replace the last voice of moderation in our congressional delegation and send three obstructionist tools to Congress to serve their corporate overlords. This Senate race is where real patriots need to stand their ground.
For those of us who have never had the privilege of seeing Mount Rushmore in person,which way does it face? I need some perspective. Have a happy,healthy 4th(skip the 5th and pints) and enjoy your weekend as well.
The heads face south.
Not true, 96 Tears. They face up.
http://missoulian.com/news/local/cyclists-to-ride-naked-on-missoula-riverfront-through-downtown/article_c559cb92-03d0-11e4-bfc1-0019bb2963f4.html
Great man, dude!
Can this great division in America ever be healed or will continue grow? America has two more years of President Obama and despite what critics say, America will survive.
Another denial that America refuses to confront is the real problem with racism. For a fleeting moment when President Obama was elected I thought America is on the road to racial healing and then I was blindsided by the racial backlash.
With the possible exception of Lincoln, no president has been so disrespected and hated as President Obama. Will Democrats ever be able to accept or trust the Republican/tea party again? If there is a Republican president in 2016, God forbid, will Democrats immediately demonize him the way Republicans did to President Obama?
Today I am angry and ashamed of America, for the past six years I have witnessed contempt, disrespect, hate for an American president that is unprecedented.
Can I forgive and forget when the political cycle changes, I doubt it. The racial scars are there and they won't go away. Can America heal itself? Not as long as we have the increased hate groups loading their guns and laying in wait for an opportunity to attack, any excuse will do for them.
Riiiight. They'll think Vancouver is climate-change resilient ... Until their first hurricane.
Mr. C, the small towns West River are the sort of place a fellow should focus on and ignore the heinous federal aberrations. You will gain a sense of community. You can have a Bizzard with people who live just down the street and everybody is happy. Most everybody, anyway.
Mike, 96, I think the Rushmore Memorial faces southeast, right toward Pine Ridge.
Stan, I can't fully trust any town that a tsunami can get. Maybe Vancouver's advantage is having lots of high ground within biking distance. But of greater deterrence than tsunami is (a) rain and (b) rent: 3,000 $CAN for an apartment in a house down the street from where we are staying.
96 and Roger, you give us the hard questions on our nation's birthday. How do we deal with bullies and racists? My impulse is to take them by the scruff of the neck and cuss them out. That approach got me fired once, so I'm thinking I need a different plan.
Some bullies and racists will not be open to dialogue. I can't do anything with them. Can we target their audience, our neighbors who might listen to the bullies and racists? Break the intellectual isolation, force our neighbors to acknowledge that the people the bullies demonize are you and me, their real neighbors, people as interested in achieving a functional and fair economy as they are.
Grudz, you and I need to get together for Bizzards. Will you be around the Hills the week of August 18? E-mail me.
From the wingnut,wombat,woman who would be vice-president(if only she knew what the veep's supposed to do)-Snowgrift Snoozie and I quote-http://www.juanitajean.com/2014/07/05/see-see-this-is-what-im-talking-about/
Since the link doesn't work,she tweeted Happy Birthday to George Washington on the 4th of July.
I visited Vancouver one time when I lived in Washington. I loved it. It didn't seem so rushed and harried as American cities. We went to the aquarium, which was very nice. Their squirrels are a black version of red squirrels. My favorite part was Chinatown. It's big, busy and fascinating.
I have visited different parts of Canada 4-5 times. It's a great country. It's my #2 country to live in.