Is America Great Again Yet?

Over the last year or so, I’ve developed a sort of motto for my work week: if I can get through Wednesday, I can get through Friday. This week, I wondered if the same would be true for our country.

While I know many are aware of the actions that have occurred this week, I will set this moment in its historical context for those who may come here later. As I write, it is the evening of January 7, 2021. Yesterday, Wednesday, the 6th, the U.S. Capitol building was stormed by thousands of supporters of Donald Trump. There are many words to describe this group: rioters, a mob, seditionists, insurrectionists; all words that are accurate and, amazingly, go beyond simply defining the group to also demonstrating my position on their actions.

Every time I consider sitting down to write something like this, I wonder whether the action will be helpful or just an exercise in virtue signaling. Lord knows there was plenty of virtue signaling yesterday as I watched news coverage while the group was still in the building. I find virtue signaling unhelpful (to put it mildly), and this has often stopped me from writing posts of this nature in the past.

Additionally, I will confess here that I often stop myself from writing due to what I feel is a lack of factual information upon which I can base an argument. I know this does not stop many -- see, for example, the absurdity that has been the Trump campaign’s challenges to the 2020 presidential election -- but I was trained to write in an academic context, and have often pushed aside the value of my own thoughts. 

Tonight, however, I will push through to convey my thoughts. Without an argument to present, though, I will form these thoughts as questions I have pondered, some for a short period of time, and some for numerous years.

Let me begin with my aforementioned personal need to search for factual evidence in order to present an argument. I have done this in the past with the belief that my actions, my evidence, my argument, will convince a person of the truth if presented as logically as possible. This belief has died a slow death in the face of what I think of as a “flat Earth mindset.” There are people and positions which will not be moved through any means of a presentation of evidence. In fact, the more their position is challenged, the stronger they hold to it. I find this to be true of many things over the last five years of the Trump campaign and presidency, most specifically in the present context to the above mentioned challenge to the 2020 presidential election results. How do you convince someone of the veracity of the results of the election when they do not stand on evidence to support their position?

Second, much has been made of the violence seen in Washington yesterday, and the lack of response by law enforcement authorities, while Black Lives Matter protests last summer were met with incredibly violent force across the country. But, the question arises: for those who believe one action is justified and one is not (read; for those who do not recognize the presence of systemic racism and the legitimate right of protest against that reality), how do you discuss the similarities and differences of the two sets of events?

Third, much more was made yesterday of the lack of preparedness by capitol police for what was coming, with evidence showing their rebuff of help offered by numerous agencies leading up to Wednesday. I have wondered for years at how many major violent events have warning signs that are ignored, and why we focus more on blame in the aftermath of tragedy rather than reform in order to face the future.

Next, I wish to consider the President, Donald Trump, and his Make America Great Again slogan. To this day, I still do not know what era he wishes to harken back to, what he wishes this country to look like with regards to a historical context. With this vacuum of information, I have developed my own understanding of a time period that this slogan evokes. This time period, even in my own construction, does not have clearly defined boundaries. I imagine this period as perhaps a post-World War II period; a time which is imagined as booming economically; in which possibility seems endless; and in which the United States stands as the believed untouchable superpower of the world, a beacon of hope and prosperity, a time “when things were better.” 

In reality, I think this is a time misremembered. This time period was prosperous, but for one group -- white Americans, and not even all of them. Violence was perpetuated against minority citizens of this country. This was done through private citizens, public institutions, and police forces. Bombings were common; public hangings were common; freedom was uncommon. The United States also successfully overthrew democratically elected foreign governments in order to push their own agenda across the world. Slowly, though, there were changes made. Laws were created to provide protections for vulnerable groups; rights were ensured, at least in legislation, for these same groups; and the U.S. began to scale down the massive foreign interventions which unseated numerous governments across the world (...well, at least, they said they did...sometimes).

There is so much more to be said of that “bygone era” and the intervening actions which created change, but my point is this: I think Donald Trump has succeeded in his goal of returning the country to the period in which he claims America was “Great.” The violence of that time period has returned. The disenfranchisement of that time period has returned. The tumult, the inequality, the...well, the “choose-your-adjective” of that time has returned.

I entered into this writing process with more on my mind and an intention to cover a broader range of content, but I find my drive to continue weakened, if I may be allowed to wax poetic. I will close with this. I did not foresee this particular circumstance, the storming of the capitol building. However, I absolutely foresaw the certainty of an action like this on the horizon. This has been building for an extended period of time, and the last year has served to intensify the pressure. I saw a headline yesterday questioning whether this was inevitable, and my answer was a resounding “yes.” This did not just happen, and no amount of harsh rhetorical nonsense will turn it around or stop it overnight.

I know this doesn’t cover everything. It doesn’t even cover a lot of the “important” stuff. But I guess it’s all I have for today.