The name has inspired countless generations of immigrants from every country in the world to come to a place where people had freedom of speech, religion, assembly and the right to a free press. The “Land of Opportunity” where anyone could grow up to be rich, or maybe even become President. Where all men were supposed to be created equal. The United States of America, created and then brought together by the need to overthrow tyranny from the Old World Colonial Powers, first England, then Spain. A Union that survived a secession and bloody war of the States to ultimately become the preeminent world superpower. The “Shining City on a Hill”.
The same America that 226 years after its formation still doesn’t recognize women as having equal rights to men. Whose founding document describes certain people as being worth 3/5 of a white person. That is under a religious war by white evangelicals wanting government to legislate morality. Where one party openly courts white supremacy, denies science, pathologically lies and offers zero policy ideas. Where the other party argues with itself, is consumed by endless identity politics, acts like money is free and has a policy for everything. Outrage vs. Clueless. Where BOTH parties are primarily populated by lawyers from an elitist Ivy League list even as they relate to the “common people”. Where we have had one black President and no female Presidents, where 117 of 126 Supreme Court justices in history have been white men and where people are trying to pass laws prohibiting the teaching or practice of anything that makes white people “feel uncomfortable”. Meanwhile, Capitalism is turning out billionaires based on inadequate regulations, individual greed, screwing over workers and “value” for non-valuable things like Facebook posts or Twitter feeds.
The making of America is a long story of bigotry, misogyny and discrimination. Settlers massacred Native Americans while stealing their land and killing their buffalo, brought in slaves from Africa to build plantations in the South, then hired and oppressed Chinese labor to build a railroad across it. Black people weren’t “free” until the Emancipation Proclamation and didn’t get civil rights until the 1960’s. In WWII we locked up all the Japanese Americans as possible spies based entirely entirely on race. In the last 30 years the Hispanic immigrant population has been cast as drug smugglers, gang members and cheap labor. Southeast Asian immigration started as a result of the Korean and Vietnam wars, and expanded to include China, India and Pacific Islanders. Women didn’t get the right to vote until suffrage. These are basic facts that need to be taught and understood whether they make people uncomfortable or not.
This land built on the backs of people who fled persecution for their beliefs, is now being taken over by those who want to persecute people here for their beliefs, whether religious, sexual orientation, political or economic related. A land where the ideal of “All men are created equal” has never taken over the reality of some are created more equal than others. Where the rich run everything and the rest of us are second class citizens at best, and riding in coach at the worst. Where a President incited an insurrection that could have overturned our government because his fragile ego couldn’t process that he lost the election and his party doesn’t have the guts to tell him that.
“In order to form a more perfect union” seems completely obsolete in the present environment. We have one party trying to suppress minority voting rights while removing women’s right to an abortion and demonizing all immigrants. That openly threatens our democracy (which is really a republic) with sedition and anarchy. Where an openly conservative Supreme Court seems determined to take America back to the 1950’s. Never has the power of the vote been more important. Never has the need for every American to register and vote in the next election been more critical. If we don’t stand up for our rights, we lose them, and if you thought they were protected, well guess again. You have to make Congress work for the people because the Courts have become a political and religious tool of the right. Only Congress has the power to overrule them with clear, specific legislation, the kind we’re incapable right now of producing. You need to vote for candidates that want to legislate for all Americans, not simply obstruct, start investigations of all Democrats or deny veterans proper medical care as a “grudge”. Get out and vote to save America from itself.
We can still be the greatest country in the world, but not while fighting among ourselves. We have REAL challenges like Russia, China, Climate Change, Immigration and Inflation to deal with. No time for stupid partisan bullshit or listening to election deniers.