CommentsBELL VIEW--David Brooks took another crack at The Big Picture this week in his New York Times column. According to Mr. Brooks, America suffers from a species of political idolatry, where no one actually thinks about anything anymore, and we all just believe what our “party” tells us to believe. In Mr. Brooks’s America, the Left and the Right have each wrapped the warm blanket of tribal certainty around themselves, secure in the knowledge that “they’re wrong and we’re right.”
Speaking as someone who regularly steps out of my own bubble and confronts the opposing tribe, all I can say is “huh?”
As a bona fide lefty, I can say that, when I proclaim climate change real, or trickle-down economics phony, or the Iraq War as based on a lie, or Obamacare as the conservative response to the uninsured issue, or Republicans as engaging in systematic voter suppression, or the Confederacy as a racist rebellion dedicated to the continuation and expansion of African slavery in America, or the Black Lives Matter movement as not the equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan, or Bill O’Reilly as not an innocent victim of a smear campaign by gold-digging liars, or Donald Trump as not qualified to be president I am not basing these claims on some sacred texts handed down from the DNC or the Left-Wing Media Conspiracy. I base my claims on evidence. Those opposing these claims, however, clearly derive their talking points from the Golden Calf of the Republican Party and its propaganda machine in the right-wing media.
I know this isn’t news to anyone who has been banging her head against the wall since Bush v. Gore, but at what point does the discussion shift from the actual topic of conversation into the meta-topic of “what does discussion actually mean anymore?”
I admit here to an affinity I share with David Brooks: a deep belief in the power of a shared mythical heritage. Brooks is right that America is based on an idea, and not “blood and soil,” as the "very decent people" marching in Charlottesville would have us believe. But the “idea” behind America has, since the very beginning, been more mockery than reality for a good deal more than half the population.
When White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, says the Civil War was caused by "lack of an ability to compromise," he highlights the lie behind the phrase “All Men are Created Equal” in the Declaration of Independence.
David Brooks fails to understand that you cannot maintain a vital creation myth based on demonstrable nonsense anymore. And you can’t move past injustice without sincere atonement. This disconnect between faith and forgiveness lies at the heart of the self-destruction of the American Experiment. Millions in this country define patriotism as a blind faith in American greatness where – if we’ve ever done anything wrong – everything must be automatically forgiven. But forgiveness doesn’t work that way. Lincoln summed it up perfectly in his Second Inaugural Address, when he said:
The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
Never has a more succinct argument for reparations and national atonement been made by a national leader. How this can be accomplished, I don’t know. But until we can begin to create a national identity based on reality, we’re going to continue to believe that 51% is a real victory. We’re going to continue talking past each other.
(David Bell is a writer, attorney, former president of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council and writes for CityWatch.)
-cw
