Dear Editor,

I read editorial and opinion pages published across the country. I do this simply as a personal interest – my own very unscientific study of the mood of folks across a broad political, social and geographical spectrum. Of course, I also recognize the views or opinions of a single person or single organization may not accurately represent the sentiments of our fellow sentient – but one begins to see variations that underlie political or social thinking as you move across the country. Classic tropes often used (pejoratively in many cases), “red Florida” juxtaposed by “socialist Oregon,” may be borne out by statistics that Florida is indeed “conservative-leaning” v. Oregon, a very “liberal” state.

The political volatility surrounding our present Presidential administration has piqued my interest in matters that are not simply ancillary to what began as a divergence from political/Presidential norms. For many of us that “divergence” (change) has been catastrophic and negatively consequential. There does not seem to be a moment of collective clarity (for me and many others) about how a convicted felon, a denier of our Constitutional state, a nihilist and a self-absorbed narcissist, was elected (twice) to be the President of these United States.

My historical (and contemporary) writings reflect my sentiment that we “are not,” and never have been, the “shining city on the hill” – a history fraught with unspeakable horrors and atrocities – too many to “discuss” in one letter to the editor. Some do require reminders – slavery, now explained/excused by relativism; Supreme Court decisions that upheld abhorrent tenets/beliefs, Dred Scott decision; the Plessy v Ferguson Supreme Court decision upholding the Constitutional doctrine of racial segregation, which wasn’t ruled unconstitutional until 1954 in Brown decision; women’s right to vote (51% of our population) not until ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920; the 13th Amendment ending slavery; the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment; the 15th Amendment ostensibly making Blacks “full-citizens” by providing the right to vote; Japanese internment during WWII; rounding up of Mexican-American “citizens” and deporting them during the “Great depression”; Operation “Wetback,” in 1954 was an effort to “remove” Mexicans, including Mexican Americans, from the U.S.  

More recent decisions by our Supreme Court clearly demonstrate that we are a “full democracy” in name only. The three most prominent recent decisions are: the decision that Roe v Wade was unconstitutional – thereby denying American women the right to make decisions for themselves regarding their own health – Citizens United in which the Court ruled that under our 1st Amendment (corporations are people) and unlimited political donations are simply a form of “free speech” (now fraught with buyers’ remorse); and finally, the coup de grâce, the recent Court decision that our President is immune from prosecution arising from duties being performed under the auspices of President – literally anything the President does, by this doctrine, is legal.

These are a few of the many issues confronted by our democracy, which we, in large measure, have been able to overcome.

My own belief – we are not the “shining city on the hill” by any measure or stretch of the imagination – we are, however, the most expansive and consequential democracy in history. We are the “freest” (is that a word?) and most “vocal” society in the world – we “move” and “talk” with impunity. “The King has no clothes” is an innate component of our history and vernacular.  I “preach” this to my grandsons – along with the intrinsic value and fortune of having been born and raised American.

And so, having cleaned out my “rhetorical closet” above, I wish to come back to my “musing” about how, in the moment while my head was turned, we came upon a nihilist, want-to-be dictator who is hell-bent on destroying our “fragile” democracy – using all the “tools” afforded him by our Constitution, to destroy that Constitution.  It’s not a rhetorical question.

Equally bothersome, which started out to be the subject/tenor of this note, is the matter of our fellow Americans who fervently and perversely persistent follow, admire, and revere the man who, as we speak, demonstrates by every act, every action that he intends to do “what needs to be done” to dismantle our democracy – with a single-goal  of authoritarianism.

Might there be a pathological disorder associated with the desire or acceptance of authoritarianism as a form of government? I guess I could have started this note with that question. I know folks who believe (religiously) that Trump is the “existential” answer to all that ails us. We may not be the “shining city on the hill,” but we’re certainly next to it. There is a phrase in psychological/medical diagnosis often used to describe the desire for “bad things” to visit one’s self – “self-loathing.” 

Rudy V. Garcia

Gilpin County