A NOTE TO CONGRESS
Dear
Congresspersons:
Either
indirectly or directly, all of you are responsible for creating the political
climate that encouraged American citizens, with the help of the Electoral
College, to elect President Trump. In
the spirit of trying to perpetuate a
liberal democracy , citizens voted. A
number of feel cheated. We have been cheated
as the MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN mantra resounds throughout the United States. In this Republic , which
can be little more than a metaphor for democracy, we are dismayed that
the number of popular votes for a candidate counts for naught. We shall continue to vote, especially in local
and state elections. Mark my words. Some of you may wish to apply for one of the jobs your President has vowed to bring back to America. The grapes of wrath
shall bloom. Some of you shall lose your
seats.
Those
of you survive ought to attend to the work of restoring a modicum of confidence
in the political process. American
citizens are not ancient Romans in need of a circus. "The virtues of our
system of federated governments, " Carl L. Becker wrote in Freedom and Responsibility in the American
Way of Life (1945), are indeed
very great" (93). Noble words. Becker was aware, however, that "the
most striking defect of our system of government is that it divides political
power and thereby conceals political
responsibility. The business of
governing is entrusted to the President and the Congress, but it too often happens
that no body of elected representatives can be held responsible or called to
account for the formulation of policies or the enactment of measures to carry
them through" (95). The defects you
have been complicit in sustaining since 2000 have encouraged the slipping of
democracy into fascism. In his first
address to Congress, Trump made it clear, even unto the deaf, the dumb, and the
blind, that such slipping is at the core of his political ideology. Weight his propositions. Do not pretend that you have not been warned.
The
minority of Congresspersons who refuse to dirty their minds and hands with bad
faith can profit from reading Fatal
Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the
Twenty-first Century (2011) by
Dorothy Roberts. She has made a
principled, comprehensive analysis of how President Trump's dedicated
racialization of our nation is a choice that, with your help, can destroy
democracy. In her conclusion, Roberts
provides a logical warning:
Will Americans continue to believe the myth
that human beings are naturally divided into races and look to genomic science
and technology to deal with persistent social inequities? Or will they affirm our shared humanity by
working to end the social injustices preserved by the political system of race? This is the most pivotal question facing this
nation in the twenty-first century because the answer will determine the basic
nature of the relationship between citizens and the government and with each
other. One path is already leading to
aggressive state surveillance, extreme human deprivation, and unspeakable
brutality against whole populations on the basis of race. By obscuring this
coercive control over poor communities of color, the new racial biopolitics
permits the growth of a state authoritarianism and a corporatized definition of
citizenship that endangers the democratic freedoms of all Americans. We must chose the other path of common
humanity and social change if we are to have any hope for a more free and just
nation." (312)
Heed her warning.
Either weed the garden or allow it to grow into a negative Eden of
implacable dread.
Sincerely,
Jerry W. Ward, Jr. March
4, 2017.
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