America, We Hardly Know Ye

In the midst of a world-wide pandemic that has already killed over 85,000 Americans and on track to kill well over 100,000, Donald Trump continues his obsession with anything Obama; William Barr continues his assault on America’s fledging democracy; and Mitch McConnell, well, he’s Mitch McConnell.

Trump’s latest is the already-old Republican-owned conspiracy that President Obama committed a crime when he attempted to stop Russia and Vladimir Putin from hacking the U.S. 2016 election.

Donald Trump will not shut up about Barack Obama—not now, not ever.

‘Obamagate’, Niche Programming for Trump Superfans (The New Yorker)

U.S. Attorney General William Barr is elevating his assault on American democracy by (willingly) providing cover for Trump’s obsession. Barr ordered the Department of Justice to drop all charges against former national security advisor Michael Flynn – the same Michael Flynn who pleaded guilty, twice, to a felony.

The effort on behalf of the president by Barr … to cover up already confessed crimes is a further step toward the complete corruption of the Department of Justice.

William Barr’s DOJ Is Now Covering Up Crimes for Trump in Broad Daylight (Slate.com)

And now, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, leader of the Republican controlled U.S. Senate, is attempting to push through amendments to the Patriot Act giving Barr “free rein” to spy on “every single American.”

It is open season on anybody’s most personal information. Mitch McConnell is forcing a Senate vote on an amendment that would give William Barr free rein to look through the browsing history of every single American.

If that doesn’t give you chills I don’t know what will. I’m fighting it every step of the way. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore)

“These amendments would pretty much guarantee the ability of an incumbent administration to spy on its political opponents without consequence.”

McConnell Patriot Act Expansion Would Hand AG Barr Unprecedented Spy Powers (Common Dreams.com)

So, the question: Are we living in the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning to the Grand American Experiment?

The term ‘American Experiment’ is most often attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville, a young lawyer and French aristocrat who observed America in the early half of the nineteenth century on behalf of the French government. De Tocqueville published his observations “Democracy in America” in two-volumes (1835/1840).

Historically, both Liberals and Conservatives lay claim to ownership of the term as the best illustration of America’s past and America’s future, and believe the work, still, best reveals their respective, righteous agenda.

I’m sure neither Libs nor Cons could care less, but de Tocqueville did not use the term American Experiment, grand or otherwise, in his observations of the ‘new’American Democracy. He wrote that what the new Democracy showed the ‘old’ World is that civilised man ‘should attempt’ to build a society upon ‘new foundations’.

Currently, it would seem, the demarcation of the grand experiment is best viewed as those who want to continue trying and those, led by the Trump Administration, who say fuck it, stop trying – what have ya got to lose.

More reading on the experiment…

Democracy therefore depends on moral universals. It is probably fairly hard, in the scope of human history, to establish a democracy. But it is harder still to keep it going. A democracy requires, before it demands votes, sane, humane, civilized people to vote. A society that cannot create sane, humane, civilized people can therefore no more reasonably stay a democracy than a global economy can be powered by fossil fuels forever. At some point, without moral universals to create citizens worthy of the word, democracy runs out of gas. Umair Haque

It is with a heavy heart that I bid farewell to the country I have loved all of my life. No, I am not going anywhere. My country has left me. The 244-year experiment has ended. The dream I hoped would last forever has failed. America as beacon, that shining city set on a hill. A nation blest above all other nations. Example to the world. That nation was based on a Constitution of fairness, freedom, and opportunity for all. A Constitution written to reward integrity and goodness, to secure power in the hands of the people, not a corrupt leader or a partisan few. Eric W Jensen