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An American flag in front of a white picket fence
As we celebrate 250 years of our democracy, we need to step back and appreciate how fortunate we are to live in such an amazing country. It truly provides us with the opportunity to work hard, study, participate in our communities and strive to do and be whoever we want to be. Amazing as America might be relative to the rest of the world, it is, like all of us humans, far from perfect. Right now, it has been difficult to watch what is happening in our country.
Our founding fathers literally put their lives on the line to rebel against a king and tried to write a constitution that would prevent an autocrat from ever taking over America. Currently our constitution is facing the greatest challenge since the Civil War. Personally, I am convinced American democracy will survive this current challenge and will come out of this stronger. The vast majority of Americans are very decent people and will show their decency and compassion if they get the straight story and can get past the lies. I just hope that America does not lose its soul in this process. Right now, the current polling is showing that support for what Trump is doing to America is at an all-time low with support at only 36%.
America Post WWII
After World War II, America really was the land of opportunity. There was the GI Bill that enabled veterans, most of whom came from poor families after growing up in the Great Depression, to attend colleges and universities. Postwar America built over 1,200 higher education institutions and in some states like California, there were no tuition costs. Yes, you could have attended UCLA or Berkeley for free. We also made great strides in health care, developed new communities, and built the interstate highways system under the administration of Republican President Eisenhower.
Then in the second half of the 1960s under Democratic President Johnson, we created the Great Society and passed many social justice and civil rights laws creating a fairer playing field for minorities, women, people with disabilities and the poor. America showed its soul and the world loved and respected us. We passed Medicare, Medicaid, provided Federal funding to low-income public schools, the Voting Rights law of 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 removing barriers for immigrants, the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, to name just some of the major pieces of legislation.
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We cared about people, working people, low-income people, immigrants and minorities. Yes, these programs cost a lot of money, but we had a much fairer tax system and we prospered. During the entire Eisenhower administration, the top marginal tax rate for the super wealthy was slightly over 90%. Our country was the envy of the world and America had a soul.
Since the American mainland was not bombed during the war, we also had the capacity and the heart to create the Marshall Plan that helped rebuild Europe and to keep Western European Countries democracies. We also created the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1961 to use “soft power” in the form of aid to provide medical assistance, help educate the population in developing countries and counter Soviet Influence during the Cold War. USAID became the largest foreign aid agency in the world and saved hundreds of millions of lives in poorer countries. America truly had a soul. The Trump administration essentially killed USAID and literally millions of people in Africa are at risk of dying from diseases and starvation that could have been prevented.
So How Did We Lose Our Soul?
So, what happened and how did we lose our soul? Probably the most direct answer is greed, opportunism, selfishness and a lot of misinformation. Rightwing politicians along with their wealthy benefactors began to pander to the people’s lesser angels, stoking resentment toward the poor and minorities and pushing myths like the “Black welfare queens are driving Cadillacs while you are working your ass off to make ends meet.”
It started in the 1964 presidential election with the Republican candidate, Barry Goldwater, who lost overwhelmingly to Lyndon Johnson, but started the big anti-government rightwing shift that Republican opportunists jumped on. It was really President Reagan who had the political skills to sell this rightwing message with his famous quote, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.”
Reagan also embraced Supply Side Economics that argued if you cut the tax rate and regulations, you will end up raising more tax dollars. Yes, Republicans pushed that myth and, of course, it didn’t bring in more tax dollars, but it certainly cut taxes for the rich and created huge deficits. Then, instead of raising taxes to lower the deficit, Reagan cut social programs and other social justice expenditures.
About 35 years later in 2017, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan was Speaker of the House and Trump was in the first year of his first term. Ryan who fashioned himself as a “deficit hawk” interested in cutting government programs that assisted the average American. After Trump was elected, Ryan and Trump engineered one of the biggest tax cuts in history heavily biased toward the wealthy. This obviously created a huge deficit, and it clearly showed that it was not the deficit that Ryan cared about, it was cutting taxes for the wealthy who did not need a tax cut. Trump was able to extend the massive tax cuts for the wealthy in his second term in his “Big Beautiful Bill.” That bill gutted many federal programs that helped the 55% to 60% of Americans who are currently struggling to make ends meet.
I believe American democracy will survive Trump’s assaults, but that is only part of the challenge. We will need to work on regaining America’s soul after Trump exits the stage. Replacing Trump with a Democrat would be a first step, but we need to consciously work on rebuilding our national humanity or the Soul of America that truly will Make America Great Again. Remember, we are the “Richest Nation the World has Ever Seen”, and we can afford to have a Soul if we put fairness back on the agenda.
