Confused, disappointed and scared
I’m confused. Oh yes, I’m also angry, disgusted, fearful and despairing, but mostly wondrously confused over the state and trajectory of our country and the world. This comes from the power and actions of the few and the many.
I’ll preface this with a quote from the senatorial candidate Tim Ryan: “Somewhere along the line, our country lost sight of how to make things work for everyone.”
I’ll add, that The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance’s annual report on the Global State of Democracy, for the first time, classifies America as a “backsliding democracy.”
We have an economy and a political system that only works for the wealthy few, while the working folks – the middle and lower classes – have once again proved just who is essential and but still who gets the short end of the stick (Tim Ryan, 2022, paraphrased).
Put simply, we’re in deep do-do threatening our very democracy.
From this quote, you can guess where I’ll be coming from as I explain. If you’re uncomfortable with a negative view of our country, one putting much blame on Trump and his cohorts, as well as the military/industry/religious triumvirate, don’t read any further. Although I hope you will, and then come back at my thinking. Yet, it doesn’t much matter to me if you do; what I write is largely for a cleansing of my own soul and a needed venting.
So what do I think of the state of our country? I think we have become mostly a Third World country, losing the world leadership we have held so many years. And this in large part because we are sacrificing the complexity and freedom of our long-vaunted democracy for authoritarian “leadership,” even fascism, as opposed to reasoned thinking.
Many people tend to want to be told what to think and do, even in the face of obvious evidence (not Fox opinions) of the stage we have reached. Want evidence? Look up where we stand among developed countries on happiness, income equity, natality rate, cost of medical treatments and prescriptions, gun deaths, porn use, incarceration rates and more, or just how other countries view us.
And look at what part of our divided country lead us in these same measures and how religious believers seek authoritarian theocracy in place of democracy. If you are not familiar with this information, I think and hope you will be shocked.
Finally, what confuses and disturbs me the most is the number of supporters, public voters and political cronies who support the lies and law-breaking, false Christianity, hypocrisy, misogyny, racism and more of the Trump self-aggrandizing MAGA movement.
Second, the inept democratic party, which largely does nothing to rein in the hate and division of Trumpism.
Editor’s note: Jim Coufal of Cazenovia is a part-time philosopher and full-time observer of global trends.