I’ve heard it said repeatedly in the last week: “This is not who we are.” But clearly, it is who we are. Denying the reality of it doesn’t make it go away. The opposite is true: the only way to get past the division is to recognize it, face it, and work through all of the mess. Of course, I’m referring to the January 6 insurrection that led to the take-over of the United States Capitol by Trump supporters demanding that a free, fair election be thrown out.
The world looked on in shock and disgust to see that the President of the United States rallied an emotional crowd with a series of lies and sent them to march on the Capitol building while a joint session of Congress was taking place. These actions demonstrate that there is no longer fundamental respect for the democratic process, that a significant portion of the US population believes that might makes right, that the lives of people are not worth protecting, and that the institutions which serve as the foundation of the country have no merit. Of course, the people who were part of the insurrection are the same ones who took offense at football players kneeling during the national anthem, who insist that all lives matter when actually meaning that only right-wing white lives matter, and who claim that their self-serving version of law and order is more important than human rights.
While it is easy to blame Trump and his rabid supporters for what occurred on January 6 and for the other rallies taking place around the country, all Americans share some responsibility for what is occurring.
First, it was clear before he was elected what kind of president Trump would be. He has a long history of business failures, losing billions of dollars in the 1980s and 1990s. His companies failed to honor agreements with contractors, failed to pay workers, broke building codes, engaged in discriminatory practices, and was labeled by US banks as an investment risk leading Trump to obtain loans from China, Russia, and Ukraine. Trump brought his way of doing business to the White House and has left the US with incredibly high debt, broken relationships with allies, a high unemployment rate, and a pandemic that’s out of control. Anyone who voted for Trump bears direct responsibility for empowering this man. Even though before his first election, even Republican leaders stated that he would be bad news for the country, over 40% of Americans voted for him twice.
Second, those of us who never voted for Trump nor believed in conspiracy theories also hold responsibility for what is occurring in the country. While I could describe this from multiple perspectives, as an educator, I will focus on how we’ve allowed conspiracy theories to flourish by dismantling our education system. More than twenty years ago, the majority of voters in the US were silent as the religious right took control of school boards around the country and stripped curricula of content on critical thinking. By not teaching middle and high school students to think about, analyze, and evaluate information, the foundation was laid to blur the distinction among fact, fiction, opinion, and falsehood. Today, teaching in a doctoral program, I have to continually remind my students to evaluate the source of information. Why do graduate students need to be taught this? Because our youth are not taught this basic skill. Anything reported online appears to be reasonable for someone unable to think critically. Further, we’ve put such an emphasis on STEM education that people no longer are capable of thinking through the implications of propositions which is the bedrock of disciplines like philosophy and ethics – the liberal arts. We’ve become convinced that education’s only merit is employment. As a society, we’ve created the context in which conspiracy theory seems to be just as reasonable as actual scientific evidence.
There are calls for healing the nation and to bridge the divide. While that seems high-minded, it’s actually short-sighted. Unless we face our failures and take responsibility for our actions, we will not move forward but continue in this cycle of division and distrust.
As a Christian, I understand the process of taking responsibility for our actions and setting things right as the essential process of repentance. Scripturally, to repent is to fundamentally reorient oneself, heart and mind, to chart a new direction. To repent requires an honest assessment of our current position and a firm dedication to be different.
This process is built into twelve-step programs. People in twelve-step programs begin with the admission that the addiction has taken control and that the person is powerless in the face of the problem. It moves to acknowledge the need for a power-greater-than self to stop the insanity. It includes taking a thorough moral inventory of actions that brought harm to others. Amends are made as one takes responsibility for actions. It’s after all of these steps that a person can begin to rebuild how they live. To move to “healing” without taking a moral inventory of wrongdoing and making amends is to deny the actual problem. No healing occurs but the toxic problems fester and lead to more extensive infection.
I believe that government officials will act in their own self-interest to preserve their positions and power. In that context, what does matter is what you and I do. Are we willing to take responsibility for the ways we have contributed to the deep divisions in society? Are we willing to work in ways available to us to bring change? Are we able to get beyond a way of thinking that polarizes the country and recognize that the success or failure of one is the success and failure of all? Or is it time for the American experiment to fall apart? Only we can decide.
Image by John Hain from Pixabay