Thomas, I appreciate the spirit in which you write. The division, the abyss between opposing political parties, the hateful language ….. it troubled me before, but now it threatens to be a permanent stain, and who is there to respect as a true thinker, an independent mind that doesn’t go into lock step at every turn?
I was a pacifist who enlisted in the US Air Force after reading an article by a Marine General who stated: “Without a draft, we are in danger of growing an all-volunteer force of soldiers who think in one way, who share aggression as a central quality and who see their purpose and identity only as conquerors.” I was reminded of that when Abu Ghraib came to light. I served four years stateside and overseas, and was the academic monitor of my squadron despite my unconventional views on geopolitical matters. My superiors were open-minded and honorable. I was acting in the proud tradition of peace soldiers.
I was a deep believer in Kennedy’s Camelot who became a Nixon scholar and see in him America at its most conflicted, most cruel, yet also at its most aspirational and hopeful, eventually falling off to its dark side. I wanted to say humane, but cannot. Cambodia, Chile, Kent State …… can’t find humane in this picture. Pathos, yes: Gentlemen, you don’t have Nixon to kick around any more. But 6 years later he came back! And 6 years after that he left for good.
Today I am a Democrat who has alternate views of gun control, who felt the Obama education program and Arne Duncan’s reward/punishment approach to funding and recognition was misguided and set us back, that the current ESSA education plan has been virtually invisible and allows No Child Left Behind, a 5 year plan now dragging on to 20 years, to maintain its grip on the American psyche. I point to George H.W. Bush’s military action in Kuwait as a prime example of superior American military presence and performance — an international coalition, a specific objective, soldiers treating the populace with dignity, and then at the pivot point, a long hard stare into the desert, 150 clear miles to Baghdad, Bush and Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf — ‘We don’t build empires,’ I recall hearing. ‘Mission accomplished, time to go home.’ Compare that to Nixon-Kissinger, McNamara-Westmoreland, Cheney-”W-” Rumsfeld and the differences in statesmanship, transparency and human dignity are apparent. The closing of the 1991 Kuwait action, the bombardment of the Highway of Death, remains controversial, and the probability of the U.S. military having used excessive force is high, with the question of degree still unanswered. Even with this, the level of statesmanship here is so much higher than the puffed-up mendacity of General Westmoreland’s “body counts” in Viet Nam and Bush the Younger’s fraudulent weapons of mass destruction.
I am cast out when expressing these views, literally. In a recent medium.com exchange about nuance and shading in divided times, my call for the acceptance of non-binary thought and a wider range of views and perspectives was dismissed on these terms: ”Nuance is the luxury of the privileged as they sit on the sideline. If you’re in the firefight, you don’t have scholarly exchanges and debate the finer points of policy. You support your team and don’t ask questions.”
— with which I can agree, almost, the second sentence anyway, part of it — don’t ask questions is a red flag.The difference here is the definition and location of “the battlefield.” The Board Room is not the battlefield, it’s a forum for discussion and policy development. We’re all in this together, but differences need to be expressed. I’m with you to this point, Thomas. But I go no further.
I know you don’t mean to, but you’re asking for a blind propaganda machine to pump patriotism and ignore expressions that represent the American spirit in ways that are demeaning, malicious, dangerous and inhumane. A picture is being painted of an America that I cannot endorse. Other countries are “shit-holes”; women are to be grabbed by their — —and “they love it”; peasant families dislodged from their homelands by our interference are walking to America and were to be met by tanks; and finally in a world hot spot where we have our own issues the heat is turned up on American politics and it is not inconceivable that this scales into an armed conflict and war, as it’s already been there …… this is Russia, and the Ukraine, and Eastern Crimea, and we’re throwing our confusing and volatile streetfight into their centuries-old conflicts.
The processes of election or impeachment will take center stage now, and coming together behind anything would feel contrived. It would be futile, anyway. If American writers are going to come together, after this is over, it will be about the results of a 2020 election, and the America it promises for four or eight years. If we start from scratch, and build a writing community that honors our leaders and the best of ourselves as expressed by those leaders, and someone — genius, visionary, an American Gandhi, our own Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa (I believe it is time for a woman)— breaks the logjam of partisan rigidity and tribal ferocity, maybe this election can be a starting point.
By the way, thank you for your service.
