Many years ago, I opined that I fundamentally believe that the United States is poised for another bloody conflict on the scale of the civil war of 1861.
My opinion is not based on a wish to see the world’s oldest democracy implode, God forbid. The United States has been my adopted home since 1991, and she has been good to me.
My concern then, as it is heightened now, is derived from the fact that democracy can only work when all political players share the common goal that the process of Democracy is sacrosanct.
The first world war started in 1914; it was a bloody war that lasted for four years; the total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was around 40 million.
The second world war began a mere twenty-one (21) years later, in 1939. That conflict was even more bloody; estimates suggest that some 75 million people died in World War II, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians.
Foundationational pillars were created after 1945 when the allied forces defeated Hitler’s nazi axis, i.e., the United Nations (NATO), The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and others. Those pillars have been instrumental in ensuring world peace and have prevented another global conflagration.
As a result of America’s push, dictatorships collapsed around the world save and except for a few places, making way for thriving new democracies.
The Berlin wall came down, reunifying East and West Germany into one powerful and wealthy Germany.
In Eastern Europe, the Soviet influence collapsed, resulting in Democracy taking hold in former Soviet satellites.
Even Communist China opened its doors and allowed the free market to thrive to a certain extent, resulting in tremendous wealth pouring into China, lifting huge sections of the Chinese population out of poverty, and making China a mighty power on the world’s stage.
As a consequence of western nations moving most of their manufacturing to China and that county’s misappropriation of western intellectual property, China has become very rich. However, China has not changed its totalitarian tendencies; it is now flush with cash to export its totalitarianism.
On July 1st, 1997, sovereignty over the British colony of Hong Kong was formally transferred to China. Since then, China’s heavy communist hand has turned the thriving former colony into a place of fear for the citizens of that country who previously enjoyed prosperity and the rule of law.
Russia too has emerged from the embarrassment of the Soviet collapse; arguably not a rich nation, Russia is still a nuclear-armed power that has solidified itself as a plutocratic state that still seeks to exert its influence outside its own borders.
In Turkey, totalitarianism has taken a stranglehold, effectively choking off the dissent of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and all across Europe, right-wing nationalism is on the rise.
All of these events could not come at a worse time for the forces of democracy, as forces in the United States that once honored the idea of democracy as now eschewed that idea because it now feels holding on to power is more in its interest.
The Republican party has therefore become the greatest threat to America’s national security. To make matters worse, the Democratic party is a weak bewildered political party that wants to play by the rules, but there is no one to play with.
Between January 2017 and January 2021, America has lurched erratically to the right under the leadership of a mad unsophisticated, unlearned, immoral, and amoral sociopath.
The harm done to the world’s most powerful nation would have taken decades to clean up even if the Republican party was a willing partner.
Not having the Republican party as a willing governing partner further bewilders and confuses the democrats on what to do to stop the onslaught against democratic rule launched by Republicans in red states.
Donald Trump and his underlings, including William Barr, set out to disassemble the structures of democratic rule in the United States.
Even though the infantile Trump is no longer in office, Republicans across the country have maintained a scorched-earth approach to dismantling the rule of law. They have enacted voter suppression laws aimed at changing the way Americans, particularly Black & Brown people, voted at the state levels, while in Washington DC, they have blocked the H.R.1 (For the People Act, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Acts that would protect the franchise for all Americans.
This is a house-on-fire moment for American democracy; if the Democratic Party cannot mount a defense of democracy while it has the house senate and the executive, what chance is there for democratic rule when the Republicans take over the reins of governance?
As dire as it seems for American democracy, it is just as dire for the rest of the world when America has given up on the noble idea of democratic rule.
Outside of complaining on MSNBC, it appears that the Democratic party has no idea how to counter Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Donald Trump, and others as they continue the deconstruction of the American democratic process.
Dark clouds are rising.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.