Updated July 15, 2021
There used to be an old comic strip – Walt Kelly’s Pogo, circa 1970 – in which one of its most famous quotes was, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Is that true today in the United States? Look at the contention, the chaos, and the inability for Congress to accomplish much of anything for the citizens they are supposed to represent.
Republicans and Democrats each view the other to have gone so far off the rails that their own self-assigned task is to stonewall the other side, rather than to negotiate and accomplish something useful to their constituents. Or rather, the Republicans believe their illustrious careers are tied so entirely to the previous president’s derriere, that they dare not let out so much as a peep in defiance of an autocrat who in the opinions of many, including psychiatrists, is deranged and entirely unfit to have led this country. He publicly violated the US Constitution that he had sworn to defend, and he openly inflamed an insurrectionist crowd to storm the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the certification of the incoming duly-elected president of the United States. Not admitting his loss, he apparently thought and still thinks two years later that if he keeps repeating loudly and often enough that he won, people will believe it (a known brainwashing tactic) – and for many, it worked! Yet, the truth is, he didn’t win.
For four years, Democrats in Congress did blatantly attempt to mitigate the chaos, dissention, bigotry, and disinformation that was fed by the man and his cronies to the American people. Our government really did function with issues appearing to be black or white, all one way or totally the other. Medical officials believe that thousands of people would be alive today had the president tried to protect them from a pandemic rather than pretend it didn’t exist – in spite of his being hospitalized with it himself.
Yet, what if Republicans and Democrats had defied the president’s efforts at sowing chaos and dissention (His aides said he delighted in pitting his staff against one another; is that an environment you’d want to work in?), and focused on common goals to benefit the American people? Wouldn’t you rather have your congressmen, congresswomen, and senators help provide well-paying jobs having long-term stability and good benefits? Wouldn’t you vote them back into office if they gave you that? If your life were more stable and prosperous, would a president’s snit-of-the-hour really matter?
Stay calm. Work together. Stand together. For divided we will fall.