Democratic Backsliding & The Demoralization of The American Dream part I

What happened to the American Dream? The short answer is that we got it and more.

The longer answer is what started as a chase for a dream ended up imploding and although for a very short period of time it became an amazing dream. Sadly, most of us were fast asleep, the corrupted, with their heads full of trickery and hate were unable to go back to bed, and now awake looked with envy upon the sleeping and sought to take advantage of reality and slip back into their sheets before anyone could notice.

From history books we have been told that the origins of our country came out of the injustices committed amongst commoners of England under the rule of King Henry the 8^th. While under the rule of a monarch there was little to nothing the average person could do to enact change or get their voices heard. Thus, some departed England to the new world in hopes of creating a fairer system the one in which we all live in today.

In a simple definition our country is in the midst of democratic backsliding. Democratic backsliding is defined as is a “gradual decline in the quality of democracy, and the reverse of democratization, which may result in the state losing its democratic qualities and becoming an autocracy or authoritarian regime.”

From what I have always believed that story is one of the most magnificent stories and I have always been proud to be an American (with the exception of the Biden/Trump presidential debate) However recently its dawned on me that at some point, somehow, something within the American Dream went awry. This is what I think the meaning of “woke” should truly be about. Upon being “woke” after being jarred awake by the coronavirus I looked for answers. Instead of trying to drift back in slumber I went to satisfy the need for understanding and went to undergo an onslaught of research. What I’ve concluded in the year of research whilst being “woke” has forever changed how I see the United States. Like any psychologist today will tell you, people dream prolific amounts in their lifetime, and few undertake the care and effort to document and decipher them. But if they were to do so would find that what they thought their dream was about was in-fact a much more complex and filled with details beyond one’s understanding. The American Dream is no different.

I now heavily believe a great and terrible thing has happened to this country. I’m uncertain of the exact date of when it began. I do not know which state, or on which coast it started on, and I know not the names or faces of those who birthed the atrocities. All I know is that it happened and that there are infinite tracks all throughout the crime scene and just as many witnesses; except the tracks lead everywhere and no where and the witnesses saw all of nothing.

One thing that I do believe to know is why things went awry. Power. Greed. Evil. Call it whatever you like it makes no difference. I hardly see any of them ever standing alone.

I think we have an awful proclivity for advertising our great dreams and noble intentions while at the same time burying our grim reality and discrediting our actions.

The system was never perfect, but it was never this bad.

I wish I knew who is to blame for the great political joke played on every American. It might sound unpatriotic of me but the joke I am referring to are the current political parties, the republicans and the democrats. Both parties as we know them in their actions today would be unrecognizable by their own parties 100 years ago. From a republican freeing the slaves and refusing the expansion of slavery to how now Republican’s are seen as the anti-black party. To democrats, who then supported slavery to now being the majority of the black American’s identifier in politics. One can surely see that some sleight of hand trickery has occurred.

How could such a lurid topic such as the justification of human slavery in our country quietly sneak over party lines unnoticed and undiscussed? That is just one absurdity that still boggles me.

More recently, and I make it a point to try and bring forth an argument that is of relevant timing , topics and terms in hopes that the average person will be able to maintain focus on the point I’m trying to make…More recently, how did we go from a country that would pity, mock, and  stare and point in disgust toward communistic countries overseas and how they treated their people to a country that can’t take the slightest notice to the same practices preformed on their own streets.

Once the American people would speak about how inhumane north Korea or china treated their people with regards to the total government control of their information. From the core policy of Freedom, we clung to the red, white and blue grateful that we lived in a free country, one where we could express our ideas freely and without fear or repression. We used that fear of being like that to build into the believe that we were superior because we could never in a million years see America doing the same and we would all die willingly if it meant ending up in a society like that.

We have used it to justify capitalism and any endeavor against any country that was not “as free” as us.

And justify is a key term. What we believe and what we know doesn’t add up. Beliefs are dime a dozen. Knowledge is arctic ice- not much remains and its less and less every day.

For the life of me I just do not understand how such a disarray has come to be. We all used to have mortal fear of total annihilation in the face of nuclear war. To the point that another great war has not happened since WW2. We all knew that blowing up nukes at each other was futile because it would surely cause irreparable damage to not only those engaged in the war, but certainly would destroy the planet as a whole and thereby sealing humanities fate into near extinction. Now we have people and institutions that deny climate change. We have looked at evidence of imminent danger that holds power the likes of nuclear war and dismissed its very existence.

When did we become so unbothered by acts of murder-suicide? We fight so hard to maintain our independence and spend multi trillions waging wars on foreign soil, often without invitation or provocation. Yet we fail to secure the actual dirt beneath the feet of our soldiers and the air they breathe.

It is easy to say that if we are so ignorant and evil than we deserve such perils that surely await us. Maybe we do. I like to think that we still deserve better than that.