AMERICAN GREATNESS IS IN THE FUTURE, NOT THE PAST
President Donald Trump, the heir to a real estate fortune and a serial failed-business operator, and his evangelical rightwing vice president, Mike Pence (who says he won’t eat or drink alcohol alone with women other than his wife), have tried to convince Americans that our best days were in some mythical past. Trump — who lies, cheats on spouses, worships money and himself, gives little in charity), demeans others and couldn’t find a familiar Bible verse to save his life — has the nerve to mock people of actual faith (e.g., Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, former vice president Joe Biden).
When does the president think America was great? Maybe the 1950s, when Jim Crow was in effect and few women worked outside their homes. Maybe the 1970s, when landlords still finagled to deny Hispanic and Black renters a place to live, and when white flight was seen as the antidote to living with “those” people. Maybe it was during the post-Civil War South, when Southerners erected their Lost Cause rubbish, which Trump seems to have adopted as his own, to mask the real motivation behind the Civil War — slavery.
Together with their overwhelmingly white, male and wealthy Cabinet, Trump and Pence see change, demands for justice and the ever-shifting demographics of our country as threats. They see America in decline because of leftists (those who think government can work) and anarchists (these would seem to be at odds with the leftists, but who knows?) and Hispanic “invaders” marching in “caravans.” They think “domination” of the streets and of fellow citizens will keep them in power. These are autocratic pretenders who seek to narrow the definition of “real” Americans and hide, as did the Confederacy, behind the skirt of Christianity.
Look now at the Democratic presidential ticket. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, is the first Black American and Asian American to be picked for vice president. She is the child of two immigrants, is married to a Jewish American and represents the most diverse state in the Union. She got her introduction to politics, she likes to say, sitting in a stroller at civil rights marches that her parents attended. Somewhere, the late John Lewis is grinning broadly.
And Biden is the guy from Scranton, Pennsylvania, a scrapper without inherited wealth who has seen more tragedy in his life than one can possibly imagine. Instead of bitterness and resentment, the former vice president embodies and models empathy and decency. He is a fervent believer in the notion that no American is better or worse than another and that everyone gets a shot. Unlike Republican cynics and charlatans, the Democratic ticket understands politics can be noble, and elected officials’ job is to improve the lives of their fellow Americans.
Only one of these tickets represents the actual American experience and reveres our founding creed that “all men are created equal.” The Democratic candidates understand that American ingenuity, faith in democracy and national generosity are renewed in every generation, in part by people who came to this country from every spot on the globe with nothing in their pockets. They understand greatness is always ahead of America, not behind it, and that our greatness is defined by our goodness and commitment to transforming America in ways that bring us closer to a more perfect union.
November’s election really is about which America you want to live in. The one where Trump and white evangelical snake-oil salesmen would have you think the Lost Cause defines America’s “tradition”? Or the one that reflects the kaleidoscope of American experiences and demands that we take our founding documents seriously? Biden sure had it right when he first declared that the election is about the soul of America. His running mate amplifies his vision of 21st-century America. Together they invite us to stride forward.