Why We're Losing - Again
The roots of positive change have never been deep in American culture.
Everywhere we look, human rights are being rolled back. Marginalized people are losing protections, voting rights and even personal safety as a dark tide of intolerance appears to be sweeping in everywhere.
Why? It’s because the roots of positive change, of free and open society have never been deep in American culture. A few changes on the courts, a reactionary political wave and we’re not quite back where we started, but we’re nowhere near where we have every right to demand and expect.
The problem is fundamental, and can only be solved in the long term. All the laws in the world will not solve the bigotry in the hearts of millions. That can only be done by the slow, patient work - education, social evolution and social and political pressure, applied over many years.
Civil rights laws improve the lives of marginalized people, and are worth doing - a good in themselves. But as you’ve seen, they can be reversed politically, and in a country that elected Trump twice, it’s clear that there’s a constituency in the millions for rolling back any gains made.
Liberty for all starts in the heart. And this is a country that is so morally decadent and self-indulgent, with millions of bigots ready to cheer on all forms of discrimination against the othered, that it lacks, at this moment in history, the moral fiber to create and maintain an open and free society for everyone.
That’s not a change that can happen quickly, if at all.
We are the product of our own history - and it ain't a pretty picture, from Day One.
It’s called a fucking war, and like all wars, the victors are not certain.
So do not quit. Do not give those motherfuckers a respite until the tide has turned.
We will never win, but we must keep their asses plastered against the wall of reason.