Collaborators with Injustice

For the first time in my memory, a sitting President of the United States is questioning the legitimacy of our electoral process—the very process that brought him to power in the first place. Trailing Joe Biden in the polls, Trump is beginning to question the results of the election in advance. He is claiming that the only way he will lose this election is if the Democrats commit fraud. And this follows his encouragement to his loyal followers that they vote twice to ‘test the validity of the process’.

Many of us are scared—not just for what will happen if Trump wins again, but what will happen if Trump loses. It appears that he will continue to us the power of his position to hold onto power as long as possible. And, with the Republicans in Congress, he appears to have a loyal cadre of collaborators who will support him against the very fabric of our democratic processes. My first fear is that he will convince just enough voters to swing the electoral map in his favor. (As he did four years ago.) But my bigger fear is the aftermath of the election if Biden wins.

Trump has been operating a hall of mirrors since he was first elected. Immediately after his unpredicted victory, he began telling lies: ‘The crowds at my inauguration were the biggest in history.’ From the outside, this seemed unnecessary and rather insignificant. We could all see that this wasn’t true. But Trump’s utter insistence of his alternate reality and his requirement that the people around him repeat his lies has been the pattern of his Presidency.

In a powerful article in the Atlantic Monthly with a long and descriptive title (History Will Judge the Complicit: Why have Republican leaders abandoned their principles in support of an immoral and dangerous president), Anne Applebaum explores the psychology of collaborators. Looking at Vichy France in the 40’s, East Germany in the ‘50’s and the Trump impeachment process, she looks at how people make the decision to go along with immoral and repressive regimes, even when it goes against their basic human values.

She lists a number of ‘familiar justifications of collaboration’ that Republicans have used to justify their support for our self-dealing and self-consumed President even has he attacks the very foundation of our political system:

• We can use this moment to achieve great things.
• We can protect the country from the president.
• I, personally, will benefit.
• I must remain close to power.
• LOL nothing matters.
• My side might be flawed, but the political opposition is much worse.
• I am afraid to speak out.

Of course it is easy to sit in judgment of others and I feel compelled to continue into the uneasy extension of the righteous talk of others’ collaboration. We are all collaborators. We all live in a system that denies basic justice and opportunity to a wide range of people, especially those with black and brown skin. While many of us are quite comfortable with our current economic and ‘democratic’ political system, this system is clearly based on a violence against black people that has its roots in the very founding of our country. With the ever-increasing gap between the rich and poor, our society oppresses the many for the benefit of the few. Children go hungry. Basic medical and housing needs are only provided to certain of us.

So while I will work to expose the dangerous collaboration of people supporting Trump lies and lust for power, I feel obligated to also work to expose my own collaboration with the very system that has made my life so comfortable.

These are not easy times but are, I believe, times of great possibility. In the disturbances of the moment, we can all begin see what has been hidden from so many of us. We can acknowledge our blindnesses and perhaps begin to work toward truth and healing for ourselves, each other and our burning world.