Between Apathy and Apoplexy

I have been avoiding thinking about politics recently, happy that we have a President who shares my views on general reality as well as on the necessity of government action to protect us from the worst aspects of our capitalistic system of individualism, accumulation and objectification. I am pleased that the former guy is not dominating the headlines and is not speaking and acting as the head of my country. I am spending less time reading the headlines and being outraged and more time considering whether the Patriots’ new draft calss will be relevant again in next fall’s football season.

The other day, I was with some friends who had CNN playing on their TV. It was surprisingly unpleasant to listen as the anchors do their best to gin up our outrage over the way some other people were behaving. The behavior they were reporting was indeed in poor taste, but CNN was clearly doing their best to rouse a particular emotionally reaction in us, the watchers. I could feel my latent outrage at ‘those’ people begin to rise again and asked my hosts if we could turn the TV off. They were getting pulled in too, and were happy, once I suggest it, to turn their attention elsewhere.

I don’t miss being outraged, but have not yet found the middle way between apathy and apoplexy. What is the third way that is not merely a watered down version of the two or simply swinging between the extremes? How do I stay engaged in the ongoing generational fight for equal rights for people of color? For the protection of our environment from the predations of industry? For the protection of the poorest from exploitation by the richest?

The polarization of our country between red and blue, is ongoing. Our former President continues peddling the big lie that the election was stolen and congressional Republicans are, for the most part, continuing to support this pernicious fiction. Liz Cheney, one of the visible exceptions, is encouraging the Republican party to separate from the cult of Trump, but she appears to be on the verge of being deposed by her fellow Republican members of the House. Republican controlled legislatures throughout the country have proposed a raft of legislative proposals that would limit access to voting in ways that would have disproportionate impact on low income voters and voters of color.

We are just four months out from the storming of the Capitol by the crowd egged on by our formerly sitting President after he had spent months doing everything possible to undercut the peaceful transition of power which has been a hallmark and bragging point of our democracy. Bidden’s focus on action to combat COVID-19 and to reduce the income gap, to protect the environment, and provide equal opportunity for all has been a welcome change from Trump’s glorification of greed and his constant stoking of fear and outrage at ‘those others’.

My hope is that Bidden will continue to take strong action to level the playing field and that the practical impact of his actions will touch the majority of Americans and thereby undermine the power of the lies of the far right. FDR too was opposed by wealthy industrialists and others who saw his proposals to create jobs and use the power of the government to reign in the excesses of capitalism as a certain recipe for national decline. In retrospect we can see that just the opposite happened.

But, I remind myself that we are not out of the woods*. We must stay engaged to lend our active support to the leaders both in politics and in our neighborhoods that are willing and able to help us move toward a culture that honors the worth and dignity of all.

* I also remind myself that I generally like being in the woods and we should all continue to spend time wandering among the trees alone and with friends whenever possible.