PLURJE: Peace, Love, Unity, Respect, Justice, Equality, A Roadmap for America
What is the PLURJE you say? Why does it rhyme with Purge? And what does it have to do with that movie series about a future dystopic America marked with corruption, crime, violence, and scary face masks………… oh wait that sounds familiar. Really familiar.
However you feel about the Donald on the left(last name Trump), people can agree this country has been declining since at least 2008. Income inequality, environmental degradation, crime, inflation, divisive social media, disease, designer drugs, debt, all have caused a palpable decline in the quality of life. People in the US have become divided and pessimistic, bitter and lonely, lost and craving connection. There is a sense of resignation or even dogged desire to become one of the lucky elites or even an upper middle class/middle-class remote worker able to live a comfortable, sheltered existence. For others working two jobs, long-term unemployed, or homeless, the barriers to success have gotten higher due to automation, outsourcing, and the continued pro-business nature of the duopoly. Over the past 40 years, social mobility has declined, the younger generations of Millenials and Zoomers are much less likely to outearn their parents at 30/40, the cost of higher education, housing, and healthcare has skyrocketed, workers have not seen much increase in wages, and income inequality has risen. CEOs in the United States continue to earn more, dollar for dollar, even as corporate scandals and malfeasance abound. And to the despair of true believers, faith in God has plummeted, especially among younger Americans who only seem to go to church when their parents make them go. Don’t forget declining biodiversity, declining sexual activity, declining fitness levels, among other things.
From the vantage point of 1999/2000, the turn of the century, things have gotten worse. Things may have felt hectic, rushed, shallow, materialistic, but high levels of consumer debt, lax mortgages, a tech boom combined with stock equity, an increase in real wages, and less digitalization/control of social lives meant most Americans were comfortable with and content with the situation. Sure factory jobs and other blue collar jobs had been disappearing en masse, sure the boss was making more money than he deserved to be, sure there were white collar crimes and largesse, sure working environment and hours were often soul-sucking, sure crime and drug issues were rampant in urban ghettoes and certain rural parts of the country, sure the bowling league and church and Masonic lodge weren’t as popular as they had been traditionally as places of gathering and retreat, sure the President had just reformed welfare to kick off the “cheats”, but things were great. The Digital Age, the New Economy, the rise of globalization and cheap foreign trade, it looked like the end of history, the final triumph of American democracy and neoliberalism capitalism over authoritarianism and Communism and other competing ideologies and powers. So what went wrong?
The answer depends a lot on your ideology. Conservative Christians will point to the decline in church attendance and rise of secularism, declaring America needs a daily dose of moral fiber straight from the Bible. Democrats and progressives will say that Al Gore should have won in 2000, that that would have fixed things. Libertarians will say that both parties are corrupt, and socialists/Communists will despair at the lack of revolutionary consciousness and exclaim that working Americans all feel like temporarily embarrassed millionaires. And really patriotic/nationalist Americans will say that reelecting Donald Trump will make America Great Again.
So what do I have to say, as a Medium writer among other smart, talented thinkers on this site. I will say this; that the very foundation America is built on has become corrupt, that it has become rather moldy, and that it will need a remodeling, perhaps an implosion. In fact, I will say that its a miracle it hasn’t collapsed already. But what is America built on, and why is it so loose and creaky?
The idea of America was built on English colonialism, as the desire for gold, glory, and grain caused England to join Spain, Netherlands, and France in the rush to colonize the New World. The English settlers came to the New World for economic gain and religious freedom, which was understood to mean various sects of Protestant Christianity that would unite a given community. The first experiment in North Carolina, the Roanoke colony, vanished mysteriously upon the time the founder, John White, got back from owning the Spanish in war. It is likely they assimilated into nearby friendly tribes, as the English already established a habit of playing different sides in their colonial strategy. The Jamestown expedition and Pilgrim colony were more successful, establishing colonial footholds from which the English could expand along the Seaboard. They got along and traded with the natives at first, but the greed of the colonists for land and power along with the diseases that decimated the tribes around them caused them to earn the distrust oft he natives. After a bloody 17th century, the tribes along the Eastern coast had been mostly cleansed or exterminated and English settlers pushed westward, clashing with the French for supremacy on the continent. In 1763, the British established supremacy in the New World after the Seven Years’ War, but the colonists experienced new taxes and restrictions to help pay the war debt Britain faced. This riled the independent-minded colonists up, and they sought independence. With the support of the French and home-field advantage, the colonists shocked the world by beating the British decisively at Yorktown in 1781 and negotiating independence in 1783. The victory was significant not just for Americans, but for the ideology of liberalism.
Wait America is a liberal country? That is certainly the case if we talk about classical liberalism. The principles of the Revolution, what the Founding Fathers stood for, was private property, laissez-faire economics, deregulated economics, consent of the governed, representative government, separation of church and state, due process, and civil liberties. This was derived from the Whig political tradition/party in Britain and the liberal Enlightenment thinkers, and it was the same ideology that sparked the French Revolution; the American Revolution was more moderate and limited in its franchise. The contrast to this was the Tory conservatism of the Loyalists, who believed in a strong monarchy, hierarchical societies, and some form of state religion. America was founded as a liberal nation, and there was originally intended to be no political parties. There was to be unity in the federal government, an idea that officeholders were public servants and chosen for their merits before seeking office. The franchise was mostly limited to property-owning white men at the time; unmarried women were able to vote in New Jersey for some time.
The more aristocratic, propertied merchant class desired a stronger Federal government, higher tariffs, internal improvements, and a national bank. They formed the Federalist Party, which took power in 1796 on the election of John Adams. The “Republican” opposition quickly united around Thomas Jefferson, who was popular among farmers and frontiersmen. Because of the opposition to political parties, the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed to combat the opposition of Republican newspapers and politicos. The backlash to this, a war with France, economic issues, and distrust of Alexander Hamilton led to a decisive Republican victory and confirmation of political parties/division as acceptable. The 19th century proved to be exceptional for America, as slavery was ended, the franchise was extended in theory to all men, industrialization and westward expansion continued, the population exploded with the availability of land, and political unity was maintained amidst a civil war. Liberalism remained dominant in the country, although it was marred by ideas of WASP(White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) supremacy and continuing oppression of women, blacks, and natives.
The 20th century was similarly transformative for the country, but it also set in motion the forces of disintegration and disunity. Classical liberalism began to fragment into two different ideologies, and both parties began to self-sort based on ideology. Before, the one thing that the parties differed on was tariffs; now the Democrats became the party of an active, pro-labor, pro-immigrant, interventionist government while the Republicans became the party of conservatives- fiscal and social. This coincided with urbanization and progressive social movements clashing with traditional, patriarchal, and conservative Christian morality. Democrats passed civil rights laws(allying with Northern Republicans against more conservative Southern Democrats), social programs, consumer protections, environmental regulation, income and other kinds of taxes, and disability rights. Republicans united around the Southern reaction to civil rights and progressivism in the 1960s and 1970s and gradually consolidated conservatives, especially in the South, into one strong party. Democrats did the same with social liberals in the North and West. Democrats are now the social liberal party, supporting LGBTQ rights, racial equality, criminal justice reform, drug policy reform, access to abortion and other reproductive care, more inclusive immigration policy along with a decent amount of fiscal intervention and regulation. Republicans are fiscally liberal in the classical sense; they support deregulation, lower taxes, lower social spending, school choice, and balanced budgets(in theory). Libertarians, who are often stereotyped as conservatives/right-wingers who want to legalize pot, are fiscally liberal and socially liberal. The Green Party and actual socialists/Communists are generally socially liberal and want a strong government and safety net to help people. So how did liberal become a snarl word among the right, a weapon against Democrats and really anyone who doesn’t agree with them?
The answer is that the Republican Party became more ideologically coherent and partisan before the Democrats did; Reagan overcame the moderate interventionist-conservative divide by uniting the fiscal conservatives and social conservatives in America against the perceived decay and collapse of the New Deal coalition and the federal government along with rising crime and other social issues in urban areas. The 1970s was a time of stagflation, social turmoil, chaos, cynicism from the excesses of the hippie movement and other liberation movements, and a turn towards individualism and free-market thinking. Reagan and the New Right sought to unite the rise of individualist, entrepreneurial thinking amidst the decline of manufacturing and other traditional industries with the Moral Majority, a conservative Christian movement that sought to solve perceived and actual social issues in America. William Jennings Bryan had run an overtly religious campaign in 1896; he merged evangelical thinking with positions against big business, corruption, and industrial abuse at the time that favored the masses. Reagan, another charismatic orator and charmer, united evangelicals and other devout and challenged Christians with neoliberal economic thinking that produced the Reagan coalition, which reflected the traditional WASP views on work ethic, charity over government checks, sobriety, family values, and a rigid social order. The Democrats moved right as well in the 1980s and 1990s, seeking to take moderate positions to retain national appeal. Urban areas, to be honest, did not mirror this shift and continued to become more progressive for minorities, especially LGBT minorities and women. Urban Democratic machines continued to persist and gained even more power as socially liberal voters abandoned the Republicans and became Democrats, creating one party bastions in places like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston. These machines were often divided on racial and class lines; wealthier social liberals sought to control their neighborhoods with noise ordinances, zoning restrictions, spending on historic preservation and arts, combat crime with more high-tech, well-funded police departments, and other municipal regulations. Their opponents sought to oppose gentrification, build affordable housing, rebuild and improve mass transit, combat police brutality, and improve public schools.
By 2000, the country had reached the zenith of superpower status and neoliberal thinking. The budget had been balanced, deregulation had enabled the growth of multinational corporations that spread American capitalist thinking abroad, and service sector jobs kept the population employed but secretly dissatisfied in general. The country seemed mighty and united; nothing to stop the American eagle from ensuring freedom and prosperity throughout the world. And also record dividends and profits, who at the country club doesn’t like that. The impact of 9/11 and the global economic crash in 2008 brought an end to this confidence domestically and fear and respect abroad. Neoliberalism and globalization became somewhat toxic in the 2010s, and nationalist and socialist populists won elections worldwide promising to fight the excesses and reassert national sovereignty. The UK went through Brexit in 2016 and confirmed it in their 2019 general election, reaffirming the idea of national sovereignty and autonomy against international commitments and obligations. The US underwent the same turmoil with the election of Donald Trump in 2016, albeit progressive horror and moderate discontent propelled Joe Biden to the Presidency in 2020.
The Democrats were and usually still are more disunited due to having a more complicated, diverse coalition. They have also seen a resurgence of economic progressivism, interventionist thinking in the aftermath of 2008 and economic fallout for millions of Americans. There is a divide between older social liberals and younger progressives, especially as the latter has been legitimately screwed over by the economic crisis and the pandemic. Including yours truly! The Republicans are also divided as well between protectionist nationalists and pro-business liberals. The former are also often younger as well, missing out on economic opportunities that used to sustain families in small towns throughout the country. They skew male and white, and they are economically distressed. The opioid crisis and economic dislocation led to Donald Trump flipping the Midwest in 2016, as many traditionally Democrat voters flocked to his protectionist, nationalist rhetoric. The Republican Party has embraced Trump wholeheartedly since then, and the religious part of the party is willing to overlook his moral problems and dark character as part of God’s plan for America. The business community doesn’t seem to mind higher tariffs, and Trump is a billionaire with an enterprise; he found common ground with the ones not repulsed by his rhetoric on social issues and immigrants. The Democratic Party has united against Trump but also rejected Bernie Sanders’ economic populism; they want to maintain a tenuous link between moderate interventionists and people who like the status quo and empowered progressives and acolytes of Bernie Sanders like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders directly challenging the American capitalist system itself.
Both parties are divided and despise each other; according to a 2020 poll by the American Enterprise Institute, 64% of Democrats see Republican ideas as a threat to the country and 75% of Republicans see Democratic ideas as a threat to the country. But one thing is telling; 46% of voters in a Gallup poll from last January identify as Independent. There is a rising distrust of and disgust with both parties; people seem to be reacting to the gridlock and extreme partisanship plaguing the country. This is understandable given the crisis the country is going through; many people fear a second Civil War, at the level of the Troubles that plagued Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1997. Or perhaps even worse should the 2024 election lead to a constitutional crisis where one side tries to overturn the election result or seize power by force. The 2021 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters was indeed an amateur coup attempt, backed by bogus reports of voter fraud and trumped up charges of conspiracy.
The foundation America is built on appears to be cracking. People don’t get along with each other, seem pessimistic especially after a pandemic and political turmoil, and are turning inward to protect themselves and their families. The individualism and consumerism of the past 40–50 years no longer sustains us; we are tired of working to live or just get by as opposed to living to work in a way that satisfies us. People are quitting their jobs and exploring other ways of life. People are also questioning the dominant narratives in society, often choosing misinformation or exaggerated propaganda secretly pushed by China and Russia over mainstream, still flawed media. What is the solution to this crisis, what do you propose Oh writer. I propose a simple solution: a society built on Peace, Love, Unity, Respect, Justice, and Equality.