The Greatness of America

How about we address something that’s been sticking in my craw like the popcorn kernel from last week? The damn thing just sits there lodged in the soft tissues of your gums and hurting like a mother fucker. This subject is one almost everyone else has already tackled, but I’m in a cantankerous mood, so I’m diving in headfirst and damn the rocks below.

Sound like fun?

Good, and don’t worry, this will be a short one.

It never fails. At least half a dozen times a day, I see some variation of the following posts on social media. It’s almost always, like 98% of the time, attached to something posted by a Trumper or some type of MAGAt screaming about making America great again.

“I remember the days when people showed each other respect.”

“I remember when we saluted the flag and stood at attention.”

“I remember the days when we said the pledge every morning.”

“I remember the days when we respected the police and the military.”

“I remember the days when parents sided with teachers and not the students.”

“I remember the days when we treated one another as Americans, not as enemies.”

I could add many, many more examples, but we’ll just work with these ones.

I have to ask the obvious question. When exactly was this mythical time that all of these “Wonderful” things happened?

And are you, the nebulous poster of such drivel, implying that when all of these things were supposedly common that the country was a better place?

I am admittedly not the oldest person walking down the street. I’m forty-four years old, and my earliest coherent memories are of the Iranian revolutionaries taking the American embassy in Tehran. But I am extremely well-read, and I was a history major before I left college due to a lack of cash. So, with that being said, I’m going to roll the dice and state that this mythical time never existed.

NEVER.

Yes, some of these things have been a reality for a segment of the population at various points in American history. Forced patriotism has always been a hallmark of the American experience. So with that in mind, I’m going to do a quick rundown, decade by decade, and see if these totem-like statements fit and if they made America great.

Let’s start with the 1940s. The forties were the time of the “Greatest Generation” or the generation that defeated the Japanese and the Nazis. Those were great things, but it was also a time of extreme racism, sexism, and homophobia. Also, let’s not forget the multitude of war crimes committed by the American’s in the name of victory. Yes, we can debate the details of that one, but it’s a verifiable truth.

Was America great then?

Let’s jump to the 1950s. These were the years many MAGATs see as the golden age of America. It was a time when the white man was king. It was a time when woman and minorities know their place, or else they’d face the consequences. Finally, and more importantly, to me, it was an age where LGBTQ people stayed hidden under the fear that they’d be committed to an institution, imprisoned, or killed outright.

Was America great then?

Now jump into the vibrant 1960s. In the sixties, all of the old problems of sexism, racism, and homophobia still reigned. We were fighting an immoral war in Southeast Asia that would result in over a million dead. There were race riots and endless protests. The government grew more draconian and secretive as time passed. One of the greatest Presidents in history, John Kennedy, was murdered. The details of the investigation of his murder are still classified. Finally, the Civils Rights Acts are passed, sparking new violence from the right and ensuring the old Slave States would be bastions of racism until the current day.

Was America great then?

Stepping into the 1970s, the decade I was born, we get some changes. Finally, a woman can have a credit card and bank account without the permission and signature of their husband or father. With the passage of the Civil Rights Acts in the wake of the murder of President Kennedy, things get slightly better for black Americans. America’s meddling in the affairs of other nations results in Iran being taken over by religious zealots and a hostage crisis that lasted over a year. The cherry on the top of the 1970s was the Supreme Court Buckley vs. Valeo decision, which legalized tacit bribery of politicians.

Was America great then?

Hopping, now, into the 1980s. Things did get better, marginally, for non-white, non-male, non-straight Americans in the 1980s. But in return, we received the Reagen tax cuts that devastated the economy and would continue to do so until current times. We also were gifted with AIDS, which, since it was initially most a gay male problem, was ignored by most and seen as a righteous judgment on the deviant lifestyle by many. By the time AIDS was taken seriously, millions of Americans were already infected and or dead.

Was America Great then?

We slip now into the 1990s. The 90s started with an unnecessary war and a permanent American presence in the middle east. They said it was about freedom, but we all knew it was about oil. Things inched along for non-white, non-male, non-straight Americans, but things were still shit. I can attest personally to this as a young bisexual man in the Midwest. If I’d have come out, it would’ve been a nightmare. The capper of the decade was the loosening of the few Wallstreet and banking regulations left in the country. We’d pay for that later.

Was America great then?

Do I even need to say what comes next?

Now we crash into the 2000s. September 11th, 2001, changed America in a fundamental way. When the towers came down, the America I knew growing up died, and it was replaced by a dark mirror reflection. After that day, the longest war in American history started, and it hasn’t ended. Americans gleefully gave up freedoms in the name of security. The government committed war crimes literally from the Imperial Japanese playbook and the Peoples Republic of China. Mass surveillance of Americans without warrants is commonplace, and the courts give it a rubber stamp.

On the social front, Muslims and Arabs, or anyone mistook as Muslim or Arab, were regularly assaulted. LGBTQ people were used as a scare tactic allowing the GOP to win the 2004 presidential election. Women and minorities were doing slightly better, but systemic sexism and racism still held firm among the people in power.

We thought it couldn’t get worse. We were wrong.

In 2008 the entire economy of the United States collapsed. What was later known as the great recession was caused by the selfish greed and lies of the bankers and Wallstreet executives. They created the mess, and in the end, they weren’t prosecuted, and they, in many cases, were bailed out by the government using our money. America slid into oligarchy after that.

Was America great then?

And finally, we limp into the 2010s. In 2008 America elected the first black man as president. For a moment, it looked like the country was turning around. It looked like things were going to change. We had hope again. That hope died when the Republicans flat out said they would block anything the president wanted to accomplish. What we ended up with was a weak sauce healthcare reform and one stalling action after another. The war continued on many fronts unabated.

The economy grew for the billionaires and shrank for the poor, working, and dying middle classes. Wages had been stagnant since the 1970s, and it was only getting worse. The costs of rent, tuition, healthcare, and hundreds of other services were through the roof. To put it simply, Americans can’t afford to live in America anymore.

Religious, sexual, and racial intolerance surged in the United States, and the beginning of a possible Christian theocracy took root.

Was America great then?

In 2016 for reasons that make no sense to me, the United States of America elected Donald J. Trump as President. The lying, sexist, racist, grifting, traitorous cretin of a man has brought nothing but fear, hate, and division to our country. I won’t insult you by listing the things this person has done and said but suffice it to say he’s all but destroyed us as a people. Even now, I fear we are on the brink of some version of civil war. But his people keep shouting MAGA at the top of their lungs while breaking the bedrock of the land.

America has done great things and showed flashes of equality and truth but when exactly were we great?

- Josh (10/09/2020)