Message to the Future: Liberty and Justice for All
From A.D. Reed
History is neither perfectly linear nor endlessly cyclical; rather, it spirals, moving inexorably forward despite regressive pressure from reactionary forces.
Today, however, several power centers of America’s cultural and political life seem determined to move the cycle of history in reverse. They have come together, both by choice and by circumstance, to threaten the very foundation of America’s citizens’ democracy.
These rather small groups of people, with access to unlimited funding, have mastered the technique of magnifying their voices, influence, and power far beyond their actual numbers, resulting in the takeover of many branches of government and public life by their supporters, representatives, and (often secret) masters.
Oligarchy – More than two-thirds of all jobs are derived from small businesses (fewer than 50 employees) and self-employed individuals; but mega-corporations, often headquartered overseas to avoid U.S. legal and tax liability, control all discussion and policy of American business, including providing billions of dollars to control political elections.
The religious right – Fewer than 25% of the public self-describes as fundamentalists, yet more than half of all elected officials, state and federal, claim to be conservative Christians, and control the agendas of the bodies on which they serve.
Education “choice” – The Constitution of the United States, and the constitutions of many states, prohibit the use of public (tax) funds for religious purposes; yet in state after state tax money is diverted to “vouchers” given to private, sectarian religious schools with little or no oversight or accountancy.
The NRA – Membership is approximately 3% of the population; funding 90% from gun manufacturers and other corporate interests. Though 60% of the public wants stricter gun control, at least 60% of elected officials consistently vote against gun control laws.
As the 2016 election season gets underway, those four minorities—corporate oligarchs, evangelicals, voucher proponents, and the gun lobby—have joined forces with the Republican Party to try to ensure that the most reactionary candidates win at every level from town councils to the White House.
Under the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, the money they raise and spend is hidden from public scrutiny; thus a few billionaires and political action committees (super-PACS) are free to spend several billion dollars (and have pledged to do so) to take control of the government.
Whether or not the forces of progress—what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called “the arc of history [which] bends towards justice”—prevails over regression is the great question of our time. So, in late 2015, we have to ask these questions in the expectation that our future counterparts might answer them with hope, relief, and celebration—or despair.
Will our nation move toward true enlightenment, as our founders did in the 18th century, or continue its submission to the current revival of religious fundamentalism?
Does our government answer to the will of all “the People” celebrated in our Declaration of Independence, or to leaders who control the levers of power without accountability or responsibility to anyone’s welfare but their own?
Are “all people created equal,” and do all citizens share the same “unalienable rights … to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” or are those rights doled out unequally, or withheld, by neo-feudal masters?
Is the United States of America still a beacon of “liberty and justice for all” that shines across the globe, or has it become, like so many empires before it, nothing more than a remembered inspiration for other, “more perfect unions” than we were able to achieve?
