Losing the Real America by Judith Dupree

Judith is an incredible writer as well as a dear friend and mentor. At the age of 90, she has been extremely concerned about the path our country has taken within the last decade. She wrote this article in response to the alarm bells she senses, both politically and spiritually. 

Losing the Real America

Judith Deem Dupree

 

Donald Trump for president . . . yet again?  

Trump isn't responsible for all the injustices and instabilities, brazenness and corruption, afflicting the highways and byways of America’s ongoing political journey. But, behind his noisy suppositions, there's gritty truth this ex-president unwittingly exposes: He is truly the poster child of our unraveling, the role model for our government’s ongoing disparity. He is not the cause. He is the continuation: the undo-er of indispensable, viable governing needed at a time of evolving worldwide desperation.   

The answer is both simple and complex: We all know the mechanics of voting.   

How did we get here?  And more to the point, how did he get THERE?   

Well, there was an election, right? And he won. Yes, thanks to the Electoral College. Thanks first to those reigning Congress-persons who “opened this door when he banged on it.” Was it from their party’s fear of loss in their quest for executive power? Of course! From that embryonic, decisive-divisive moment, they have edged into their sycophantic or manipulative behavior . . .  and dismissed or avoided his obvious evidences of incompetence. His divisive callousness became theirs.  

We allowed a range of conditions that invited him into escalating our national dysfunction—a heritage of which he is seemingly oblivious. In 2016, he simply barged into the Republican’s wannabe line-up for the Oval Office (Of course the Dems had their own.) . . . the postulate-imposter, luring us down his own winding side-street. When the ballots were counted, he had arrived at his destination—with handy electoral college advantages. We were Trumped.   

The presidency shouldn’t be anyone’s first political foray. A president should be formed by constant maturing, informed by current development, and consistently judged well before the day of election to office . . . before seeking the authoritative, world-focal position. Our political structure, designed as a timeless pledge of balance in governing, has often resembled an oral war zone. Or a football field? In the midst of this smattered playground, our untamed, unashamed president-in-the-re-making sauntered. Our Wizard of Odds. He knew the game.  

This would-be Emperor defies standards that too many of us already ignore, and too few of us comprehend as mandates based upon honor—personal and communal and yes, universal. Respect. Tolerance. Truth. Our president’s responses defy it by his hubris. It seems to be “catching.” Nearly pandemic. His key to surmounting inexperience in “impossible situations” is to avidly seek out those who will validate him and accept his misguided antidotes.  

Perhaps this untempered one will do himself, and us, and the watching world, an unintended favor: force us into sudden focus, exposing his and our own unequivocal trail of lies. The answers stretch far back before his pretense and reach far ahead.  

If you are a resolute Trump supporter—perhaps valuing his strong penchant toward nationwide and worldwide financial “adjustments”—you have been willfully primed by a man who apparently sees all things in terms of dollars. Billions of them. You/we who checked the square next to his name on the 2016 and 2020 ballots had reasons to hope for positive results—if financial stability and incremental wages alone were the underlying keys to a better life ahead. Many grasped at this hope, despite reservations regarding his character. Few of us realized that Trump would deny the undeniable and revoke the irrevocable.   

It is the mandate and virtue of leadership to be balanced and humane.   

Would you . . . I ask those of you who oppose my accusations, or who offer moderate “yes, but’s” for a man who lives for the sake of his well-being—will you, I plead, stand solemnly for a moment—before a panicked world of our fellow humans, and grant that someday, without our powerful and innovative intervention, we—or our heirs—will face our final devastation?  

We must add this: the opposition party deserves no kudos. Their plots are often sprinkled with half-truths—garnished with verbal embellishments. Holier than any Republican thou.   

We must agree that both political parties have basic truths to retrieve about their call to high purpose, and much to gain by rethinking. And yet another crucial move forward: we voters each need to examine ourselves, as voters, or discouraged non-voters—for signs of self-deception. We as individuals and collectives. Our personal and national insights are critical; they grant the legitimacy born of and borne by ethics. We must rethink the roles and rules of opposition and the essential function of political parties—and the incentives of our often insistent and unchanging but indefinite party loyalty. The political parties must begin again.  

Let us dare to rethink our tomorrow, today—that we may personally/collectively, hopefully, and adamantly alter the future. That a more sustainable society will become a gradual reality, from the heart and hands of a determined and responsible president and congress . . . worked up jointly and handed down to us soberly. We each must agree to learn how to thrive safely, honestly, openhandedly, and reach each other there—to be taught by and teach each other. And yes, moving beyond our smallish nationalism and bringing together our valid needs and creeds.  

Now is our Moment in the spotlight—not because of our wise and prudent ways, but because the world citizens are watching us falter and stutter. We will soon decide whether the next election is an awkward, uncertain, but determined step toward our tomorrow—or a casualty for humanity forever.  

 

Judith Deem Dupree, author of four books: Going Home, living with what remains, Sky Mesa Journal, and I Sing America, has retired from teaching at writers’ workshops and conferences, including her own artists/writers retreat, Ad Lib. She lives east of San Diego, California.

 

Prayerfully,