To say that the
country is at a crossroads implies, one thinks, a serious possibility
of going in either
of two directions. Cynicism born of history therefore precludes
one from making this statement now, because it counsels that
this nation rarely chooses the path of the good - certainly not
for the long-term or for the long haul. If one wants the most “outstanding” example
of this (using outstanding in its most perverse sense), perhaps
it lies in how brief was the impulse to raise the status of the
freedmen during and after the Civil War. By 1876 the impulse
was dead, having fallen victim to Southern night riders, extensive
Southern terrorism that killed thousands, the monomaniacal focus
on obtaining enormous wealth in the gilded age, and the fantastic,
even unbelievable corruption of legislatures - unbelievable even
by today’s corrupt, lax standards - that lasted for somewhere
around 30 to 40 years. So the impulse died, not to be revived
for 85 or 90 years.
Yet, although history makes it difficult or impossible to believe
in a true crossroads, perhaps we can still say that there is
now an intersection, or at least an approaching intersection.
It is an intersection which arises in significant part because
of the vast changes in historical research and writing since
approximately 1960.
For many decades after the writing of history became a serious
occupation - at first a private one for gentlemen of wealth and
leisure, not a profession with extensive but far from exclusive
roots in the academy - American history was largely of the triumphalist
type. And this was, of course, a triumphalist nation - in part
(but only in part) because of the written history.
But the civil rights revolution, Viet Nam and the feminist movement
changed all of that. They gave rise to a serious reevaluation
of American history, to a consideration not only of its good
parts but, for one of the first times, its bad parts too. Instead
of triumphalist history, or at least instead of triumphalist
history only, there has been a vast outpouring of intensively
researched writing on the evils - the word is deliberate - on
the evils caused by or harbored in our approximately 220 years
of history.
Today, the war in Iraq has brought us to
an intersection of these two strains of American history. The
Bush conservatives,
the heirs of Reagan, the right wingers believe in the triumphalist
version. Their version, let it be recognized immediately, is
not merely a matter of foreign affairs, where they think America
should control the world, by force when necessary, especially
because we have the greater word of God and are the chosen of
the earth anointed to successfully bring better principles and
ways of life to the heathen in their billions. Their version
also extends to the domestic arena; it includes extensive laissez
faire and, accordingly, non-regulation of evil; permitting vast,
ever increasing discrepancies of wealth; lack of medical care
for scores of millions; deprivation of education due to inadequate
schools, cost, and/or elitism; focus on abortion as a substitute
to divert masses; and, of course, other matters too. Last weekend,
in a TV discussion of a new book he has written, the estimable
Paul Krugman said he thought the views of the right wing trace
back beyond Reagan, who often receives the “credit” for
them and whom Krugman (like me) thinks was not good, if one may
put it that way. Krugman feels the views of the right wingers
trace back to their reaction to, and their horror at, the New
Deal. With respect, I think they trace back much further. Even
if one confines oneself to the United States alone, the right
wing’s economic and social views can be traced back at
least as far as Alexander Hamilton, with his plan and desire,
in the assumption of debt matter, to screw over the common soldiers
of the Revolution in favor of enabling speculators to amass great
wealth.
On the other side of American life is the
liberal philosophy - today called progressivism because liberals
lost the courage
to call themselves liberals and sought to hide behind the noun “progressive.” This
too has a long pedigree, even if one confines the inquiry to
the U.S.: it goes back perhaps to Jefferson and Jackson, and
certainly to the Greenbackers, populists and progressives of
the later 19th and early 20th centuries. (Maybe it even goes
back to the “mechanicks” of the 1760s and early 1770s,
who played so prominent a role in shaking us loose from Britain.)
In an effort to make life better for a larger number of people,
some of today's liberals would greatly extend the degree of governmental
regulation to a point that is perhaps far beyond Rooseveltian-Trumanesque-Kennedy/Johnson
days. Others of us have deep concerns over the extent of this
- but perhaps no good alternative yet - because of effusively,
repeatedly demonstrated government incompetency over the decades
(not just the last six years). Regardless of such differences,
however, the liberal wing of America does seem united in feeling
that America cannot act the hegemon, cannot impose its views
all over the world by force or otherwise, and must work with
other countries (or we will increasingly face a whole world arrayed
against us); that the increasing discrepancies in wealth, medical
care and education are intolerable; and so forth. This societal
and economic point of view has been given a new and powerful
impetus by the delinquencies of the Bush Administration, an impetus
augmented by books documenting these delinquencies and/or comparing
modern America to prior, fallen empires like those of Rome and
Britain.
Thus the dichotomous intersection - the possible impending clash
of dichotomous views that would be a crossroads if history did
not make one cynical about the possibility of there being, in
the long haul, a true crossroads.
Not knowing how matters will turn out, I
believe that perhaps only two things can be said with relative
certainty. One is the
personal view that, if the right-wing wins permanent dominance,
the country is, for practical purposes, finished. As Lee said
when discussing the inevitable situation if Grant were to cross
the James and Lee’s army were to be besieged, if this were
to happen it will be only a question of time. The other thing
to be said is a reiteration of a point that I have made for years,
a point that I thought would be regarded as bizarre when it was
first being made, but that many seem now to accept because it
is known that the Bush Administration took us into a disastrous
war via distortions and lies. The point in mind is that honesty
is the most compelling and necessary of virtues. And, I would
add, true honesty requires maximum analysis short of paralysis
by analysis. Without honesty there can be no competence because,
as any general can tell you - and as was shown by Viet Nam and
Iraq - competent policies cannot be built on the basis of false
information and false analysis. Without honesty there ultimately
will be disaster. The present Administration, like the Johnson
and Nixon administrations before it, has shown this unimpeachably
in one sense of the word, but very impeachably in another. And,
needless to say, the level of talk that passes for general political
discourse and/or campaign statements by politicians generally,
is as inadequate in honesty and analysis as are the statements
of the Bush Administration.
BC columnist Lawrence R. Velvel, JD, is
the Dean of Massachusetts
School of Law. Click
here to contact Dean Velvel. |