October 16, 2021
We all feel crushed by the weight. Eighteen months into the pandemic, ten months into a Biden presidency, we all sit warily in a defensive crouch, wondering where the next blow will come from. We remember how we felt last November, when Biden’s victory was finally announced. We spontaneously spilled into the streets in giddy elation, dancing, drinking and singing. Bells were ringing in Paris and the worldwide sigh of relief was palpable.
And then, on January 6th, we watched in horror as a marauding mob of Trump acolytes violently stormed the Capitol in an effort to overthrow our democratically elected government and reinstall their deity— a corrupt vulgarian of limited intelligence and unlimited hatred.
Still, we told ourselves, we had worked hard to not only elect Biden, but to elect two Democratic senators in Georgia, giving the Democrats control of the presidency, the House and the Senate. Surely they would use their hard won power to protect democracy, confront climate change and hold treasonous malefactors accountable.
Yet, here we are, almost one year past Election Day, with precious little accomplished on those fronts. Yes, it’s a relief to have an administration who doesn’t have terrorizing and persecuting the marginalized as its mission. It’s true that the pandemic persists in spite of this administration’s competence, not because of it. It is also true that Biden has been rapidly filling federal judgeships with an admirably diverse array of lawyers, but all of it feels like the calm before the inevitable storm. If the Democrats don’t use their power to protect voting rights and improve people’s lives, we will look back on Biden’s presidency as a mere interregnum in our inexorable slide into fascism.
Biden has repeatedly tied the bipartisan infrastructure bill to his Build Back Better human infrastructure bill, but the package remains hamstrung by the intransigence of Senators Manchin and Sinema. Manchin, in hock to fossil fuel interests is insisting on cutting the heart out of the climate change provisions in Build Back Better, happy to fiddle on his houseboat while the world burns, (Source: “Key to Biden’s Climate Agenda Likely To Be Cut Because of Manchin Opposition,” by Coral Davenport, The New York Times, 10/15/21). Kyrsten Sinema on the other hand, seems to mainly want attention. She swans around interning at wineries, running marathons and traveling to Europe, unbothered by the problems impacting ordinary Americans, like a 21st Century Marie Antoinette.
As for the rest of us, we have lost our way. The pandemic seems to have sapped our capacity for empathy, rather than making us more compassionate. In a society that has long equated wealth or power with intellect, those of us with either, feel comfortable demonizing that which we don’t understand while recoiling at the suggestion of accountability. Far too many of us define freedom as the freedom to hurt those we revile and spend our days engaged in acts of performative cruelty, whether at school board meetings or on concert stages. Too many of us stubbornly refuse to see the humanity of those we endanger. All I know is that we have to find a way out of this death spiral, a way of replacing rancor with kindness or we’ll all end up in hell together. I don’t know if we can find our way back, but I know we’re doomed if we don’t try.
I have been reading Journal of the Plague Years since it first launched. I love your perspectives. Keep Writing Thank you.