Staying Sane While Defending the Constitution and its Social Contract
Inherent in civilization is an unwritten social contract, a balance between liberty and just laws. Without that unwritten contract, it becomes difficult for civilization to survive.
"In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now." --Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde
The list of demographic groups who are scared now or will be scared in the future is growing and will continue to grow. Today it's 53 percent of the women who voted on November 5, minorities, the LBGTQ community, undocumented immigrants and Palestinian Americans who are just learning about Trump's statement about moving all the inhabitants of Gaza into neighboring countries. Trump's rescinded President Biden's Executive Order 14087. There are concerns about the effects of his communication freeze at the NIH. Then there was the recent freezing of federal funding. There have been American citizens detained by ICE, a veteran in New Jersey and Native Americans in Arizona and New Mexico. This is the beginning. Neither Donald Trump nor his acolytes in Congress will hear Bishop Budde. We can and we must.
We have no control over the chaotic impulses coming out of the Oval Office. However we do have control over how we react to it. Franklin Roosevelt famously said that the only thing to fear is fear itself. I don't completely agree. We should avoid panic, as that's incapacitating. Avoid living in fear. But we can have the bravery that comes from acknowledging our fears, then going ahead and doing the right thing anyway. That was the philosophy by which John Lewis lived his life. There are many others still practicing that philosophy. We can join them as much as we are capable.
Let me repeat that. Bravery isn't the total absence of fear. Its acknowledging that you have fear while going ahead and doing what is necessary in spite of it. Bravery is quiet, not boastful. A quiet strength is real; braggadocio is not.
There will be some, who for the sake of their sanity, have to disconnect. Some of my brothers and sisters on different social media sites have said as much. Others will remain more active. We all do what we can.
Pick your battles. Avoid getting into verbal altercations on social media. All that does is raise your blood pressure. Share the articles and videos that have the potential to create change, not just the ones that report the latest hot mess from Washington.
The philosophical foundation for the modern Republican party is a house of cards. It ignores the fact that there is such a thing as a social contract inherent in civilization. There is a modern mythology that one man can survive alone with no social interaction. In reality, there are very few actual survivalists, who can start with nothing and live off the land. Division of labor requires regulations, laws and compromise. Living in a society requires compassion.
This was so in the first hunter-gatherer tribal settings and it's still true today. Society involves a system of overlapping support networks. We forget that those networks are ongoing everyday happenings. Our peace is partially tied to their routine functioning. That peace has been disturbed. To get it back will require reestablishing our support systems. Part of that will be reestablishing normal routines, in both individual and community settings. It will require returning to a modicum of sanity in government.
I'm old enough to remember Ronald Reagan's famous quote: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." We have our own walls that need to be demolished, artificial walls that have been raised by the divisive politics of finger pointing, name calling and demonization. The Republican party, and specifically the MAGA movement has recently been the loudest.
Bishop Mariann Budde extended an olive branch of healing. Yet there are others, supposedly of the clergy, who preach politics and hatred. There are those who stand in the pulpit and demonize their brothers and sisters who voted for the opposite political party. Sadly, there seem to be a lot more Republican clergy doing this than Democratic clergy. Among the laity it's pretty much a free for all, with both sides calling each other fools on social media. Here is where we would all do well to remember Matthew 5:22-24.
"But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
"Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
"Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."
We should not call our brother or sister a fool. We should not call our brother or sister a demon. To do so not only spreads more anger, ignoring the social contract that we used to have in these United States, it disturbs our own inner peace as well. Matthew 5:16 says:
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
The followers of Jesus, when he walked the earth, were admonished to be a good example for others, to lead by that example, not to become autocrats and dictators who constantly disrupt and disturb the peace.
Matthew 5:44 says, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you..."
Those who have a big microphone and use it to disparage those who differ, those whose speech is filled with vitriol and hate, are not examples of good Christians. We should strive to be a good example.
The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, published in 1762, had a significant impact on the ideas underlying the American Revolution and the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. A review of Rousseau's ideas will be helpful.
"If we ask in what precisely consists the greatest good of all, which should be the end of every system of legislation, we shall find it reduce itself to two main objects, liberty and equality-liberty, because all particular dependence means so much force taken from the body of the State, and equality, because liberty cannot exist without it.
"I have already defined civil liberty; by equality, we should understand, not that the degrees of power and riches are to be absolutely identical for everybody; but that power shall never be great enough for violence, and shall always be exercised by virtue of rank and law; and that, in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself: [1] which implies, on the part of the great, moderation in goods and position, and, on the side of the common sort, moderation in avarice and covetousness.
"[1] If the object is to give the State consistency, bring the two extremes as near to each other as possible; allow neither rich men nor beggars. These two estates, which are naturally inseparable, are equally fatal to the common good; from the one come the friends of tyranny, and from the other tyrants. It is always between them that public liberty is put up to auction; the one buys, and the other sells."
The American ideal did not embody the footnoted proposal in it's entirety. It did embody enough of it to regulate corporations from the country's infancy, and to pass the Sherman Act in 1890. The Sherman Act, toward the end of the Gilded Age, was in response to the accumulation of power by trusts and monopolies. American citizens of the age, and their elected representatives, were cognizant enough to understand that such concentration of power was a bad thing.
We are currently seeing a repetition of history, a second Gilded age, and this time the monopolists have the wheel. This brings up a crucial question? Are there enough people who understand the danger this time around, and are we able to achieve enough unity to counter it? Time will give us the answer.
Our short term goals are to block Trump's dismantling of the Constitution in court and keep the pressure on our elected representatives.
One of the most important long term goals is passing laws to nullify the treacherous Citizens United decision. Elon Musk's expenditure of over 250 million dollars to elect his preferred presidential candidate should never happen again, by any donor, for any politician. Money is not speech. Let's make trust busting popular again. Another long term goal is something like ranked choice voting.
We begin at the grass roots level. If your state and local representatives aren't in favor of limiting donations to Super PACs find another candidate. Support local and state government initiatives for ranked choice voting, as it favors moderation and tends to eliminate hotheads. This also applies to state and local party chairs. If your state has open primaries, consider crossover voting. I did this in 2024 specifically because the Republican state representative had voted against Greg Abbott's school vouchers. I didn't lose anything by not voting in the Democratic primary, but each individual situation will be different.
Push for multi-party primaries in your state. George Washington cautioned against political parties. Our current divided America proves that he was right.
Keep your lifestyle balanced. Burnout is a very real possibility over the next four years. Pace yourself. Take breaks. Enjoy nature. As Rudyard Kipling said, "...keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you."
I've listed a bit of recommended reading that contains lifestyle tips in the Notes below. If you're having trouble coping, which includes over half of the American population right now and growing, you'll very likely find these helpful.
Thank you for reading this and may each day be filled with peace for you.
Notes:
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/10-things-to-do-if-trump-wins/
https://www.vox.com/even-better/383873/coping-strategies-trump-presidency-processing