America is prone to fits of temporary insanity. It is a defect of the democratic process. When you have a democracy and the majority rules and ordinary people are given the vote, then sometimes they vote in demagogues. It is an inherent flaw in the system. This is why we have such a strong system of protecting minority rights. This is no idle writing or false impression of hope. The upholding of minority rights is an integral part of the American identity. (Surely you see it on the smallest of stages whenever Americans root for the underdog or can't get enough of hard-luck stories about people with disadvantages who 'make it.' This is a part of the American soul. It is real.) The Republicans are playing with fire. It will burn them. (Have you seen the polls that show the numbers on what non-fundies think about 'the nukular opshun? Not good at all. They are getting trounced. This and the Schiavo case are doing a number on the Rethugs.
In the 1740's Americans went through something called 'The Great Awakening.' It was a powerful religious movement that swept New England and spread out to other colonies. People were told that they had strayed from the path of righteousness and that God was punishing them for their sins by fomenting rebellion with the Papist Canadians and their vassals the Native Americans. (Jonathan Edwards and his famous "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" sermon here:
http://www.jonathanedwards.com/sermons/Warnings/sinners.htm) Somehow America survived this revival and moved on.
In Boston in the 1850's there was a party that came to power called the "Know Nothings." They existed because of concerns about immigrating Catholics gaining too much power. They were a bloody and violent group and did much harm in my native state. At one point they were democratically elected to every office in Mass. They lasted about 8 years and then went out of power, never to be heard from again. I could name you instance after instance in which this has happened in America. The times we find ourselves in are nothing new.
Sometimes we assume that because we live in an age of computers and cell phones and jet travel and so forth that we have evolved out of the bad side of human nature. We have not. We never will. People are always torn between liberty and safety, between the need to be free and to exercise free minds and the need to be safe in their persons and property. This is an eternal struggle of man, never to be solved, only to be dealt with in the times in which it happens. This is one of those times. Americans have temporarily chosen to go with the necessity of dealing with fear and safety. But the call of freedom and liberty hasn't gone away. It has been sublimated. It will come back.
We have faced these bad times before and triumphed. During the 1930's America was very susceptible to the cries of demagogues who wanted to place blame on 'them' (whoever the 'them may be) for the depression and the hard times the nation was facing. Fortunately, the nation had FDR to turn to to navigate the shoals. Great people in America always arise and take back the nation. (Go look it up.) This is the inherent genius of America. This is what "We The People" means. We save ourselves. It is what we do. And we will do it again.
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