For
years liberals owned the day. The
amazing leadership of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great
Depression and World War II guided our country through one of the most
difficult periods in our history.
People
saw the Democratic Party as the party of the people—the poor, the middle class,
immigrants, minorities, and the wealthy.
The succeeding Democratic presidents demonstrated a similar commitment
to all Americans. And more amazing
advancements in freedom and opportunity were the result of their leadership.
Importantly,
Republicans cooperated with these Democratic presidents. They voiced their opposition at times. They fought against policies they disagreed
with. But when it came time to work
together and get important legislation passed for all of the country, they were
willing to do their part. And many of
them contributed their own intelligent and compassionate ideas to the process.
Then,
somewhere during the 1970s, social and morality issues began to surface. The Sexual Revolution of the late 60s and
early 70s was launched. Feminism was
later born. The Vietnam War caused
people, especially the young, to question their government openly and
forcefully. Abortion was legalized. The Civil Rights Movement carried the day and
Black Americans were gradually, thankfully, integrated into the rest of
society.
It
was during all of these pivotal events that conservatives began to balk and
resist and work to undo these incredibly important and progressive
changes.
Conservatives
felt somehow oppressed, ignored and pushed aside. Their old fashioned values were being
threatened and they believed their way of life was as well.
The
Religious Right, starting with Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, began a
concerted effort to link conservative religion with politics. They were determined to take over the
political process and move the country, through legislation and by controlling
the message of the people, back to an earlier time when all of their very narrow
values were tolerated, accepted, and considered the norm.
Fox
News saw this demographic as potential dollar signs and they set up an entire
media industry to both support and exploit the political clout of the religious
right. The money from this venture
surpassed all of their expectations and turned Fox into not only a vast money
making machine but also the place where conservative politics and religious
fundamentalism thrives completely unbridled and uncensored in any responsible
way.
Today,
we are a society crippled by this hostile division of ideas and values. Progressives still want to honor the
intelligent and cooperative leadership of FDR and his vision of a caring,
thriving USA open to all of its citizens and working for all of them.
Conservatives
and fundamentalists still want to go back.
Back to old values and traditional ideas. Back to limited freedoms, censorship of
thought and principles, restrictions on immigrants and people of color, and the
foisting of the conservative’s very narrow value system upon the entire
country, including religious indoctrination and an oppressively fundamentalist
Christian influence that will not compromise on anything.
Political
conservatives simply want to control the way money flows through giant
corporations, the banks, and Wall Street.
They are perfectly fine with a divided country and class warfare as long
as they are able to profit from deregulation, lowered standards on all
industry, and an economy rigged in their favor.
Lincoln
once said, “If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can
never regain their respect and esteem.”
We
have done exactly that in this country.
Progressives have forfeited the confidence of conservatives, and
conservatives have forfeited the confidence of progressives.
In
the process we have all lost each other’s respect and esteem.
The
challenge now is not to get that back but to start over with one another and
find ways to begin a new work of respect, understanding, openness, and
cooperation.
Unless
we do, this country we love is doomed to sad, shocking and unprecedented
decline.
©
2012 Timothy Moody
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