I
am writing this as a citizen of a world that no matter where we live
are strongly impacted by whatever America does and whatever happens
in America
America
is celebrating but it will take a lot more than the end of the Trump
presidency to save America. Trump promoted and encouraged, and even
used the office of the presidency to legitimize the worst of
America. The worst of America existed before Trump, was made stronger
with Trump, and will continue after Trump. It's proponents may even
become more strident.
Saving
America will require government policy changes, legislative changes
and even constitutional changes, but most of all cultural changes.
The
toxic and partisan nature of American politics is not going away
quickly or easily and the politicians are not going to solve
America's problems. Toxic partisanship means ideas from the other
side are rejected and fought against because they came from the
other side and are thus seen as evil. In the rare case they may be
seen as good ideas they are opposed rather than supported so the
other side cannot take credit for them.
How
are Americans to come together to solve their problems in this
political atmosphere. I would propose a constituent assembly of
Americans to propose solutions together. This assembly should be
diverse, include all incomes, occupational groups and the unemployed,
come from all regions, religions, including the non-religious, and
include people of all sexual orientations and gender identification.
It should also represent a broad variety of political philosophies
while purposely not considering party affiliations in the choice of
participants.
They
should sit down together as Americans to find away to make America
the country that it can be and their political leaders should commit
to implementing the required changes no matter how difficult it will
be politically.
Now
I can stop here and say let Americans fix America, but being who I am
I cannot do that without proposing some solutions for some of the
most obvious and worst problems facing America.
We
just came through an American election so let us look at that first.
Election
day is when almost all elected American officials are elected,
federal, state and local. Nobody talks about this but that in itself
is a major problem for democracy. Voters are expected to be able to
make choices about who they want to represent them for a large
multitude of offices. Can they really absorb and analyze all the
information necessary to make informed decisions. This system, I
believe, encourages voters to just give up on deciding who to vote
for and just vote a straight "party ticket", further
strengthening the hold of toxic partisanship on America's political
culture.
The
other fact, strange to me and I suspect the rest of the world outside
America, is that America holds 50 separate elections for federal
offices each with separate rules. How can every vote be equal when
there are 50 different sets of rules for voters.
And
then there is the election of the President by the Electoral College
where some states elect more than twice as many electors per voter
as other states, not to mention the fact that the winner take all
system means close to 50 percent of a states votes may not count at
all in the presidential election if the parties are close in that
state.
The
Electoral College supposedly protects the minority from the tyranny
of the majority but is that not the Senate's role where Senators
elected by a minority of voters have a veto over legislation passed
by Representatives representing a majority of voters. The Electoral
College system is more akin to the Tyranny of the Minority. Everyone
voting for President should have an equal vote otherwise the
President does not represent all Americans equally.
We
have not even mentioned the fact the elections are run and controlled
by (state) politicians where gerrymandering, voter suppression and
other shenanigans are considered fair game as long as you can get
away with it. American elections are simply a power game with only
lip service played to democracy.
Other
countries do it differently. Elections cannot be fair if they are
controlled by one of the parties seeking office. America needs to
have an impartial non-partisan agency to control their elections, and
for federal elections the rules must be the same for all Americans.
America should look at the Elections Canada model, perhaps the
fairest and most effective model in the world, that not only ensures
elections are fair but facilitates encourages the electorate to get
out and vote.
‘A crazy system’: U.S. voters face huge lines and gerrymandering. How Elections Canada makes a world of difference north of the border (Toronto Star)
Elections Canada says its system protects Canadian voters from U.S.-style drama (CBC News)
And
then we have the American justice system where we have a misguided
understanding of what democracy means.
In
a democracy the laws should certainly be written by the elected
representatives. However the application of those laws and the
adjudication of them is something that must be done according to
those laws, not according to the whims of public opinion. The police
and prosecutors should enforce the law as it is written and judges
should interpret it that way. There should never be a conflict
between doing the right thing and keeping their jobs. But this is
exactly what making these positions elected positions does. It makes
law enforcement and the courts a matter of political partisanship and
public opinion where they should only be guided by law and fact. We
see this extended to an extreme in the appointment process for the
United States Supreme Court.
The
United States must depoliticize the legal and court system if it
wants to be a true democracy and it must reform the Supreme Court
appointment process.
They
would be wise to look at the Canadian experience where
one cannot predict how Canadian Supreme Court justices will rule
based on who appointed them.
Nothing
separates America from the rest of the western world more than the
violent nature of their society, and in particular American gun
culture, which is somehow grounded in the Second Amendment,
considered part of the United States Bill of Rights.
A well regulated Militia,
being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the
people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed [Second Amendment to the United States Constitution - Wikipedia]
Oddly
most Americans, apparently including their Supreme Court, seem to
ignore the first part of that statement.
Why
a clause providing a right to own the means of mass murder would be
included in a document intended to protect human rights only the
Americans can answer, but I suspect the answer would not be very
convincing.
The
most compelling argument seems to be that America has become such an
irreversibly dangerous and violent and lawless society that it is a
necessity for everyone to be armed. I prefer to retain hope that
America need not be such a society. However, regulating and reducing
gun ownership is an absolute necessity to eliminating American's
crime and violence epidemic.
The
rest of the civilized world seems to manage quite well by considering
firearms ownership to be a highly regulated privilege similar to
automobile ownership but America seems to believe it is still living
in the era of the wild west.
Compounding
the problem of the Second Amendment is the American absolutist
approach to rights, which makes it not only impossible to properly
regulate gun ownership but also makes it near impossible to outlaw
hate speech or prevent terrorist white supremacist war lords from
forming private armies and using them to intimidate other citizens,
usually non-whites or non-Christians, not to mention their threat to
democracy itself.
A
charter of rights need not be absolutist, as clause 1 of the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms demonstrates:
1. The
Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms
guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such
reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified
in a free and democratic society. [Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - Constitution Acts, 1867 to 1982]
I
must say that the Supreme Court of Canada has done an admirable job
in interpreting that clause in a reasonable fashion, without any sign
of political partisanship.
We
have looked at issues that have the most obvious legislative and
constitutional solutions. We are not going to attempt to deal with
all the challenges facing America today, including race relations,
police misconduct, misogyny, sexual inequality, LBGTQ rights,
Islamophobia, anti-science attitudes, and on and on. Most of these
issues require changes beyond public policy, changes to the social
culture of America.
But
we would be remiss if we did not examine the two pillars that make
America what it is, and I believe hold it back from what it could be,
the worship of unbridled capitalism and individualism, coupled with
an irrational fear of "socialist" ideas.
Interestingly
enough U.S. News & World Report has just issued it's quality of life ratings and
the top 10 countries are countries with "socialist" ideas.
Meanwhile,
under American capitalism income inequality today may be higher today than in any other era. As
an example, Amazon's Jeff Bezos made 1.2 million times the median Amazon employee in 2017.
Of
course he receives that income because he works 1.2 million times as
hard as the workers that actually provide the services Amazon sells.
It has nothing to do with worker exploitation or
predatory business practices.
Amazon
is only one example of how American capitalism has come to work.
America is a long way from the theoretical pretense of fair profits
and and decent wages and working conditions.
American
capitalism is inextricably intertwined with American individualism
and the idea that not only can anybody, but everybody, can become a
millionaire. There is no need for redistribution of wealth when
capitalism can create an unlimited amount of wealth. There is no such
thing as limits to growth as
the earth has unlimited resources and energy and the planet has an
unlimited ability to absorb the effects of unbridled industrial
capitalism. All of this of course is what the experts refer to as bullshit but
it drives the American capitalist philosophy because it is a simple
answer to so many complicated questions.
It
is this frame of mind that links capitalism to individualism and the
idea that if everybody acts in their own self interests the interests
of society as a whole will be served and the somewhat related credo
that "what's good for General Motors is good for America".
This is what enables so many Americans to put the interests of the
wealthy and corporations before all else and explains why so many
voters tend to vote against their own self interests.
It
also explains the hesitance of so many in America, during this global
pandemic, to make small sacrifices of individual freedom, like
wearing a mask, for the sake of saving the lives of their fellow
Americans and their willingness to simply disregard the advice of
experts when it is inconvenient for them. Contrast that with other
western countries where the sense of community is much stronger than
individualism and the infection and death rates are much lower.
Electing
a leader that does not depend on the worst of America for his base of
support will certainly help but if America wants to solve its
problems it needs to build a sense of community. America has massive
problems that will require much more than people seeking to serve
their own self interests. They require people working together for
the good of the whole society.
It
is becoming obvious that the measures
necessary to fix American society will require a tremendous amount of
political will and fundamental cultural changes. No doubt the usual
political observers and experts will all agree that that simply is
not possible. We know who failed to even try, but can the American
people Make America Great Again.
