Historically, in America, two contending factions have had enough in common with each other to maintain a basic coherency in government. Then in the late twentieth century their differences became inflamed. The competition became both brutal and unserious. On the right, real interest in the general welfare became secondary to a crusade bent on unconditional and permanent victory. An entanglement with something resembling religion gave it claims to a special righteousness that owed nothing to fact or reason or to the conventions of civilized politics.
Homegrown insurrectionists would have special knowledge of a culture’s vulnerabilities and sensitivities. They would know how to induce corrosive shame, for example. They might have resentments specific to the culture’s measures of status and accomplishment, which would add piquancy to the neutering of centers of influence. None of this is normal, though it has consolidated itself under cover of the customary transfer of power. It claims a mandate to transform the country fundamentally, to return it to its competitors, if there should be another election, irreversibly changed and damaged.
I am proposing, of course, that America actually is, at present, an occupied country. I will call the occupiers Red and the occupied Blue, since these colors are in general use for distinctions of this kind and seemingly cause no offense. To the extent that this statement is complicated by the fact that those in power were elected, their conduct in office seems not to be what many of their voters were led to expect or would have chosen. So the polls tell us. Elections do indeed have consequences, and should have them. The sovereignty of the people must be honored even as they begin to repent of their choices. This is among the many crucial norms that depend altogether on respect. It cannot mean only that the electorate must be deferred to, even when it is misinformed or aroused to unhealthy excitements.
Democracy cannot decline far without ceasing to be democracy. The spirit of its politics might well become so degraded that the people, whose authority can have no legitimate successor, are ousted altogether. We can see who would displace them—the ultra-rich, the tech visionaries, and the hordes of hangers-on who are enchanted and ambitious. To note that these interests are powerful now and have been for many years is to toy with the kind of disrespect for the American system that could be fatal to it. But in our present circumstances, it should be the first order of business to speak forthrightly about the need to reform the culture so that it can sustain democratic institutions. New attention to the First Amendment would be a beginning. We could have excellent arguments about what this reform would mean and how it could be accomplished, if we managed to keep these corrupting influences from compromising any attempt to restore democracy.
The Red country threatens friends, shamefully abandons a brave and resourceful Ukrainian people as they struggle to defend their country from invasion. Honor is not a concept invoked by Red America. It is another conservative virtue for which they have only contempt. Zelensky predicted—so far accurately—that offering the US a financial stake in Ukraine in their natural resources would be the only way to get Trump to soften his pro-Russia stance.
The crisis of democracy must find a democratic solution. Fortunately this is quite possible. The border between these two Americas is entirely open, and on the Blue side, migrants are welcomed with all possible warmth.
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