There are two Americas

Joe Biden during this year's campaign and Barack Obama before him, both said that there are no Blue States or Red States, no Red America and Blue America, only the United States of America.

They're both wrong.

There are two Americas. And quite obviously, neither side understands the other.

Jim Wright today on Facebook summed it up pretty well:

So what have we learned?

Here is what it comes down to:

In Red America, people are OK with racism even if they hide it. People are OK with bigotry. People are OK with misogyny and sexism. People are OK with hate, creeping fascism, waving swastikas, lighting tiki torches and burning crosses. 

In Red America, they don't mind the grifter in the White House, as long as their 401Ks are up, even if that rise is an illusion. I saw hundreds of interviews this election season where retirees, farmers, small business people and many others said: "The economy is doing very well under Trump." But they do not understand the real economy. They believe that this man really has a good policy vis-a-vis China and trade. They believe that this man HAS made us safer with his policy with North Korea. That we're better for it and more independent if we're withdrawn from the Paris Climate Accord, the Iran Nuclear Deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and NAFTA (if you were to study NAFTA and the new deal Trump pursued, you would understand that the new deal is just a simple an update of NAFTA and that Mexico and Canada have given no new concessions that make life for American Producers and Consumers better.)

In Red America, they believe that that their taxes have gone down, not understanding the economic time bombs that the new tax law has put in place. Not just, raising taxes for people, but raising taxes for working class people. But economically untenable is also a system where corporations pay zero tax, where Billionaires get an increasing larger share of the pie, and where everyone else hopes to win the Lotto one day.

James Lee Burke in his latest book, "A Private Cathedral" has a telling quote:

We're living in weird times, Streak. I bet forty percent of the country wouldn't mind firing up the ovens as long as the smokestacks are blowing downwind. 

Unfortunately, it's true, most people in Red America believe in short term gain as opposed to planning for the future of their children and their children's children. They do not see any of the looming threats.

"Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness"

I have been talking about this, and talking about this.

The rich continue to get richer and everyone else falls behind.

BUT,

What if instead of this model, we switched to one where GREED and being better than everyone else WAS NOT the primary motivator. NO. I'm not talking about SOCIALISM. I'm talking about shared responsibility. There was a time, even in this old US of A, that we said enough of the robber-barons, enough of these millionaires and billionaires taking advantage of everyone.... (And before that, enough of these Kings and Queens taking advantage of the serfs). The USA was established as a Democracy underpinned with that sense of shared responsibility. But what happened?

Even in the USA, even after "our shared values" brought success in WWII and post-war prosperity (which we shared with people around the world), and which helped defeat communism, somewhere along the way we started worshiping GREED again and this sick version of rugged-individualism. Now, there is nothing wrong with saying I am an individual, and as such I will strive to succeed and become the best version of myself possible. But there is a context lacking today.

The context missing is that no one is isolated and living by themselves ANYWHERE in the world. NONE of your actions (or mine) are independent of some force or action on someone or something else associated with society.

Now these words, "associated," "society," "connected," "civilization," and even "socialism," all have something in common. They are backed by the idea that everything we do is shared, it's connected, it's part of being a member in our local space, our extended country family and our inhabited world. Regardless of whether you are an anti-Globalist or in fact believe in the butterfly effect, the truth is YOU ARE PART of this SPINNING GLOBE called EARTH.

Now, more than ever before, where the news travel around the world at light speed, and the spread of a virus outpaces the spread of panic about its effects.

You might not like the ideas of your neighbor, BUT, there is only two ways to deal with those ideas. Either you shun your neighbor, ignore him when his house is burning and don't call 911, OR you run into his house to save him and his kids. In other words, you co-exist. Shared responsibility.

Somewhere, along the way this fundamental social contract was broken. Somewhere along the way, it became OK to hate your neighbor more than you hate the things that want to hurt you. The enemy has become the face in the mirror and in doing so, we have allowed all the worse impulses of humanity to take root.

You hate immigrants? Fine. But at one time you were an immigrant too.

You hate rivals? Fine. But you're also someone's rival.

You hate communists? Fine.They hate you too. But they are people too. Why so much hate?

You hate socialists? Fine. But at one time you were a socialist too....whether in a cave in the neolithic trying to survive against the cold and the mastodon and the other wild animals circling, OR when you went down to the DMV to get you car tag and pay your tax in order to drive your car on the public roads that ALL OF US AS A SOCIAL group (ie., a society) agreed we wanted.

The answer of course is not take more of you money to help those in need. (But if you're a Christian and you don't see that is what GOD is asking us to do, why are you playing at being a Christian, and lying to yourself and God?) The answer is to go back and share responsibility again. We shared responsibility when we formed this Union. (The same can be said of any country which worked toward its independence). We shared responsibility again to defeat the evil of Fascism and the Nazis. We shared responsibility to go to the moon. But not anymore. What happened?

Now, everyone is AGAINST everyone else and nobody understands the "other" or even attempts to put themselves in "someone else's shoes". Although, some are. Some understand that the "social contract" has been broken and it is time to mend it again. This gentleman is one of those people. You see what he did? Is it right for CEOs to make 300 times more that workers in the their companies? Are company profits more important than the workers who make the company profitable? Is buying a pair of socks for $1 or a t-shirt for $5, more important than a retail worker earning a living wage? Is your absolute right to own a gun more important than my right to NOT BE murdered in public? At what point does my freedom end your freedom begin? At what point does our shared responsibility at this game called "living life" end? Are we in this together, or are we in a fight for survival? Are we playing Darwin's game of "survival of the fittest"? Because down this road there is only on answer: DEATH. And not just your enemies' death. But many others too. Maybe yours as well? When will you realize that your choices and your beliefs have led you astray? Will it take the death of your friends? Of your family? Will you then finally understand that we are all connected despite what you might want to think about your superior intellect and your personal independence?

Ultimately, it comes down to a two part question:

Where does your "humanity" (everything about you and your life) end, and where does my "humanity" begin? Do they interlace?

And what does "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," really mean?