Prologue: The End Game
Four years ago, right after the 2016 Presidential Election, we started this site. In 2016, we were appalled that we, as a nation, elected an unqualified fascist game show host to our nation’s highest office.
For four years, we watched in horror as the United States Government worked in our name to rip babies away from their mothers at the border, ban immigrants from this the land of opportunity, walk away from our worldwide commitments, destroy government agencies from within, bankrupt our country in both the literal and moral sense.
Like the majority of us, we managed to muddle through the daily onslaught of nonsensical tweets, nonexistent press conferences, the yelling, the screaming, the lies, the idiocy, all while fighting the shock that this cheap imitation, wannabe dictator born out of reality television and conspiracy echo chambers in control of our government.
We watched as the sycophants refused to publicly denounce this traitor to reasoned, democratic government. We watched as this buffoon, this play-action mafia Don cozied up to our enemies while distancing from our friends. We watched as he perpetrated his corruption in real-time, on television, on the phone, on his Twitter account, before our very eyes.
We watched while the once proud Republican Party, the party that for decades professed itself to be the party of law and order, family values, the Norman Rockwell, Apple Pie Party, excused, enabled and sold out our nation to this New York conman with daddy issues in order to hold on to the last vestiges of power at all costs, the nation, the world, be damned.
We watched. We listened. We cried. We screamed into the darkness.
Over the last four years, so much has been written, so much has been said, we wondered really what could this site possibly say or do to add positively to the conversation.
The few posts we did print seemed more of the same. We are not the only ones to see this past administration for what it was, a deeply disturbed caricature of the United States of America. We were not the only ones to rail against the abuses, the ineptitude, the callousness, the overall descent into hell that was the last four years.
Then, along came 2020. The year began with the impeachment. Surely, here the Republicans would put country above party, stand up and show the world that we take our democracy, our government and our principles seriously. Nope.
Then, along came the coronavirus. Surely, now, our country would put politics aside and work together to ensure we are safe and fight a common threat. Nope.
Then, came the 2020 Presidential Election. Surely, the electorate would send this guy packing. Yep.
Still, we watched in awe as over 70 million people voted for little Donny J and his merry band of fascists.
Now, to be clear, this election was not close. It was not a nail-biter. It was not the election of 2000 or the election of 1960. Biden won the popular vote by over 5 million. The only reason we all sat on the edge of our seat waiting for the results is because of the archaic, undemocratic, infuriating electoral college. In a democracy the majority wins. In the United States, even with a majority, it could still be a loss (see 2016 election).
70 million of our fellow citizens looked at this guy in the White House, his corrupt accomplices, his incompetent family, his daily tweet storms and said, “Yep, this is the America I want to live in.”
If the 2016 election brought tears to our eyes, the 2020 election brought utter confusion. How could 70 million people possibly vote for four more years of this??
The last four years, frankly, we did not think we really had anything to add to the discussion. For like-minded individuals, our articles, our posts, would have added to the reinforcement that none of what we were all experiencing was normal by any stretch of the imagination. For those who worshipped at the altar Donny J, our posts would have not broken through the fog of personality. In other words, all the posts would have done is add to the incessant back and forth. No one needed that when we have more than enough from Newsmax, Fox, CNN and MSNBC. The posts would have just piled up tagged lovely by one side, labelled awful by the other.
Now, here today, on the other hand, maybe there is a place for Our Civic Duty here in the discussion.
We are not the first to say it and we will not be the last but, look, democracy is a messy adventure. We do not, nor should we, agree on everything. We should debate, discuss, dive deep into issues that affect all of us. But, there are ground rules.
What we saw in the 2020 election is that 70 million of our fellow citizens are not overly concerned with ground rules or Democracy. 70 million Americans look at this man pouting in the White House, the house we own, and are just fine with this man-child refusing to accept an election in which he lost by over 5 million votes. Then, inciting a riot on January 6th as a grotesque attempt to derail certification of the new president. How did it come to this?
Personally, we neglected this site, Our Civic Duty. We let others do the talking and thinking for us. We said, in today’s world, the problems, the challenges are just too much.
We as a nation have done the same with our democracy. We abdicated our responsibility to our country and let unqualified, unhinged , and uninformed representatives grab the reins of power and run ramshackle across the landscape of our democracy. All the while, we watched 42 different streaming services, played video games, and worked hundreds of hours a week. And, for those so inclined, we said, yeah, you Donny J, the man with a trail of failed businesses, the man with a carnival barker attitude, you run the show.
To literally 70 million of us, the very idea of a functioning democracy was too much to handle and despite unbridled ineptitude, unimaginable corruption and unhinged lies, here in 2020, they say, democracy is hard, let’s get rid of it and, sure, let this loser refuse to concede, refuse to transfer power. The overwhelming majority of the Republican Representatives along with a dozen Senators refuse to acknowledge that the election has passed and it is time to wind things down at the Executive Branch. How did we get here? We think that is something we should be talking about.
Part One: 1964
In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt beat Herbert Hoover, the Republican incumbent President in a landslide trouncing Hoover by a margin of nearly 7 million votes. Yet, even during the depths of the Great Depression, 15 million people in the United States said, “Yeah, what we need four more years of this. Looks good.”
FDR’s Presidency cast a long shadow. To save people from poverty and starvation, FDR put the strength and the power of the United States Government to work creating a host of work programs, social safety nets including social security and dozens of other programs under the New Deal.
There is an argument to be made that despite the New Deal programs, what really got the United States out of the Depression was World War II and the massive manufacturing boom required to fight the war. However, there can be little argument that the New Deal dramatically changed the United States Government and its role in our society.
Despite the obvious need and the obvious success, the dramatic government intervention into our economy, business, a social wellbeing did not, and has not, set well with the ultra-conservative crowd. In fact, through the magic of the Google Machine, it is easy to go back to 1932, work your way forward to 2020 and hear the same arguments, the same lines, the same fearmongering time and time again. In short, to many, the New Deal represents the downfall of the United States rather the life raft it was to a nation on the brink of despair and the basis for what was to become the strongest middle class the world had ever seen.
In 1932, as in 2020, the far right harbored a deep fear that the citizenry would grow accustom to government “handouts,” leading to socialism which in turn leads to the loss of independence but more specifically the loss of the independent corporation which in turn leads to loss of individual profit. For roughly the last 100 years, the arguments, while voiced in various vernaculars of the times extolled by various players molded to fit the moment are all essentially same, the New deal, social programs are bad for Americans, bad for the economy, bad for business, goes against God, our principals and common sense.
That New deal shadow is long. From 1932 onward, these ultra-conservatives have tried with varying degrees of success to break through to the mainstream and knock back this new role of Government born from the ashes of the Depression. The problem was finding the right messenger and the right message.
In what was perhaps a precursory omen to the ways an idea born of fear and anger has real potential to manifest into grotesque real-world caricatures, the 1950s saw this fear of socialism or communists manifest in the form of the McCarthy Hearings. For about four years, McCarthy delved into Hollywood and other industries and government agencies looking to out communists, convinced there was a “deep state” of communists at every level of government and important industry. His downfall finally came when his fever had him accusing the United States Army of harboring communists. In the annals of history, McCarthy is listed as a dangerous nut, basically. But, for four years, he and his happy wanderers were very real and very serious. His mistake was accusing the Army. Once he did that, he was brushed to the dustbin.
In the end, McCarthy far from the right messenger. He practically foamed at the mouth during his Senate hearings. All it took to puncture this windbag was one simple question from an attorney for the Army: “Have you no decency, sir?” He didn’t. The people finally saw that. It was over.
But, lessons learned.
It took another ten years or so but the ultraright finally found their man, Ronald Reagan.
Enter Ronald Reagan, an actor of limited talent turned GE corporate shill. Here is a good-looking guy, personable, malleable, with camera experience who switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party after he saw the profitability the Republican Party afforded him through corporate wheeling and dealing.
As Screen Actors Guild President, he worked a nice sweetheart deal for his agent that also allowed him to pocket some coin. In 1962, he switched parties claiming he did not leave the Democratic Party but they left him. By 1964, Reagan was the new shill for Barry Goldwater.
Barry Goldwater, 1964 candidate and precursor to today’s Republican party was, back then, a pretty extreme candidate. The campaign needed a shill to soften the edges. Reagan with his acting and camera experience and folksy way was just this ticket—and, boy did he deliver.
On October 27th, 1964, Reagan delivered what would come to be known as “The Speech.” The Speech introduced Reagan to a national audience. It is a pretty fine speech, for sure. The speech hit all the marks. Through one-liners and doses of mitigated fear and anger, Reagan manages to get the point across that in the end, government and those in government are destroying America and the American way of life. Time and again, Reagan regales the audience of government agency waste and ineptitude each time concluding that a failing, over extended government has no business telling the good folks in the audience or those watching from home anything about their lives. To paraphrase one moment, he lets it be known that we the people are individuals rather than “the masses.” A citizen answers to what is good for ourselves not what is good for all. In watching the speech, it is clear the attack is not so much on the opposing candidate but on government itself– with the notable exception of law and order and the military.
Lesson Learned.
The Speech is available online. It is a good watch and it is the seed from whence today’s Republican Party grew.
Part 2: The Reagan Years
Reagan’s 1964 Goldwater speech brought in millions and millions of campaign contributions for the Goldwater campaign from all over the country. Reagan had not only hit the target with the message but delivered the message so effectively, the campaign reaped the huge rewards. That speech was the beginning of Reagan the politician. So much so that his corporate backers had him running for the governor of California and the Presidency within 3 years.
In 1968, Reagan ran for President. It did not go well at all. Despite the turmoil of unrest at home and the Vietnam War, the electorate was not quite ready to thrown in the towel on our government just yet. In 1968, Reagan conservatism was still hardline right. He did not make the ticket. Back to the California Governor’s mansion to rehearse.
Tricky Dick Nixon, the Republican who did make the ticket in 1968, won the Presidency that year. Tricky Dick was certainly aligned on the right edge but his messaging did make it more palatable to the electorate.
Plenty has been said about Dick Nixon. For our purposes, we can skip most of it with a few exceptions. Like Republican candidates to come, Dick Nixon enlisted the aid of a foreign government during the election. In Nixon’s case, the campaign talked South Vietnam into holding off on peace talks until after the election. Never mind that peace talks had the potential to save American lives. Had the talks been successful before the election, it would give the Democrats the edge, or so the thinking went. Like campaigns to follow, the Nixon campaign took in plenty of dark money from dark souls. And like a future Republican President, Nixon let his severe personal demons and shortcomings to get out of hand which, in his case, led to Watergate. Nixon resigned rather than be impeached.
Despite the war in Vietnam, the social unrest of the 1960s and the Watergate break-in, in 1974, 36% of the population still trusted the government, according to polls of the time.
In 1976, Reagan ran again for US President. It was close, but Ford won a spot on the ticket rather than Reagan.
The Democrat, Jimmy Carter won the election that year. That may have been the last time Carter had any joy as President. Between 1976 and 1980, the US had some challenges; a deep recession, an oil shortage, stagnation. Iran took 52 embassy workers hostage. By the time the 1980 election rolled around with an administration seemingly unable to address the deep problems of the day, the Unites States was looking for a change. Reagan with his message of government as the real problem connected with the electorate and won in a landslide.
While never proven, there is a conspiracy theory that like the Nixon campaign before, the Reagan campaign and the transition team worked with a foreign government. This time it was Iran. Minutes after Reagan’s swearing in, Iran released the hostages held for 444 days. Both a Senate and a House of Representative investigation committees concluded that there was no substantive evidence to the allegations. The Reagan Administration also dealt with a pandemic, the AIDS pandemic, in much the same way the Trump Administration has dealt with the COVID pandemic, they completely ignored it.
The Reagan Presidency marked a hard-right turn for American politics. Social services were cut drastically. Industrial regulations were cut drastically. Corporate taxes were cut drastically. Trickle-down economics, a theory that dictates if the richest people in the country pay less in taxes, then that money not taken to fund the government will trickle down to benefit the poorer classes became the mantra.
All while defunding and dismantling government agencies, the Reagan administration’s main message was that government is the problem, government caused the bad economy and the Reagan administration is there to fix it. Basically, the Reagan Administration was the antithesis to the Roosevelt Administration.
Americans responded to the message, in 1984, the polls showed trust in government rose to 46%. The fix was in. The message stuck. The Republican party doubled down on this message and, in fact, has stuck with it for the last 40 years. In fact, the message that our government, by the people, for the people, is simply inept, inefficient, incompetent and just plain awful is pretty much the core tenant of the Republican Party. The party of Lincoln has done nothing but amplify that message over the last four decades. That message? Our government is to be scorned and hated as inefficient, wasteful and dangerous to our way of life. That message has been amplified and refined over the course of the last four decades.
One of the many regulations repealed by the Reagan administration was the Fairness Doctrine. The Fairness Doctrine was in place from 1949 through 1987. In basic terms, the doctrine mandated that those corporations holding broadcast licenses had to present controversial issues of public importance equitably and with a careful, deliberate balance of facts. Removing the rule eliminated the roadblock to various media companies devoted to one singular ideology broadcasting a singular point of view to wide swaths of the American public.