America’s Curse

Racism has been part of the national identity since the beginning.

Marcellus Williams was executed yesterday despite the pleas of millions. Personally, I believe he would not have been executed if all the facts were the same, save that he was a white man.

This country was born in slavery, its constitution was drafted in a manner designed to protect the institution. The battle over the status of African Americans has been a feature of our national dialogue and led to a bloody Civil War that ended slavery, but not racism.

The human head and heart are the only places where racism can be eradicated. But what the last nine years have shown is that many millions of heads and hearts are suffused with racism. Donald Trump simply came along and gave these individuals permission to wear their racism on their sleeves.

What I have noticed in the response to my posts and notes is that people here are fed up with excuses for our fellow citizens. The sense that all of Trump’s supporters are racists is growing on Substack. I have said that if you support Trump you either are a racist, or you tolerate racism. This I believe is true and the people who claim (wrongly) that the economy was better off under Trump are effectively saying that their perception of how they are doing financially is more important than social equality and the difference between right and wrong.

No matter how you slice it, it is unacceptable. The other dynamic I have noticed is the large number of us who have excised Trump supporters from our lives. There really is no going back. Our way of life is at peril because of their needs, and they believe that their way of life is at stake if Kamala Harris wins. It is existential. Note that I used believe in reference to the Trump supporters. That is because we aren’t the ones trying to dictate to others how they must live. That is the domain of Republicans.

This leads to the elephant in the room. What future does this country have as a union with such unalterable differences? These are not ideological debates that can be resolved through compromise. That genie is out of the bottle. The differences are moral; they reflect completely irreconcilable ways of life. How do you find middle ground with somebody you view as amoral, even immoral? Racism sits at the axis of all of these differences.

This election is not the end of an ideology if Kamala Harris wins. It will be the beginning of a new front in the battle to overcome America’s curse. How it ends will depend on how our co-citizens react. While I look forward to a resounding Harris victory, I am filled with foreboding about what comes after. It will be up to Harris and all of us to defend our rights and resist any efforts to undo the social and political reforms that will follow if Harris wins. The future of the country as presently constituted depends on it.