When the red, white, and blue fireworks exploded Monday night, politics may not be at the forefront of most people’s minds.
However, a fractional partisan age is undeniably penetrating everyone’s lives.
In another example of startling political disruption, an activist Supreme Court, protected behind high metal fences in its Washington marble chambers, has just stripped the constitutional right of millions of women to have abortions. The decision validates a half-century campaign of conservative activists, many of whom have sincere moral objections to abortion, who equated it with the murder of a child to be born.
But the Supreme Court decision and the emerging system of abortion restrictions in the United States have met with outrage in other parts of America. On Sunday, South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, a possible Republican presidential candidate, defended her state’s ban on abortion in CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked if a 10-year-old girl who was raped should be forced to give birth. or explain how their state will care for women deprived of the right to terminate a pregnancy. His evasions encapsulated how many supporters of the right to abortion see hypocrisy and inhumanity among some who profess to care for life, and the irreconcilable division on this issue in the country. Given the political discord boiling beneath the surface of Monday’s national celebrations, it’s no surprise that a staggering 85% of American adults in an Associated Press-NORC poll published last week said things in the country are going in the wrong direction. The survey formalized what is obvious: despite all its advantages, abundant resources, comparative prosperity, and history of working to perfect its democracy, the United States is not a comfortable country right now. The cliché that America’s best days are ahead is increasingly hard to believe.
More reasons for sadness
Social tensions are exacerbated by economic pressure.
The Ukrainian war is raising food bills and has increased gasoline to record prices. The Biden presidency struggle seems to have no idea how to help after potentially worsening the situation by injecting hundreds of millions of dollars of spending into the economy.
Gun crimes in cities are reminiscent of a more violent past and every Monday presents a bleak account of the weekend’s mass shootings.
The shadow of Trump’s violent coup attempt hovers over the country.
A flurry of voting restrictions in many Conservative-led states and the GOP’s refusal to renew voting rights legislation dates back to a poisoned era of racial repression. Liberals who once dreamed of a new Franklin Roosevelt are dissatisfied with the results of their narrow monopoly of political power in Biden’s Washington. But his radicalism also runs the risk of alienating the crucial midpoint of voters who should be at stake while the GOP sinks well.
Incredibly, the country is struggling to make enough infant formula to feed its babies, and has to fly with emergency supplies from abroad, a metaphor if there ever was one for a time when things didn’t work out. they seem to be going very well. well.
And in some regions, the shows that side with Americans of all convictions – the July 4th fireworks shows – are dampened by the bans imposed because the earth is dry due to global warming , another threat that challenges a political consensus by action.
A deeply divided nation
Almost every day there is a controversy or political struggle that underscores the antagonism between more moderate, diverse, and socially tolerant American cities and suburbs, and the conservatism of rural America.
Many leaders on both sides of the aisle accentuate the differences for political gain, only increasing the sense of anger that runs through the country. Elected leaders seeking to bring together those with divergent views are an endangered species.
Increasingly, for those thinking of politics, each side of the divide sees the other as an existentialist threat to their idea of America, a schism of perception especially demonstrated in recent weeks by the struggle between supporters and opponents of the right to abortion.
On the right, disillusionment with the government itself – which fueled Trump’s rise and is being exacerbated by his lies about election fraud – is a driving force behind a Republican Party that is renouncing democracy. .
On the left, more and more people see a Supreme Court illegitimate as openly ignoring majority opinion. The high court was once seen over partisan flames. But even his judges have been caught in a tide of fury, with the sniper more characteristic of social media than the views of the Supreme Court. During the oral arguments before the historical annulment of Roe v. Wade last month, Liberal Judge Sonia Sotomayor wondered if the court could “survive the stench” of deprivation of the right to abortion. In his majority opinion that he did exactly that, Judge Samuel Alito liked to dismiss the reasoning behind Roe as “enormously wrong.”
The Supreme Court was once seen as a moderating force of stability. But in his new zeal to break precedents, the Conservative majority has turned him into another destabilizing force in society.
Reasons for hope
So what are the reasons for hope on this Independence Day? Biden insists things are not as bad as they seem, seeking to fulfill that part of a president’s duties that involves reducing the country.
“You haven’t found a person, a world leader who says America is lagging behind,” the president insisted as he closed a visit to Europe last week.
“America is better positioned to lead the world than ever before. We have the strongest economy in the world. Our inflation rates are lower than those of other nations in the world,” he said, despite being somewhat economical. with the truth when it comes. to the rise in inflation that he once ruled out.
Biden, of course, has an interest in painting things in a better light than they are, especially with the midterm elections in which Democrats are likely to suffer less than 40 percent approval ratings.
But not everything is dark. Biden has piloted the United States out of the depths of the pandemic recession. Prices can be high and consume wage gains, but unemployment is around the 50-year lows. This could cushion the impact of a recession that many experts fear is on the way.
The retrospective showed that Biden de Covid-19’s declaration of partial independence last quarter of July was premature and politically unwise. But life is much closer to normal than a year ago and the United States is better prepared to face any resurgence of the Covid-19 in the fall. There are many vaccines everywhere, though again it seems that politics is threatening the common good with the refusal to take these precautions as a badge of honor among some grassroots conservatives.
Washington may not be as hopelessly broken as it seems. Since last year, Republicans and Democrats have come together to pass a huge new law that fixes the country’s aging infrastructure, a task that evaded the last presidents before Biden. And after an agreement between Republicans and Democrats, the Senate passed one of the most radical gun safety laws in a generation. The measure could have fallen far short of the pleadings of grieving relatives of the victims of the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas. But it was a sign that even in this vicious political climate, incremental change modeled across political institutions is not impossible.
For the first time in two decades, Americans are not fighting in major wars abroad. And Biden’s leadership in the West to face Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may represent the most significant example of American global leadership since the Cold War.
The courage of those who faced Trump’s attempt to steal power in 2020 is also an inspiration this July 4th. Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, vice president of the Jan. 6 House committee, may alienate Liberals with her political views, but a place in history has been written defending democracy, unlike many of her genoplexive rivals of the GOP who run perpetually frightened. of Trump.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Trump White House aide, embarrassed much taller colleagues by showing how a person can take a stand for the truth with her televised testimony before the House committee investigating the Capitol insurrection .
And if most of the country that didn’t want to see Roe reverse wants an example of turning a demoralizing defeat into a final victory, they can look at the years of activism of the anti-abortion movement to see how political change can be forged through generations. of militants who remain committed to the goal.
Because this July 4, America still has a democratic political system that can be shaped by the people.
At least for now.