Love It or Leave It? Only a Fool Would Say Such a Thing

The history of America is a case study in the concept of dissent, from the Revolution against the King to abolition to worker’s rights, to anti-war movements, the Women’s Movement, civil rights, cultural dissent, to the Tea Party political dissent. Interwoven into the structural fabric of the American experiment is the basic premise of freedom: freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom to voice dissent. Basically, freedom relies upon expression of dissent. Hence we have dissenting opinions, rules governing equal time in public discourse, minority opinions, and legislative, judicial, and executive procedures designed to encourage if not outright mandate contrary views and opinions.

In direct contradiction to the very nature of dissent in this nation’s history the President is now dredging up language more reminiscent of the McCarthy Era, a dark chapter in America’s progressive arc, that became a nationalistic rallying cry in support of the Vietnam War: namely “America, love it or leave it.” The Urban Dictionary defines the rallying cry as a “term used by those who don’t understand the concept of dissent.”

There is a lot the President simply cannot comprehend. As a self-proclaimed ‘stable genuis’ it is tempting to question whether either of those words, let alone both put together, adequately capture the intellectual and/or temperamental qualities he so generously ascribes to himself. The larger question always being that if in fact he is what he says why does he see the need to say it, wouldn’t others surely recognize it if it were in fact, a fact?

The President clearly lacks any appreciation for history, reading, comprehension of complex issues, or any notion of how American democracy was either constructed or works. He most certainly lacks any appreciation for the concepts of disagreement and compromise. News flash for the concept-challenged President, compromise is the sinew that holds the body of American democracy together, and your inability to grasp what is to most a fundamental tenet of our heritage is not only profoundly disturbing but inherently dangerous.

So as we continue to amble down the avenue of time-warping fantasy in order to go in search of when America was great, let us not forget that progress is essentially built upon dissent and debate. No great strides forward in the long arc towards justice is without healthy and hard fought deliberation over competing ideas. Competition is the lifeblood from which springs those ideas that truly make this country great, and the President’s obsession with removing any obstacles to fascist diktat and his orgasmic affection for authoritarianism effectively represent threats to the very nature of a competitive marketplace for ideas. In short, Mr. President, you are killing the country!

Trump’s ill-tempered bluster and saber-rattling bravado, ironically built around narcissism and cowardice is full evidence of a temperamental and intellectual immaturity befitting a very young and very, very spoiled child.

Your ill-tempered bluster and saber-rattling bravado, ironically built around narcissism and cowardice is full evidence of a temperamental and intellectual immaturity befitting a very young and very, very spoiled child. You are a little, little man grown old beyond his years having never experienced a good, old-fashioned ass kicking. Hopefully you will experience the agony of defeat and rejection next November, although I shudder to think of how much actual damage you can do to the Republic in the meantime.

It is you, sir, who needs to return to the hell that produced you and leave the important stuff to those who have both the inclination and ability to actually make this country all that it can be and more. This is truly time for the very self-deportation you once espoused. You do not love this country, you despise everything it stands for. You are a bona fide enemy of the state, hand delivered by Vladimir Putin, the bastard political child of a corrupt and flawed electoral system that plays into a dusted off Soviet masterplan.

There never was a time when all was right with the nation. Our continuing struggle to improve both ourselves and the world is an ongoing one that requires the strength to look in the mirror and accept change. Most importantly, however, is the necessity to move forward not backwards. Over the next month we will celebrate several events that fifty years ago promised a new awakening for the nation and a generation that was seriously questioning and yes dissenting from the accepted orthodoxy of conventional wisdom and what was considered normal.

To most the Sixties was a time of critical self-evaluation, reflection, and monumental soul searching. Fifty years ago this summer provided our nation with a series of events that led us to search deep down and discover if not define our differences. During the summer of ’69 I was about to reach my 16th birthday, of course coming in late August the elusive driver’s license would deprive me of the ability to have the ultimate freedom to roam the landscape and in those times thumbing a ride was sometimes inconvenient but always produced an effective solution to the lack of mobility.

This past weekend I attended a showing of Easy Rider, a 4G digitized version honoring the fiftieth anniversary of what would become a counterculture classic film that led me to seriously question the meaning of freedom. While entranced with the notion of cruising down the highway, wind blowing through your hair, freely smoking pot and enjoying the laughter and camaraderie of free expression, and discovering not only oneself but the beauty of boundless natural surroundings, the excitement of breaking away took on a new and thrilling discovery.

But the dialogue of the flick also heightened the emergence of discovery. The character of George Hanson, played by Jack Nicholson, captures this in a marijuana-infused campsite discussion with Billy, the character played by Dennis Hopper. Hanson offers the following advice, “they’re not scared of you, they’re scared of what you represent to ‘em…what you represent to them is freedom…they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare ‘em…it makes them dangerous.” It touched me the way it touched an entire generation, it spoke to us, it made us more determined to question authority and the status quo, it awakened us to the limitless possibilities of what could be.

Barely a week later the world watched with wonderment and amazement as Neil Armstrong fulfilled a pledge made by President John F. Kennedy some 8 years earlier that the “US should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” Armstrong reinforced the quintessential American spirit of progress by declaring his historical feat “one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.” Once again the boundless limits of our quest for exploration reached into outer space.

Three weeks later the world would be treated to the spectacle of nearly half a million bedraggled, innocent, peaceful youngsters gathered in upstate New York engaged in “An Aquarian Exposition: 3 days of peace and music.” Through music and lyrical exploration people discovered a bond that was stronger than anything they had previously experienced: namely, a quest for peace and mind expansion. The world was alive with fresh perspectives, new experiences, excitement and the hope for a future unlike any that came before it. Of course, lurking outside the world many were desperately trying to make sense of were the strong countervailing pressures of reality.

Against this backdrop the year 1969 would find 11,780 American soldiers dead on the battlefields of Vietnam, newly elected President Richard Nixon, cult murders in Hollywood courtesy of Charles Manson, and the issue in Chappaquiddick that ended the life of Mary Jo Kopechne and likely ended the Presidential aspirations of Ted Kennedy.

It was a time of self-assessment, it was a time that would help shape a generation that would ultimately fail the test of leaving the world a better place than they found it, it was a time that provided serious questioning of what was and what should be.

Today we are mired in division that seeks not to solve problems but rather to accentuate our differences. The best that can be said of that summer a half century ago was that at least it was driven by good intentions and that there were signs of promise for a better future. Today we spend entirely too much time searching for a time that we could return to. One can be so busy looking backwards that they cannot see where they are going.

Sometimes I look back with fondness upon those days of promise. But I refuse to glorify them merely for the purposes of return but rather for reinvigoration. We need to commit our society to the notion that where we are headed is more important than where we have been. Forget about making America great again, focus on making America greater. Period.

But above all else, question the legitimacy of the direction in which we are headed and reject out of hand the cynical, maniacal, and perverted interpretation of progress that currently has a grip on our nation and our world. We can do better than this and we are better than this. It is really up to us.