“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

Benjamin Franklin

Some Americans are like moored boats in the tide, swinging to face whatever way they perceive is in their benefit, no matter the long-term cost and without consideration of the consequences.

We are in the midst of such a shift and it is a rising and relentless tide driven by ignorance, fear, and self-delusion.

Benjamin Franklin, in response to the question from Elizabeth Wiling Powel, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”, said, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

The first test came when George Washington, who had the support, influence, and opportunity to declare himself King or perhaps President for life, voluntarily walked away from the office after eight years, setting a standard unchanged until World War II and thereafter set in law as the Twenty-second Amendment.

The next came in 1860 with the secession of the southern states. Lincoln stood firm in the face of enormous pressure to preserve the union and remove the stain of slavery on the nation’s soul.

In the 1950s we faced a preview of our current troubles with the dawn of the McCarthy era. The country, gripped by irrational fear of communism, abandoned the Constitution in exchange for some sense of security. To the point where we changed the Pledge of Allegiance to include the words “under God” just to differentiate ourselves from the godless communists as if that was all we need do.

Again,  Dr. Franklin had it right. 

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

I wonder what Dr. Franklin and his fellow patriots would say about today’s situation.

Armed soldiers in the streets of American cities.

Masked government agents snatching people off the street without warrants or probable cause and secreting them in prisons without benefit of counsel or habeas corpus.

The Office of the President, granted blanket immunity by a neutered Supreme Court that has abandoned its position as an equal branch of government, ignoring inconvenient lower court rulings or even openly defying them.

Open and flagrant attacks on our allies while we take a virtual knee before dictators and fascists. Negotiating land concessions for other countries without their consent or participation.

A total and unequivocal abandonment of the American principles on which this country was founded out of some false sense of emergency or crisis.

Rosa Luxemburg, a brilliant thinker, writer, and philosopher–murdered by a government sponsored right-wing paramiilitary group– once warned “It is a dangerous path to use emergency measures as a manner of government policy.”

I don’t think even she would imagine such a thing happening in the United States, and yet here we are, (No doubt someone will feel the need to point out Luxemburg was a communist as if that negates everything she wrote. But like everything else, there is a nuance in her support of democracy that they will ignore.) 

A tidal wave of quasi-totalitarianism is rising in America. Many Americans have merely turned to ride the tide with resignation. Instead of reacting to the change and preparing to confront it, many are just hoping the mooring will hold. 

Some welcome it out of willful ignorance or petty vindictiveness toward their fellow humans.

Yet, there is hope. 

Tides, even those caused by tsunamis, recede. Let’s hope, when rationality returns, we have held on to our republic.