What We Left Behind
The Unspoken Political Spectrum of The United States
On the European political battlefield, the Left represents secularism and the Right represents religion. Whereas in the American system, the Left represents anarchy and the Right represents totalitarian control. Or it did. What happened?
Today, the political debate in America has lost its soul - we have accepted the European style implicitly. We don’t question the totalitarian control which has grown unchecked in the fog of federalism, it’s par for the course. We argue whether gay marriage should be the law of the land, or whether it should be banned throughout the nation. The American argument is whether citizens deserve the right to define marriage among themselves and their personal communities or whether marriage must be defined and enforced by federal government. This was the kind of debate our founders were having- and it didn’t matter whether they were religious or secular, they had the security and respect for others’ beliefs to know that the honest fight was to realize a system that did the same.
There is little hope in the European method — it is a fight for who can dominate who — it ignores the possibility of freedom with the assumption that authoritarian rule over your fellow man is a given. It’s purest manifestations plagued the 20th century with Wars — and the American movements for human dignity reigned it in only so far, transforming unabashed totalitarianism into marketing campaigns that install rock-stars to cover the same dark mechanisms. The European method has led to a place of division and antipathy powered by racism and guilt. Where one day government censors posts on Facebook that mention Islam for fear of offense, and then hijabs are outlawed the next. Where social dictates create weak and dangerous people vying for who can control who with those same dictates.
Yes, we are far along the path to European authoritarianism in the United States. Each political debate we hear seems further and further removed from the debates of our inception, from the ideals our founding fathers fashioned from their great knowledge of history and hope for the future. We hear voices as if echoing from the failures of the Western world. Voices crying out for social control rise — out of empathy for their fellow man, they want us to live good lives by decree. We hear the medieval echo of the church of Britain monarchy. We have heard the voices for economic control seek to protect the poor by creating systems that they learn to rely on — that corrupt the personal responsibility and respect they in theory wish to encourage. We hear the justified outrage of the Red Shirts taking over the hearts of Russia. The voices rose to screaming. Then, the political discourse changed, from heated debate, to policy and action — and we saw how easy it is for a people to embrace expediency at the expense of the long-term. We saw Woodrow Wilson imprison citizens who dared speak German during World War I. We saw Franklin D. Roosevelt revoke Japanese-American’s citizenship. We see now the epicenter of the battle has apparently made permanent residence at the federal level- and we have transformed into the European system we revolted against. With scoffing, we pretend we are better because of it — and indeed we have evolved in many aspects. But there is a danger. We drop formalities because of emotional pleas- and drop the responsibility to act like adults, to treat each other as adults, as they become children to the parental state- the European assumption — and break out in tantrums over Beyonce and Bibles. Secularity and religiousity.
But our unique tradition beckons us — the United States is imbued with the spirit of freedom that challenged authoritarian march of our ancestors. We have to embrace the debate of the Left and Right of our tradition. The debate between freedom and the tyranny that seems so close. We have to challenge the status quo once more. There is a sweet spot between Anarchy and total control, where the rule of law protects and respects individual liberty — we must fight to return to the side of liberty, our original Left wing, armed with all the things we have learned, to strive for a nation that serves rather than dominates the people. That doesn’t have a conflict of interests in dividing us — into fooling us into voting democrat if we love science, or voting republican if we love God.
Further and further we section ourselves off based on belief systems unrelated to freedom- but whose philosophy is a debate on the nature of truth, of personal spirituality, and morality. But we are missing the cruel joke entirely — we have let an immoral system of governance take hold. It is not the correct nature of man to be subjugated. It is not God’s will for you to dominate through theocratic decree — nor is it in the best interest of a creature based in science and reason to force his fellow man into thinking like him — that is not the path to secular truth. These behaviors are those of the beast — of brutes preying on each other- not the behaviors fitting to a rational animal, to humanity. But we have let our political system chose our fate — and bought into the idea that there is no third option. We don’t need to be punished for considering freedom, because it is not even part of the dialogue when our politicians are deciding whether the Bible is canonical truth — backed by the smiting guns of our federal angels- that must or must not be forced upon every child regardless of their wishes. We have to wake up and return to the idea that the argument was not intended to be one of who has the power and how they can control the people, but the argument of how to control the people who have power.
If we do not wake up, these curators of corruption who have accumulated political power will continue spilling our blood. Keying into our insecurity and hate. They relish in the European dichotomy — and they enrich themselves when we forget who we once were. Don’t let them.
Freedom and tyranny. That is the true Left and Right in America. Which side do you stand for?
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