On this Fourth of July, reflect on the hate-filled country we’ve become | Opinion
On a Florida beach walk earlier this year, I came upon Old Glory, a beauty rising above sand dunes and sea oats. There she was, our flag, feverishly flapping against the wind in still-muted skies on the brink of sunrise.
All of it was lovely, but the flag and its tattered stripes made me sad.
A metaphor for the times, perhaps, as we lose freedoms and rights.
In Florida, we’ve been enduring all year long, under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ fascist rule, the politicized usurpation of rights. We know the panic, the anger the nation is experiencing with every decision this Supreme Court issues.
How do you love a country when it doesn’t love you back?
I asked myself similar versions of this question during the Trump years, and I’m asking again in light of life-altering developments in our political and cultural lives.
President Biden has tried to reconcile us, but he hasn’t succeeded.
Restoring decency and dignity to the White House hasn’t repaired the damage done by the hate promulgated by Biden’s predecessor — and now exacerbated by the ultra-conservative majority decisions issued by the Supreme Court with the help of the three appointments made by the worst president in history.
Damage lingers
Out of office for 17 months, what Donald Trump sowed is still very much with us. And DeSantis, his heir apparent, could be even worse, if what he has done in Florida is any indication.
We’re an ugly, hate-filled country. Not even the massacre of children unites us anymore.
How do we muster patriotism when the Supreme Court, supposedly the sentinel of rights, allows red states such as Florida to force women to give birth? When, in the same breath, the court rules against regulating conceal-carry, making it easier to continue the slaughter of our children, of church-goers, of shoppers?
READ MORE: Behind SCOTUS’ bid to overturn Roe v. Wade, a hidden GOP agenda against women
The Fourth of July holiday this year only brings to the forefront a fear: The United States is in decline.
Once unimaginable decisions made in state legislatures and courts are shredding rights and protections I and the majority of Americans considered sacred and essential to what defines us. Women are now, officially, second-class citizens who need state permission to make decisions only she and her doctor should make.
Even the First Amendment is under question now that ultra-conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, on a rampage to review all that he and the Religious Right question — gay marriage, contraception, a free media — wants to revisit the legal precedents that gave us rights in all those areas.
We used to be able to point at other countries and proudly coax them: Be like us, democratic, rights-defending, justice-seeking. But, pretty soon, thanks to the erasure of 50 years of constitutional protection under Roe v. Wade, the closest place to Florida where you may be able to get a legal abortion is Communist Cuba.
No longer purple
The thought is revolting, but you can thank Republican Cuban-American legislators for that. Without their faithful votes, DeSantis wouldn’t be considering an abortion ban in what used to be purple Florida, nor would they have restricted abortions to 15 weeks without exceptions for rape and incest. How cruel and unjust.
And he wouldn’t have had such an easy time legislating what educators can and can’t say about our horrific racial history, nor what business owners can and can’t say when training their multicultural staff (nothing that offends whites on both counts).
He has cleverly instituted a system whereby his will rules, and those who don’t abide by it, suffer consequences.
If he has turned this peninsular Margaritaville into a place where even Mickey Mouse has to watch his back, imagine what he’ll do to the country if his White House dream is realized.
This July 4, Americans should reflect on the damage extremist Republican politics playing out in Florida — and what SCOTUS’ politicized decisions — are doing to the nation’s soul.
Our enemies take pleasure at our misfortune.
Our allies aren’t sure they can trust us.
And Americans I know are shopping for homes abroad, not for the traditional purposes of making their dollars go further in retirement, but to have, as a friend described it, “an established escape route.”
It’s tough to feel patriotic when so much of America that defines us as free people is under assault.
This story was originally published June 28, 2022 at 6:30 PM.
