Democracy in America has been under attack since 1971. The political, legal and economic system in America has failed since 1971 after the Powell memo launched an attack by Republicans, corporations, oligarchs and Christian nationalists on democracy to stop the rule of law, steal wealth from 95% of Americans and transfer the wealth to the top 0.01%. When the Democrats come back into power in 2028, they must fundamentally fix the system and not just return the system to what the system was before Trump. Democrats must enforce the federal law against insurrection, 18 U.S. Code § 2383, to prosecute, convict and imprison Trump, members of his administration, Republicans in Congress and six justices on the Supreme Court for implementing a an insurrection to install a lawless, fascist autocracy. Democrats must change laws, raise tax rates on the wealthy and corporations, to solve core problems including the theft of wealth and poor affordability of healthcare, housing, energy, and food.
The failure of the political, legal and economic system in America since 1971 has created the current situation with these core problems.
• Attacks on Democracy and Failures to Enforce the Law
· A lawless, fascist autocracy led by Trump and Republicans enabled by the insurrection in 2025 planned by Project 2025
· A Trump DOJ that doesn’t prosecute murders by ICE agents and attempts to prosecute who Trump perceives as his political enemies
· A Republican and wealthy controlled Supreme Court stacked with six justices who made corrupt politically motivated decisions that attacked democracy with decisions including Citizens United that put unlimited money into political campaigns
• Inflation, Affordability and Wealth Inequality enabled by
· Low unfair privileged taxes on the wealthy and corporations that began with Reagon’s trickle-down economics and continued with the Big Beautiful Bill
· Poor support of healthcare, food, energy, and housing needs
· A lack of good paying jobs for the working class
• Bypassing the legally required Congress authorization to
· Conduct a war in Iran that raises the price of gas & fertilizer
· Implement unjustified illegal global tariffs that raise prices
• Poor foreign policy in the middle east & with NATO allies
· Poor support of the war in Ukraine
· Weak and ineffective foreign policy by Trump and Republicans is a core problem that has threatened to destroy a global peace created after WW2 in the 1950s with failures to prevent and stop wars especially continuous long wars in the middle east including the recent war with Iran. In 2018, Trump overturned the 2015 Obama created Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran that had implemented a verified nuclear program preventing the development of nuclear weapons while lifting sanctions.
• Failure to separate Church and State
· Christian nationalism in government makes policy decisions that control all aspects of domestic American life and foreign policy for people including Hegseth in the Trump government
• Blocking mitigation of the destructive impact of global warming
Excellent. I would add the lopsided quality of Education of our children. Greatest benefits go to the upper class and the wealthiest. In 2026, there is no masquerading the contempt with which Educat
(Sorry-)with which quality Education for all of has been placed- literally in the dustbin. Only the wealthiest among us have been privy to quality education and that , it seems, has been the plan all along, but now there is no hiding it. Without education and a humanistic approach to ideas, we are creating a classless society. One class of the privileged who get every benefit of society- and the masses who serve that class
Havel’s address to Congress carries a rare moral clarity. It is not power speaking to power, but a man shaped by suffering insisting that politics must answer to conscience. “My only school was life itself.” From that, he draws a demanding conclusion: the fate of the world turns not on systems alone, but on the condition of the human heart.
It is difficult not to be moved by that.
And yet, the speech invites a harder reading.
Havel presents American democracy as a long, uninterrupted approach toward an ideal, a horizon never fully reached, but steadily pursued. In contrast, his own country bears the scars of rupture, repression, and the enforced lie. The distinction is clear. But it is not complete.
Because the American journey toward that horizon was not simply uninterrupted. It was structured by exclusion. Slavery, the dispossession of indigenous peoples, segregation, redlining. These are not interruptions of the democratic project. They are part of its continuity. The system endured alongside them, and at times through them.
This seems to be what the speech illuminates, and what it leaves in shadow.
In The Power of the Powerless, Havel shows how systems survive through participation in untruth. The greengrocer hangs the sign not because he believes it, but because the system requires it. But the American case is more unsettling. At key moments, the sign was not only displayed. It was believed, or at least accepted as natural. Hierarchy became normal. The contradiction disappeared into everyday life.
Here, continuity begins to emerge as the problem. Not collapse, but endurance under contradiction.
Havel’s central claim presses against this history with quiet force. Consciousness precedes being. If that is true, then no democracy can claim moral ground if the consciousness that sustains it remains divided. Institutions may endure, but truth does not follow automatically.
It is here that the speech begins to read as a warning.
The America Havel addresses appears less certain of itself now. Its language remains powerful, but the gap between word and reality has widened. What was once absorbed and managed now begins to surface. Continuity no longer reassures. It unsettles.
Why does Havel not say this more directly? Partly because of the moment. He is a guest, newly freed, speaking with gratitude. But also because he is appealing to something higher. By invoking Jefferson, he is not endorsing innocence. He is calling America back to its own claims, trusting that conscience still has force.
That is the generosity of the speech.
But the burden of that generosity now falls on us.
If the crisis is one of consciousness, then it cannot be resolved by institutions alone. It requires a willingness to see clearly, without myth. Not whether democracy exists, but whether it is honestly lived.
We remain far from the family of man.
And perhaps we always have been.
With thanks to Dr Glaude for the reminder, at a moment when such clarity feels increasingly necessary.
Thank you. I was unaware of this important, and now timely, speech. His message is so similar to that of Pope Leo, and we do need humble, moral, intellectual people as leaders who remind us of our responsibilities as members of the “family of man[kind].”
“For this reason, the salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and in human responsibility.”
Thank you Eddie. “Consciousness precedes being…” Someone honored John Lewis in their comments. For years men and women like John Lewis, Dr. King and many others have challenged America to change its heart and mind. We as a people, continue to choose love other hate and hope over despair. 🙏🏽
Democracy in America has been under attack since 1971. The political, legal and economic system in America has failed since 1971 after the Powell memo launched an attack by Republicans, corporations, oligarchs and Christian nationalists on democracy to stop the rule of law, steal wealth from 95% of Americans and transfer the wealth to the top 0.01%. When the Democrats come back into power in 2028, they must fundamentally fix the system and not just return the system to what the system was before Trump. Democrats must enforce the federal law against insurrection, 18 U.S. Code § 2383, to prosecute, convict and imprison Trump, members of his administration, Republicans in Congress and six justices on the Supreme Court for implementing a an insurrection to install a lawless, fascist autocracy. Democrats must change laws, raise tax rates on the wealthy and corporations, to solve core problems including the theft of wealth and poor affordability of healthcare, housing, energy, and food.
The failure of the political, legal and economic system in America since 1971 has created the current situation with these core problems.
• Attacks on Democracy and Failures to Enforce the Law
· A lawless, fascist autocracy led by Trump and Republicans enabled by the insurrection in 2025 planned by Project 2025
· A Trump DOJ that doesn’t prosecute murders by ICE agents and attempts to prosecute who Trump perceives as his political enemies
· A Republican and wealthy controlled Supreme Court stacked with six justices who made corrupt politically motivated decisions that attacked democracy with decisions including Citizens United that put unlimited money into political campaigns
• Inflation, Affordability and Wealth Inequality enabled by
· Low unfair privileged taxes on the wealthy and corporations that began with Reagon’s trickle-down economics and continued with the Big Beautiful Bill
· Poor support of healthcare, food, energy, and housing needs
· A lack of good paying jobs for the working class
• Bypassing the legally required Congress authorization to
· Conduct a war in Iran that raises the price of gas & fertilizer
· Implement unjustified illegal global tariffs that raise prices
• Poor foreign policy in the middle east & with NATO allies
· Poor support of the war in Ukraine
· Weak and ineffective foreign policy by Trump and Republicans is a core problem that has threatened to destroy a global peace created after WW2 in the 1950s with failures to prevent and stop wars especially continuous long wars in the middle east including the recent war with Iran. In 2018, Trump overturned the 2015 Obama created Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran that had implemented a verified nuclear program preventing the development of nuclear weapons while lifting sanctions.
• Failure to separate Church and State
· Christian nationalism in government makes policy decisions that control all aspects of domestic American life and foreign policy for people including Hegseth in the Trump government
• Blocking mitigation of the destructive impact of global warming
Excellent. I would add the lopsided quality of Education of our children. Greatest benefits go to the upper class and the wealthiest. In 2026, there is no masquerading the contempt with which Educat
Yes.. broken.
(Sorry-)with which quality Education for all of has been placed- literally in the dustbin. Only the wealthiest among us have been privy to quality education and that , it seems, has been the plan all along, but now there is no hiding it. Without education and a humanistic approach to ideas, we are creating a classless society. One class of the privileged who get every benefit of society- and the masses who serve that class
Thank you!
Havel’s Address: Conscience and Continuity
Havel’s address to Congress carries a rare moral clarity. It is not power speaking to power, but a man shaped by suffering insisting that politics must answer to conscience. “My only school was life itself.” From that, he draws a demanding conclusion: the fate of the world turns not on systems alone, but on the condition of the human heart.
It is difficult not to be moved by that.
And yet, the speech invites a harder reading.
Havel presents American democracy as a long, uninterrupted approach toward an ideal, a horizon never fully reached, but steadily pursued. In contrast, his own country bears the scars of rupture, repression, and the enforced lie. The distinction is clear. But it is not complete.
Because the American journey toward that horizon was not simply uninterrupted. It was structured by exclusion. Slavery, the dispossession of indigenous peoples, segregation, redlining. These are not interruptions of the democratic project. They are part of its continuity. The system endured alongside them, and at times through them.
This seems to be what the speech illuminates, and what it leaves in shadow.
In The Power of the Powerless, Havel shows how systems survive through participation in untruth. The greengrocer hangs the sign not because he believes it, but because the system requires it. But the American case is more unsettling. At key moments, the sign was not only displayed. It was believed, or at least accepted as natural. Hierarchy became normal. The contradiction disappeared into everyday life.
Here, continuity begins to emerge as the problem. Not collapse, but endurance under contradiction.
Havel’s central claim presses against this history with quiet force. Consciousness precedes being. If that is true, then no democracy can claim moral ground if the consciousness that sustains it remains divided. Institutions may endure, but truth does not follow automatically.
It is here that the speech begins to read as a warning.
The America Havel addresses appears less certain of itself now. Its language remains powerful, but the gap between word and reality has widened. What was once absorbed and managed now begins to surface. Continuity no longer reassures. It unsettles.
Why does Havel not say this more directly? Partly because of the moment. He is a guest, newly freed, speaking with gratitude. But also because he is appealing to something higher. By invoking Jefferson, he is not endorsing innocence. He is calling America back to its own claims, trusting that conscience still has force.
That is the generosity of the speech.
But the burden of that generosity now falls on us.
If the crisis is one of consciousness, then it cannot be resolved by institutions alone. It requires a willingness to see clearly, without myth. Not whether democracy exists, but whether it is honestly lived.
We remain far from the family of man.
And perhaps we always have been.
With thanks to Dr Glaude for the reminder, at a moment when such clarity feels increasingly necessary.
Thank you. I was unaware of this important, and now timely, speech. His message is so similar to that of Pope Leo, and we do need humble, moral, intellectual people as leaders who remind us of our responsibilities as members of the “family of man[kind].”
“For this reason, the salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and in human responsibility.”
Thank yiu Eddie.
Thank you Eddie. “Consciousness precedes being…” Someone honored John Lewis in their comments. For years men and women like John Lewis, Dr. King and many others have challenged America to change its heart and mind. We as a people, continue to choose love other hate and hope over despair. 🙏🏽
This post needs to be reposted widely!
Excellent article.EX
Excellent article where I agree that the consciousness of mankind will eventually save the human race. We all have to progress together.
Thank you Eddie. I never would have read this but for your diligence in bringing it to light, now 30 years later.
I believe Havel's 'Family of Man' is akin to John Lewis' Beloved Community.
Let us all pray/ hope/ work towards achieving that goal.
🙏