Dread and Imagination
All weekend I have been thinking about the state of the country. Of course, I do that every day. But over the last few days, with the passage of the so-called “big beautiful bill,” the images out of Texas after the flood, the battles with ICE in California, and the tears of those caught up in the massive layoffs at the State Department, I have been struggling with this feeling of dread (sententia timoris): that these people are hellbent on destroying the country as we know it and that the pain is only going to get worse.
They are doing this out of greed and hatred—often driven by an ideology that believes that government is, by definition, an intrusion on individual liberty AND a view that holds that this country must remain white. I said recently on MSNBC that we need to stop beating around the bush when it comes to what ICE is doing. This isn’t about criminals that threaten public safety. ICE’s charge is clear: it is to make America white again.
But we also need to be clearer about what these people are doing with government. In the name of efficiency and smaller government, they are shredding what’s left of the American social contract. Honestly, I do not know what they take to be our obligations to each other or their understanding of the role of government in ensuring a baseline standard of living for every American. It feels like they want to hurl us back into a state of nature and let the “survival of the fittest” determine who will live and who will die. Meanwhile, the uber rich sit back and watch it all, like a battle royal, tossing pennies to the victors.
It seems that three basic values guide their approach: a view that equates liberty with selfishness, an idea of safety that aligns with harsh policing of “radical others” and military dominance abroad, and a commitment to keeping certain white people at the top of the food chain and maintaining the illusion that other white people might join them. None of these provide a stable foundation for a robust idea of the public good.
Instead, we end up with raw power dictating the distribution of benefits and burdens. With working people barely keeping their noses above water and blaming other working people, usually Black people and people of color, for their problems. With so-called cultural issues stoking resentment. All the while these people gut mechanisms to ensure that our food is safe, defund education and public health. Leave the country vulnerable to catastrophic weather events due to climate change (a change they deny, because they are in the pockets of the fossil fuel industry). Pass tax policy that redistribute wealth upward to the richest of the rich. Allow the physical infrastructure to crumble and the cultural infrastructure to shatter into pieces.
Americans must be clear about what these people are doing and what motivates it all. If we keep treating their policies as if they are rational attempts to govern as opposed to deliberate attempts to dismantle government, we will be complicit in destroying the country.
We must also give voice to a compelling vision that counters the dystopian world these people want to create. But honestly, that becomes difficult to imagine when I see the hysteria around the candidacy of Zohran Mamdani. I could give less than a damn about his political self-description. The phrase democratic socialist confuses matters more than it clarifies. Plus, I have grown tired of fighting political battles on the terms of the 18th or 19th century. Watching Democratic party leaders line up to defeat him, let’s me know that our problem isn’t just Donald Trump’s Republican party.
What I want is a clear articulation of the values that ought to animate our way of life. Why can’t we talk about state-owned grocery stores in areas that are food deserts? Why can’t public transportation be free? What is wrong with public colleges and universities being basically free? Why can’t every child in this country, no matter their zip code or the color of their skin, be guaranteed a quality education? What is the problem with a living wage? Why is American health insurance so damn expensive and why can’t every American be guaranteed healthcare? Why are rents sky high? And housing so scarce? Why can’t we invest in the American people—all of us? Not simply those who have the means or the right skin color!
If all of this is a threat to the American way of life, we have to ask ourselves what the substance of that life is, such that we are willing to allow so much misery and suffering in our midst.
I want us to imagine a different America. To step outside of the constraints of the current political configurations and dare to be bold enough to say, with our chests, that every American deserves a living wage, a quality education, and healthcare. That these values are baseline to what it means to live in this country. And these commitments aren’t reducible to some 19th century ideology meant to scare folks and render the world in certain terms. They simply reflect basic decency and love of neighbor.
This has been my response to that feeling of dread: to let my imagination wander without the constraints of the politics of these dark days.
May I scream at you for a bit? Look, you have a louder voice than I do. You have a platform on several levels - and you know what I’m tired of? I’m tired of people telling me what the problem is and not what the solution is.
And I know I’m gonna get a lot of backlash for this comment because if there’s anyone in the fight every day, even while taking care of his mama, it’s you. And yet, I need more...
I want to hear you yell at your colleagues around that MSNBC table even more: “This is BS!”
God love Nicolle Wallace for always allowing you to say whatever you want.
But I’ve said this too many times: Where are our billionaires talking about all of this?
Where are our good guys screaming about the injustices going on?
I want to see President Barack Obama at the front of some protest, locking arms with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Harris. I want to hear from Mark Cuban, Oprah, Jon Stewart and... Where is George Clooney NOW? He had the nerve to diss Joe Biden easily and loudly when he wanted to be heard. Where is all their outrage and attention to this dire place we find ourselves in?
I am tired of hearing about dread. I am tired of feeling dread. I am tired of people with a voice, with a platform, explaining to me what I already know.
Tell me what to do about it. Tell me where you will be so we can be in that protest, in that march, in that sit-in. Tell us how to vote, where to vote, how to sign up. Inspire me to fix this. Don’t double down on the dread, I need some light, I need hope, I need something…
Eddie, I am tired of walking out my home, as a Black Latina woman in Los Angeles, fearing in my soul I’mma be taken. I look how I look! I make sure I have my passport and license with me at all times. And I’m a friggin' born and raised U.S. citizen - whose mama was a citizen too - and I’m scared! Can we please DO SOMETHING more? Please.
Amen. We need to call out the Trump administration for what it is - greedy, egotistical, and indebted to the wealthiest in this country. There is no sense of responsibility or respect for the masses. And, yes, they want the US to be a white, Christian country. If they could, they would require teaching the New Testament in the public schools. As an American Jew who went to public school in the 50’s, I remember that feeling of being “other”. I live by the Jewish values of “Tikkun Olam” (making the world a better place). I still do that, but the underlying values of hate and fear of anyone not white and Christian is constantly in the background now. Keep saying it as it is, Prof Glaude.