Deconstructing Our Current State of Affairs

Tarik Kiley

In the United States of America, we are facing a crossroads. We are faced with the decision to either come together as a more perfect union, or to let political opinions divide us against one another. We can either fight one another in factions, as expressed in “Federalist #10” by James Madison or work towards building bipartisanship between political parties. According to time.com, “One of the worst consequences of our current political climate is the spike in feelings of alienation many of us are experiencing in our relationships with family members, neighbors, former friends, and coworkers who differ from us politically.” Division has made it difficult for us to move forward on common goals as a country. Instead of seeing one another as neighbors, we are seeing one another as a source of blame and conflict.

We are facing the reality of threats to our political norms including the increasing normalization of political violence. The idea of political violence in the USA is becoming more and more commonplace, and we are moving away from our norm of political discourse to one of wanton violence. Unfortunately, this legitimization of political violence is coming from the highest office in the land. This is evident in actions such as the current President of the United States, Mr. Donald Trump, pardoning the January 6th rioters, who attacked the capitol in his name, to dispute the results of the 2020 presidential election.

We have also returned to a very oversimplified mentality of “us vs. them,” or in-group versus out-group political thinking. This can be found in Mr. Trump’s immigration policy. With his immigration policy, Mr. Trump is essentially attempting to punish people who look Latino, as “illegal immigrants” and “criminals.” This is of course a very oversimplified view of Latino people, and this viewpoint is fueled and driven by racism.

Mr. Trump’s inability to show empathy for others, as evident through his many actions, is also partially driven by narcissism. According to the mayoclinic.org, “Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental health condition in which people have an unreasonably high sense of their own importance. They need and seek too much attention and want people to admire them. People with this disorder may lack the ability to understand or care about the feelings of others. But behind this mask of extreme confidence, they are not sure of their self-worth and are easily upset by the slightest criticism.”

This is evident in Mr. Trump’s behavior. Also, helpguide.org states, “…people with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) are in love with an idealized, grandiose image of themselves. This is evident in Mr. Trump’s need to be showered with praise and gifts on a consistent basis. It also explains his need to bully others. Ultimately, Mr. Trump’s narcissism makes him psychologically unfit to lead.

Though, despite his mental incapacity to lead, Mr. Trump still has those who obey his orders. They are “ICE” and the “border patrol.” Unfortunately, they both have symptoms of acting as the Gestapo did under Hitler. They do so in a few ways. They abuse their power, utilize arbitrary detention, and use ruthless tactics to suppress dissent. In fact, we’re not that far from Mr. Trump using his police force to investigate those he considers to be his political enemies.

When faced with Gestapo tactics, the American people cannot remain passive. We can’t just accept what is happening without resisting. We can resist in various ways.

First, we cannot treat political violence as if it is normal. We have to insist on maintaining our democratic institutions, and our civil liberties. These include the freedom of speech, press, and religion, the right to assembly and association, the right to due process and a fair trial, and other similar ideas. We also have to face the fact that authoritarian regimes often promise civil liberties, while ignoring them in practice. Such is the practice in Mr. Trump’s USA. Under Mr. Trump, civil liberties and human rights are consistently trampled upon. This is important to understand, because we don’t want to be reduced to a state of slavery, or live in a country that spits on international law.

We need to move the culture forward. Just as in the 1940 movie, “The Great Dictator,” by Charlie Chaplin, we need to comment on our times through literature, film, music and art. Expressing ourselves, and moving the culture forward implies that we will not be silent. We cannot be silent, because silence and complicity only fuels injustice, while cultural expression suggests a state of action that leads towards justice. Increasing cultural expression leads to the idea of communicating with others. As social creatures, we utilize language to accomplish what we could not do individually. So, people still need to express through language, their ideas, and hopes and dreams for the future.

We also need to take voting as a serious duty of being a citizen in a republic. Although the Electoral College still picks presidents, the US Congress, state and local elections, are decided through popular vote. An organized and active electorate is a major bane to dictatorship, because informed people will more likely vote fools out, and replace them with people who consider their best interests at heart…or at least, we hope so. This goes back to the idea of social contract, or the consent of the governed. Society must agree to be ruled, and rule is not something that can be imposed on the people. In our representative democracy, the ballot is truly powerful. This should be inherently understood.

Dictatorship comes at the cost of freedom for all. Since dictatorship threatens all Americans, we have to resist dictatorship together, as there is strength in numbers. If we are to express civil disobedience through marching and picketing, then that civil disobedience must occur on a grand scale. As with the 2025, “No Kings” protests, US citizens must organize on a large scale to make a difference. The “No Kings” protests remain important because they express an idea. The idea is one of adherence to the US Constitution. The US Constitution is ultimately an idea. Ultimately, this fight is about ideas. The main idea is freedom, and resistance to anyone who would enslave us.