Government

Once Upon A Time In America

Watching Donald Trump spout his lies shows how easy it is for any nation to fall under the spell of a demagogue.

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One of the saddest things about last week’s breach of the Capitol building was how it made the United States look to people around the world.

We used to have a reputation for ambition, spunk, and promise. We had wealth, power, natural resources, and a seemingly undying optimism about the future and about how anyone, no matter how low, could rise to be among the highest.

The United States embodied an indefatigable, let ’em-at-me attitude that no matter how bad things got, we’d survive by working together because we were the melting-pot nation. We were the nation that fixed things, got things moving, made things bigger, and better. No dream was too big, no hardship too monumental.

We had so impressed our European neighbors, mired in centuries of internecine squabbles and political upheaval, that the French sent assistance to help free us from the British, and ultimately gave us the gift of the Statue of Liberty where the words of Emma Lazarus were emblazoned like a national motto: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”

We grew, we prospered, and we overcame adversity together, as in 2001 when people came to New York from across the country to offer support after the Twin Towers were destroyed by terrorists.

But, in reality, we never left behind the ugly, centuries-old scar of slavery and white nationalism which once again, last week, reared its ugly head.

“What racism?” some people say. We live in an integrated society. There’s affirmative action. “I lost my job to a Black man,” the white man says. “I’m the one who’s discriminated against.” Work where I work as a criminal defense attorney for a few years and tell me if you still feel that way.

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These tropes we feed ourselves deny reality. Seeing on national television last week the Confederate flag thrust into the Capitol building, the U.S. flag replaced by the flag of Donald Trump and a noose erected on Capitol grounds, we’re only fooling ourselves to think that racism is no longer a part of this nation. Racism must still be addressed and rooted out.

Watching Donald Trump spout his lies, jutting out his chin like Mussolini, and encouraging his followers to take by force the election that was “stolen from them” shows how easy it is for any nation to fall under the spell of a demagogue.

Last week’s assault on the Capitol stunned me, but I cried only when I read the headline from Italy’s premier daily La Stampa. It read, “C’Era Una Volta America,” a sad twist on a classic Italian fairy tale opening, “Once upon a time, there was America.” A reminder that we were different. We stood above. We led. Our word could be counted on.

We’ve lost that gloss. We share different truths. Some people no longer believe there is such a thing as fact. I recently stayed at a Vermont vacation lodge, where in that idyllic setting a guest wrote in the communal guestbook: Humanity has been subjected to a multiyear, meticulous, planned mind-control experiment which has in fact worked perfectly with the Covid hoax as the finest example. God bless America, please.

We have a long way to go.

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Toni Messina has tried over 100 cases and has been practicing criminal law and immigration since 1990. You can follow her on Twitter: @tonitamess.

 

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