Before President Trump got sick, his performance at the debate made me sick: sick-at-heart. Within the first few minutes, one of the saddest songs I know began playing in my head. “Another Man Done Gone” is described as a traditional Black spiritual, although I see it as a blues song because it doesn’t shine any hopeful light on the future. First recorded in 1940, and re-recorded often by singers as disparate as Johnny Cash and Odetta, several versions can be heard at https://www.knkx.org/post/another-man-done-gone-powerful-tale-woe-chain-gang:
Another man done gone . . .
He had a long chain on
They hung him in a tree
They let his children see
He’s from the county farm
I didn’t know his name
Another man done gone.
Witnessing the execution/lynching of (another) Black man in the South on a chain gang is far beyond my experience, although the George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and several other videos bring me close. But the elemental pain of the song resonates deeply, and mourning actual and symbolic deaths is universal.
My distress came from watching the death of an ideal rather than a person: I saw another part of our American democratic tradition willfully destroyed. Our president turned the final page on a ritual that has existed for at least 60 years. Debates have always included showmanship and judgments based on appearances and style rather than policies, but America’s dedication to disagreeing respectfully and civilly, and later working together for a greater cause was a shining example of American democracy. Instead, the reality-TV food-fight fueled by President Trump’s refusal to follow agreed-upon rules destroyed any hope that the candidates might provide definitive arguments to help guide voters.
Later, President Trump continued his attempts to kill our faith in democratic elections. Again, America has been a model for democracy around the world in its universal dedication to a peaceful transfer of power based on a fair election. Complicated by the coronavirus and suffering from multiple Republican efforts to limit and hamper voting by groups that oppose them, Trump baldly states that he can’t lose the upcoming election unless it’s “rigged.”
These symbolic “deaths” are piled on top of many others that feel tragic, incomprehensible, and beyond my control. We no longer have a functioning government based on checks and balances.
Sen. Mitch McConnell has broken all tradition and established the Republican Senate as an autocratic governing body that establishes and plays by its own rules. The Senate leader has refused consideration on about 400 House bills passed this term. He used the “nuclear option” in 2017 to change hundreds of years of precedent and allow a simple majority to advance a Supreme Court nomination. At the same time, the Senate swiftly confirmed Republican choices for federal judges at a nearly unprecedented rate, but denied any consideration to a Democratic Supreme Court nominee in 2016.
During the debate, I sadly considered America’s current status in the world. We have abandoned our place as a world leader in democracy and its traditions. Our handling of the pandemic, with more deaths than any country and among the top ten in death rates per capita, and our retreat from world environmental agreements destroys our standing as a leader in medical, technical, and environmental issues. Our current handling of legal and illegal immigrants erases many of the reasons immigrants have struggled so hard to become a part of the American dream for centuries.
None of these trends have happened overnight or are solely attributable to the Trump presidency, but they have accelerated and intensified because of it. One question remains: Do these trends indicate the death of significant parts of our democracy or can it recover?
If people express their will overwhelmingly in the presidential and Congressional races, and if a new Democratic majority in the House and Senate takes dramatic action, we can begin the process of reasserting America as a world leader in democracy, Constitutional government, scientific and medical achievements, and ethical treatment for those believing in American values.
My hope is the American people turn to the president as if he were an apprentice on his own reality-TV show and say forcefully, with an accusing finger, “You’re fired!”
Allen Woods is a freelance writer and author living in Greenfield, MA. Comments are welcome here or at awoods2846@gmail.com.