America imploding
The Donald Trump brouhaha best illustrates the reason why America is losing it. It wants so many things, it does not know what it really wants anymore. For example, many Americans are being turned off, and in some cases incensed, by the many controversial statements the Republican presidential wannabe has been saying in public, especially his proposal to ban all Muslims from entering America until America, in his mind, shapes up against the fight against terror.
But many other Americans, those who normally do not have a say in the shape of things, are also happy that he has emerged. Not only that, they are happy that he is saying what they themselves want but are unable to say. In Trump they have finally found not just a voice but a voice that tells it like it is, unhampered by the need to be nice, polite or politically correct.
Trump may have the tendency to ruffle the feathers of self-proclaimed guardians of well-established American principles, but there is no denying a growing number of Americans have likewise emerged to share his views, even, quite surprisingly, agreeing with the manner in which he proposes to dish them. It has suddenly become very clear that America is more deeply divided than Americans themselves are willing to admit.
It now appears that millions of Americans have long harbored feelings that they just could not articulate, for reasons that may include fear of being demonized the way Trump is now. They are all victims of the hypocrisy with which America has been pursuing its principles, something best articulated in that famous snort -- "he may be a son of a bitch, but at least he is our son of a bitch."
Well, hypocrisy can only take someone, or an entire nation, so far, that is, until it suddenly comes face to face with it. And this is exactly where America is right now -- in a pickle. Its hypocrisy has taken it to a situation where it must now face the undesirable choice of defending one principle at the expense of another. But the worse thing about it is that America does not even seem to know it is in such a confrontation.
A case in point is when Trump was recently interviewed by phone, upon request of CNN's Chris Cuomo. It became virtually impossible to be enlightened by that exchange because Cuomo, the interviewer, obviously bristling at Trump's proposal to ban Muslims, argued with Trump, his interviewee, every step of the way. When a journalist invites someone to share his time and thoughts on an issue, that journalist is expected to let him do so. That is precisely the reason for the interview.
The Trump interview did not happen by chance nor did Trump ask for it. It happened at the behest of Cuomo himself. As a professional journalist, he should have extended to Trump the courtesy and respect due him as a guest. He shouldn't have quarreled with him. If a journalist does not agree with the views of his interviewee, he can always criticize him afterward when the interview is over. But not while he is still the guest you yourself invited.
Cuomo made a fine point of appearing to defend the great American principle of freedom of religion. But the interview was not about where Cuomo stood. It was about Trump. In denying Trump's own claim to another of America's great principles -- freedom of speech -- to insist on his own, Cuomo exposed the very hypocrisy that has severely weakened democracy.
Such hypocrisy has blinded Cuomo and many other Americans to the unassailable fact that Trump is not yet even the president. He is just offering himself up for election. If he is deemed unfit for election, there is always November 2016 that Americans can repair to. In the meantime, America must not lose sight of the fact that if Muslims have the right to their religion, so does Trump have the right to speak as he damn pleases.
America cannot get confused about its democracy. The great American founding fathers lived in a world entirely different from today. Threats to the fabric of American life in those days were settled in open fields where men did battle facing one another just meters apart. In peace, neighbors greeted newcomers with baskets of fruit and fresh baked bread. Today, democracy no longer works that way. And if you don't even know why, you're dead.
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