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Thursday, September 7, 2023
David Brooks
c/o Letters to the Editor
The Atlantic
610 Water Street, SW
Washington, DC 2002
Re: "How America (i.e. The United States) Got Mean"
David Brooks 2023-08-14T06:00:00-04:00
Dear People,
You assert, "How America Got Mean". First, I take exception to your use of the term America.[1] I guess you and your editors wanted to include Canada, Mexico, Central America and South America? And while all the issues you reference are contributory to ALL of America, none of them deal with the REAL issue in the United States.[2]
Please note, Socialized Medicine in America is the rule: not the exception in Canada, Mexico, Central America and South America. The small "d" undemocratic United States is the un-American.
In 1789 for a second at the ratification of the constitution we were exceptional as an aspiring democracy in a world dominated by hereditary monarchies.
The core of the meanness issue is "We the People of the United States's" unwarranted hubris of "American[3] Exceptionalism." The REAL issue with the meanness in the United States today is the result of trying to live up to the unwarranted "American[4] Exceptionalism." We the People are forced by hubris to stick out our chest… boast… do it our way because we are exceptional. Bullies are, by definition, MEAN. Nobody likes bullies. Especially unjustified historical BULLIES. Since the revolution the United States has been living in their RICH, EXCLUSIVE small "d" undemocratic neighborhood.
We the People of the United States are not the exceptional Americans some of us claim to be. Aaron Sorkins' "Newsroom" monologue "The most honest three and a half minutes of television, EVER..." broached the issue, but it concluded reverentially… "We sure use to be… The first step to solving any problem is recognizing there is one… "
Aaron did not go far enough, the first step to solving any problem is recognizing there is one, the United States was exceptional for proverbially only a second in 1789. England (1215 Maga Carta, The Bill of Rights 1689 and Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949) and France (1789) through off the yoke of their monarchies almost immediately if not preceding the United States's revolution. Remember the revolutionary cry "Taxation Without Representation." Englishman had already thrown off the King George III to a LARGE extent. Englishmen were not taxed without representation even before our so called democratic revolution. King George III was proverbially scapegoated.
Except for the first second, the United States NEVER was exceptional. We the People the United States were the rich kids. "We the People of the United States" lived in a new exclusive neighborhood, an undeveloped isolated continent of untapped natural resources with a fertile-crescent-like[5] climate.
I hate to break the "bad news" to others, but We the People of the United States never were the idealized "American Exceptionalist" we claimed and / or were saddled with.
I am not a hater; I am a REALIST.
I want to free the United States of the unsustainable obligation of "American Exceptionalism," bring the United States back to terra firma. If the United States had GREATNESS of a truly exceptional nature, it was in the untapped natural resources and the geographical isolation. The United States's asserted "heroic triumph" in the Revolutionary war was the result of the invincible nature of the isolated "hill" on which we fought i.e., the geography of being an ocean away from England. Thomas Paine made note of our virtually invincible isolation in "Common Sense" in 1775–1776. The United States continued to prosper from its geographical undeveloped isolation an ocean away from the European wars in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the World Wars of the 20th Century. We were and still are the isolated lucky rich kids on the planet.
When you are trying to be more than you are, you have to puff up your chest to live a lie. Trying to defend a lie in the face of the truth forces you to be MEAN. Denying the TRUTH is manifestly MEAN.
We the People had brought along our original sin of slavery. An original sin that has yet to be reconciled with our, July 4, 1776, declared premise "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".
John Winthrop, JFK, Ronald Reagan, and some of the proponents of "American Exceptionalism's" meanness in the United States today like to refer to their lie of a "bright shining city on the hill that they built." The United States's economic and cultural success is based more on the isolated[6] geography and the untapped natural resources of "the hill," than the caliber of the people or government of the "city… they built."
North America was the last continent with a fertile-crescent-like[7] climate and un-tapped natural resources on the PLANET! The luck of our draw made the United States the rick(h) kids on the planet. The most exceptional thing the United States has done is EXPLOIT the luck of the "hand" they were dealt, THE "hill."
Additionally, the proponents of the unwarranted "American Exceptionalism" meanness are today empowered by their small "d" undemocratic addiction to laissez-faire (i.e., Lochner-esque) free enterprise, supported by the small "d" undemocratic unregulated royalist-oligarchy[8] on the Supreme Court of the United States's stare decisis (i.e., stuck in the mud), the "small d" un-democratic senate[9], the filibuster[10], an Article II small "d" undemocratic executive's un bridled use of a military to wage war and the support of the small "d" un-democratic electoral college. This is democratic ARITHMETIC not politics.
Your and our untenable hubris creates the MEAN-NESS problem. We cling to the fallacy of our "American Exceptionalism." We fight to maintain a status we never deserved.
Who am I to point them out, just a 67 yr. old life-long U.S. citizen. I claim no authority other than what is self-evidently asserted here.
The first, and most glaring, United States' fallacy was slavery in the face of our 4th of July declaration - "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." We are still dealing with remnants of slavery 220+ years later.
"We the People" exported the second United States constitutional flaw with our proposed constitution for America. The Article II executive in too many of our Banana-Republic American neighbors created wholesale, the petty dictator's predilection for the military corruption of any attempt at "small "d" democratic government. Banana-Republic dictators were not corrupt, they were created by a force fed FLAWED American Constitution.
Ask any political science major, trying to recreate, verbatim, the constitution for the United States put too much unregulated power in the hands of the executive. The result has repeatedly been Banana-Republic want-to-be dictators with control of the military taking undemocratic control of the country. Trump is a modern domestic demonstration of this Article II unimpeachable power FLAW.
We fought a Civil War, invested 600,000+ lives and thought we had rid ourselves of our constitution's original sin, SLAVERY.
I refuse to believe that 600,000 men died trying to create "Jim Crow" i.e., slavery by another name.
Post Civil War We the People ran into the third and possibly the fourth corruption inherent in our flawed 1789 Constitution for the United States. Just as we are again today.
A train conductor (May 4, 1884) with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, ordered Ida B. Wells to give up her seat in the first-class lady's car and move to the smoking car, which was already crowded with other passengers" the conductor and two men dragged her out of the car. She SUED!!!! "She won her case on December 24, 1884, when the local circuit court granted her a $500 award." Ida's win was 73 years before Rosa Parks lost her much more un-exceptional publicized case in 1956. But the CRIMINAL appointed for life royalist Article III unimpeachable oligarchy's sophistry overturned Ida on appeal, based on sophistry in Tennessee of unimpeachable quasi-Article III judicial power without explanation - "We think it is evident that the purpose of the defendant in error was to harass with a view to this suit, and that her persistence was not in good faith to obtain a comfortable seat for the short ride."
The unbeknownst previously asserted sophistry of the Supreme Court of the United States precedent in Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3 (1883) had recreated slavery by another name "Jim Crow" unconstitutionally by over-ruling the intent of the post-Civil War 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments and virtually all the statute law "The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this (these amendments) article."
And while the Warren Court might have appeared benevolent, the many prior MALEVOLENT examples of Supreme Courts's sophistry e.g., mass murder with Blyew v. United States, 80 U.S. 581 (1871), pogrom with United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1875), flagrant racial terrorism with United States v. Harris, 106 U.S. 629 (1883), Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3 (1883), separate and unequal with Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), "liberty of contract" that resisted any and all government regulation with Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905), prosecutors can suppress evidence and use knowingly false testimony without recourse from the victims with Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U. S. 409 (1976), forced sterilization with Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349 (1978), and Briscoe v. LaHue, 460 U.S. 325 1983) proves they ACTED UNASHAMEDLY, INCOMPETENTLY, CORRUPTLY, and MALICIOUSLY!
It is and has always been REAL simple judicial authority has required a jury to affect any power since AT LEAST the Magna Carta 1215 and as codified into the Constitution for the United States. The Sophistry began in Federalist Paper #78 and then advanced by John Marshall's in Marbury v Madison.
Federalist 78 and Marbury v Madison sophistry subtly asserts that you cannot rely on "We the People" given the facts judicially presented. We need the unimpeachable authority of the Judiciary. Now anything humanly attempted is going to potentially flawed by human fallibility. But I for one would have much preferred the judgement of the court/jury that awarded Ida B. Wells $500 in 1884 than the judicial sophistry that created and condoned racially motivated mass murder of a family and pogrom with Jim Crow for 100+ years. Mistakes are going to happen, but it is better that ten guilty men go free than innocence have to defeat imbedded sophistry of stare decisis.
To this day we are still ruled by the sophistry of a criminal[11] unconstitutional OLIGARCH of the asserted Article III courts. Any usurpation of Judge Made Law becomes unimpeachable, just look at Jim Crow, Jane Crow, and for profit limited healthcare. The United States's for-profit limited Healthcare cost 3 times as much per capita as the rest of the civilized America's/world's UNIVERSAL healthcare and takes 3-5 years off of our life-expectancy. The prevalence of the sophistry with Judge made law, precedent and stare decisi "working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief" was never considered by anyone but the slaveholder Thomas Jefferson:
"It has long been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from its expression,… that the germ of dissolution of our Federal Government is in the constitution of the Federal Judiciary–an irresponsible body (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow), working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief over the field of jurisdiction until all shall be usurped from the States and the government be consolidated into one. To this I am opposed." — Thomas Jefferson - Letter to Charles Hammond, 1821.
What the United States needs today is commonsense. Commonsense that I like to attribute to Abraham Lincoln:
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
I say again, in 1789 for a second at the ratification of the constitution we were exceptional as an aspiring democracy in a world dominated by monarchies.
In 2023 it is the reverse. The United States is the proverbial monarchy in a world dominated by TRUE democracy. In a developed world dominated by TRUE democracy the United States is the EXCEPTIONAL small "d: undemocratic developed country. No other developed democracy in the world has the filibuster, no other developed democracy in the world has an upper house (Senate) in a bicameral legislature, that is not proportional to the population, no other developed democracy in the free world has a small "d" undemocratic electoral college and no other developed democracy in the free world has a small "d" undemocratic appointed-for-life oligarchy in their courts.
If the United States is exceptional TODAY? The United States is EXCEPTIONALLY undemocratic in a developed democratic world.
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." "We the People of the United States" are stuck in the mean mud of exceptional undemocratic stare decisis.
If there is anything further, please let me know.
Thank you in advance.
David G. Jeep
enclosure
cc: Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist - Morning Joe - MSNBC Network
www.DGJeep.com
file
ps:
The "Right" has been touting Adam Smith (1723-1790) for CENTURIES and as supported and espoused by Milton Friedman[12] (1912-2006) "Nobel Prize" winning economist for YEARS.
Adam Smith wrote TWO books in the 18th century. Or I should I say kept rewriting and adding to two books until his death, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" (1759-1790…[13]) and "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" (1776-1789). Adam Smith considered "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" to be his opus and considered "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" to be ancillary.
The Right contends that unfettered free enterprise / capitalism, as sustained by Smith's proverbial "invisible hand" is the only viable economic system. Try to regulate things and it always results in GOVERNMENT waste and corruption.[14]
Adam Smith describes how free-enterprise and the "invisible hand" in a factory can make millions of "pins" a day, but one man working alone could hardly make 10 pins in a day. Milton Friedman likes to use the wooden pencil as his exemplar. But no one man can mine the graphite for the lead, or the tin for the eraser collar, harvest the trees for the wood, or grow the rubber for the eraser. But a free market can produce a wooden pencil for less than 5¢.
"The Theory of Moral Sentiments" "proposes that the way humans relate socially is a better guide than reason to understanding how morals develop; from this it considers how justice and prudence are social values, as are altruism and charity."[15] To make a long story SHORT Adam Smith in "The Theory of Moral Sentiments's" 500 pages PROVES the "Golden Rule" – "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" based on how people act. And then ADDS "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" and ancillary to it.
So if you take the premise of the guy who proposed "free-enterprise" and its il-defined "invisible hand." You have the statement the "Golden Rule" that guides free-enterprise's il-defined "invisible hand." You have to therefore include the Golden Rule as the premise for the "Invisible Hand."
Inflation has been INSTIGATED at every turn in the last 50 years by OPEC. The unavoidable prospect of "peak oil" drives ALL inflation. Biden's "Green New Deal" defeats inflation, OPEC, Putin, Radical Islam, stabilizes the economy and SAVES THE PLANET!!
FDR's deficit SOCIALIST government spending with the New Deal, spurred growth in the exit from the "great depression" (1933-1939), defeated Hitler in WWII (1940-1945) and created biggest middle-class economic boom (1945-1970) in human history with deficit socialist GOVERNMENT SPENDING!
Just saying….
[1] "We the People of the United States" have ALWAYS asserted the Supremacy Clause, Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution. It states that the Constitution, federal laws, and treaties are the "supreme Law of the Land" and take priority over any conflicting state laws." Add to that the Civil War, and the investment of 600,000 + lives to ASSERT 13th, 14th and 15th amendments and the Congressional power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of the amendments OVER STATE's Rights.
[2] Too many United State's citizens forget we fought a civil war to sustain the premise of the United States over state's rights. I am not fan of what I assert is an unconstitutional Supreme Court assertion of State's Rights.
[3] Yes citizens of the United States are Americans, but citizens of the United States are no more or less American than Mexicans, Canadians, Costa Ricans, Argentinians or etc. There are 54 utilizations of the "United States" in the Constitution, only 3 out of 54 are followed by "of America." You could as easily assert France of Europe and then refer to Frenchman as Europeans exclusive of Germans, Italians, and etc.
We the People of the United States sometimes forget we are united and we fought a civil war and invest 600,000+ lives to defeat State's rights.
[4] Yes citizens of the United States are Americans, but citizens of the United States are no more or less American than Mexicans, Canadians, Costa Ricans, Argentinians or etc. There are 54 utilizations of the "United States" in the Constitution, only 3 are followed by "of America."
We the People of the United States sometimes forget we are united and we fought a civil war and invest 600,000+ lives to defeat State's rights.
[5] "The Fertile
Crescent and nearby areas had 32 (of 56) largest-seeded grass species growing
wild…. The Fertile Crescent was similarly blessed with a greater variety of
edible wild legumes… All of the wild ancestors of the world's most important
domestic animals -- sheep, goat, cow, pig and horse -- originated in Fertile
Crescent/Eurasia… Civilization arose in the Fertile Crescent…"
"GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL The Fates of Human Societies" By Jared
Diamond GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL The Fates of Human Societies" By Jared Diamond
[6] Isolated from the 18th, 19th, and even the 20th century Wars in Europe.
[7] "Food production indisputably arose in only five areas of the globe: the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East… The Fertile Crescent and nearby areas had 32 (or 56) of those species (of grain) growing wild…. The Fertile Crescent was similarly blessed with a greater variety of edible wild legumes… All of the wild ancestors of the world's most important domestic animals -- sheep, goat, cow, pig and horse -- originated in Eurasia… Civilization arose in the Fertile Crescent…" "GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL The Fates of Human Societies" By Jared Diamond
[8] "It has long been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from its expression,… that the germ of dissolution of our Federal Government is in the constitution of the Federal Judiciary–an irresponsible body (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow), working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief over the field of jurisdiction until all shall be usurped from the States and the government be consolidated into one. To this I am opposed." — Thomas Jefferson's Letter to Charles Hammond, 1821.
[9] In a "dark money" small "d" un-democratic senate without regard to party, 52 of the senators, from the 26 least populous states amount to a minimum 18% of the population. In a "dark money" "small d" un-democratic senate 18% of the population controls the overwhelming majority 82%. This is ARITHMETIC not politics. https://dgjeep.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-50-senators-in-mitch-mcconnells.html
[11] Title Criminal 18, U.S.C, § 241 & 242, and Title Civil 42 U.S.C. § 1983 & 1985
[12] "Why Government Is The Problem" by Milton Friedman 1993
[13] He was editing the last edition, via communication with his editor at the time of his death
[14] "Why Government Is The Problem" by Milton Friedman 1993
[15] Google - Chrome "AI"
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