American Self Portrait

Artwork by Michael DiMilo

By Geoff Carter

In the first episode of the HBO series The Newsroom, a college student asks news anchor Will McAvoy (played by Jeff Daniels) why America is the greatest country on Earth. Before absolutely emasculating her with a lengthy and provocative laundry list of deficiencies in our government, McAvoy tries to worm out of answering—because he knows most Americans don’t want to know the truth, that the United States is no longer the greatest country in the world. 

The American people are proud of their civil liberties and not afraid to boast about them, believing they are the envy of the world, but these freedoms have been twisted and misrepresented. 

Where our citizens once valued the right to gather and protest inequities in government, some now consider it a God-given right to gather and destroy that government. Where Americans once valued the freedom of the press and admired the stalwart journalists who took great risks to bring us news of the world, these reporters are now disparaged and insulted for being liars and bringing us “fake news”. The right to bear arms has become the right to openly carry firearms into public places for no other purpose than to intimidate and terrorize. The requirement to wear a mask in order to protect ourselves and others from a dangerous and pernicious pandemic has somehow transformed from being a safeguard for the greater good to a violation of personal rights. 

This devolution is a direct result of a prolonged campaign of deliberate misinformation and willful deconstruction of our democracy. In short, the veneration of American rights and freedoms has become a façade for a much darker and more sinister agenda, thanks mostly to the Republican Party. 

Like the cursed protagonist in Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, the sins committed by Republicans never seem to show on the surface—the party’s face. Instead, Americans still see what they think the United States used to be—or should be, that we are the keepers and protectors of freedom and liberty. They’re living an illusion, refusing to see what we have become—a repressive and racist regime whose main purpose is to maintain those in power. 

It starts with negligence toward the people. Compared to the rest of the world, our health care, penal, and criminal justice systems are woefully inadequate and highly inequitable. Child poverty and infant mortality rates are unacceptably high. Our efforts to curb climate change—until very recently—had come to a standstill.

A large percentage of Americans don’t want to know these truths, and—like parents who are willfully blind to a child’s faults—tend to downplay or ignore them. Many of our citizens still think we are the greatest country in the world. They fly their flags, demand everyone stand during the national anthem, and decry efforts to dismantle Confederate Civil War monuments. And they think that’s enough.

Senate Republicans—led by Mitch McConnell—have spent the last ten years stonewalling legislation, blocking Democratic presidential nominees to federal judgeships, and actively encouraging the restriction of state voter rights, practices that are hardly democratic. After Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, McConnell proclaimed that Congress’ greatest priority was to make sure he was a one-term president. Yet these “leaders” constantly espouse the values of our Constitution, free elections, and protecting the electoral process from fraud. Which is the juiciest irony of all.

After the 2020 election, Donald Trump claimed the election had been stolen. He went to great lengths to substantiate this lie, even attempting to coerce the Georgia Secretary of State into manufacturing votes. When this ploy failed, Trump succeeded in persuading some Senators and Representatives, including Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson, Marjorie Taylor Green, and Josh Hawley into formally objecting to the election certification. 

Then, during the infamous January 6^th rally, Trump instigated an attack on the Capitol Building. Despite overwhelming evidence, he has not yet been brought to justice for his crimes of insurrection and treason. The party has been attempting to whitewash the riot as a mild disturbance. Republican Congressional leaders have likened the riot to a tourist visit or a peaceful protest. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said the rioters were “walking peacefully past the police into the Capitol.”

Like Dorian Gray, these Republicans have made a deal with the devil. To stay in power, and to maintain their grip on the levers of power, Republicans like Ron Johnson, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and many more have begun tearing down the foundations of our republic. Like Dorian Gray, they are hiding their crimes behind a façade, a veneer of patriotic fervor. 

While we salute the American flag, stand during the national anthem, feel pride at the courage of our men and women in uniform, and stare in awe as state-of-the-art jet fighters zoom over our stadiums, we have forgotten our first and foremost duty as Americans—to be vigilant and to be fair.

While we stand hypnotized by the blather coming out of Trump’s mouth, or start to believe ridiculous anti-vaccination rumors, or think it’s important to carry our nine-millimeter handguns into Fleet Farm, or beat up a restaurant hostess asking that we wear masks, we are losing sight of what we have become. 

America is not like Dorian Gray, perpetually young, beautiful, and perfect. The American soul is turning into the inner ugliness represented in that portrait. Income inequities, racism, and greed have become our new national dogma—at least for those in power. 

For the rest of us who still might believe what we learned in elementary school, “one nation under God, with Liberty and Justice for All”, we have to look behind the curtain and see our government for what it is, because a government is ultimately a reflection of its people, and—if that is true—we are most definitely not the greatest nation on Earth anymore. We’re not even close.