I love Michigan. It has been the main topic of my 2+ year old blog. Politics has been consistently avoided. But this time I will offer my point of view on the Michigan protesters and the governor. I hope this is of use. Apologies for the length, it is my longest post.
My Loyalist Friend
I was talking to a friend the other day who is a strong supporter of our Michigan governor… Gretchen Whitmer. I said, “I bet you would have been a Tory during the Revolutionary War.”
She replied, “Ya know, I have thought about that, and you are probably right.”
She was self aware enough to realize it. Most of us would like to believe we would have been patriots during the birth of our country, but the truth is … perhaps 40% of the white colonists actually were. Around 20% were Loyalists, with the remainder floating in between.
Americans Fight
These United States have rarely been united. We disagree. From the very start, and thru all our wars and conflicts. Sure, bomb Pearl Harbor or take down the Twin Towers and we almost completely unite.
But usually… not.
Obviously not united during our Civil War, but would it surprise you that even after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 21% of Americans looking back at WWI disapproved of US involvement? With only 62% approving. Or before Pearl Harbor, Americans were split in favor of appeasing the Nazis? Give the Nazis Czechoslovakia for peace… only 53% said “No”. Give them Poland for peace… 63% said no.
Why Can’t We Just Get Along
The American culture is one of disagreement. Vehemently and loudly. It’s what we do. George W Bush recently called for unity…
“In the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants. We are human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God,” Bush said. “We rise or fall together, and we are determined to rise.”
Nice sentiment… but no. We are Americans. We fight and disagree. We don’t hold hands, sing Kumbaya and walk in unison. No, we fight. With rules. Hopefully like a bloody, hard fought football game. And at the end, when a winner is declared, we shake hands and recognize the score.
It is fashionable today to decry partisanship. And indeed, the fighting recently has been out of control. With abandoned rules of civility, be it in the speech of our leadership, or the vile speech of social media. Yet our American Way, of loud, vigorous debate is a good thing. Positive for our country. It shapes public opinion. The best ideas, in the end can win. The worst ideas can ultimately be checked and balanced like a hockey player drilling an opponent into the wall.
But Power Corrupts
Presidents, congressional leaders, and now governors… love power. Once exercised in a crisis, it is hard to resist the lure of increased power. Lord Acton famously stated:
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it”
Presidents and governors should have that quote nailed to the ceiling over their beds, so they can read it each night and each morning. The entire quote.
American culture instinctively knows this, and guards against it. Always there is dissent. In our current Covid-19 virus crisis both president and governors try to squash it. Other countries look on in amazement and disgust as citizens rebel against heavy handed orders. Other countries walk more in lockstep.
Yet lockstep can be dangerous.
Real Nazis
Though grossly overused, Nazi Germany was a powerful example. In college, I was required to read “They Thought They Were Free, The Germans, 1933-45” by Milton Mayer. After the war, Mayer had gone back and interviewed ten German Nazis to try and understand how it had all happened. A very sobering book. I originally thought it displayed how such evil could arise anywhere. It wasn’t just one evil man (Hitler) and his close followers. Instead it could happen virtually anywhere.
“What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.
“This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter. |
A Purpose
Later though, I came to realize it does illustrate some hope for America. There is a segment of the US population that sees trouble coming. Even in small “reasonable” steps. They sound the alarm first. Often ridiculed and even hated by the modern day “Loyalists”. But, they serve a purpose as canaries in the coal mine… Patriots. Something Germany did not have. Nor most other countries. The Germans thought they were free. Free from having to worry about government. Free to ignore what was happening among their leadership. The Germans thought they were free. Americans, enough of them, know they must be forever vigilant.
“To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it—please try to believe me—unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.
“How is this to be avoided, among ordinary men, even highly educated ordinary men? Frankly, I do not know. I do not see, even now. Many, many times since it all happened I have pondered that pair of great maxims, Principiis obsta and Finem respice—‘Resist the beginnings’ and ‘Consider the end.’ But one must foresee the end in order to resist, or even see, the beginnings. One must foresee the end clearly and certainly and how is this to be done, by ordinary men or even by extraordinary men? Things might have. And everyone counts on that might. |
Resist
“Resist the beginnings, Consider the end.” Those despised (by the “reasonable man”) protestors that descended on the Michigan Capitol understand this. A few wildly misguided imbeciles with long guns were able to be more than a distraction. They enabled a governor to lie about Nazis and racists without a single mainstream media fact check. Photos of heavily armed men were useful idiots for the governor and media.
The vast majority of protesters were worried, perhaps without fully rational reason, that these beginning steps at limiting freedom will become worse and worse over time.
Fools. Maybe? But in 1930’s Germany, they would have been more valuable than their weight in gold. Enough of them, and perhaps the world would have been spared a second world war.
“Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as time goes on, it grows. Outside, in the streets, in the general community, ‘everyone’ is happy. One hears no protest, and certainly sees none. You know, in France or Italy there would be slogans against the government painted on walls and fences; in Germany, outside the great cities, perhaps, there is not even this. In the university community, in your own community, you speak privately to your colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, ‘It’s not so bad’ or ‘You’re seeing things’ or ‘You’re an alarmist.’
“And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can’t prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don’t know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise, the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other, your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic. |
Wrapping it up
Many a protestor has pleaded, “The difference between a protestor and others is the others are still getting paid, while a protestor sees his business and life savings crumbling away.” Some truth to that. Why protest when your company is still paying you. Or you are getting unemployment plus an additional $600 per week to stay home? So who are the ones “just being selfish”?
Other protesters may actually be worried about the incredible economic damage inflicted by the quarantine. Knowing the economy won’t just snap back. Knowing our future is rapidly becoming one where instead of people climbing out of poverty, they will be falling into poverty. Rising crime, murders, suicides, horrific mental health problems. A new Australian estimate states that many multiple more people may die from suicide due to the lockdown, than ever will die from the virus. Only the beginning. Expect much more bad news. Are the protesters still just being selfish, or did they know something?
And some protestors see their government becoming more intrusive, limiting freedoms now, perhaps not just the temporary measures others see. As governors assert new powers… and get drunk with their new supremacy. As socialists see the opportunity to remove freedoms, transform America permanently. Are the deluded? Maybe, no way to tell for sure where this all leads. They worry about absolute power, corrupting absolutely. Or, are they “just being selfish”?
One thing the “Loyalists” and “Patriots” can always agree on… we don’t need another Nazi Germany. The Loyalists have ever lasting belief in the goodness of the government. The Protestor/Patriots worry that power corrupts. Both groups should be respected. The protests should be civil and calm. Convince the few nimrods to leave the guns at home. Maybe then, there is a chance the media will perform simple fact checks. And the governor might unite and lead… and not lie.