American Democracy on Trial by Nibir K. Ghosh

 

American Democracy on Trial

Nibir K. Ghosh*

My interest in America and American studies began years ago when I was doing my masters in English with specialization in Modern American literature. As a teacher-scholar and avid reader of American literature and history for nearly four decades, I was overawed by America’s immensity in terms of geographical space, economic affluence, cultural diversity, and political goals. Ever since Christopher Columbus discovered America more than five centuries ago, human interest in the United States, the land of “limitless opportunities” has not waned. Tempted by the dazzling glitter of the great American Dream, hopeful wanderers and bold adventurers from all parts of the globe have rushed in from time to time to make America their home. The great mosaic of many peoples coming from divergent cultures and climes and yet eager to be assimilated into the American mainstream may have inspired Herman Melville to state in Redburn: "Americans are not a narrow tribe. Our blood is as the flood of the Amazon, made up of a thousand noble currents all pouring into one" (169). Melville probably anticipated what in 1920 Israel Zangwill, an immigrant Jew from England, epitomized through the metaphor of the “Melting Pot,” a term that gained currency in early 20^th century to explain how all immigrants could “melt” and be transformed into Americans. Maybe Robert Frost invoked the highest form of “melting” in his poem “The Gift Outright”:

Something we were withholding made us weak

Until we found out that it was ourselves

We were withholding from our land of living,

And forthwith found salvation in surrender.

Such as we were we gave ourselves outright…

(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)

To the land vaguely realizing westward,

But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,

Such as she was, such as she would become (202).

 “The Gift Outright,” that Robert Frost recited at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy 60 years ago on 20 January 1961, brilliantly captures the history of the thirteen colonies that joined hands in mutual interest to free themselves from owing allegiance to the King of Britain and creating what today we know as the United States of America. The poem brings to mind how the moulders of the nation carved out of the glorious document entitled Declaration of Independence, signed by the founding fathers on 4 July 1776, affirming the need to create an enduring foundation for an ideal democracy:

 "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" (Bailey Appendix i).

 

Such avowed ideals encouraging both strong individualism and collective growth of the nation resonated in the poetry of Walt Whitman, the poet laureate of American democracy. In his poem “One’s-Self I Sing,” that appears in “Inscriptions” to Leaves of Grass, Whitman celebrated the true meaning of democratic beliefs when he stated:

One’s-Self I sing, a simple separate person,

Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.

… … … … … …

I say the Form complete is worthier far,

The Female equally with the Male I sing…

Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,

Cheerful, for freest action form’d under the laws divine,

The Modern Man I sing (Whitman 3).

Taken together, the various ideas that he incorporates in these few lines echo the meaning of true democracy where the consent of the governed is paramount to the relationship between an individual citizen and the nation he belongs to. Whitman celebrates in his song that though part of “En-Masse,” an individual must have the freedom to remain “a simple separate person.” Liberty in its essence, represents for Whitman, “freest action form’d under the laws divine” that places both the male and the female on level ground in sync with the idea of fraternity.  In another part of Leaves of Grass, the poet states, “I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the sign of democracy./ By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms” (Ibid. 43) to emphasise that he does not believe in any distinction that separates one from the other on the basis of class, caste or creed. As a poet of American nationalism, he uninhibitedly talks of the lofty principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence that inspired luminaries to carve out the most powerful democracy in the globe. In the “Introduction” to the Indian edition of Leaves of Grass (Eurasia Publishing House, New Delhi in 1970), Shiv K. Kumar rightly endorses Whitman’s commitment to democratic values:

 

Whitman always kept his feet planted on the ground; his ideal of democracy was essentially pragmatic and earth-bound. Whereas on the political plane he denounced all prerogatives and vested interests, on the social plane he visualized complete harmony between the individual and society. But, above all, Whitman was, what one may call, a spiritual democrat who saw in true democracy possibilities of universal peace, toleration and brotherhood…. The most authentic specimen of true humanity was the common man” (x).

 

The ideals of governance firmly established by the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and other documents and celebrated by public intellectuals, writers and poets by transforming words into concrete action do project the United States of America as an epitome of democracy. This may be seen from the observation made by Thomas A Bailey, the Stanford University historian, in the concluding chapter of The American Pageant. Bailey outlines how America’s physical growth stands as a “near-miracle, without parallel in human history” (1059). He points out that America had started as a “few struggling colonies” and was transformed into a vast empire wherein “its people conquered, cleared, cultivated and civilized an area as large as all Europe in less than three centuries” (Ibid.). According to him this was made possible by people who were “tough, energetic, ambitious, inventive, efficient, resourceful, and determined” (Ibid.), and who took full advantage of the fabulous natural resources available in the continent. Besides giving credit to the people for making America from what it was to what it became, Bailey attributes the astounding power and prosperity to what he calls “the American way.” According to him, “the American way”

 

encouraged order under liberty and diversity within unity. A soaring release came to the spirit from a system of free enterprise under a representative government. America’s overshadowing contribution was not in Panama Canals and Empire State buildings, but in demonstrating that democracy could survive and succeed on a continental scale. And in attaining this goal America served as an example and lodestar for liberals the world over (Ibid.).

 

My purpose in this essay is not to discount what Bailey credits America with but to share with readers the contentious issues that are in gross variance with glorious democratic ideals projected by this mighty nation. By exploring glaring ground reality inconsistent with avowed principles, I also wish to bring into the limelight how this nation has come to terms in dealing with overwhelming contradictions time and again in the course of its history.

While working on my book Calculus of Power: Modern American Novel (1997), I had often wondered at the complexities inherent in American polity and society. It seemed intriguing that a nation carved on the ideals of “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” could practice discrimination on grounds of race, gender, color, ethnicity etc. I was also surprised to see a judiciary committed to safeguarding civil liberties could indulge in gross miscarriages of justice in Scottsboro, Sacco-Vanzetti, Rosenbergs, Rodney King, Trayvon Martin and such other cases. I was curious to know why a powerful democracy that was so firmly grounded in protecting the rights of individuals at home, indulged in unwarranted intervention in Vietnam, Korea, or Iraq to nurture its expansionist desire under the guise of what is known as ‘Manifest Destiny,’ the 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the United States throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Among the dilemmas of American democracy, the issue of racial discrimination is situated in both the superstructure and base of American society. 'Colour’ prejudice is a personal as well as a political reality. The Emancipation Proclamation (1863) setting all slaves free of human servitude in the United States of America; the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution (1868) forbidding slavery or involuntary servitude; the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) guaranteeing Negroes the rights and privileges of citizenship; and the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) providing for Negro suffrage irrespective of race, colour, or previous condition of servitude; continued to remain very distant from the ideals of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” contained in the Declaration of Independence.

The racial rumblings which may have begun with the arrival of the first slave on the American soil intensified with the passage of time. The simmering of protest gradually transformed itself into expression of rage against racial injustice and economic discrimination as lynching continued unabated and became a national disgrace for a country which had committed itself to the ideals of liberty and equality. Antagonisms reached a high peak with the dawn of the twentieth century when the Black strove harder to achieve long overdue rights and the Whites were equally committed to the idea of keeping the Negro “in his place.”

Yet, the fact cannot be overlooked that the issue of setting the slaves free led to almost splitting the nation into two during the Civil War (1861-1865) between North and South America. While Northern states advocated the freedom of the Negro slaves, the Southern region sought to continue retaining the privilege of keeping them bound under inhuman conditions. In this context the role of President Abraham Lincoln must come for special mention as it was under his astute statesmanship and dynamic leadership that the ship of American democracy weathered the storm of the Civil War. In a mere 3-minute speech delivered on November 19, 1863 at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln, the 16^th President of the United States, paid a glowing tribute to the dead who laid down their lives to defend America’s commitment to uphold democracy. With firm conviction Lincoln proclaimed:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. … But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate – we can not consecrate – we can not hallow – this ground. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here … It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead … we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth (Lincoln).

Lincoln’s proclamation renewed the nation’s faith in transforming the ideals of equality and fraternity into reality. His strong conviction enabled him to warn the nation that a house divided against itself couldn’t last long. However, the reunification of America came at an enormous price with the assassination of President Lincoln on 14 April, 1865 resulting in his death the next day.

Walt Whitman paid a glowing tribute to the sacrifice of President Lincoln in his famous elegy, “O Captain! my Captain!”:

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,  

…  … … … … …

But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead (Whitman 266).

In, perhaps, what may be considered American democracy’s first and most severe moral, constitutional, and political trial in upholding democratic values, all credit must invariably go to President Abraham Lincoln who successfully led the nation to reaffirm that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” (Lincoln).

The dilemma of race relations that Lincoln had addressed so adroitly during his tenure as President of America has not ceased to exist even today. In the course of my trip to the U.S.A. as a Senior Fulbright scholar during 2003-04, I had the opportunity of interviewing many celebrity writers and intellectuals who, even at that point of time, firmly believed that a Black President in the White House seemed a very remote possibility. But the entrance of Barack Obama into the oval office in 2008 and his re-election in 2012 amply demonstrated what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had envisaged in his famous “I have a Dream” speech way back on 28 August, 1963 that “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Though American democratic ideals have been subjected to the acid test on many occasions in the nation’s history, it can be doubtlessly agreed that, since the Civil War of the 1860s, no event garnered so much attention and controversy as the election of Donald Trump in 2016. The graph of his unpopularity that had begun to soar even during his campaign reached a crescendo with his election as the 45^th President of the United States of America. Contrary to popular expectation and media speculation, Donald Trump found himself comfortably ensconced in the coveted White House. In the wake of Trump’s triumph, the mosaic of social and cultural diversity and assimilation that America is known for seems to have come under a cloud of suspicion and doubt. I was a little dismayed to receive several mails from both Native American and Immigrant friends in the U.S. who were quick to express their anxiety and dread at the victory of Trump. A Spanish-American friend wrote: “…we have the menace of Donald Trump around…. I am so worried and sad about it!” Likewise, this is what an African American friend based in Washington D.C. had to say: “Much happening in our world these days—much of it isn’t good… I fear the new Trump administration is leading the New Crusades….  May the work we do only be seduced by the truth.”

In an essay titled “Trumped Again: The 2016 American Election,” Jonah Raskin pointed out that, based on his own observation as well as on his conversations with friends and acquaintances, close to home and in far-off countries, it was “challenging to make sense of Donald Trump’s victory at the polls.” Raskin candidly pointed out:

For months and months, it seemed to me that Trump appealed to the basest of sentiments and to all the ugly isms, including racism, jingoism and sexism that many Americans liked to think the nation had transcended… He had the public in the palm of his hand and played it like a gambler for all it was worth…. Trump and his crew, including members of his own family, would like to turn the clock back to a time that only exists in their imaginations: when Republicans ruled as though appointed by God; white men cracked real and metaphorical whips; women knew that their place was in the kitchen and the bedroom; and children were taught that their fathers knew best (Raskin 25-26).

Jonah Raskin’s apprehension, and that of millions of his fellow-Americans, about what damage Donald Trump could do to the principles of long-cherished ideals of democracy were not in the least speculative. In four years of his tenure as President, Trump spared no opportunity to prove that his detractors were never wrong in predicting what America under him was heading for. Whatever happened on January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol is now history. In the words of Robin Lindley, the features editor of History News Network:

January 6, 2021 will be remembered as a day of infamy in the history of the United States of America. For the first time in our history, a president incited a horrific, deadly attack on the Capitol, the temple of our democracy… Trump will be remembered as the only president who attempted to end 240 years of democratic government. He will be remembered for four years of lies, hate, corruption, and cruelty, enabled by Republicans who embraced his white nationalist authoritarian agenda. And he will be remembered as the only president ever impeached twice (Lindley 14-15).

Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the election defeat as the 'consent of the governed' and his spearheading the January 6 event at the US Capitol will certainly go down in American history as unprecedented and the most outrageous acts by a President. Like a self-proclaimed demagogue and a diabolically inspired individual he began to believe in the illusion that he was an unquestioned monarch of all he surveyed. He not only mocked at the terror unleashed by COVID-19 that wrought havoc on the nation leaving 500,000 dead and countless battling for their lives and safety but also blatantly ignored the will of the majority that had voted him out in the election to the Presidency.

It may be pertinent to mention here that though Trump’s actions after the election remain unprecedented, his brazen intent to ignore the “consent of the governed” and rule America as a dictator is not without its parallel in modern American history. Academics and scholars of American literature and history may be well aware of the name and deeds of Huey Pierce Long (1893-1935), the demagogic governor of Louisiana and then US Senator who, following on the footsteps of Hitler in Germany and Mussolini in Italy, emerged in the Depression era as a serious threat to the citadels of American democracy. Long’s mode and manner of abusing his executive powers can be seen from the following passage:

Surrounding himself with gangsterlike bodyguards, he dictated outright to members of the legislature, using intimidation if necessary. When he was about to leave office to serve in the U.S. Senate (1932), he fired the legally elected lieutenant governor and replaced him with two designated successors who would obey him from Washington. In order to fend off local challenges to his control in 1934, he effected radical changes in the Louisiana government, abolishing local government and taking personal control of all educational, police, and fire job appointments throughout the state. He achieved absolute control of the state militia, judiciary, and election and tax-assessing apparatus, while denying citizens any legal or electoral redress (Britannica.com.).

It is no less significant that perceiving a visible threat of fascism on American soil, enlightened writers like the Nobel Laureate Sinclair Lewis and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Warren Beach wrote novels that became instant hits. Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here (1935) provided a graphic account of Huey Long’s characteristic meteoric rise and subsequent downfall ending in his assassination. The ‘It’ in the title stands for dictatorship in the novel that discusses the threat of fascist individuals to the State and argues how conscientious citizens are  required to come out of the euphoria of complacence to challenge such efforts in the interest of providing safety and security to the nation. Jay Richard Kennedy, in his “Introduction” to It can’t Happen Here, recalls how Lewis’s novel came into being against the backdrop of International crisis: “Harry Sinclair Lewis conceived It Can Happen Here in anger, and delivered it to a bleeding world in 1936.” The topicality of the novel and its significance beyond the temporal can be seen from Jay Kennedy’s remark at the end of his “Introduction,” written from the vantage-ground of the 1970s: “Please try to remember as you read It Can’t Happen Here that it almost did, and not so long ago. It can happen here again. In fact, it may already have begun” (Kennedy 7).

Sinclair Lewis cleverly juxtaposed the then contemporary reality with his apprehension of the arrival of Fascism in America. The ground was ripe for dictatorship because such forms of government evolved out of economic disorders and socio-political chaos. People with ambition and zeal exploit such situations, play upon the sentiments of the ignorant and the easily gullible masses by projecting themselves as saviours and reach the pinnacles of absolute power. Once this power has been attained, these very people delude the masses again by bringing into use all the instruments of State-controlled terrorism for justifying their misdeeds in the name of Crisis of Democracy. Lewis explores all the historical reasons and the material factors that perpetuate the growth of a fascist dictatorship.

It Can’t Happen Here offers, through a brilliant caricature of dictator Windrip, a vivid picture of what happens when demagogues like Hitler, Mussolini and Huey Long desire to take advantage of the State to perpetuate their own self-interest. Lewis paints the devil of Fascism in its true colours and convincingly proves his hypothesis as to why Fascism cannot find a foothold in America. Like an involved activist, Lewis finds the Constitutional safeguards in the structure of American polity and the functional epithets of democratic ideals to be strong enough to counter the threat of totalitarianism. Because ideals on their own do not rise and counter adverse situations, Lewis rightly warns the intellectuals not to remain silent witnesses to the abuse of power by demagogues. It was the bounden duty of the intellectuals and the powerful Fourth Estate to be alert to protect and reserve individual initiative, private profit and the rights of the common man.

Sinclair Lewis’s message is clear. The public intellectuals, either by their indifference or inertia, play a decisive role in allowing dictatorial regimes to prosper. Since the general masses cannot discriminate between violence for a good end and violence for a bad cause, it becomes incumbent upon the intellectuals to raise their voice of protest against all State efforts that attempt to suppress the liberty of thought and action of the individual.

Deviating from the journalistic style and approach of Sinclair Lewis, Robert Penn Warren reconstructs the Huey Long legend to deliberate upon the cold manipulation of the calculus of power. His All the King’s Men (1946) explores not only the effects of the abuse of power but also the intricate relationship between power and ethics. Willie Stark may be a prototype of Faustus and Caesar but he is also genuinely interested in the welfare of his people. Warren improvises upon the Huey Long story to create a convincing tale of meaning of good and evil in an essentially human world. Warren places man in the midst of practical politics to test the validity of values and to show how man can uphold ethics and principles even in the realm of dirty power politics.

Utterly impervious to the duties and responsibilities expected of the nation’s first citizen, Donald Trump, like his prototype Huey Long, clean forgot that the founding fathers, while emphasizing upon the unalienable rights of citizens in the Declaration of Independence, had also asserted “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness” (Bailey Appendix i).  The editorial board of The New York Times rightly sought an explanation in its opinion column “Accountability after Trump”:

How does American democracy confront the scale of the damage wrought by the departing president—the brazen obliteration of norms, the abundant examples of criminal behavior, the repeated corruption and abuses of power by the highest officeholder in the land, even after he was impeached? (The New York Times).

Though Trump and his supporters succeeded in laying siege to the stronghold of American democracy, right from the election day to the eve of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on 20 January, 2021, and throwing the nation into the abyss of anxiety and dread, it is heartening to note that the American Judiciary, the Congress, the Senate and conscientious citizens in general came together to uphold the avowed principles of democracy and to thwart Trump’s effort to subvert them with his demagogic strategies and empty rhetoric. The election of Kamala Harris – the first woman, the first black and the first Asian – to the august office of the Vice President augurs well for the forever self-correcting safeguards provided by principles, ideals and documents to uphold democracy in the real sense of the term.

Seeking harmony and cohesion in the “melting pot” of diversity ideally blends Whitman’s “En-Masse” with the identity of the “simple, separate, person” to give meaning and strength to an ideal republic. On the contrary, the divisive forces led by the likes of Huey Long and Donald Trump to perpetuate notion of racial superiority of the American whites are bound to fail provided the informed and responsible citizenry do not remain passive witness or silent victims to the rise of dictatorial forces. There is a constant need for remaining alert and conscious of the subtle nuances of the ideology of Fascism and its successful manifestation in visible forms to keep democracy alive and vibrant.

I deem it appropriate to conclude this discussion on the trial of American democracy by referring to the hopes kindled by Amanda Goran’s poem, “The Hill we Climb,’ that she recited with zeal and passion at the inauguration of President Joe Biden on 20 January 2021:

 

We’ve braved the belly of the beast.
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace,
and the norms and notions of what “just” is isn’t always justice.
And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it.
Somehow we do it.
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken,
but simply unfinished.
We, the successors of a country and a time where a

skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother

can dream of becoming president,

only to find herself reciting for one.

… … … … … … …

We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover.
In every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our country,
our people, diverse and beautiful, will emerge, battered and beautiful.
When day comes, we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.

 

It may, therefore, be envisioned that that such lyrical voices, blending courage, hope and resolve, will serve as a beacon light to warn as well as inspire individuals and communities to create in flesh and spirit Abraham Lincoln’s vision of democracy as “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”                                                              REFERENCES

“Accountability after Trump.” The New York Times. Dec. 19, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/ 2020/12/19/opinion/sunday/trump-presidency-accountability.html accessed Dec. 20, 2020.

Declaration of Independence. Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant: A History of the Republic. Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1974. i-iii.

Frost, Robert. “The Gift Outright.” Robert Frost: Selected Poems Ed. with an Introduction by Ian Hamilton. Penguin Books, 1973.

Ghosh, Nibir K. Calculus of Power: Modern American Novel. Creative Books, 1997.

Gorman, Amanda. “The Hill We Climb.” https://www.townandcountrymag.com/ society/politics/a35279603/amanda-gorman-inauguration-poem-the-hill-we-climb-transcript. Accessed 30 January 2021.

Kennedy, Jay Richard. “Introduction” to Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here. Signet, 1970.

King,Jr, Martin Luther. “I Have a Dream.” https://www.americanrhetoric.com/ speeches/ mlkihaveadream.htm. Accessed 1 Feb 2021.

Kumar, Shiv K. “Introduction” to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Eurasia Publishing House, 1970. iii-xx.

Lewis, Sinclair. It Can’t Happen Here. Signet, 1970.

Lincoln, Abraham. “The Gettysburg Address.” http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/ lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm#:~:text. Accessed 27 Jan 2021.

Lindley, Robin. “‘Art can comfort and disturb’: A Conversation with Robin Lindley.” Interview by Nibir K. Ghosh. Re-Markings Vol. 20 No. 1 March 2021, pp. 14-28.

Melville, Herman. Redburn: The Works of Herman Melville Vol. 4. Eds. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker et al. Northwest University Press, 1969.

Raskin, Jonah. “Trumped Again: The 2016 American Election.” Re-Markings Vol. 20 No. 1 March 2021, pp. 14-28.

Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Eurasia Publishing House, 1970.

 

*Dr. Nibir K. Ghosh, UGC Emeritus Professor in the Department of English at Agra College, Agra, has been Senior Fulbright Fellow at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA during 2003-04. He is Chief Editor, Re-Markings (www.re-markings.com) and can be reached at ghoshnk@hotmail.com.

 

American Democracy on Trial by Nibir K. Ghosh Published in IUP Journal of English Studies; Hyderabad Vol. 16, Iss. 1,  (Mar 2021): 7-17.

                                              COMMENTS & VIEWS

Nibir, I've just read your essay, and I think it's very good. Throughout these pages, a reader is rewarded by your firm grasp of America's history, and our canonical literature as it relates to the ideals of the American experiment in democracy. Your comparison of Trump to Huey Long is appropriate, and your discussion of how fascism arises is generally convincing. As you can imagine, and well know, America is going through a painful transformation as I write these words---four years of a polarizing Trump presidency ending with an assault on our nation's Capitol that cost five people their lives; the  pain, anger, and despair of many (but certainly not all) black Americans who still feel victimized two centuries after the end of slavery; and, of course, the (global) COVID pandemic that troubles every dimension of American life from the end of so many small businesses to education on every level. I am saddened by all this more than I can say. Your perspective from India on America's experiment in democracy is upbeat and encouraging. I hope your optimism is proven to be prescient for our future. But as I witness things transpiring daily from my location in Seattle, my fear is that we are at this moment slaying ourselves with self-inflicted wounds. With a Them vs. Us mentality horrific to any practicing Buddhist. E pluribus unum ("Out of many, one") doesn't seem (to me) to characterize America at this moment, if it ever did, which is doubtful. So I'm adopting a wait and see attitude as this fluid and dangerous situation in America unfolds.  

Nibir, if America (and the world) can find its way through the pandemic, if some normality returns to our lives and we can safely gather in groups again, the raft of problems I mentioned may be ameliorated somewhat. I say "somewhat," because although Trump is gone, the 74 million people who voted for him in the last election are still here. Race relations in America remain problematic as a demographic shift increases the number of people of color and frightened white Americans fear they are losing control and dominance. I wish I could predict the future, but I don't have a crystal ball. No one does. We are, tragically, a very divided nation. However, the majority of Americans are, I believe, people of good will. They are moderates. As any Buddhist would say, they simply want happiness and freedom from suffering...for themselves and others. If they can prevail over extremists of the right and left (and forgive the sins of the flawed Founding Fathers who created those universal ideals), and honor the American principles you expressed in your essay, then perhaps there is hope for us as a multi-racial and multi-cultural country. I guess only time will tell...

-- Charles Johnson, celebrity author and winner of US National Book Award

Dear Nibir. Thanks for sharing your magnificent article on American democracy on trial. And thanks for sharing my words. I appreciated also the look back to Huey Long--a timely reminder of yet another demagogue. You have a fine grasp of our checkered history. You're amazing. I don't know how you come up with so many profound and inspiring words day in, day out. Grateful for this recent examination of our democracy. You have a better understanding of our history and ideals than most American citizens. -- Robin Lindley, Features Editor History News Network, USA

 A thoughtful paper with a broad sweep of American history, Prof. Ghosh.  The paper clearly shows that the American journey is one that is an experiment in civil government—one based on the consent of the governed. That journey however started from a crude place—from Europeans fleeing religious or political persecution but finding and colonizing a land inhabited by native Americans against whom genocide was inflicted in order to grab the land and black Africans were involuntarily brought in as slaves and some whites were brought in as indentured servants, all to work the land and accumulate a surplus which provide the capital to fuel American industrialization.  That crude beginning, however, was inspired by a greater hope—the hope of creating a country where the heredity of origin, nobility, race, tribe or religion did not matter but what mattered was individual achievement under a constitution that promised a government of laws, that guaranteed civil liberties under the law for all. That hope or dream—if you want to call it—has never been fully realized in America but it is one that the country keeps inching towards. That grand hope has inspired poets, as you put it, like Robert Frost and Walt Whitman, and leaders like Abraham Lincoln, who felt inspired—to move America, using their respective platforms, towards a more perfect Union. That hope has sometimes witnessed intermittent reversals. Throughout America’s wobbly history, this noble striving for a better and more inclusive America has often been dashed by infernal leaders or “misleaders,”  demagogues, such as the New Orleans’ Huey Long, George Wallace, and most recently the authoritarian Donald Trump, who revive ancient animosities to aggrandize themselves and their power, who pit American against American, human against human, in the hope of pursuing fascist goals. It is that fear that, as you put it, Sinclair Lewis warned us about in his novel, “It Can’t Happen Here”—-registering American exceptionalism—but which, in a few times, it came to happening here. The only bulwark has been the vigilance of well-meaning and committed patriots (eg, Stacey Abrams, Georgia Secretary of State Raffensberger, even a divided V.P. Mike Pence, etc) most recently to check, for example,  against the authoritarian excesses of a Trump.  These patriots truly understand what the American experiment is all about.  Democracy, after all, is not free; it requires continual citizen-vigilance and maintenance. Your article delights and shines with light. -- Dr. Tijan M. Sallah, celebrity poet, writer, critic of The Gambia

Thanks for the essay. I had no idea about Huey Pierce Long so I’m quite grateful for the education. And the essay is full of such hope for the future (a hope I’m not sure I believe in myself, as countries not unlike the States are everywhere becoming more divided) that is nonetheless necessary after the dark cloud of Trump and the still-seething legion of his supporters. -- Cyril Wong, Singaporean Writer and Poet

 

Dear Nibir Ghosh,

 

first of all, I apologize for answering you now. I was only able to read your essay today. Then I want to thank you for sending me your wonderful work and asking me for my humble opinion.

 

Your essay is quite excellent. In just a few pages you can trace history from the founding fathers of the USA to the fatal event, the storming of the Capitol, and back it up with wonderful quotes from Frost and Whitman.

 

As for the point that the US was before being steered in a fascist direction, I can only add that, unlike the US, Italy and Germany were before very different historical events after World War I. Fascism can only be understood in these countries through knowledge of this background.

 

I would like to close with two quotes that came to mind while reading your work. It is a sentence by Frantz Fanon and I would like to end with a poem by Derek Walcott.

 

“There is a search for the black, one calls for the black, one cannot do without the black, one demands it, but it should be spiced in a certain way. Unfortunately the Negro takes the system apart and breaks the contracts. " *

Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks

 

* (I have translated this text from the German. It is possible that the original Fanon text differs slightly.)

 

“I'm just a red nigger who love the sea,

I had a sound colonial education,

I have Dutch, nigger, and English in me,

and either I’m nobody, or I’m a nation.”

Derek Walcott

 

Best regards

Tuncay Gary, Writer, Poet, Theater Specialis, Germany

Dear Nibir,

just finished reading your paper - congratulations! Your argument is concise and to the point, in its historical perspective, its selection of quotes, in pointing to contemporary complexities as well as affinities to similar events in the U. S. A. and elsewhere. 

Walter Hoelbling, Academic and writer/critic, Graz, Austria

Absolutely fascinating read. One who is not initiated at all  in the  American history and politics would also be intrigued, interested and informed at the lucidity and ease with which the details of both are worked out. And again the subtle interweaving of the literary greats in the article with relating them to the contemporary grim scenario is by far the success of this very fruitful endeavour, Dr Ghosh. I CANNOT ever think of writing like this. Well, Drydenian lines- " Here's God's plenty"! Prof. Deepa Chaturvedi, Govt. College, Kota🙏🙏🙏🙏