BartBlog

As It Turns Out, A Lot

I’m anything but a starry-eyed optimist and not prone to spreading false hope, but think of how far we’ve progressed:

At the dawn of the 19th century, the predominant form of government in the world was monarchy and the experiment in democratic self-rule that was the United States had not even been in business for twenty years; slavery was accepted around the world and even the children of the ‘free’ poor worked right alongside their parents, often 16 and 18 hour days, seven days a week; cities were reeking sump holes with residents frequently dumping their chamberpots out the window and animal dung and garbage covered the streets; sanitation was unheard of and medicine was crude, and patients often died from minor wounds that became infected by the doctor working on them; food-borne illnesses also thrived due to ignorance of bacteria and food preservation; and most Americans were illiterate. Yet by the end of the century, slavery was outlawed in much of the world; most monarchs were controlled by a parliament; sewage systems had been installed in most major cities, along with flush toilets in all but the poorest homes; bans on child labor had been enacted; advances in science had lessened the chance that patients would die of infected wounds, as both the wounds and the doctor’s hands were cleaner; food preservation and sanitation had nearly been mastered; and most Americans had learned how to read and write in their local public school.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were almost no US laws insuring food or drug purity, and millions became ill and died from bacteria-laden food and quack medicines as a result; there were also few regulations on big business and Wall Street trading; the average American worker put in long hours, often toiling from sun up to sundown every day of the week with no overtime; seniors had to rely on their families to support them in old age as pensions and worker’s insurance were rare; and women, and many men, were not allowed to vote. Yet before the century was half over, the 8-hour-day, 5-day-week was accepted and laws guaranteeing overtime were in effect; old age insurance legislation was enacted; food and drug laws ended needless deaths and illnesses; American women could vote; and regulations on big business and Wall Street trading had been passed by Congress.

Moreover, in the Gilded Age at the end of the 19th century, the robber barons had a stranglehold on American commerce, the newspapers, and politicians, and any expert of the time would tell you that hold would never be broken. But it was.

In the early 1940s, the poorly-equipped and undermanned US military of mostly conscripts and the decimated forces of Great Britain and Russia had no chance of defeating the technologically-advanced, highly disciplined and battle-tested forces of Germany and Japan, or so most military experts of that era would have confidently informed you. Yet we did.

In the 1950s, sage pundits said that no sane politician, especially a Democrat, would risk his or her career to desegregate the South and bring fair voting practices and civil rights to black folks in the Old Confederacy. Yet they did.

In the 1960s, groups of hippies, peaceniks and antiwar vets and college kids would never bring an end to the draft and the war in Vietnam, or so claimed the conventional wisdom. But they did.

In the early 1970s, Nixon won reelection by a landslide and the Beltway insiders said it was impossible he’d ever be affected by a ‘third-rate burglary’ like Watergate. Yet he was.

In the 1980s, most politically savvy ‘experts’ predicted that the GOP would hold the White House for generations as the country had become more conservative and Republican under Reagan, and George Bush the Elder had 70 percent approval ratings following the First Gulf War — and then Bill Clinton won in 1992 and 1996.

In 2002, the majority of Americans backed Bush’s policies wholeheartedly and today it’s just the reverse, and that wasn’t due to the Big Corporate Media suddenly having a change of heart — it was because, in our own small ways, by means of articles and threads like this, and the millions of others on the Internet, and living in the reality of Bush’s America, the majority was appalled by GOP corruption, Bush’s failing wars, and convinced that the Republicans were incapable of governing, and voted for Democrats in 2006; now all the polls say they want even more changes in 2008. Also recall that since 2004, Bush has sustained the lowest approval ratings of any president in history, including Nixon.

I believe We the People still do have the power to cause change, although it is the power of the constant slow drop of water wearing down a rock rather than a raging torrent. Of course, it is the accumulation of millions of drops of water that creates the raging torrent in the first place and it seems to me that our articles and comments comprise some of those drops of water.

I only point all of this out to say that, while it’s healthy to maintain our skepticism, things have changed and do change for the better, often contrary the opinions of the experts and beyond of the control of the wealthy and powerful. It’s been the same throughout history and, viewed through a long lens, we can see that life has improved for the average American, although the path has never been smooth and is perpetually riddled with brief setbacks.

I think Bush is one of those brief setbacks that has served to teach us a lesson, and he will be the death knell of regressive conservatism, aggressive American empire, and the end of the overwhelming power of corporate money in our political system.

Look at history; it is a parade of progressive liberal victories as we, slowly and often painfully, grow up into the humanity that our best, most principled ancestors dreamed we one day would be — all we have to do is stick to our conscience and sense of justice and not give up.

Because, in the end, common sense is on our side: Everyone wants the truth, everyone wants to be treated justly, everyone wants a fair government, everyone wants a decent place to live, and everyone wants work that pays them what they’re worth. What’s more important is that everyone, except those twisted few who profit from the misery of war, wants peace.

The days are numbered for those who oppose American progress, as they have been in earlier eras, and that’s something to give thanks for.

Happy Thanksgiving.