The construct of “Two Americas” has changed
By Ron Hart
In speeches at Stanford University in the mid-1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr coined the term “Two Americas.” He described the then starkly different lives and opportunities of social classes in America.
Like many cool things, that term was stolen from an African American and co-opted by white liberal Democrats. It was used as divisive political rhetoric. But the gaslighting of middle America by opportunist politicians has caused the meaning of the term to change. It no longer means Republican America bad, Democrat America good.
Democrats have become a party that pushes victimization, providing perpetual excuses and anger in those who do not want to work for the American Dream. Entitlement, exemplified by people who are slow to go back to work after the government sent out all that “sit at home money,” is now justified. As small business owners cannot staff their businesses and find themselves dependent on a flawed supply chain, America sinks deeper into socialism. Oddly, socialist policies cause those very maladies that Democrats blame on capitalism.
Today’s Democrats are right. There are “Two Americas”: one that works and pays taxes and one that doesn’t. One that wants to protect our Southern border from illegal crossers and one that wants to register them as reliably dependent Democrat voters. There are “Two Americas” in Democrat minds and, apparently, one is Mexico.
It is the electoral philosophy of such voters that put one-party Democrat rule into power and created Gary, Indiana; Detroit; Baltimore; and now the floundering Atlanta, Georgia. Democrats value their power more than they love their country or the cities they govern.
It is a “woke,” leftist America that now forbids comedians like Dave Chappell and Bill Burr from making fun of the absurd reality the Democrats have created. Our humorless society will not be fun to live in. The left decides what is funny, not you. Chappell’s statement that there are two genders sparked a lot of: he said, she said and she/he said. Plus, some he/she said. It’s all very confusing.
I was boycotted from a radio station after a discussion about Disney now pushing for more “plus-sized” actresses to play their characters. I suggested they change the name of Tinker Bell to Taco Bell. Fortunately, I do not do this for a living and my house is paid off, so I can withstand the “cancel culture” so carefully cultivated by the left. I enjoy a freedom that most comedians working today cannot risk; they must conform to the will of the “woke” left.
We live in a world where the leftist tech oligarchs at Facebook and Twitter decide what we can say. If we do not fit their PC narrative, we are taken down.
In the “Two Americas” narrative that Democrats like to throw around are concealed basic truths, such as the Draconian shutdowns of Democrat-controlled cities during COVID and the resulting economic devastation of small businesses. Democrats have not empowered their disciples but rather have indentured them to the all-powerful, big socialist, big government of which they are in charge.
Dems love to indoctrinate followers with a philosophy of entitlement, dependence and victimhood. The result is seething anger at those who have succeeded instead by the gumption and independence that results in self-worth.
They trumpet equality of outcome in America as a right. They ignore the fact that some people work harder than others and therefore results vary. And they should. It is demonstrably false that one man’s success comes at the expense of another’s.
Biden and Kamala Harris stoke these resentments. They like to focus on issues they cannot be judged on (climate, racial inequality, etc.) instead of basic, common sense issues like keeping gas prices and inflation under control and getting our military equipment out of Afghanistan when we withdraw – or even just keeping crime off the streets. Even crime has become political. When someone breaks into a house, the tone of Democrats has become that the victim, because he had something worth stealing, is actually the one at fault.
Liberal elites are a lot of wealthy people trying to convince poor people to vote for their rich people by telling poor folks that Republican rich people are the reason they are poor.
The first presidential campaign theme to use “Two Americas” was that of liberal elite plaintiff’s lawyer John Edwards. It turned out that out he was indicted for six felonies covering up an extramarital affair that purportedly spawned a pregnancy. So there were “Two Americas,” and John Edwards had a family in both of them.
Ron Hart is a syndicated op-ed humorist, award-winning author, and TV/radio commentator; you can reach him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or Twitter @RonaldHart.
