Richard Pierce

Richard Pierce – author, poet, painter

Politics

The Inauguration Of Evil

Today marks the official inauguration of the first openly fascist country since Hitler’s Germany (although McCarthyism gave Nazism a close run for its money). A fascist state supported wholly and unreservedly by the richest men in the US (and arguably the world). And, ironically, the blame for this can be laid fairly and squarely at the feet of the Founding Fathers.

It becomes obvious now that the Founding Fathers drafted a constitution for the US which has, since its inception, allowed a sitting president to usurp the judicial system of that country. Whilst this original cornerstone of a new state was entirely faulty, probably because it was written by complacent and arrogant and entitled white men, it’s now also very clear that subsequent administrations, all led by men for almost three centuries, have been not just complacent but entirely negligent in not correcting this faultline in what had been perceived to be a democracy. Had there, even in the recent past, been a female president, administrations may not have been complicit in what has now become the full erosion of democracy in the US. The US constitution has never been worth the parchment it’s scribbled on.

Even more unfortunately, the last three Democratic administrations have prepared the ground for this. Complacency in the face of the rise of the Right. Fear of innovation and radical centrist change. The assumption that each of them had beaten the scourge of the Right when the opposite was in fact the case. Resting on laurels. And any other clichés you can think of.

Biden’s administration (however decent a man Biden is) in particular neglected to erect safeguards against Trump and his like. The expansion of the Supreme Court was an essential, and should have been implemented within the first 100 days of Biden becoming President. If Supreme Court judges are going to be political appointees for life, then exploit that, and then change the law to stop them being political appointees when the final life-time judges take their final bow. Other, more qualified, commentators have already run through all the other failures of the last four years. The greatest failure of them all though has been the failure to persuade the American electorate of the danger of the Right, the failure to change the American culture from one of self-interest to one which protects and furthers the common good.

And the next four years are going to be painful and dangerous for very many good people.

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