Them and Us

 Them and Us

So, how do we explain what’s happening in Washington? What’s behind all the chaos and confusion now, and all the pain that will follow in the next few weeks and months?

That’s a big order. Commentators have been shouting loudly, and a lot of people are pointing fingers. Some are pointing so much they had to grow another hand, just to cover all their targets.

Well, I have a modest idea about what’s the matter. I’m not sure how to solve it, but figuring out what a problem is can be the first step toward solving it.

Here goes. It may take a page or two to explain, so keep up with me.

It started long ago. Millions of years ago. Certainly when our genetic ancestors - the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon - separated from their genetic ancestors and became separate species.

Which, of course, sounds stupid given that all the chaos in Washington is caused by Republicans and Democrats, not sub-species like Gorillas and chimpanzees. Again, stay with me.

What happened through evolutionary change is that successful species learned to differentiate between things that helped them survive and things that could hurt them. It’s still hot-wired into us.

Most of us instinctively fear things that are different. Things like snakes and spiders, or lots of ants or just one crocodile. We like things that can’t hurt us, like flowers or birds.

Some species that can hurt us as individuals have reached an accommodation if we both benefit. Dogs and cats can still be wild, but lots of them have found ways to fit in. They get food, we get protection from mice. And companionship. Over the centuries, relationships evolved.

As societies developed, humans changed “different” to another way of separating friendly from dangerous. We created “us” and “them.”

It’s a flexible idea. “Us” was originally seen as my family or my tribe. “Them” were the others who wanted to take what we had, or had what we wanted to take. Remember, we were still running around the jungles or vast open plains, and trying to invent clothing and the wheel.

Eventually, we became civilized. We built villages and grew crops. We formed governments to protect us from other cities and governments. Our nation was us. Them was everyone else.

Sometimes, one culture was hugely successful. Rome, Egypt, China. They all had empires, and all the people who weren’t Roman or Egyptian or Chinese were there to be exploited or enslaved or protected at a price.

Sometimes it got complicated. In Europe, the crown heads married daughters from other nations, and foreign alliances formed. Foreign countries became part of us. Royal titles grew longer. Different languages weren’t as useful to separate different people.

There’s a lot of history here, but let’s not forget we’re trying to figure out why there is so much chaos now in Washington. So, let look at one of those exploited colonies of a powerful nation - one that decided the “them” were the ones exploiting the “us.”

Remember 1776?

Well, after the Revolutionary War, we were all “us.” We had fought the British and won, all of us together, with the help of the French. That alliance lasted a long time - just over 20 years. Look up Quas-guerre. You’ll find out it was an undeclared war - quasi war in French - that took place in the Caribbean and off our coastline. It was fought over different interpretation of treaties, and lasted just over two years.

We were, of course, separate colonies that formed separate states, and the relationship between the states and the federal government wasn’t fully settled until after the Civil War.

But long before that, we formed political parties - the ones that George Washington warned us about forming.

Still, someone had to govern, and it was hard in Colonial times to travel from place to place. It could take months by carriage or ship, and someone had to stay home and watch the farm or the plantation.

Parties were a good shorthand. You knew what someone believed, because their party stood for it. A national bank. A trade agreement with another nation. Protective embargoes that would help our industries grow. Slavery.

Our party was us, and we supported it. Their party was them, and we fought it. Bitterly. After all, we survived by identifying the us and knowing who they are. The other.

Thats how us and them works. All the time. My party. My belief. Their party. Their belief. You see it in Congress all the time.

It started breaking down when Trump ran for president and the Republican Party decided not to adopt a platform. Remember that? It was just Trump. We support Trump.

Now you get my point. How we got here. Why Washington is in chaos. The GOP has gotten smaller and smaller every year, because people who look different or think differently don’t belong there any more.

And we have a President who truly believes he has never done anything wrong, and was betrayed. By Democrats, of course, but also by the Republicans who didn’t do what he wanted and reverse the election.

Now his inner circle is shrinking more and more. So, who’s left? Who is the other he can blame. Well, there are some judges on the short list. There is the leader of the Senate, who didn’t make these problems all go away. There’s the former attorney general….well, the list seems to get longer every day.

The other list - the people still around him who Trump can somehow punish - is changing too. It’s getting smaller and smaller.

I can hardly wait for him to come to one more conclusion. He has to resign to be pardoned. The Supreme Court might rule that if he pardons himself it won’t be valid.

But, if he resigns, Mike Pence will become President. And Pence didn’t give him enough credit for ending the fake Coronavirus. Or China Virus. Or England Virus. It’s hard to keep track.

What if it’s all a plot by Pence to get him out of office, take over, and not pardon him. What if those others have gotten to Pence. What does he want?

That would be an odd thought from someone who only thinks about what he wants.

Well, he can always turn to Jared. Or can he?