Exactly. I took the oath of service and it still has deep meaning to me. I've given up on my family because they are an enthusiastic part of the darkness enveloping the USA but I still battle on against the grain, against the odds to save her, but to be completely honest I do have one eye on the exit should the blackness completely overtake us.
We ought never to forget that as Americans we are both the inheritors of and the participants in the most extraordinary, the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex ongoing experiment in human society and government ever attempted.
Our ‘exceptionalism’ was never a given, never a state to actually be achieved. It was always, as MLK once put it (in a partial echo of one his most famous predecessors, Frederick Douglass) a promissory note.
The poet Robert Browning once suggested our situation in a poem about another form of apparently unrequited love; “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for”
We can forget how new we are at this “game of Republics’. I’m just over 81, so I could have talked to a man who fought in the Civil War. And a man who fought in that war could have talked to a man who fought in the Revolution and thus could have stood in the crowd outside Federal Hall in NYC to hear Washington’s first inaugural.
Our Framers, not without much trepidation, launched us on Novus Ordo Seclorum. As several excellent American historians have recently noted, the Framers themselves, knowing how fragile was the craft they had so launched, might have been surprised to see that it has stayed afloat as long as it has.
One of the greatest American who ever lived, in the midst of a storm even greater that the one in which we now find ourselves called us ‘the last best hope of earth’. He was right, we are. We have only to recognize both what that means and the nature of the historic responsibility it places on us.
Perhaps some among us will say that we did not ask for that responsibility. Trump certainly would. And the number of Americans who may have thought, all evidence to the contrary, that he did is frightening.
But at each moment in our journey, even if that moment seems dark, We the People have the power to reach for that exceptionalism, no matter how beyond our current reach it may seem. We have always had it, and as long as we survive, even in such a debilitated state, we always will.
Beautifully written, heart wrenching, and descriptive of my feelings. I am disappointed, but still love this country and want to hang on to the ideals I grew up with.
I see the history of the United States as a history of striving to live up to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. There’s a well-known statement, usually attributed to the Rev. Dr. King (but which I’ve also seen attributed to an abolitionist preacher), that “the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice“. To which I would be so bold as to add, “but it doesn’t always bend in a smooth line - sometimes it zigzags”. For the past decade it seems to have been in retrograde, like a planet. But loving something means trying to make it better, not abandoning it. Beautifully said, Mr. Dowd!
Mr. Dowd, your article brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for articulating the heartbreak as well as the hope and enduring love for "Her" so many of us share. Beautifully expressed.
Exactly. I took the oath of service and it still has deep meaning to me. I've given up on my family because they are an enthusiastic part of the darkness enveloping the USA but I still battle on against the grain, against the odds to save her, but to be completely honest I do have one eye on the exit should the blackness completely overtake us.
Thank you for this honest, heartfelt piece. It gives me hope and motivation to stay in the fight.
We ought never to forget that as Americans we are both the inheritors of and the participants in the most extraordinary, the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex ongoing experiment in human society and government ever attempted.
Our ‘exceptionalism’ was never a given, never a state to actually be achieved. It was always, as MLK once put it (in a partial echo of one his most famous predecessors, Frederick Douglass) a promissory note.
The poet Robert Browning once suggested our situation in a poem about another form of apparently unrequited love; “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for”
We can forget how new we are at this “game of Republics’. I’m just over 81, so I could have talked to a man who fought in the Civil War. And a man who fought in that war could have talked to a man who fought in the Revolution and thus could have stood in the crowd outside Federal Hall in NYC to hear Washington’s first inaugural.
Our Framers, not without much trepidation, launched us on Novus Ordo Seclorum. As several excellent American historians have recently noted, the Framers themselves, knowing how fragile was the craft they had so launched, might have been surprised to see that it has stayed afloat as long as it has.
One of the greatest American who ever lived, in the midst of a storm even greater that the one in which we now find ourselves called us ‘the last best hope of earth’. He was right, we are. We have only to recognize both what that means and the nature of the historic responsibility it places on us.
Perhaps some among us will say that we did not ask for that responsibility. Trump certainly would. And the number of Americans who may have thought, all evidence to the contrary, that he did is frightening.
But at each moment in our journey, even if that moment seems dark, We the People have the power to reach for that exceptionalism, no matter how beyond our current reach it may seem. We have always had it, and as long as we survive, even in such a debilitated state, we always will.
Well said James. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you. Well written. My thoughts exactly. We have to save her
Racism is a cancer we can't shake.
Agree. We love a vision of what we could be. We will return but the journey will have changed us. I hope wiser and not so complacent
You got that so right!! I could never have put it in words like you did. Thank you .
This is a beautiful essay. Thank you.
She should know that the moment she walks away is when he becomes more dangerous everyone in an abusive relationship knows that
Beautifully written, heart wrenching, and descriptive of my feelings. I am disappointed, but still love this country and want to hang on to the ideals I grew up with.
thank you. onward.
A heart wrenching outpouring by Matthew Dowd... well done, Sir!
I see the history of the United States as a history of striving to live up to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. There’s a well-known statement, usually attributed to the Rev. Dr. King (but which I’ve also seen attributed to an abolitionist preacher), that “the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice“. To which I would be so bold as to add, “but it doesn’t always bend in a smooth line - sometimes it zigzags”. For the past decade it seems to have been in retrograde, like a planet. But loving something means trying to make it better, not abandoning it. Beautifully said, Mr. Dowd!
Thank you for beautifully capturing how I and so many others I know feel about “Her”.
Mr. Dowd, your article brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for articulating the heartbreak as well as the hope and enduring love for "Her" so many of us share. Beautifully expressed.