This letter to the editor appeared in an area paper recently:
Soon, America will devolve into a mean and ugly nation. I blame the stupidity of Republicans and the cowardice of Democrats for our present situation. When asked what kind of government the United States had, Benjamin Franklin's response was, "A republic, if you can keep it." Most great Western civilizations were not conquered from the outside, but rotted from the inside. Welcome to America 2025.
At about the same time I saw a post/ad from The Atlantic on Facebook, featuring a 2023 essay by David Brooks asking how "we" got so mean, and calling for a return to the "moral education" that used to be the American norm.
I can't say I'm surprised or incredulous that educated American adults are so misinformed about our history. The United States has always been mean and ugly, from the Pilgrim Fathers who wanted religious freedom for themselves but not for Papists or Anabaptists, to the Declaration of Independence, to squabbles among the Framers, to the divisions over slavery, to Secession and civil war, to rebellion in the southern states after that war was over, to Jim Crow, to anti-immigrant sentiments and violence by and against labor, to fascist rallies and claims that FDR was a Communist Jew, and so on and on. The people involved in these conflicts were also products of the moral education Brooks wants to exhume and inflict on the young.
But I imagine that the same people who wring their hands over our lost civility know all that history perfectly well, and would remember it if they thought they could use it for their own polemics. Generally they're old enough to remember such prominent political meanies as Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan. I have to conclude that they just don't care; honesty and accuracy are not in their job description.
Am I saying that it's okay to be mean and rude? That's not the question. Historically, most Americans think meanness and rudeness are just fine, as long as we're mean and rude to the right people. Maybe we shouldn't, but we do. My point is that this isn't some new development or devolution, it's an American tradition, and it's much older than America. Think of Jesus attacking his religious / political opponents; think of the Buddha telling a soldier that if he were to "die on the battlefield he could expect to be 'reborn in a hell or as an animal' for his transgressions." Apologists try to explain away such meanness as righteous wrath. I say it's just being mean and rude to the right people. I don't think anyone really wants to get rid of meanness; they just want to be in charge of it.
