While I rather like my boiling water metaphor for capturing our contemporary political landscape (introduced in my prior blog), something must be said about a more primitive dualistic approach. There have been many binary visions of both society and the world. One of the more recognizable is Manicheanism, a system that emerged in the 3rd century CE. As developed by Mani, a Persian philosopher, this view focused on the essential duality of existence, what might be considered as a fundamental conflict between good and evil. Though other early religious traditions incorporated elements of this philosophy, Manicheanism was considered heretical by its main competitors, including Christianity. Still, it attracted many adherents.

Hegelian philosophic forms of duality sit at the core of many world views. Marx certainly developed an evolutionary view of competing governance modalities over time in which capitalism and communism represented competing visions in his era. As is the want of many thinkers dominated by a preferred outcome, this grand socio-economic clash would (in his eyes) soon end with the triumph of Communism. Fortunately, he was wrong.

Still, such clashes of ‘good versus evil’ have a certain plausibility about them. After all, they typically are the foundational basis of many religious belief systems. Some historians (Eric Foner for instance) have grounded the essential tensions within our own American history to a primal contest between the reconstruction versus the redemption frameworks for looking at society.

Let’s explore this particular tension for the moment. The United States surely had a flawed concept of democracy right at the beginning. Essentially, only white, propertied males were entitled to wield authority and political power. This certainly was true in the ante-bellum South where rich slave owners called the shots, and a good proportion of the population were held in virtually permanent legal and effective bondage. A vicious civil conflict was waged over whether such a flawed society might continue, one that cost somewhere between 600,000 and 700,000 lives.

Toward the end of that horrific conflict, and in the subsequent years, what some have called America’s second founding took place. In the passage of the 13, 14, and 15th amendments to the Constitution, the U.S. segued (theoretically at least) into a nation of laws where all enjoyed protection under our legal system (once again, theoretically). It was also a time when the push to extend suffrage more broadly found its legs. It would take time, about another century, but a mature democracy would emerge. Big steps occurred with the extension of suffrage to women toward the end of the Progressive Era and with the passage of the Voting Rights Act as part of Johnson’s Great Society in the 1960s. That decade also saw a broad recognition of basic rights for other disenfranchised groups and the beginnings of what would become the DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) movement.

Social evolution, however, is never linear, nor is it guaranteed. We know that the entrenched, oligarchic elements of the South rallied in the post Civil War period. Through violence (the KKK) and apartheid laws, a form of ersatz bondage and rule by a white elite were reintroduced and embedded firmly into the fabric of society. Later, after legal segregation was attacked by a Supreme Court ruling (Brown v. Board of Education) and the civil rights legislation of the 60s, the forces of the right undertook a second, and broader, counter attack. They were dedicated to ultimate victory this time around.

These two resurgent counter -revolutions (the post- bellum and post-1960s versions) have been referred to as the redemption movements. They seek to reverse the successes of the long struggle to establish a participitory society where all have an opportunity to excel and where all are fully protected under the laws of the land. They are designed to redeem some type of lost past where people like themselves called the shots uninhibited by rules and regulations.

The reconstruction movement, on the other hand, represented a ‘second’ attempt to create a more perfect Union. While the redemption counter-revolution reacted to reestablish effective control of a Caucasian form of economic and authoritarian hegemony, the reconstruction alternative focused on full opportunity and equity for all. It drew inspiration from the high sounding words and principles articulated by the Founding fathers.

The redemption counter revolution has been underway since conservatives got their act together in the 1970s. These revolutionaries began to effectively usurp more control over the Republican Party during the Newt Gingrich era of the 1990s. The GOP continued to lurch to the right until all moderate elements were purged, and Donald Trump was able to establish a form of strongman control of the party about a decade ago. The contemporary Republican Party, now fully embracing authoritarian rule, is poised to realize the vision of the redemption cause. It is dedicated to reversing the principles of America’s second founding (e.g., eradicate DEI for example) and to reestablishing an authoritarian and hierarchical view of the social order as it was in our earlier ante-bellum era. Hard right visions, as we know, oft look to some glorious past for inspiration.

To achieve their ends, the new authoritarian leaders will need scapegoats (migrants and WOKE liberals) as well as grand visions (a Greater America). All autocrats need such chimeras. Making America Great Again is the classic misdirection ploy designed to keep the hoi poloi distracted while power is employed to advantage those at the top. Already, we see Trumpians making expansionary gestures (Panama, Canada, Greenland) to placate those who hopefully will not notice when an even greater proportion of the country’s wealth is redistributed to the top.

Most tyrants evidence some form greater whatever aspirations. Putin wants to reestablish the Soviet Union and now is bogged down in the Ukraine. In the 1990s, Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic had illusions of a ‘greater Serbia.’ I recently visited the Croatian town of Vukovar which sits on the Danube River across from Serbia. When that Serbian strongman embarked on his madness, Vukovar was besieged for 80 plus days. Over 80 percent of the place was destroyed. The residents were then displaced for some 8 years. The delusions of madmen have real consequences. For Milosevic, the United Nations eventually brought him to heal, and the International Court later convicted him of crimes against humanity. Unfortunately, Trump and his minions likely will suffer no just consequences.

In sum, America is in the midst of its own internal duality. Will it redeem the original promises of equality, justice, and opportunity for all? Or will the counter-revolutionaries seeking a hierarchical society reminiscent of Hindu cast systems prevail (the Mudsill perspective). If not that, perhaps a Taliban version of religious tyranny might serve the same purpose. These titanic struggles wax and wane over time, but I’m really pessimistic in the moment. I fear that the good guys are beaten down, that greedy titans now control the levers through which society can be controlled. Again, I’m so glad I’m old and near the end.