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The Shrinking World of Needful Things
By Nancy Greggs
After the selection of George W. Bush in 2000, his die-hard supporters quickly took up their self-perceived role as representing the majority of the country’s thinking.
They lorded it over those they considered to be not of their ilk – the Liberals, the pro-choicers, the environmentalists – and pursued every opportunity to marginalize the ideas and ideals of people who, unlike themselves, still believed in things like separation of church and state, transparency of government, and all of the other trivialities that comprise democracy.
They were promised Constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage and an overturn of Roe v Wade, and imbued with self-righteousness, they busied themselves with flag-waving and public displays of their Christian beliefs, secure that they had both God and country firmly in their corner.
As the invasion of Iraq was launched, they pounded both podium and pulpit, and yelled that this was how Americans should act – aggressively and without hesitation – and without regard to criticism, no less consequences.
But as the true nature of the war, with its attendant costs and casualties, became more apparent, so did it become apparent that their ‘majority’ was dwindling – and fast.
So they did what all such people do when faced with the facts, they simply ignored them – and started eliminating things they once treasured as being no longer needful.
They no longer needed those who questioned the wisdom of their Fearless Leader, just as they no longer needed any answers beyond a reassuring soundbyte. They no longer needed to believe that the support of our traditional allies was of any value.
They no longer needed protection of their rights and freedoms, because they had what they thought to be protection of their safety. They no longer needed rights of privacy, because they had nothing to hide.
In time, they no longer needed a definition of the Noble Cause, nor a sense of any progress being made in its pursuit. They no longer needed a president who was intelligent, or even competent; they no longer needed to heed the words of far wiser, more experienced advisors who cautioned against his actions.
Eventually, they no longer needed the things they’d been promised in the first place: a growing economy, job security, affordable health care, fiscal responsibility in government. They instead accepted outsourcing, the gutting of safety-net social programs, and the incurring of debt that they, along with their children and grandchildren, would be saddled with for decades to come.
Even the oft-promised bans on gay rights and abortion were no longer needed – nor, apparently, the keeping of any promises at all.
And so their numbers dwindled, as former believers left the flock, still desirous of the respect of the world, a government that acted in the best interests of the People, an administration that acted in accordance with the law – people who were still needful of the America they once took pride in, along with the morality that once underpinned that pride.
Every day, more people continue to abandon not only the American Nightmare created by the rabid right-wingers, the neocons, the corrupt politicians, the greedy war profiteers – but the mindless cheerleaders who support the twisting of traditional American values into something ugly, something shameful, something unrecognizable as being part and parcel of the country they love.
But the cheerleaders will not be deterred. Despite the decrease in their numbers, they delude themselves into thinking they still represent the majority of the citizenry. They are still shrill in their rhetoric, and choose not to notice how few are actually listening. They persist in defending the actions of their president, no matter how monumental his failures. They still talk about victory, even though it is no longer definable, no less attainable. They decry investigations into the wrongdoing of their heroes as politically-motivated witch-hunts, and complain that true justice can only be served by looking the other way.
One wonders what will happen to these people, those who will never see the writing on the wall, will never recognize the reality of their marginalization, those who will continue to shun the light of truth as they retreat even further into the shadows of their own ever-shrinking world.
In all probability, their numbers will someday be so few, they will arrange annual get-togethers at a small venue somewhere to discuss the fact that they don’t need anything more. They will listen intently to speeches from Coulter and Limbaugh. They will memorize their talking points by rote, and repeat them to the only audience they have left – each other.
In short, they will finally be relegated to a space as suffocating as their beliefs, as confining as their intolerance, as devoid of meaning as their rhetoric – and as narrow as their own minds.
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