Americans have long claimed to have the best system of government in the world, with checks and balances, a separation of powers, and cadre of competent administrators who have only the best for the people at heart. The events of this past year however have proven more than any other period in living memory though that that is not and never was true. People long said that our system of government was impeccable, but in fact it was only sustained by luck and the willingness of people in power to sustain it. It has only remained intact because no one ever levied enough stress on it. But that stress was applied in 2020, and our government failed to meet its stated goals because of it.

The United States Constitution, which lays out the system by which our government operates, provides a number of goals in its preamble.

“to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”

“To form a more perfect union” is of course empty rhetoric, the meaning of which can be changed from one person to another depending on your definition of “perfect.” From there though 2020 can demonstrate the failure of our government to meet each and every one of these goals.

The state sets out to “establish justice” yet in 2020’s opening act it was proven that some people are above the law as long as they can maintain the loyalty of at least 34 votes in the United States Senate, and in the closing days of 2020 it has proven that violations of the law are acceptable and forgivable as long as the criminals at question can maintain the favor of a President with pardon power. Meanwhile, as wealthy white criminals are allowed to walk free, 200 black men a year are shot to death by police in the United States, often for minor crimes or no crime at all. This was brought so clearly into focus this year by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, Jacob Blake, and more. Our government has failed to establish justice.

The Constitution claims that it has a goal to “ensure domestic tranquility,” yet the United States has no such thing. Resulting from the Government’s failure to establish justice, America saw the largest protest movement in the country’s history, with a backlash of right-wing terrorism to match. The United States is more divided than it has been at any point since the civil war and faces a greater threat from domestic terrorism than it has faced since Reconstruction. The nation is all but tranquil.

The founders claimed that their system of government would “provide for the common defense” and “promote the general welfare,” yet a controllable disease has ravaged the country, killing so many that we have come to be desensitized to thousands of daily deaths and accepted as a fact of life the reality that we can be struck down at any moment. Meanwhile millions are unemployed, millions impoverished, millions homeless, millions hungry. Breadlines stretch for miles in allegedly the wealthiest nation in history. The general welfare and the common defense have been forgotten.

Our government promised to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” yet this year has proven how fragile the “blessings of liberty” are. A free and fair election was upheld only by the good grace of a few people in powerful positions, but there is no guarantee that the next time this happens – and without change it will happen again – that people so noble will occupy those same positions.

The American government has failed to achieve its stated goals and has by that act proven that it is insufficient to be trusted with the United States. The only logical and righteous recourse is major reform. We have a government where Senators representing less than 15% of the population can hold the country hostage, where wildly popular and necessary policy cannot be enacted, where far too much of the wealth and priority of the nation is concentrated into an ever-growing smaller portion of the population, and the malevolence or incompetence of a single man can throw the country into a tailspin. That is an inherently unstable system of government – one that could fail or collapse at any moment.

Such radical failure requires radical solutions. It requires the abolition of the plutocratic and undemocratic institutions of voter suppression and rule by the minority. It requires the destruction of the white supremacist institutions that have ensured that the adage of “all men are created equal” is not and cannot be a reality. It requires a redistribution of wealth and a turning over of the system that has allowed but a few people to control the nation’s resources and the spoils of prosperity.

The system will not correct itself unaided. Until such radical reform is undertaken, until the corrupt and broken system is torn down and built back up, the system of government that failed us in 2020 – that always failed to live up to its promise – will continue to fail us and will continue to perpetuate an unequal, undemocratic, and unstable cycle of despair.

Solution to TODAY’S Problem 1:

This certainly lays out a blueprint for the new government of the USA for 2021. If President Joe Biden places some importance on the issues raised in this doc. he can start sorting the problems of the USA. The USA is the most powerful country in the world militarily. But morally it is being shown up in a VERY bad light. The USA is, unfortunately at this time, THE starting point for sorting out the rest of the world. Getting the US Constitution functional is certainly a start.

A Solution to TODAY’S Problem 2:

Another problem, and possibly even a more significant problem than the functionality of the Constitution of the USA, is the problem of SOCIAL MEDIA. I do believe that Sasha Baron Cohen puts this into perspective. Please watch this video:

And with that I would like to take the opportunity to wish all those who have taken the trouble to register with RRR  AND their families throughout the world,

A Happy and Healthy 2021

May many of your wishes come true and may you have the strength to apply decisions based on TheCode,

Jude