ELAINE HARRIS SPEARMAN: Ask yourself, what really makes America great?

Have you heard from any source a sensible discussion on what era, or a period of time is referred to in the MAGA acronym, which stands for Make America Great Again?

If it was a personal conversation, it was most likely a rancorous, no-win argument and not a reasonable, rational discussion. That is what tends to be the tone and tenor that has been set from the Republican National Committee (RNC) all the way through the state leaders and government officials to the MAGA supporters and Donald John Trump acolytes.

Anger, bitterness, rage and hatred have overtaken anything that was once at least workable in spite of it all. Time appears to not just be at a standstill, but it is steadily rolling backward. People cannot stand idly by and pretend that they don’t see or hear the refrains of dictatorship, which America has steadfastly rejected from its beginnings.

It appears that all of the hatred and anger that has overtaken the RNC with the chief hater pushing his daughter-in-law into the lead position. This move has destroyed any hope of a better Republican Party with better candidates who are able to focus upon the needs of all Americans, not one person and those who believe as he believes.

Which period in America’s past was great that we want that greatness again? The 1930s, the 1940s? The 1950s and the 1960s when the struggle began in earnest, the wars of the 1970s, the 1980s when financial appointments and other officials had the destiny of many people in their hands? Look at the titular head of the RNC during the 1980s and onward; inflated property values and such to get better rates and treatment from the banking institutions having been found guilty in a court of law continuously claim that he has done nothing wrong and that the banks “got their money back.” Worst of all, he says there were no victims.

There were millions of victims — every American. Who suffers when banks have problems or fraud is committed against the institution? Someone has to suffer. Whom would you believe that someone to be? The American public must pay higher rates and fees. Fewer loans are available for hard-working American people who could not pay cash up front to purchase a home, automobile, or even a major appliance. Don’t be fooled by empty talk. Talk is indeed cheap.

America is great when its leaders don’t use leadership to divide its citizens with hatefulness and violence against one another and one who leads by example. A leader who does not use power and authority to corrupt others makes America great in the eyes of the world.

Surely MAGA does not refer to the four-year reign of terror beginning in 2016 and ending in attempt to overthrow the government in 2021. During this period, millions died needlessly from COVID-19, primarily due to a failure to act by a leader who continuously misled the people by alleging that the deadly virus was a “Democratic hoax.”

Republican officeholders have become the most serious “enablers” and Trump collaborators. Many are unwilling to say publicly what they express privately. Those who do find themselves ousted from the party and leadership positions.

Those who remain steadfast write their own places in history. As I say often, it will not be rewritten or revised. The children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will know where they stood, and what they did. The world will continue to evolve. Nothing remains the same.

Those who inherit the earth will know the truth. There is truth and there is falsity. Somehow, some way, the truth will reign.

I believe that Republicans or Democrats who ultimately make the decision about right or wrong will benefit from acknowledging the awakening, no matter what the detractors do or say.

Whatever one believes about individual choices, many people make decisions that they can live with and face death with.

Former representative Liz Cheney made a decision about what she saw as right and wrong with blindly supporting a person whom she believed is a “threat to democracy and the Constitution.”

John Bolton, former national security adviser of the United States who worked for Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 and finally Trump disclosed in his “The Room Where It Happened A White House Memoir” that Trump was with a person who is “addicted to chaos who embraced our enemies and spurned our friends.”

In the book's jacket cover, he says “he discovered a president who thought foreign policy is like closing a real estate deal, about personal relationships, made for ― TV showmanship and advancing his own interests."

Vice President Mike Pence made a choice that he could live with personally and publicly. He refused a dark place in history by declining to do something that he knew was wrong. He rejected the mantle of corruption by a person who according to court findings has corrupted many. Pence has upheld his decision to do the right thing by not crawling in step with an endorsement of Trump for president.

With senators like John McCain who saw the truth, not party loyalty, many Americans have health care through the Affordable Healthcare Act. What does your great America look like?

Elaine Harris Spearman, Esq., a Gadsden native, is an attorney and is the retired legal advisor to the comptroller of the City of St. Louis. The views expressed are her own. 

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: ELAINE HARRIS SPEARMAN: America's greatness doesn't come from slogan