Image via ScienceNews
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One of my favorite accounts on Instagram is theworkoutwitch_. This absolutely delightful user focuses on releasing excess cortisol stored in the body, which can cause harmful effects. One point that she makes often is how cortisol—a hormone that is released by the adrenal glands in response to stress—is stored in the body when we experience trauma. It doesn’t matter how far or how fast one runs from their trauma; until it’s processed and released, this hormone will continue to haunt you. Often, you may even reach a point where you don’t entirely remember the event that caused the extreme stress in the first place, but the cortisol is still there.
Unsurprisingly, Americans are incredibly afflicted by stress. 27% of American adults reported being unable to function due to stress on most days, and 37% said they could not accomplish anything when stressed. However, it’s not just stress that most Americans are dealing with, but the destructive effects of prolonged cortisol exposure as well. Some of the most common side effects of long-term exposure include depression, heart disease, heart attacks, high blood pressure, strokes, weight gain, as well as memory and focus problems. Some of the most prevalent health issues facing Americans include hypertension, major depression, high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes, substance use disorders, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Despite its status as one of the richest countries in the world, Americans are clearly a very stressed-out people. They seem to embody what theworkoutwitch_ discusses: no matter how much material success you attain, it will all crumble before the wounds of your past.
This state of constant stress was a large part of what aided Trump in his victory during this most recent election. 66% of Americans pointed to financial conditions as their main source of stress, and 56% said job instability was another major source. Trump’s campaign preyed largely upon this fear. In fact, it was so successful at painting Trump as the only solution to the current economic situation that he actually increased in popularity among Latino voters, despite his openly racist rhetoric and the large role that deportation plays in his platform. Americans are breaking down under stress, and are desperate for someone to save them.
However, echoing the words of theworkoutwitch_, until you work through what lies at the root of a certain problem, the pattern you’re stuck in will continue bringing disaster back into your life. You’ll think you’ve found a savior, but you’re running back to the same pattern that hurt you. At the root of the American problem lies inequality, a curse preventing the establishment of a healthy democracy and leading us right back into the arms of an autocracy. On top of the inequalities along the lines of race, gender, and sexuality, one of the most prevalent inequalities within America is embodied by wealth.
This inequality has been written into the fabric of the American identity in a multitude of ways that most people alive today would likely accept as objective truth or reality. To quote Vice President Kamala Harris, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.” The things we accept as reality are little more than learned behaviors.
Max Weber discussed the prevalence of Protestant Ethics in crafting modern capitalism. He connects the way modern capitalism views the pursuit of profit as a virtuous end goal to the idea of predestination found very specifically in the branch of Protestantism known as Calvinism. Predestination, a belief shared by colonists, is the belief that God knew whether you were going to Heaven or Hell from the moment you were born. This, of course, led to people desperately seeking clues from God regarding their final destination. The end result of this was people connecting their success on this earthly plain to whether God desired them with him in Heaven or burning for an eternity in Hell. There’s a reason why the accumulation of wealth is the single most admirable attribute for Americans today: belief fed into belief into belief until we weren’t quite sure where any of it began. But we are quite sure that the most important thing is being wealthy.
This attitude seems embodied by our new President-elect. After winning the election, Donald Trump shared that people had told him “God spared him for a reason,” referencing the assassination attempt. Trump is a man who has achieved unbelievable material success and now quite literally has the idea in his head that he is God-chosen. The last time we heard such an idea from a leader of ours, spoken with such open boldness, it came from the King of Great Britain. The belief that drives monarchy is that God chooses the royal family; they have the divine right to rule. In a democracy, the power to rule is supposed to be given to the authority figure by the people. This way, those in charge will always remember that their place is to act as a servant to the people. If this attitude were to be removed, and the President was to believe he was chosen by God and given the divine right to rule (not govern), it seems like we would be dangerously close to slipping back into an autocracy.
When the Constitution was first written, some, such as Frederick Douglass, believed it to be a document of liberation, while others, such as his peer William Lloyd Garrison, believed it to be a “covenant with death” that would one day allow for the birth of American authoritarianism. It now seems clear which of those the Constitution is becoming. The Constitution’s start as a document intended to place limits and constraints on American democracy was never fully changed. This document of liberation has become a “covenant with death.” The Constitution was created to ensure the federal government’s power over the rapidly democratizing states. The Constitutional Convention was called in the first place because it was believed that the Articles of Confederation were too weak and more power needed to be vested in the federal government. The Constitution created a series of divided institutions and counter-majoritarian rules that prevented the ability of democratic energy to coalesce into new systems of power.
As theworkoutwitch_ said, until something is fully processed, worked through, and released, one will continue returning to it. Unfortunately, our return to autocratic leadership is not the only thing that’s come back in full swing. Trump hasn’t even taken office yet, and already hateful sentiments that have long simmered just beneath the surface are bursting forth. Black people across a dozen different states received a text message telling them to pack all their stuff to get ready to go pick cotton on a plantation where they would be patted down and searched. While most of these texts were anonymous, some included signatures such as “From a Trump Supporter” or the hashtag #MAGA. Racism has been actively encouraged by American infrastructure; progress past it can’t be made while it still exists in the body of the American government. Now, it comes back in full swing.
The even more concerning aspect is that the movement of Trump supporters seems to have a desire to constitutionalize Trump’s hateful behavior. Cases such as Trump v. Hawai’i (2018), which legitimized his travel ban on Muslims, and Trump v. U.S. (2024), which decided that presidents have complete immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken as official acts as president, move us further and further away from democracy. The most democratic aspects of the Constitution came when the people themselves were experiencing increased sentiments of democracy and almost demanded that the Constitution and government shift to match them. Today, we see a return of bigotry and a deep desire for a leader who can remove all of our stress, albeit if it is all likely empty promises. This is the new attitude being encoded in the Constitution. As Sean Willentz said, democracy is something that must be fought for in a new way by each new generation, lest it should be lost. It’s not something that’s bestowed upon benevolent leaders who look to the future; it lives with the people.
Facing this onset of autocracy, a president who can’t differentiate between voter fraud and political opposition and who wishes to turn the armed forces against his political opponents, the preservation of democracy lies with the people, not the government. Now, more than ever, people must turn to the communities from which the federal government tried to strip power in the Constitution. That is where democracy is born. Providing the support to your community that they’re supposed to be able to rely on the federal government for. Continuing to do the internal work to eliminate outdated belief systems and their physical manifestations is of the utmost importance. When living under a system that cares little for the lives of its individual citizens, we must care for those lives ourselves. Trump’s presidency is the end of America as it once was and, hopefully, the birth of a better, truly democratic America that cleaves itself from the old country. We cannot continue as we always have; we must tear out America’s problematic roots and allow the trees to grow again.
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This article was edited by Renee Agostini and Max Cowan.
