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Can America Close Pandora’s Box?
No matter who becomes president, the country may be past the point of no return
The United States is at a precipice. No matter who becomes the next president, the political landscape has shifted so much (in particular, the right-wing capture of the Supreme Court) that the nation’s civic life has been irrevocably altered. Chaos and uncertainty have become the new normal. Is a Joe Biden presidency enough to put the lid back on Pandora’s box?
Perhaps that’s the wrong question. Trumpism is American fascism, and it isn’t new. White supremacy and the brutality and evil it always engenders escaped America’s Pandora’s box centuries ago when the first Native American was killed and their tribe’s land was stolen.
Pandora of Greek myth was, like Eve of the Bible, crafted by divine intervention to be the first woman on earth. The gods presented Pandora with a box she was told contained special gifts for her, but she was forbidden from ever opening it. Like Eve in the Garden of Eden, who couldn’t resist the temptation of eating the forbidden fruit, curiosity got the better of Pandora, and she opened the box, releasing disease, pain, suffering, and evil into the world. The stories of Eve and Pandora are about original sin. America’s original sins are the genocide of Native Americans, the wholesale…
