Opinion – Col Owens: Where do we go from here?


January 20, 2025, was a day of mixed yet deeply meaningful significance.

On the one hand, it was Inauguration Day for the incoming newly elected President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

On the other hand, it was also Martin Luther King Day, the annual observance and celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and career.

Thus, in a circumstance brought about by the overlay of these two calendars, we have the yin and the yang of our current national political consciousness.

Col Owens

Using the recent election results in the presidential race as a proxy, with Trump at 49.8% and Harris at 48.3%, it appears that these two groups each comprise roughly half of the American voting populace.

Those focused primarily on the inauguration represent generally Americans who are unhappy with many aspects of their lives – their personal lives and the perceived life of their country. The price of eggs and the porousness of the border. Those with higher education and those who achieve prominence and great success are perceived as elites. Those who do not achieve great success bear a litany of grievances, which they look to the newly elected President to address and to fix.

Those focusing primarily on Martin Luther King Day tend to be more fixed on the past as well as the present, hoping on the basis of both to forge a better future. They embrace a multi-pronged view of America – dreams achieved, if only somewhat, balanced with hope for those yet to come. They see in King the personification of that search. They applaud his nonviolent protest against unjust conditions, and injustice generally.

The ironic truth is, that these two groups, separated by deep ideological and cultural differences, actually share some important attributes. They both focus as much on what they don’t like and want to change, as they do on what they do like and want to achieve. The specifics differ, but the dynamics are almost identical.

Those focused primarily on the inauguration distrust much of government and want less of it. At least of some specific things. Education. Energy. Environment. Health. Taxes. Activities and institutions that inculcate perceived elitist values and policies. Despite the fact that many of these disfavored policies were painstakingly achieved over long periods of time by citizens of both major political persuasions, to help achieve a better quality of life for all Americans, especially those who cannot achieve it by themselves.

At the same time, this group wants more law enforcement, at all levels of government, to police the border, to contain cities, to deport masses of undocumented immigrants. To prosecute Trump’s enemies – his prosecutors, and those not committed to his vision. To control the health care choices of women. They see a world of threat, and want more investment in countering these perceived threats.

While those committed to King – those who bear the labels “liberal” and “progressive” – want to reduce or eliminate perceived injustices like racism, poverty, and misogyny, while seeking to achieve, for all Americans, positive goals such as quality education, universal health care, fair employment practices, equal opportunities, and safer environment and climate.

It should not be surprising that I am among those working to advance progressive policies.
I said earlier that despite their different goals, these two groups share some important attributes.

Both are deeply committed to their vision, because they are convinced of the rightness of their cause and perceptions. It is important that we all understand this. We are not unalike. We do experience different things, and we experience the same things differently. We each find the other’s beliefs and commitments somewhat incomprehensible.

There is no “fix” for this. Only time and experience reveal the better viewpoints.
But in the meantime, we all pursue our views of the future. And it is in that pursuit that structures and policies emerge, forged by the processes of democracy, that guide our nation forward. Reflecting elements of both camps.

Do conflicts occur? Of course. But they are worked through over time.

So I conclude with what I believe is a time-tested truth – that in this democratic enterprise, where everyone pursues their visions of the future with energy and passion, what emerges is the best possible manifestation of America, in and for the time.

For that we should all be grateful. And work hard to protect and preserve our democratic institutions, which make such incremental progress possible.

Col Owens is a retired legal aid attorney and law professor, author of Bending the Arc Toward Justice, longtime Democratic Party activist, and member of the Boards of Directors of Kentucky Voices for Health and the Kentucky Board of Elections.


4 thoughts on “Opinion – Col Owens: Where do we go from here?

  1. We have more in common with each other than not.

    Your juxtaposition of King and Country is interesting, but it’s not reality.

    King’s work speaks for itself, but to assign that ethos to one political party is a misappropriation.

    I’m happy to see you’re openly admitting you are “among those working to advance progressive policies”. That is the first step towards healing: honesty in our positions and how we view those shared experiences. (I do wonder why it has taken so long for you to drop your charade of neutrality).

    I too am grateful for the amount of hard work by Dr. King and all others who have sacrificed for our Republic.

    1. Thank you for your response. FYI I have never described myself as anything other than a Democrat committed to liberal and progressive values and policies. I have also described myself as open to others and their views, and to interacting with others to achieve the best possible integration of views into coherent policy.
      As is said. It is possible for two things to be true at the same time.

    2. We have no Republic! We have no democracy! We have the trappings of those but not the reality of them and we haven’t had them for quite some time. Our elections are rigged by gerrymandering, the electoral college which favors thinly populated rural states over densely populated urban states, unlimited money pouring into campaigns, much of it from unidentified sources and a media bought and paid for by billionaires who routinely lie to, mislead and propagandize the voters, moving them around like pawns on a chess board. What we have is an oligarchy that maintains the trappings of a republic/democracy on the surface. Look at our last several elections. The Supreme Court, 9 unelected judges choose Bush for President. In 2016, the electoral college chose Trump over the will of the voters. Who Chose Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee??? It certainly was not democratic voters. You and the American people had better wake up and smell the coffee before you lose all the rights which for decades you have taken for granted. In one week Trump has gone after birthright citizenship, removed government officials that oversee government departments and agencies looking for fraud and corruption. Fact checking in the media is under attack and suspended in many online and print sources. Soon you will know only what our oligarchs and the media that they control tell you. Their lies and self serving “facts” will become the only reality. That may be your idea of democracy or a republic which speaks to how successful the oligarchs have been in their quest to control America.

  2. It is impossible to see the election of Trump as anything but an evil. He is an immoral, unethical, corrupt, criminal con man who should be in prison for his role in what happened on Jan. 6, 2020 and his attempts to subvert a free and fair election. His pardoning of those tried and found guilty of crime on that Jan 6 day is a slap in the face to law enforcement officers and all law abiding citizens. He was a criminal before he was president, a criminal while he was president doing exactly what he accuses others of doing – weaponizing the Justice Department against political enemies. As a real estate developer he routinely violated fair housing laws. He ran a charity that he used as his personal piggy bank and ran a scam university. As with his election crimes, he strung out the courts until he could win re-election and thus escape responsibility for his crimes. If he is a President, there is hope for every criminal thug in our country. Richard Nixon was law abiding next to Trump. We owe Nixon a huge apology.

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