Sing a Song of Mike Pence

Among Donald Trump's many betrayals on January 6--of the Constitution, of the Congress, of the Capitol staff, and of the American people--was his betrayal of his devoted vice president.  No one can deny that the insurrectionists came close to murdering Mike Pence, and no one can deny that Donald Trump did nothing to stop them.  Moreover, after hearing the facts presented in the impeachment trial, no one should deny that Donald Trump incited the mob in the first place.  

Maintaining the spirit of Mother Goose rhymes, which were often political parodies, here's a new version of "Sing A Song of Six Pence."

Sing a song of Mike Pence, a martyr to the cause,
Three and forty votes cast, trashing US laws;
When the votes were counted, the right began to sing,
This is what we do because we want to please our king.

The king was in the White House, watching all with glee,
He tried to call Tom T'ville, instead he got Mike Lee;
He hoped to get the count stopped, to force Joe B to lose;
While all along the rioters sought Mike to fit their noose.

Harrowing indeed.

Shame on those 43 senators.

Epiphany

Three days from now, on Wednesday, January 6, the United States Congress will meet to certify the winner of the 2020 presidential race.  President-elect Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in November by over 7 million votes in the popular election and by 74 votes in the Electoral College.  The Trump campaign's efforts to sue several states for voter fraud have failed in over 40 cases.  District Court Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan of Pennsylvania said, in dismissing one of the cases, that "this claim, like Frankenstein's monster, has been haphazardly stitched together . . . This court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations . . . unsupported by evidence."

Frankenstein's monster indeed.  

It's what the Republican Party has created repeatedly in its subservience to Donald Trump, and it's what brings us now to the latest outrage:  the group of 12 Republican senators and over 100 representatives who plan to oppose the count of votes on January 6.  What an interesting coincidence that this disgraceful devilry will occur on Epiphany, the Christian celebration of the Magi's visit.  Epiphany has also come to mean "a moment of sudden revelation or insight."

Can we count on any of these spineless senators and representatives to experience epiphany, to see the danger of their actions?  Not likely, when their circular logic spins on its own deceit.  Senator Ted Cruz, leader of the twelve senators, said today, "We've seen in the last two months unprecedented allegations of voter fraud . . . We have an obligation to protect the integrity of the democratic system."  Allegations, yes.  Proof, no.  The courts have ruled; the democratic system was upheld.  That the likes of Cruz and his comrades continue to hoodwink Trump supporters doesn't validate the false narrative.  

Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, also a reference to Epiphany, offers us two quotes as we contemplate these Republicans' actions.  In Act 2, Scene ii, Viola says,

"O time, thou must untangle this, not I.
It is too hard a knot for me t'untie."

Who will untie this knot that Republicans have created?  Certainly not Mitch McConnell, who enabled his corrupt president from the start.  Certainly not the so-called moderate Republicans--Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, or Ben Sasse--whose actions rarely support their words of protest.  Certainly not the the right-wing media that continues to promote lies and foment discord.  New leadership under Joe Biden will make a difference, of course, as he will begin to restore integrity and respect.  But William Shakespeare may have it right in the end: time may be our only salvation.

Finally, again from Viola, Act 2, Scene i, a lament for all of us: 

"What country, friends, is this?"

The Power of One

How can the death of one person hold so much power in our democracy? Aren’t we supposed to be “We, the people”?

The loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has set off a volatile, political battle. Less than twenty-four hours after her death, Republican senators were already speaking about her replacement. And though I revere Justice Ginsburg’s brilliance and accomplishments, I’m concerned that she holds this much power in our government, either alive or dead. Something’s broken when the absence of one person can wreak fundamental change across society.

A similar truth holds for Mitch McConnell. Though he’s still here, of course, he continues to block legislation, and at the height of hypocrisy, prevented a hearing for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland in March 2016 during Barack Obama’s second term. Now McConnell intends to seek Senate confirmation for Donald Trump’s nominee within six weeks of a presidential election.

What is broken must be repaired. 

When it comes to the Supreme Court, we must first dispel the myth that it’s our one non-partisan branch of government. We all know this isn’t true. The current fight over Justice Ginsburg’s seat is proof enough. We must then consider remedies to the Court’s composition. Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, reviews options in his March 2020 essay, “Should we restructure the Supreme Court?” In it, he summarizes the three most frequently discussed ideas: adding seats to the Court (aka “packing the court”), increasing the size of the Court to 15, and imposing term limits for justices. 

Whatever changes are made, our courts must be structured in such a way to avoid current trends where, as Wheeler points out, four of our five conservative Supreme Court justices were nominated by presidents who lost the popular vote, and “senators who confirmed Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh represented less than half the population.”

McConnell’s ongoing reign is a related problem. As the Senate Majority Leader, McConnell holds the power to schedule or not schedule votes even when bi-partisan support for a bill is evident. He blocked votes on popular criminal justice reform in 2018, for example, and gun background-check legislation earlier this year. He seeks quick approval for Trump’s judicial nominees yet repeatedly held up Obama’s. His power, and Nancy Pelosi’s for that matter, should be scaled back.

The imbalances of power in our government are not sustainable, and the only way to make change is through the legislative branch. When our newly elected Congress convenes in January 2021, our representatives need to review and revise not only the structure of the Supreme Court, but the power in their own bodies as well. 

It behooves us to hold them accountable.

Wish List

Here are ten things I wish I could do right now:

1. Take a road trip with Mark.

2. Shop at a thrift store.

3. Exercise at my gym.

4. Eat indoors at Toast.

5. Watch a movie at the Carolina Theatre.

6. See fewer people on beaches.

7. Read political-free advice about church re-openings.

8. Take comfort that Americans are wearing masks.

9. Learn that Congress is supporting state and local governments.

10. Watch a responsible president take charge.

Random Questions on the SOTU

I thought the President's speech on Tuesday night was excellent.  Just a few questions, though:

1. Did Joe Biden and John Boehner coordinate their purple and pink Easter ties?

2. Can we get a new Speaker of the House, if for no other reason than to have a more pleasant-looking person seated behind the President?

3. Isn't there something wrong with people who don't applaud the goal to educate all preschool-aged children in America?

4. Can we pay our legislators the minimum wage?

5. Is it me, or has Marco Rubio been over-hyped?

Victims

Yesterday's emails from gun safety groups implored me to watch Gabrielle Giffords' "inspiring" testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  While I understand the use of this adjective as it describes her courage and perseverance, my adjective would be different: "heartbreaking"comes closer to the presentation I watched.  For this once lively, articulate Congresswoman from Arizona could barely read better than the children gunned down last month in Connecticut.

The victims of gun violence in America include many more than those who actually die each year.  Disabilities abound as lives are shattered every day.  Emotional trauma passes from one generation to the next in families destroyed by this scourge.  And communities are torn apart by the dangers of an armed society.

Whenever I'm asked to sign a gun safety petition, I always write in the comment section, "End the madness."  For this is what it is.  Our arrogance and stupidity are breathtaking--that we don't look to other countries as models, that we disregard the views of our police and public safety officers, and that we think the rights of gun owners supersede the safety of the rest of us.

Wayne LaPierre said yesterday that "it's time to throw an immediate blanket of security around our children" by installing armed security officers in schools.  How about throwing a blanket around guns instead, keeping them in as few hands as possible with strict regulations?

I for one would feel a lot safer.

We the People

This week the wind seemed to shift.  From President Obama's inaugural speech to Hillary Clinton's testimony to the Pentagon's lifted combat ban, progressives are no longer obsolete.  Bob Dylan must know how we feel.  Sing to the tune of "The Times They Are A-Changin'":

Come gather round people
Our time is at hand
A new breeze is blowin'
Across the whole land
Our president spoke
And he made a command
That it's time for us to start livin'
The words that our forefathers wrote long ago
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
Get out of the way
If you can't accept all
For the tent that's our country
Grows bigger
And the sooner you get it the better we'll be
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The sides are made clear
Cling to the past
Source of all fear
Block out the noises
You don't want to hear
The old world is
Gradually fadin'
Freedom and rights always win in the end
For the times they are a-changin'.

And The Winner Is. . .

Yesterday's hearings on the attacks in Benghazi featured many aspiring actors.  Here are my Oscar winners:

The "Pontificating Attack Dog" Award to Rand Paul for puffing himself up as he blasted Secretary Clinton.

The "Grumpy, Tired Old Man" Award to John McCain for being exactly that.

The "Diplomat With Dignity" Award to Hillary Clinton for intelligence, clarity, and grace.

The "We Know Better Than You, Little Lady" Award to most of the Republicans, especially Senator Ron Johnson, Representative Joe Wilson, and Representative Dana Rohrabacher for their obnoxious denigration of Secretary Clinton.

The "Most Overstated and Irrelevant Part of the Story" Award to Susan Rice's appearances on the Sunday morning news shows, a red herring if there ever was one.

Joe Biden Rising

Here's to Joe Biden.  He's emerged as President Obama's best emissary and negotiator during both the fiscal cliff talks and now in discussions on gun violence.  Perhaps this development is a sign that the President will use the executive branch more in his second term rather than defer to our hapless Congress.

With the American folk song "Old Joe Clark" as our guide, we salute the Vice President (and hope that he continues to take charge--rather than the Congressional leaders who've gotten us nowhere):

Joe Biden he made a deal
With the other side,
Stepped into a big old mess
Of talks that had just died.

Hello Joe Biden
Good-bye Harry Reid,
Hello Joe Biden
It's time for you to lead.

Joe Biden he is our man
Taking on tough stuff,
Trying to enact a ban
'Cause we've had enough.

Hello Joe Biden
Good-bye Nancy P,
Hello Joe Biden
You now hold the key.

Joe Biden he listens well
Gets along with all,
Doesn't demonize his foes
Up and down the Mall.

Hello Joe Biden
Good-bye Mitch and John,
Hello Joe Biden
We're so glad you won.

More on Newtown

President Obama's visit to Newtown, Connecticut, last night must have been one of the saddest occasions of his life, made all the sadder because the American government failed to protect its most vulnerable citizens.  We know there are ways to protect ourselves from gun violence--we used to have an Assault Weapons Ban--but our leaders are chicken.

I sent an email to NC Senator Hagan last night urging her to take action on gun violence.  The drop-down menu on her website listed both "Second Amendment" and "Drug/Crime" as subjects I could select, but I clicked on "Terrorism" instead, for this most accurately describes these shootings.

Whenever they happen, we immediately hear news stories about how rare such incidents are.  But so was September 11, and our government sprang into action with new agencies, new commissions, new airport policies, and new warning systems.  Nothing comparable happens with gun shootings, even though the number of victims each month roughly equals the total number of those killed on September 11.  And not only does nothing happen, nobody even says anything, other than to offer big hugs to the survivors.

These hugs are becoming meaningless, I'm sorry to say, when we fail to DO ANYTHING to try to stop gun violence in the first place.  Solutions aren't easy, and some ideas will fail.  But worse than failure is silence--which has been deafening for too long.

President Obama spoke out last night, finally, and seems ready to take action.  To do so on his part is not to play politics with a tragedy, as some will charge.  Rather, it's what a responsible, civilized society does--take something that went terribly wrong and try to prevent it from ever happening again.

Over the Cliff

Here's one for our feckless Congress.  Sing to the tune of "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain":

We'll be jumpin' off the fiscal cliff, we will,
We'll be jumpin' off the fiscal cliff, we will,
We can't ask the rich to pay more
'Cause they'll end up being too poor
So we're jumpin' off the fiscal cliff, we are.

Prez is drivin' a hard bargain, yes he is,
Prez is drivin' a hard bargain, yes he is,
Boehner still wants all those tax cuts
Keep in line all his right-wing nuts
Prez is drivin' a hard bargain, yes he is.

And we'll go into recession when we jump,
Yes we'll go into recession when we jump,
'Cause our Congress made a bad deal
One we wish that they could repeal
So we'll go into recession when we jump.

Some will kill negotiations when they can,
Some will kill negotiations when they can,
That's the problem with our Congress
How it functions no one can guess
Some will kill negotiations when they can.

We'll be shoutin' Hallelujah when we jump,
We'll be shoutin' Hallelujah when we jump,
For we know no one can save us
So let's not create a big fuss
We'll be shoutin' Hallelujah when we jump.

The Messy Way Forward

Each year the Durham County Library sponsors a series of events surrounding one book chosen for the community to read, called "Durham Reads Together."  I propose a variant of this, called "USA Watches Together," where we all watch Steven Spielberg's new movie Lincoln. 

For to watch this movie is to be reminded that both vision and horse-trading make democracy work.  In it, we see vividly that passage of the 13th amendment--to abolish slavery in the United States--required manipulation and compromise on the part of its main players.  The "My way or the highway" thinking that dominates our current political discourse simply didn't work in 1865 and it won't work today.

What will work is a president who has a vision, legislators who can make a deal, at least a few people who vote their conscience, and everyone willing to get their hands a little dirtier than they'd like.

Neanderthal Man

Todd Akin, the Republican candidate for Senate in Missouri, holds extreme views on abortion. When asked about pregnancy that results from rape, he said, "First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare.  If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

Two questions:

What doctor is he talking to? and

Where do people like Todd Akin come from?

Taking the Heat

Now that we've had a week of gay marriage hysteria, I wonder what cultural war we'll fight next.  We've lurched from one controversy to another these last several months.  Contraception, mommy wars, Planned Parenthood and the Komen Foundation, even American nuns have found themselves under an unfortunate spotlight.  Interesting, isn't it, that women and "women's issues" lie at the heart of so many of these storms.

I can't help but think that our financial crisis, largely managed by men, fuels this female feeding frenzy.  It reminds me of a family where the dad is having a hard time and takes out his anger on his wife or daughter or the sissy younger son.  Marginalized figures take the heat every time.

If our financial leaders--whether they're in Congress or at the White House or on Wall Street--would lead in a responsible way, perhaps we wouldn't descend into these debates with such ferocity.  The way they're fought becomes diversionary, taking everyone's eye off the central economic crisis before us.  And more often than not, they deteriorate into attacks on women.

But we don't get leadership.  Even President Obama reacted this week to the debacle at JPMorgan Chase by praising Jamie Dimon as "one of the smartest bankers we got."  (See Robert Reich, "The Dog That Didn't Bark: Obama on JPMorgan.")  One man winking at another man is what we got.

And when this happens, women get screwed.

"The Scream"

That "The Scream" sold for nearly $120 million last night at Sotheby's seems fitting.  It is the symbol of our time, after all, and only increases in relevance as life grows more bizarre.  All you need to do is read the front page of any American newspaper or listen to the evening news, and you'll feel exactly like the figure in Edvard Munch's pastel.

When Giants Walked

When I learned on Saturday that three prominent political families had each lost someone--the Kennedys, the Mondales, and the Percys--I found myself transported to 1971, when I was in 9th grade. Our history teachers took us to Washington, D. C., that year, and we were on the lookout for famous senators. I remember the thrill at seeing Hubert Humphrey, Charles Percy, and Jacob Javits.

Imagine any ninth graders now being excited by the sight of a U. S. Senator. Max Baucus, Mary Landrieu, Harry Reid, Orrin Hatch? The list of senators from the 92nd Congress, 1971 - 1973, however, is filled with distinguished names: J. William Fulbright, Margaret Chase Smith, Mike Mansfield, Sam Ervin, Frank Church, Edmund Muskie, Ted Kennedy, George McGovern, Birch Bayh, Walter Mondale, Howard Baker, Mark Hatfield, Barry Goldwater, and Alan Cranston. I could list more.

What's happened? A lot, of course. The money in politics, the 24-hour news cycle, our polarized parties, widespread cynicism, not to mention my own yearning for the past. Still, the senators from the 92nd Congress loomed large in ways that I miss. They represented all of us, not just the narrow interests of their own states. They were public servants of the United States of America, even when we disagreed with them.

Maybe they weren't giants, and surely they had their warts. But they held our respect, they took seriously the issues of the day, and they worked on our behalf. They did the job we paid them to do. I don't think we can say the same of our senators today.