America may be broken beyond repair

Commentary

At least that’s what Michele Goldberg of the New York Times thinks. Unfortunately, I agree.

I’m tired. I’m sad. I’m angry and I’m frustrated. It’s often been suggested to me, after I post a particularly provocative or contentious column, “Good column. But what are you going to do about it, except get if off your chest?” Frankly, I don’t have an answer; that’s one reason I’m frustrated. But if I’m frustrated opining to a readership of a few hundred, can you imagine what a Times or Post op-ed writer feels, opining to a readership in the hundreds of thousands – a columnist like Michelle Goldberg?

Ms. Goldberg, full of justifiable rage, makes important points in her column, “America may be broken beyond repair.” She is writing on media platform with 6.7 million subscribers. My question to her, like my readers’ question to me is “To what end; what are you going to do about it?

Here’s Michelle Goldberg’s New York Times column of May 27.

In an ad released last year, Blake Masters, a leading candidate in Arizona’s Republican Senate primary, cradles a semiautomatic weapon. “This is a short-barreled rifle,” he said, ominous music playing in the background. “It wasn’t designed for hunting. This is designed to kill people.”

For Masters, this isn’t an argument against allowing such guns to proliferate. Rather, it’s an acknowledgment of why access to these weapons is, for the right, a matter of existential importance. “The Second Amendment is not about duck hunting,” said Masters. “It’s about protecting your family and your country. What’s the first thing the Taliban did when Joe Biden handed them Afghanistan? They took away people’s guns.” Guns, in this worldview, are a guarantor against government overreach. And government overreach includes attempts to regulate guns.

These days, it’s barely remarkable when Republicans issue what sound like threats against those who’d dare curtail their private arsenals. “I have news for the embarrassment that claims to be our president — try to take our guns and you’ll learn why the Second Amendment was written in the first place,” Randy Fine, a state representative in Florida, tweeted on Wednesday.

It will be impossible to do anything about guns in this country, at least at a national level, as long as Democrats depend on the cooperation of a party that holds in reserve the possibility of insurrection. The slaughter of children in Texas has done little to alter this dynamic.

Republicans have no intention of letting Democrats pass even modest measures like strengthened background checks, and as long as the Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema refuse to amend the filibuster, Republicans retain a veto over national policy. Victims of our increasingly frequent mass shootings are collateral damage in a cold civil war, though some Democrats refuse to acknowledge it, let alone fight it.

Fine’s words echoed Donald Trump’s during the 2016 election, when he said that “Second Amendment people” might be able to stop a President Hillary Clinton from appointing Supreme Court justices. What was once a barely concealed insinuation of violence has morphed, especially since Jan. 6, into an even more forthright menace. As ProPublica has reported, dozens of members of the Oath Keepers militia were arrested in connection with the attack on the Capitol, but that hasn’t stopped the organization from “evolving into a force within the Republican Party.”

In Shasta County, a conservative part of rural Northern California, a militia-aligned faction has secured a majority on the board of supervisors, in what members of the movement see as a blueprint that can be deployed nationally. Throughout the country, reported The New York Times, “right-wing Republicans are talking more openly and frequently about the use of force as justifiable in opposition to those who dislodged him” — meaning Trump — “from power.” Expecting those same Republicans to collaborate with Democrats on public safety is madness.

The horrifying irony, the hideous ratchet, is that the more America is besieged by senseless violence, the more the paramilitary wing of the American right is strengthened. Gun sales tend to rise after mass shootings. Republicans responded to the massacre in Uvalde by doubling down on calls to arm teachers and “harden” schools. An article in The Federalist arguedthat parents must home-school so that kids can learn “in a controlled environment where guns can be safely carried for self-defense or locked away when not in use.” It’s a vision of a society — if you can call it that — where every family is a fortress.

Guns are now the leading cause of death for American children. Many conservatives consider this a price worth paying for their version of freedom. Our institutions give these conservatives disproportionate power whether or not they win elections. The filibuster renders the Senate largely impotent. Trump, a president who lost the popular vote, was able to appoint Supreme Court justices who are poised to help overturn a New York state law restricting the carrying of concealed weapons. It’s increasingly hard to see a path to small-d democratic reform.

And so among liberals, there’s an overwhelming feeling of despair. Even as people learn the names of all those murdered children, the most common sentiment is not “never again,” but a bitter acknowledgment that nothing isgoing to change. America is too sick, too broken. It is perhaps beyond repair.

Two years ago, David French, an anti-Trump conservative, published a book, “Divided We Fall,” warning of the possible crackup of the United States. It included two chapters imagining scenarios for how the dissolution of the country might happen. One involved a mass shooting at a school in California, to which the state’s people reacted “with white-hot rage.” French envisioned furious state politicians defying the Second Amendment, leading to a nullification crisis and blue-state secession.

He meant it as a cautionary tale, but rereading the chapter after Uvalde, it feels less bleak than our reality. In French’s scenario, atrocity has the effect of energizing people rather than immobilizing them. They are determined to fight, not resigned to defeat. They have audacity and hope.

The real nightmare is not that the repetition of nihilist terrorism brings American politics to an inflection point, but that it doesn’t. The nightmare is that we simply stumble on, helpless as things keep getting worse.

I think you’ll agree, this is a well-documented, powerful, but ultimately distressing column about an intolerable situation; about a country, a so-called democracy, on the road to ruin. But, as I said, “To what end?” What is Michelle Goldberg going to do about it? What am I going to do about it? What are you going to do about it?

Georgia on my mind

Commentary

Texas is really on my mind…but Georgia’s a close second

The horrific events of Tuesday at the Robb Elementary school overtook, rightfully so, another disastrous news event that day: the Republican primaries in Georgia. But before I opine on those primaries, I feel compelled to pass on two more thoughts about the Uvalde, Texas massacre.

No, I’m not going to talk more about Ted Cruz’s inane comments. Or Greg Abbott’s. What I am going to do is to show you one video and one comment.

The video is from an PBS News Hour interview with former Supreme Court Chief Justice, Warren Burger in 1991, the one in which Burger decried the Second Amendment as a fraud. Burger, if you recall, presided over the last rationale Supreme Court. His successor as Chief, William Rehnquist, began the Court’s rush to the bottom.

The quote is from Eric Ruben, a senior fellow from the Brennan Center Center for Justice. The Brennan Center, named for Associate Justice William J. Brennan, a member of both the Warren and Burger courts, honors Justice Brennan’s devotion to core democratic freedoms by attempting to strengthen democracy, end mass incarceration, and protect liberty and security.

Eric Rubin:

“…the first half of the Second Amendment provides for a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a Free State. For decades, the consensus in the federal court was that the first half of the Second Amendment, the militia clause, limited the scope of the Second Amendment to participation of militia activities. But then the reading of the second half was challenged by the NRA and other gun rights advocates beginning in the 1970s and continuing through today in a concerted effort to fund scholarship and push out a broader version of the Second Amendment; a broader understanding of the Second Amendment that focusses not on military service but on private self defense.”

Think about Burger and Rubin while I move on to Georgia.

There were three significant outcomes to the Republican primaries in Georgia, In the governor’s race, Trump’s hand-picked candidate, former Senator David Perdue, was soundly beaten by incumbent Governor Brian Kemp. Except for the idea that Trump might be wielding a little less power, I’d consider that outcome a “from the frying pan into the fire” one. Kemp, you might recall was elected to his current position from his role as Georgia’s secretary of state where he was accused of tilting the playing field in his direction to win the election over his opponent Stacey Abrahams. Kemp is not a hero; but that’s old news.

More importantly, to get a sense of where Georgia is today, you need to look at the results of two other significant primaries.

In the Republican primary to determine the candidate to run against Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock, former University of Georgia football legend, Herschel Walker, won his race by a huge margin. While there’s no denying that Mr. Walker was an outstanding football player and a hero to football-crazy Georgians, there is a question as to whether he is really qualified to be one of 100 United States senators.

Allow me to use this, from the HuffPost, written two days after the Texas massacre, to make my case

Herschel Walker Gives Incoherent Solution To GunViolence On Fox News

Ex-football hero Herschel Walker offered an incomprehensible solution to gun violence on Fox News Thursday just days after the Donald Trump-endorsed neophyte won the Republican Senate primary in Georgia.

Walker, responding to the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that left 19 children dead, noted that “Cain killed Abel” and followed with a head-scratching suggestion.

“What about getting a department that can look at young men that’s looking at women that looking at social media,” he said.

Mangling a well-worn page out of the GOP playbook, the former University of Georgia and Dallas Cowboys running back said he wanted to put money in the “mental health field” instead of “departments that want to take away your rights.”

 People on social media were baffledby his rambling remarks, which come at a time where Republicans reportedly are already concerned about his political inexperience and domestic abuse allegations.

But, if you can believe it, for Georgia it actually gets worse.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is often, and inconceivably labelled simply as a “Republican firebrand,” won her primary race in Georgia’s 14th Congressional district, garnering over 70% of the vote.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Congresswoman Greene, allow me to fill you in:

  • She questioned whether a plane really flew into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001
  • “That’s another one of those Clinton murders,” Ms. Greene said, referring to John F. Kennedy Jr.’s death in a 1999 plane crash, suggesting that he had been assassinated because he was a potential rival to Hillary Clinton for a New York Senate seat.
  • She suggested in a 2018 Facebook post that a devastating wildfire that ravaged California was started by “a laser” beamed from space and controlled by a prominent Jewish banking family with connections to powerful Democrats.
  • She has endorsed executing Democratic lawmakers, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
  • She has blogged, “MUST READ — Democratic Party Involved With Child Sex, Satanism, and The Occult.” 
  • She has claimed in multiple videos and social media posts that several school shooting massacres were “false flag” events perpetrated by government officials in an attempt to drum up support for gun control laws. 

I could go on, but, frankly, the more I write, the more ill I feel.

Her Democratic opponent in the election in November will be Marcus Flowers. Flowers served in the United States Army from 1994 to 2003. His career experience includes working as a contractor and official with the State Department and Department of Defense. He seems to be a really good guy. I get an email from him almost every day asking for a contribution to his campaign. Some of those emails suggest that, with my help, Mr. Flowers can flip Georgia 14 “blue.” I checked. Nearly 70% of voters in Georgia’s 14th Congressional district are identified as Republicans. So, sorry Mr. Flowers, I really feel your pain but…

Let me leave Georgia with this last thought. The other day, Stacey Abrams, running once again against Brian Kemp, said, “Georgia is the worst state in the country to live.” Based on the fact that the citizens of Georgia are intent on voting for politicians like Brian Kemp, Herschel Walker, David Perdue and Marjorie Taylor Greene, Abrams might be correct. Abrams, no fool, recognized that her statement would be “politicized” so further explained that her state has lots of room for improvement on issues like mental health and incarceration.

Further explained? My God, what was she thinking? “Georgia is the worst state in the country to live” will be in every Brian Kemp ad. Even Democrats, her base, who are Georgians and who live in, and love their home state, will be repelled by that statement. An incredible unforced error that, in my opinion, will result in another defeat for this bright and supremely qualified candidate.

When will Democrats learn?????

19 students, two teachers killed in Texas elementary school shooting

Commentary

American Exceptionalism at its worst. When will this stop?

I was out with a friend yesterday afternoon. When I returned I switched the TV on and heard the horrific news: 14 children in the 2nd 3rd and 4th grades and one teacher were murdered at a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. As my headline indicates, as of this writing, the toll is now 19 students and two teachers killed. Many more are in hospitals in critical condition, while the survivors will be traumatized for the rest of their lives.

The gunman, apparently wearing some sort of body armor, used two AR-type military style rifles in the massacre. He was so heavily armed and self-protected that he overwhelmed the school’s safety officer and the first policemen arriving at the scene. A heavily armed police tactical team had to be called in to stop the rampage, killing the shooter in the process.

This is another American tragedy. And yes, this is a uniquely American event. When is enough, enough?

Apparently not until our politicians get some backbone and write some serious gun control laws. Of course, the politicians I’m talking about are mostly Republican. But don’t take my word for it. Take the words of the Dallas Morning News in today’s editorial.

AFTER UVALDE SHOOTING WILL AMERICANS SAY ENOUGH?

“Every leading Republican in this state has made permissive gun access a political cause while doing precious little or actively undermining efforts to enforce existing regulation…It is time to re-enact the restrictions in the Federal Assault Weapons Ban that were so foolishly permitted to expire. It is time to limit high-capacity magazines…”

Or take the words of Republican Texas senator Ted Cruz right after the massacre that took place in a town in his state. Beyond his knee-jerk “thoughts and prayers,” he said this,

“When there’s a murderer of this kind, you see politicians try to politicize it, you see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law abiding citizens.”

He also called, not for more gun control laws but for the “need to devote far more law enforcement resources to stopping violent criminals preventing these kinds of absolute acts of evil.”

Or take the words of Texas Republican Attorney General, Ken Paxton, who like his state’s junior senator said nothing about gun control but opined,

“…one way to prevent mass shootings would be to make it more difficult for people even to get in that point of entry by having teachers and other administrators who have gone through training and who are armed.”

Or take the words of Texas Republican governor, Greg Abbott who tweeted in 2015,

“I’m EMBARRASSED: Texas #2 in nation for new gun purchases, behind CALIFORNIA. Let’s pick up the pace Texans.”

Of course, that Abbott tweet was seven years ago. But do you think he’s changed? Based on the headline in a Houston Chronicle editorial today, don’t bet on it:

Abbott says ‘never again’ after Uvalde school massacre. Don’t fall for it, Texans.

Compare all those GOP statements and words with Connecticut Democratic senator Chris Murphy’s speech on the floor of the Senate last night.

“What are we doing? I’m here on this floor to beg — to literally get down on my hands and knees — to beg my colleagues. Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely.”

Or President Biden’s words who got off Air Force One after a trip to Asia to face another crisis not of his doing.

“It is time to turn this pain to the action. For every parent, every citizen of this country. We have to make it clear to every elected official in this country: it’s time to act. It’s time for those who obstruct or delay or blocked the common sense gun laws – we need to let you know that we will not forget…Why? Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? The gun manufacturers have spent two decades aggressively marketing assault weapons, which make them the most and largest profit. For God’s sake, we have to have the courage to stand up to the industry. Where in God’s name is our backbone?”

Or Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr in his pre-game presser in Dallas.

But is this really uniquely American?

Listen to President Biden in that same speech.

“I just got off my trip from Asia, meeting with Asian leaders, and I learned of this while I was on the aircraft.  And what struck me on that 17-hour flight — what struck me was these kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world. Why? They have mental health problems. They have domestic disputes in other countries. They have people who are lost.  But these kinds of mass shootings never happen with the kind of frequency that they happen in America. Why?“

If you don’t believe or trust Biden, a look at these findings might convince you of America’s uniqueness when it comes to guns and mass murders.

Americans make up about 4.4 percent of the global population but own 42 percent of the world’s guns. From 1966 to 2012, 31 percent of the gunmen in mass shootings worldwide were American, according to a 2015 study by Adam Lankfore, a professor at the University of Alabama.

Adjusted for population, only Yemen has a higher rate of mass shootings among countries with more than 10 million people. Yemen has the world’s second-highest rate of gun ownership after the United States.

And remember, that was a 2015 study. It’s only gotten worse since then.

Or take a look at this study, from 2017 which compares the U.S. to other countries in terms of violent gun deaths.

Uniquely American? Or perhaps a better description is the one Americans are proud of using to set us apart from the rest of the world – “American Exceptionalism.”

Whatever term you use, the bottom line is the same. We are disgracefully different. As some of the headlines around the country said: “Enough!”

Before I go, I have a confession to make about what I was doing yesterday afternoon with my friend.

I went to a shooting range.

Let me explain.

My friend, a man who is socially, economically and ethnically virtually identical to me has for months asked me if I’d like to join him when he goes to the shooting range. My friend is a recreational shooter. His guns are not for protection; he simply likes the challenge of shooting at a target and the sense of accomplishment when he shoots well. I thought it might be an interesting experience, so I said yes.

As we were signing in to shooting lane #3, it was impossible to disregard the overwhelming booms coming from inside the range. In fact, I jumped every time one of the shooters squeezed the trigger on some automatic “long gun”…I later found out the long gun he was using was an AR-type, a cousin of the ubiquitous and totally unnecessary for civilian use AR-15 military style assault rifles and similar to the ones the Uvalde shooter used. As I jumped, I thought about those booms when a mass shooting is taking place and how the booms must increase the fright and trauma, as if the prospect of imminent death wasn’t enough. Little did I know how prescient that thought would be.

My friend brought his three legal, licensed hand guns. There’s no way I’ll remember what their names were but one used .22 caliber ammo, another .38 caliber and the third, 9mm ammo. We shot at targets, the kind held up by clothespins on a pulley device. The distance to these clothes-pinned targets was probably 20-30 feet. Amazingly, I did pretty well. Amazing, if for no other reason it that this was the first time I had actually shot a gun since Navy Officer Candidate School in 1967!

I discovered that target practice is actually fun. There is a certain satisfaction when you aim for a spot and actually hit it (or come close to hitting it). Guns however, at least the types that most of the people in the other lanes were using were not so much fun. Bigger, heavier, more powerful handguns were in abundance around me. Men (and women) practicing with assault rifles occupied at least half the lanes. The “boom-boom-booms,” even with the noise suppressing ear muffs my friend provided, made me jump each and every time.

And then I got home and watched the latest American gun massacre. One in which 19 elementary school students and two teachers in a Texas town went off to school on a Tuesday morning and never returned home. They were shot down, for no apparent reason on the same day I was at a shooting range, practicing with three different, but powerful hand guns.

When a semi-automatic hand gun or rifle fires a round, the used shell casing is ejected. I picked up one of the AR-something casings that had been ejected and landed on the floor. It was bigger than the ammo I was shooting. But I was told that although the casing is bigger, the bullet, the projectile itself, is about the same size as the ones I was shooting. Why? Because that bigger casing allows for more gun powder. More gun powder means more energy, more power. More power means more efficient killing.

I’m very fond of my friend. He’s also a excellent nature and landscape photographer. I think the next time I go out shooting with him, it will be with our cameras, not with his guns.

The Nation: Insurrectionist Doug Mastriano Should Be Barred From the Pennsylvania Ballot

Commentary

Details of Mastriano’s involvement with the coup attempt are overwhelming—and disqualify him under the 14th Amendment, argue constitutional lawyers.

John Nichols writes in The Nation today, “Donald Trump’s choice for governor of Pennsylvania, state Senator Doug Mastriano, was affirmed last week by Republican primary voters who followed the former president’s order to nominate a candidate who actively sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

Nichols goes on, “That may cut it in the fever swamp that is the Pennsylvania Republican Party. But it doesn’t cut it constitutionally. Mastriano’s actions before, during, and after the January 6, 2021 coup attempt by Trump backers disqualify the newly minted nominee from Pennsylvania’s November ballot, say lawyers who point to a section of the US Constitution that bars insurrectionists and their allies from serving in elected or appointed positions.”

Nichols’ piece describes Mastriano as a right-wing extremist, a QAnon conspiracy theorist, a trafficker of Islamophobic hate speech, and an advocate of ending public health mandates designed to slow the spread of Covid-19.

And, video confirmed that he crossed police lines outside the US Capitol on January 6 2021, when the building which was invaded by Trump backers as part of a violent coup attempt (although he claims not have entered the building).

Nichols points out that watchdog group, Free Speech For People, argues that Mastriano should be disqualified from being on the ballot under Section Three of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution:

“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

You can read Nichols’ entire piece online here: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/doug-mastriano-pennsylvania-ballot/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%205.23.2022&utm_term=daily

The fact that Trump, Mastriano, GOP elected officials and right-wing commentators have encouraged and/or participated in the insurrection, while continuing to perpetrate the “big lie” is, however, not the focus of my ire and disgust today. And, it’s not the fact that this crazed wing nut should know better…he’s a retired U.S. Army colonel* with a PhD in History**.

*(Boy, if they ever do an update of the film, “Seven Days in May” they’d have to base the crazy coup-leader colonel on Mastriano!)

**(I guess Mastriano’s PhD history curriculum didn’t cover the peaceful transfer of power.)

It is the fact that 231,932 registered Republicans in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 42% of the voters in a field of nine candidates, cast their precious vote for this man.

It is clear now, whatever else anyone wants to say, Trump orders, his selected candidates spread his lies and the Republican electorate follows whatever they’re told like lemmings.

As I wrote this story one, only one, image came to mind:

Where is the gal in the red shorts and the sledgehammer?  We need her more now than Steve Jobs needed her in 1984!

The Buffalo shooter had plenty of co-conspirators: the Republican Party and Fox News stars

Commentary

By spewing “race replacement theory,” the right, politicians and pundits alike, are culpable in this massacre. As is GOP leadership for their criminal inaction for not reigning in the crackpots in their party or supporting gun control.

The mass shooting in Buffalo on Saturday was tragic. It was horrific. Average people out food shopping at one of the only supermarkets in this predominately Black neighborhood in Buffalo didn’t come home that day. The security guard at the store, a retired Buffalo police officer, tried to defend the shoppers by shooting at the perpetrator but his bullets were useless against the bullet-proof vest/body armor the shooter wore. Out gunned, this brave soul was murdered as well.

I’d say, “my thoughts and prayers” go out to the families of the victims, but I won’t. I won’t because that’s the knee jerk response of politicians, mostly Republican, and right-wing pundits, mostly on Fox, after a rampage, after an affront to our society, occurs. 

Do you ever wonder why these political charlatans can only offer “thoughts and prayers?” I know why: because in their minds, the victims are not “their society.” They’re interlopers out to get them and their way of life. The “white,” “Christian” way of life. These elected officials and wannabees know, deep in their souls, that they are the root cause of appalling massacres like the one in Buffalo. They are the root cause because of what they say and what they won’t do. 

The 18-year old Buffalo shooter will be tried. He will be convicted. Hopefully he will be sentenced to life in prison with no opportunity for parole. And his enablers? They’ll go scot-free. Even worse, given the nature of our political system with gerrymandered districts and voter suppression, not only will the politicians who informed the shooter’s hate not be punished, they’ll be rewarded. If polls are correct, most of them will be elected again by the people, who like the shooter, are followers of, as Max Boot of The Washington Post  opined in a column following the shooting, “two of the most appalling ideas that have taken root in America: the ‘great replacement’ theory and opposition to gun control.”

And the pundits? Their reward for their fear mongering? Ever higher ratings and ever bigger salaries. 

Boot goes on, based on the shooter’s ‘manifesto:’ “Like many of the right, he is enraged by what he imagines to be ‘mass migration’ and is convinced that it will ‘destroy our cultures, destroy our peoples,’” going on to write, “But his repugnant views are not confined to an obscure corner of the internet. They have become mainstream within the Republican Party.” (emphasis, mine)

Some examples:

  • Fox’s most popular star, Tucker Carlson, suggested last year that “the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting votes, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World.” This idea was articulated by his Fox colleague, Laura Ingraham as well.   
  • Elected GOP officials including Rep Matt Gaetz (FL), Rep. Scott Perry (PA) and Sen. Ron Johnson (WI) have espoused “great replacement” theory. 
  • A GOP candidate for Senate in Arizona, Blake Masters, posted a video after the Buffalo shooting saying, “The Democrats want open borders so they can bring in and amnesty **tens of millions** of illegal aliens — that’s their electoral strategy.”
  • Ohio GOP senatorial candidate, J.D. Vance (whose views on key issues have flip-flopped almost as much as Dr. Oz’s) said that Democrats and their “plan” to open the borders are creating “a shift in the democratic makeup of this country,” and that President Biden is deliberating letting fentanyl into the country “to kill a bunch of MAGA voters in the middle of the heartland.”

The GOP electorate, not surprisingly, seems to buy into this garbage. A poll in December found that nearly half of all Republicans believe that there is a plot to “replace” native-born Americans with immigrants.

Regarding gun control, Boot writes, “The Buffalo terrorist, like so many other mass shooters, used an assault weapon. In his manifesto, he expressed concern that, after his attack, ‘gun control policies will be brought forth to the state and federal government,’ including ‘Calls to ban high-capacity magazines, assault weapons including AR-15’s, and even items such as body armor.’ He need not worry: Republicans will never permit these sensible reforms to pass.

On the same day in The Post, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, Eugene Robinson, opined, “Do not dare write off the shooter as somehow uniquely ‘troubled.’ Those Black victims were murdered by white supremacy, which grows today in fertile soil nourished not just by fringe-dwelling racists but by politicians and other opportunists who call themselves mainstream.”

Michael Gerson, a Post columnist and former speechwriter for George W. Bush, opined, “…the racist ideas closely associated with such killing are being granted impunity daily within the Republican Party. The problem is not just that a few loudmouths are saying racist things. It is the general refusal of Republican ‘leaders’ to excommunicate officials who embrace replacement theory. The refusal of Fox News to fire the smiling, public faces of a dangerous, racist ideology. This much needs to be communicated — by all politicians and commentators — with clarity: No belief that likens our fellow citizens to invaders and encourages racist dehumanization is an American belief.”

What will it take for GOP politicians to stand down from fear mongering for political gain? What will it take for “news” organizations like Fox to stop their stars from spewing lies and hate on air? 

It better take something. Because it can only get worse.

Witch hunt here, witch hunt there, is there a witch hunt everywhere?

Commentary

But, what is a “witch hunt” anyway?

With the news that the five GOP Congressmen who have been subpoenaed by the January 6th Committee characterizing the subpoenas as a “witch hunt,” I thought it appropriate to take a quick look at what a witch hunt is.

Oxford, which naturally uses the English spelling of the word, “witch-hunt,” defines it, historically as, “a search for and subsequent persecution of a supposed witch.” Collins, which agrees with Oxford on the English spelling, takes a somewhat more contemporary approach: “A witch-hunt is an attempt to find and punish a particular group of people who are being blamed for something, often simply because of their opinions and not because they have actually done anything wrong. And Merriam-Webster? They hedge the bet, using the American spelling, witch hunt, and both an historical and contemporary definition: ” 1) a searching out for persecution of persons accused of witchcraft; and 2) the searching out and deliberate harassment of those (such as political opponents) with unpopular views.

Whatever the definition, I can almost guarantee that the term has been uttered or written more often in the last several years than in all the time since it’s original use in the 19th century. (While “witch hunting” dates back to the 17th century, the use of the noun describing the act was documented significantly later, according to Merriam-Webster).

How often?

  • Trump used the term 84 times in describing the Mueller probe, according to The Atlantic. (Vox puts it at “more than 120…, but who’s counting?)
  • The Guardian reported that Trump used the term “…approximately once every three days on average during his presidency and not only in connection with his impeachment trial. He continued to use it later in the year to describe accusations that he mismanaged America’s Covid-19 response, inquiries into his tax returns, an investigation into alleged criminal conduct at the Trump Organization and other controversies.”
    • No mathematician I, but a quick calculation of “once every three days” resulted in 486 uses during his time in office. And, we all know he didn’t stop after that.

But it’s not just Trump. Just about every GOP politician who faces scrutiny has used the term. Even Trump’s favorite Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has invoked it. Of course he probably said it this way: צַיִד מְכַשֵׁפוֹת.

The term has been so overused even witches are up in arms! Back in 2018, The Daily Beast headlined a story, Witches to Trump: Stop Calling the Mueller Investigation a ‘Witch Hunt’ going on to report, “The witch community is tired of the president invoking the worst moment in their history to serve his political needs.”

With that witch hunting perspective, let’s get back to our most current witch hunt, using Heather Cox Richardson’s excellent summary as our guide.

Today the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol issued subpoenas for testimony to five members of Congress: Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Representatives Scott Perry (R-PA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Mo Brooks (R-AL). The committee previously invited them to cooperate voluntarily, and they refused. The committee has evidence that these five, in particular, know crucial things about the events of January 6 and activities surrounding the attempt to overturn President Joe Biden’s election. 

McCarthy communicated with Trump before, during, and after the attack on January 6th. A recently released tape shows McCarthy claiming that Trump admitted some guilt over the attack.  

Perry tried to install Trump loyalist Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general to overturn the election. 

Jordan was part of meetings and discussions after the election to overturn its results. He also communicated with Trump on January 6th, including in the morning, before the attack took place.

Biggs was part of the planning for January 6, including the plan to bring protesters to Washington, D.C. He also worked to convince state officials that the election was stolen. Former White House officials say Biggs sought a presidential pardon in connection with the attempt to overturn the election results. 

Wearing body armor, Brooks spoke at the January 6 rally, where he told rioters to “start taking down names and kicking ass.” Since then, he has said Trump tried to get him to help “rescind the election of 2020” and put Trump back in the White House.

Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said: “We urge our colleagues to comply with the law, do their patriotic duty, and cooperate with our investigation as hundreds of other witnesses have done.”

In my mind, these five elected officials, who, remember, took an Oath of Office in which they swore to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…” are giving witches a bad name.

But, you be the judge. Is the Committee’s effort to receive testimony from five Congressmen who not only might have inside knowledge of the planning of the January 6 insurrection but. may in fact, been part of that planning and even, particularly in the case of Brooks, its execution, a witch hunt or a legitimate inquiry into the facts that led to the great number of “domestic enemies” who attempted to overturn an election and the legal and legitimate transfer of government from one president to another?

This, my friends is not a difficult question to answer.

(One definitional point before I sign off. Since almost all the GOP “witches” being hunted are men, isn’t the use of the term, “witch hunt,” not only an affront to their sense of “justice,” but also to their manhood? Given that, and if only for their self-esteem, I would hope that these Republicans who believe they are being unjustifiably “persecuted,” use the more appropriate term, “warlock hunt,” to describe future hunts.)

“A house divided against itself, cannot stand.”

Commentary

Almost 164 years later, those words are truer than ever.

On June 16, 1858, in accepting the Illinois Republican Party’s nomination as that state’s U.S. senator, Abraham Lincoln began his speech with these words:

“A house divided against itself, cannot stand.”

At the time, the divide Lincoln was referring to was slavery. He went on:

“I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”

164 years later, our house is once again gravely divided.

Lincoln’s divide caused 11 Southern states to secede from the Union he hoped would not dissolve. It precipitated a war between those 11 states and the 25 remaining Union states, the American Civil War, in which over 618,000 soldiers were killed, 360,000 Union and 258,00 Confederate. The Civil War is the conflict with the largest number of American military fatalities in history.

But, as Lincoln expected, ultimately, the house did not fall and, on the issue of slavery, it ceased to be divided and became all one thing.

And now? The American house is deeply divided on many, many issues. Do we believe that this government, this democracy, can endure half red and half blue? Particularly given that the red “half” is really less than half. And, given the convoluted rule of the minority I’ve written about in the last few posts, that less than half is driving what happens in this country. Unfortunately, if you believe the prognosticators, it is very likely that the minority red half will take over both houses of Congress in the 2022 elections and, very possibly the presidency in 2024. That’s right, our divided house will be run completely by the minority who will have complete control of every branch of government: the executive, the legislative and the judiciary.

In 1858, Lincoln did not expect his house to fall. In 2022, two-thirds of the government is in the hands of the majority blue half. Despite that, our house is crumbling before our very eyes. Lincoln had to fight a horrific war to make his house all one thing, to cease to be divided. What kind of war do we have to fight? What kind of war can we win?

The systems are stacked against democracy: the Senate is inherently anti-democratic and the filibuster makes it more so; gerrymandering and red state voter suppression schemes will inevitably make the House of Representative un-democratic as well; the Electoral College has given us two minority presidents since 2000; two current seats on the Supreme Court were illegitimately (but apparently legally) stolen by the GOP while four of the nine sitting justices were nominated by minority presidents; unrestricted SCOTUS approved dark money (“corporations are people too”) has made of mockery of the idea that elections are decided by the people.

While reforming the Electoral Process is virtually impossible, there are ways to fix the Senate and the Supreme Court. Here are two:

Fix the Senate by starting the statehood process for the District of Columbia (a non-state with a population larger than Wyoming and Vermont), and Puerto Rico (a non-state with a population larger than 19 states). Statehood for DC and Puerto Rico is both fair and logical. Doing so would expand the Senate from 100 to 104. And, since DC and Puerto Rico are both deep blue, those additional four senators would be held by Democrats helping to level the playing field.

Expand the Supreme Court. As I wrote back in October 2020 in response to the Amy Coney Barrett debacle, it’s doable, as Adam Serwer of The Atlantic wrote back then in his piece. ‘The Supreme Court Is Helping Republicans Rig Elections – Adding more justices to the bench might be the only way to stop them. At the time I suggested that “while Serwer is focussing on elections and SCOTUS’ impact on the sanctity of the voting franchise, we all know their devious impact extends much, much further and will, negatively and frighteningly effect our entire way of life.” Given the most recent SCOTUS activity, wasn’t I prescient!

Here’s that October 2020 post, A Case for Packing The Court, which includes a link to Serwer’s article. (https://around-the-block.com/2020/10/27/a-case-for-packing-the-court/)

These are two of the wars we should fight and wars we can win. There are more. But, as I wrote back in 2020: It’s time to stop playing nice and do something!

One last thing: just as I was about to publish, this came across the AP newswire. I felt compelled to share it because apparently the situation in the Union, fueled by his Republican Party has become so dire, Lincoln was moved to speak one last time:

Minority rule in America is actually worse than you think

Commentary

In a recent state-by-state survey, only seven states, representing less than 9% of the population, are strongly against legal abortion while 26 states (59% of the population) are strongly for it!

I wanted to post a quick follow-up to yesterday’s column, “Is it ‘ennui’ or ‘depression?'” and more specifically to that column’s sub-headline, “Whatever it is, it’s driven by America’s convoluted rule of the minority!” (https://around-the-block.com/2022/05/04/is-it-ennui-or-depression/)

The New York Times published results of a survey that dug deeper into the majority/minority dichotomy I wrote about yesterday. This survey drilled down, beneath the national numbers that indicate a majority of Americans support Roe v. Wade, to show how the pro-life/pro-choice numbers are reflected by state. The numbers are stunning!

The study, conducted by Public Religion Research Institute, Pew Research Center and the Guttmacher Institute, ranks states on the basis of “Support for legal abortion” in which the difference between those who say abortion should be legal in most or all cases and those who say it should be illegal in most or all cases is calculated.

Here’s a map of the findings:

You only need a quick glance at the map to see where this is going. But, if you’re like me and are more comfortable with the data and stats than the pictures, allow me to flesh this out for you.

Of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, 26 strongly support legal abortion. Those 26 states represent a population of 199,200,905 or 59.3% of the U.S. population.

Seven states, representing 28,814,107 (8.6%) strongly oppose legal abortion.

The remaining 18 states, representing 108,075,291 (32.2%) either moderately support or are moderately against legal abortion.

Here’s the rankings detail:

Referring back to yesterday’s column, I’m not sure how more evidence we need to support the claim that “America is driven by the convoluted rule of the minority!”

Now the question is…what’s to be done?

Is it “ennui” or “depression?”

Commentary

Whatever it is, it’s driven by America’s convoluted rule of the minority!

In my last column, “Around the Block catches up on the not so good news” (https://around-the-block.com/2022/05/03/around-the-block-catches-up-on-the-not-so-good-news/), I speculated that one of the reasons I hadn’t posted anything in over a month was due to ennui…boredom, lethargy, weariness. A reader, and a good friend, commented that my lack of productivity wasn’t ennui, it was depression writing, “Not ennui, but depression. Any American who is not depressed is not paying attention.”

This reader and my friend is a physician, but not a psychiatrist or psychologist. But he’s correct, if only partially. Partially in that his diagnosis should probably have been, “Any American in the majority who is not depressed is not paying attention.” Because as far as I can see, Americans in the minority are in a state of ecstasy!

Let’s start with the big news of the week, the leaked draft Supreme Court majority opinion that, as written and if passed, will overturn Roe v. Wade. Now let’s be clear, this is the original draft opinion which, based on how SCOTUS works, will most probably be somewhat different in detail in its final form. And, there’s no guarantee that all the conservative justices will sign on to this view. But, if they do, it will become the law of the land.

But, whose land?

Apparently, based on the latest polling in The Washington Post, the minority’s land. In a poll conducted between April 24-28, “…the survey finds that 54 percent of Americans think the 1973 Roe decision should be upheld while 28 percent believe it should be overturned — a roughly 2-to-1 margin.

And remember, if the prognosticators are right, four of the five justices who might sign on to this opinion were nominated by presidents who were elected by a minority of voters.

There’s more to this depression/ecstasy dichotomy, however.

Today, in an article in The New Yorker entitled, “Justice Alito’s Draft Ruling on Abortion Shows the Need to Curb Minority Rule,” writer John Cassidy opines, “If the Justices who have made the Supreme Court an agent of conservative counter-revolution overturn Roe v. Wade, there is no reason to believe that they will stop there.”

Cassidy goes on, writing about one way to counter the tyranny of the minority is to eliminate the Senate filibuster. 

“…it’s difficult to see how Senate Democrats could get the sixty votes needed to end the filibuster…” going on to write, “Also, it is not as if the U.S. system doesn’t have other checks on the majority. The Electoral College and the Senate were both designed, at least in part, to avoid plebiscitary rule. In the current environment, the real danger is too little majority rule rather than too much of it.” (emphasis mine)  

The systems and procedures in place that have led to the ecstasy of the minority and the depression of the majority in this country include: the filibuster; indeed the Senate itself, in which the senators representing Wyoming (population, 585,501) have the same power and influence as those representing California (population, 38,959,247); and, the Electoral College, which has thrown the election to two presidents (Bush – 2000; Trump – 2016) since 2000 who received fewer popular votes than their rivals; are virtually impossible to change. 

Of course, there is a reasonable work-around that might level the Red/Blue playing field: statehood for the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. 

Think about it. If there are two Dakotas, two Carolinas and two Virginias, isn’t it appropriate that at least one DC and one PR become states? Not only could that move level the playing, it might also help cure a major mental health issue affecting more than half the country.

Around the Block catches up on the not so good news

Commentary

April wasn’t a great news month for the country and the world. May is starting out just as bad!

It’s been a while since the last Around the Block. Over a month in fact since my last post on March 30. That post was called, “Cruising, Covid, and Trump being Trump.” (https://around-the-block.com/2022/03/30/cruising-covid-and-trump-being-trump/). I checked back and found I was particularly prolific in March:

And since then, silence, nothing, nada.

Continue reading “Around the Block catches up on the not so good news”