We knew it was coming, but didn’t believe …!

One of America’s most sacred institutions is the peaceful transition of power. Defeated for a second term, John Adams left the White House for Massachusetts and Jefferson moved in. The rest of the world was astonished; leaders didn’t leave office peacefully in those days. And, so it has been since 1801. The peaceful transition of power is one of our great institutions, a light unto the world, the most powerful message about democracy and freedom we can utter. A sitting president tried to upend the hallowed practice, starting with a call back in December for supporters to amass in Washington DC on January 6^th for a large rally on the day that a Joint Session of Congress would meet to count the Electoral College votes for President and Vice President. At a rally in front of the White House Trump chanted that he would never concede and urged the crowd to march on the Capital.

And march they did, an organized group of white supremacist, Qanon conspiracy theory hollow-heads, Proud Boys dressed in black, and rag tagged Trumpists who believe the election was stolen, regardless of factual data that shows no fraud, miscounts, stealing of ballots, counting machines hacked by the Chinese or any other set of wild conspiracy accusations.

 Then, for the first time since who knows when, crowds of insurrectionists invaded the Capital grounds, charged the building itself, and breached the doors. Some reached the floor of the House and protested from the dais, some reached the Speaker’s office and caused mischief, some were on the Senate floor. About a thousand terrorists managed to get inside before it was all over. It was an insurrection in the least, an attempted coup by a bunch of seditionists perhaps, but definitely, a challenge to our democracy, to our republic, as Franklin warned, and the result of four years of unmitigated disregard for our institutions. In a feeble attempt to soften the battle, the President asked the rioters to go home, saying that he loved them, these good people. To call what happened yesterday a peaceful protest is to deny facts. To call it anything but an attempted coup is to deny facts. To deny that President Trump fermented these actions is to deny reality.

A Joint Session of Congress, meeting to count the nation’s votes was suspended so that the members could go to a safe place during an instigator’s incursion. The Vice President was evacuated by the Secret Service. The police were overwhelmed and called for reinforcements. Vice President. The National Guard was called to the Capital. The location of congressional leadership was unknown.

I have to admit that I cannot understand who the people are who descended on DC yesterday to protest at the White House and then overtake the Capital. I admit that I don’t understand them or their thinking, or their motives. Somebody will write a book in a month or so to explain what happened, but until then I remain mystified. In every state of the union, the ballots in the last election were counted and recounted. Democrat and Republican proctors were in every counting room to ensure that the process was fair. Government employees in every voting precinct certified the vote count. Election officials in every state certified the election outcome. Where there were questions about the process, officials audited the results. In each state, members of the Electoral College voted for President and Vice President, and their votes were certified and sent to Congress. There was no fraud and there was no steal! So who are these people who are so dedicated to overturning the vote of hundreds of millions of people? Who still believes the President and his sons’ claims of fraud and a stolen election? Surely they are not rational thinkers. I don’t get it.

Those who invaded the Capital, flag wavers all, were doing all they could to disrupt the Constitutional mandate for that day: the day the votes are counted. The irony is overwhelming!

I must say, that I am surprised at the disgust expressed uniformly by cable news platforms. They were unanimous; MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, Newsmax. Their reporting showed how unusual this attempt at sedition, at this potential coup is, for our nation.  Later in the evening, some of the far right-wing channels talking heads began to blame everyone except the mob that tried to destroy our democracy.

Later in the evening, after the Capital was cleared of ruffians, the majesty of our democracy went on full display. The two houses of Congress reconvened, and polite, heartfelt discourse continued. Storming the ramparts did not end the vote count; it did not end our democracy, but let it shine in its glory as our representatives went about their duty. It showed that We The People govern this vast land, not street thugs. At 3:44 AM this morning, the Joint Session of Congress ended, having elected Joe Biden, President and Kamala Harris, Vice President, to be inaugurated January 20, 2021.

Nobody carried more water for Trump in the last four years than Vice President Pence and Senator McConnell. These two men, in the end, could not abide the intended disruption of our form of government, and both did what their oath demanded; they stood to protect and preserve the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic. Trump had gone too far.

Let us pray for our republican form of government. Let us come down in support of our democratic values. Let us not just pass off these actions as the new norm. This was a coup attempt and our nation’s future was changing before our eyes.

These incursions on our institutions, our Constitution, our way of life must end. Let us hope that when tomorrow’s morning has broken it will be a new day for America.

 

The Year Ahead!

“Happy New Year! It’s got to be better than 2020.” How often have you heard that lament in the last couple of weeks? 2020 is over! I don’t want to talk about it! I don’t want to write about it! It’s over! I’m giving myself only three months this year to become accustomed to writing 2020 2021 on checks and other documents. I usually take longer to develop the muscle memory.

For anything to get better, or worse, something has to change. So the only way 2021 will be a better year is if we change the behavior that made the last years such a mess. No change, no change!

We have been a two-party country for many years now, but I cannot remember a time when they tried so hard to pull the country apart. Seventy million people still believe the last election was a fraud. Even Members of Congress, who fear being primaried, are supporting efforts to overturn the election, in spite of the proven legitimacy of the vote in every state. They are willing to tempt the destruction of our democracy to keep their jobs. While they can claim the rules allow for questioning a State’s certified election results, there is a faint scent of sedition in their efforts. We are not born this way; it isn’t natural. We have to be carefully taught to hate at this level.[i] So let’s move forward into a new era, not a Biden era necessarily, but a New American era. We can do this!

We are not perfect, but we strive to be better today than yesterday, and more so tomorrow. It’s in our DNA! That is why we were sent, to be that beacon on the hill that showed the oppressed, those yearning to be free, how it could be so for them too. Let us transform the image into reality. In his book, The Soul of America – The Battle for Our Better Angels,[ii] Jon Meacham urges us to remember what makes us Americans: the constant striving for equality for everyone, the ongoing efforts to help our neighbors, and the willingness to work with those with whom we disagree, to come to the best agreements for our time. Let us find our soul this year!

Parchment in the vault of the National Archives reads, “All men are created equal.”[iii] We can do better this year. Inequality is not new. Historical tension between those who succeed greatly, whether financially, professionally, or politically, and those who choose other routes has proven a challenge for our republic. That tug is greatest for those forced to struggle on an uneven playing field. The pandemic is teaching us about the wide and deep disparity among our citizens. We should right our wrongs.

Millions of children attend inferior schools. Others have insufficient broadband to use home-based learning effectively; others don’t have adequate computer hardware. While the kids will go back to in-classroom learning sometime this year, pedagogy has changed forever. We can level the playing field of education. We can help more families to have access to fresh food so that children don’t have to rely on the schools and libraries for their daily nutrition. We can do more to train parents how to read to their kids, to help them with learning challenges, to make sure they are healthy, have glasses, and have other medical needs met. We can do that. Let’s!

We can change the homeownership paradigm for lower-income people and people of color so that they can join the middle class more easily. We should put an end to redlining and the flagrant abuse of the lending systems. We can make it happen!

We must get our people back to work. The stock markets’ record highs simply illuminate how little it represents the economy of the country. While the top 10% see portfolios grow, millions are out of work through no fault of their own. Hundreds of thousands line up every day for free food so they can feed their families. We must create jobs to replace those that will not come back after the pandemic; mostly low skilled jobs. We can retrain millions of people with new skills. We have done it before. We can do it again. Let’s!

Too many people do not have access to high-quality healthcare. Millions lost access when they lost their jobs due to the covid-19 shutdowns. Why must employment status regulate our access to wellness? The solutions aren’t simple and many people don’t want everyone to have good healthcare, but these roadblocks can be overcome in a compassionate and rich country that should be a model for the world, but isn’t. We can fix this national disgrace. We can help our neighbors get good healthcare when they need it. Let’s do it!

This year, we can focus on reducing the wealth disparity gap. Redistribution of wealth is a touchy subject, but one that needs to be faced every few generations. For the most part, the richest people in America started with a dream, an idea, and built companies that hired thousands of people, and in many cases changed the way the world works. They deserve their rewards. At the same time, however, they built their status with the help of those who worked for them. They had the help of willing legislators at local, state, and national levels. They need to contribute more to the society that lets them be so successful. Most of them agree with this idea.

The wealth gap is wide and deep in the US. Many retired people live quite well on our pensions, social security, and some investments. We may not see the difficulties faced by people who have no defined benefit programs, who work for companies that can’t afford health insurance for their employees, and who work for minimum wages. Work itself has changed and the chronic unemployed numbers hover above extreme. This year we need to ask ourselves if we want to perpetuate a system that has less than one percent of the population, 200,000 people, owning more wealth than the 110,000,000 people at the bottom of the wealth chart. Consider an employee who makes $137,700 per year who will pay $8,537 in Social Security taxes, and the person earning $1,00,000 who will only pay $8,537 in Social Security taxes. Shouldn’t a person making a million dollars a year pay the same percentage of income into the SS pot? This would be a good year to start to create a more equitable economic system. We don’t expect that everyone will have an equal outcome, but we should expect equitable pay back into the system that allowed them to succeed. We can do this!

When 2021 is over, I don’t want to be tired. I stayed up until midnight on New Year’s Eve, mostly to see the year out rather than the New Year in. Virtual is not the same as hundreds of thousands of people in Times Square, on the bridges of Sydney, the Strip in Vegas. When I stay up late at the end of this year, I want to be with lots of people, hale and hearty; a night filled with noise, with good friends, maybe even in a tuxedo. I don’t want much, really, just an end to the pandemic, a unified country, and a government that focuses on the good. Mostly, though, I want us to be America again, a light unto the world. It could be a great year because we know what changes we need to make, and we can make those changes if we set our minds to it. We can, really!

Let’s!

 

 

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[i] Rogers & Hammerstein, South Pacific, 1949, New York

[ii] Jon Meacham, The Soul of America, Random House, 2018, New York

[iii] Declaration of Independence, In Congress July 4, 1776

Wei Chi

 

Wei-Chi

Our great experiment in self-government may have saved itself on December 11, 2020, but there are days to go before certainty comes to bear. Too many today, it seems, don’t pay much attention to the daily news because it’s all about politics and politicians who fight among themselves and don’t do anything for the benefit of the country and its people. They have a point, but this week they missed the sausage-making at its worst and at its best. Most people agree that we are a nation in crisis, even if our reasons differ dramatically. The Chinese use two characters for a crisis: Danger and Opportunity, Wei-Chi.

Our democracy was in danger this month, our Constitution ignored by too many who should have known better, and our most prized institution frayed. Some in Pennsylvania tried to have the presidential election results overturned and allow the Legislature to appoint the Electors. The Supreme Court said no.[i] The Attorney General of Texas, joined by several other States Attorney’s General, with an amicus signed by over 100 members of Congress, tried to overthrow the election results of several states. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case because Texas had no standing to bring it in the first place. That decision was interesting because two Justices believed that the case should be heard, but at the same time they said they would not give relief, so it was also a unanimous ruling.[ii] The Electoral College votes today. In early January a joint session of Congress will count the votes and announce who will be our next President and Vice-President. Several members of the House indicated that they plan to challenge the votes of several states. The whip count likely doesn’t support such action, but it could cause a delay in the process.

 

Our democracy is still in danger and our electoral process still on life support because too many people believe that the November election was fraught with fraud. Nearly 70% of Republicans continue to believe that the vote count was irregular, the vote-counting machines were set to turn Trump votes into Biden votes, or that some dead dictator from Venezuela had led a decade’s long conspiracy to bring down the election process. Some meet in coffee shops to discuss how their candidate’s election was stolen while others take to the streets around the country to protest, flags waving and fists raised. The state of Michigan closed all legislative offices today because of the credible threats of violence toward Presidential Electors. All the while, every State certified that there was no fraud; in many states, votes were counted three times, and local, state, and federal courts ruled in nearly sixty cases that the Trump campaign staff presented no evidence to substantiate claims of wrongdoing.

 

Twenty years ago Al Gore, who won a plurality of votes nationwide, lost the presidency when the Supreme Court ordered Florida to stop counting votes, resulting in Bush receiving enough electoral votes to claim victory. Vice-President Gore went on national television: “Let there be no doubt: While I strongly disagree with the court’s decision, I accept it. I accept the finality of this outcome…And tonight, for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession. I also accept my responsibility …to honor the new president-elect and … help him bring Americans together in fulfillment of the great vision that our Declaration of Independence defines and that our Constitution affirms and defends.” That is what a nation expects from its leaders. That is what keeps the nation’s ideals out of danger.

 

The ultra-ultra right-wing reactionary news station Newsmax was beside itself when the Court ruled against Texas, et al. On December 11, 2020, newsreader Emerald Robinson complained, “The president put three Supreme Court justices on the bench… yet none of those … were with the team.” It is dangerous for the country when the Executive branch expects court nominees to be on its team, when in fact the justices take an oath to support and defend the Constitution. But then again, so did the President, the 100 plus members of Congress who signed an amicus brief for the case, and the dozen or more State Attorneys General that joined the Texas case. They put our Democracy at risk. They may have flirted with sedition. The Chair of the GOP in Texas even suggested seceding from the US because SCOTUS would not hear a case that had no standing in law. Power, Party, and Trump, for many people, are more important than the republic and its institutions. The Wei is clear!

 

Danger breeds opportunity to right wrongs. If one were to venture far out on a limb, or even into a sidebar, they might suggest that schools review how they teach Civics, how they teach about the Constitution, how they deal with our history, even the not-so-good parts of it. This isn’t wanting to go back to the good old days, but a search for how we instill a love of the democratic process at an early age, how we bring people to support a political system that requires give and take in discussion and compromise in legislating. It is a quest for an appreciation for our institutions and their fragility.

 

There is an opportunity for all of us to defuse the current crisis by lowering the volume of our side of discussions. There simply is no significant evidence of a stolen election. So let’s stop talking as if there was. Let’s all find a news channel that is more middle-of-the-road than we normally watch. There is an opportunity for all of us to ignore the bad actors on the far left and the far right. There is an opportunity to shut down (at least mentally) White extremists, people like Proud Boys and QAnon. We can all do something, but the one who could make the most of the opportunity is the President.

 

President Trump can defuse the crisis by taking the opportunity to make a peaceful transition, halting the childish machinations to which we are exposed. Many people, 70 million or more, don’t like the fact that Trump lost the election today when the Electoral College gave Biden more than the required 270 votes to become the next president. The nation, its institutions, its democracy, and its image to the world are much more important than one person. President Trump has an opportunity to make things right. If he continues his sociopathic behavior he will damage the nation, his legacy and we will no longer be the shining city on the hill.  

 

It would be nice if we took this opportunity, the interregnum, to smooth a transition to a new four years, a time for unification, for less division, for peaceful activities that will make the world a better place. We have the opportunity to seek our better angels.

 

Wei or Chi, which will it be?

 

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[i] Supreme Court of the United States – Tuesday, December 8, 2020 – Order in Pending Case – Kelly, Mike, ET AL. V. Pennsylvania, ET AL – The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied.

[ii] Supreme Court of the United States – Friday, December 11, 2020 – Order in Pending case – Texas V. Pennsylvania, ET AL – The State of Texas’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot. Statement of Justice Alito, with whom Justice Thomas joins: In my view, we do not have discretion to deny the filing of a bill of complaint in a case that falls within our original jurisdiction. See Arizona v. California, 589 U.S. _ (Feb.23, 2020) (Thomas, ]., dissenting). I would therefore grant the motion to file the bill of complaint but would not grant other relief, and I express no view on any other issue.

I Am! … Am I?

 

I’m a liberal-conservative. Or, I might be a conservative-liberal. For context, I grew up in the northeast corner of Vermont when everyone up there professed to be Republican, back when Republicans were Republicans. Generally, Democrats didn’t bother to run for office. I don’t think they wanted people to know they were Democrats. Senator George Aiken, a Republican, got more write-in votes in the Democratic primaries than anyone in that party who actually sought the office, so he ran unopposed in the general election. He served from 1941 and retired as Dean in 1975. (He was replaced by Patrick Leahy, now the Dean of the Senate) He was one of the leaders of the liberal wing of his party and the guiding light for my generation. Even conservative-Republicans were liberal back then compared to the ultra-conservative-Democrats down South. Everyone agrees that our Union needs fixing, they just don’t agree on the fix. Should we take a conservative approach or should we take a liberal approach? The answer is Yes!  

The nation’s economy is near depression levels for most people. The stock market is at all-time highs but nearly 25 million people are still without work. Small businesses are collapsing. The pandemic, responsible for the business downturn, is raging across the country with hardly any national policy or program to mitigate its surge, while large numbers of people still think it is a hoax. The healthcare system is at the breaking point and millions are without insurance due to costs and unemployment. The nation is losing a trade war it started, and our place in the firmament of responsible nations is de minimus. All the while there is a concerted effort to undermine the democratic system by questioning the very process of voting, to the point where nearly a quarter of the people think that the system is rigged, regardless of all evidence to the contrary. We are a nation divided and in trouble.

President-Elect Biden (I hope he’s listening) will feel a tug from all directions, the progressives are already nipping at his heels for being too conservative in his cabinet picks, the moderates think he is too much to the left of center and ethnic and racial groups think that his administration, to date, doesn’t look enough like America. There is a lot to be fixed. He likely knows what needs to be done, but it doesn’t hurt to jog his thinking. As President, he needs to concentrate on the 20% that will fix the 80%. If he allows himself, his cabinet and sub-cabinet to be drawn into daily battle with the tweets of an ex-president that will surely come his way for the next three or four years, he will have wasted his time in office.

Mr. Biden, communicating to the public of a highly divided nation will be difficult. President Trump indicated in the last week that he intends to mount a 2024 campaign, and that he might make it formal during your inauguration. He is very good at controlling the message and creating disruptions. The Democrats may have won the White House but they lost members in the House and, to date, haven’t taken control of the Senate. Communications from the administration must set a new standard for truthfulness, consistency, and relevance.  

Mr. Biden, we can feel it, we can see the results of the economic devastation. We must get the nation working again. Seven-hundred-thousand people apply for unemployment each week. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of families line up each week to receive free food. Children go without food because the schools are closed. Rents and mortgages are due and there is no money in the checking accounts. Millions are without health insurance due to layoffs. Small businesses can’t make payroll. Large corporations seem to be doing well, and highly skilled employees are doing well, but small businesses are stuck in park. Restaurants need to open up again, to employ cooks and waiters, to purchase from local farmers. Barbers need to be able to work, people in manual labor and farm jobs need to work too. Our infrastructure is riddled with potholes, bridges are rusting, our power grid is ancient and subject to hacking, whole segments of the country are without broadband and schools lack the technology needed to teach in the new learning environment. The nation doesn’t need an economic stimulus package as it does an economic lifeboat. Let’s blot out the root cause of the economic decline.

The pandemic is killing people and killing the economy and must be stopped. President Trump made major mistakes in dealing with the pandemic. As a result, a country with 4% of the world’s population has 21.44% of the covid-19 cases and 18.2% of the world’s deaths and climbing.  

Operation WARP SPEED may be an exception to the debacle. Charged with getting an effective vaccine quickly and distributing it quickly, proved what can happen when highly competent people are assigned and allowed to perform without political interference.  Biden needs to convince the nation to follow well-proven public health techniques until the vaccine is widely effective. The quicker he can do that, the quicker we will get folks back to work.

The pandemic blew up our comfortable credence about so many things: our ability to fight pestilence itself, equality across races, economic strength, and the best healthcare system in the world. We weren’t ready or willing! When asked to sacrifice for the good of the whole, nearly half the people led by nearly half the governors said “No.” They were not willing to shelter in place, wear masks, or change life’s patterns. People didn’t trust their government, they were told that the virus was a plot to weaken the President, they were told to ignore science, and too many ignored good advice. Time at the beach and at close quarters in bars was more important than self-sacrifice. The surge continues. Government officials ignored good health practices and citizens wondered why they should bother to alter life’s cadence.  

Mr. Biden, we need to deal with the political division in the country. My liberal side says we ought to get a little conservative about this effort. The Democrats made a mess with their messaging during the campaign and the Republicans took advantage of the flaw. Change is difficult in and of itself, but, when congressional leadership is the poster child for the geriatric set, not much is in the offing.  People sixty years old or older represent only16% of the population, yet septuagenarians- plus rule the Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court.  Fifty-one percent of us are under 40 years old, yet that cohort commands little real power in DC.

 A squad of four thirty-something first term women members of Congress scared the hell out of the leadership of both parties. They became the Republican’s favorite bugaboo for convincing folks that these women would lead the country toward socialism. The young voters of the country, a growing number of new voters, by the way, don’t consider most of the progressive ideas very controversial or even that progressive. Healing a divided nation is all the more difficult when a soon to be ex-president has spent a lifetime demonizing people and creating division among people, even to the point of mocking democracy itself, by denying the validity of the voting process, ignoring traditional institutions, and refusing to concede a lost election. Howard Dean opined, “What’s going on is just shocking. We’re in serious trouble when you abandon the rule of law as a democracy, your democracy is gone. And it’s going to be gone before people realize it if we don’t turn this thing around.”[i] This is the opinion of a liberal politician, but a conservative politician could say the same thing and be correct. Though difficult to do, but not impossible, we need to bring both conversations together into a dialogue aimed a bettering the country and fixing its political ills. Both groups need to fix our democracy which has been torn asunder.

Mr. Biden, we need to fix the healthcare system. The pandemic illustrates vividly the different levels of care available to Americans. Unlike most of the industrialized world, the quality of our healthcare depends on our economic status. It is inhumane for anyone to be denied good medical care because of the size of his or her W2. The administration has to find a way to communicate that healthcare and health insurance are two different things. If they all agree that everyone, everyone, should have good basic healthcare, we can find a way to pay for it. Other countries can do it, why can’t we?

The national stockpile of protective equipment and medical supply requirements was underfunded by several past administrations. Let’s not blame Trump for that. When we needed it, it wasn’t there. As a result, at the start of the pandemic, states had to compete with each other, the federal government, and the rest of the world for basic face masks and other PPEs and ventilators to keep people alive. There is no excuse for the richest nation on earth not to have enough supplies spread across the continent for easy access. Most PPE is manufactured in other countries who want to keep the products for their own people when emergencies arise. The new administration must ensure that we manufacture emergency goods in the US using US companies.

Mr. Biden, we need to repair our standing in the international arena. The “America First” dogma wreaked havoc with our standing in the firmament of nations. Technology made the world smaller and more interdependent. Most nations want trusted allies. When there is an absence of trust[ii] among nations, they like any organization or group will begin to ignore former allies and not include them in group decision-making. We have seen this happen in the last few years, where Europe and China have new trade deals, where European countries are working closely together to squelch the Russian appetite for dominance and renewed hegemony over its previous empire. Our Constitution tells us that the supreme law of the land is our constitution, our laws, and our treaties. When we enter into a treaty with other countries, it is not an individual president who is making the agreement, but our country. When approved by two-thirds of the members of congress, the treaty has the same weight as any other law. We must renew our support for major treaties to which we have agreed. We need to support NATO, we need to support the Paris agreement on climate and we need to stop the tariff war which is raising prices in our stores and losing markets for our own manufacturers and farmers.

Mr. Biden, you can renew the nation if you concentrate on the important issues. Bring back our economy by ending the pandemic. Bring back our standing in the world by renewing our Democracy and rejoining the allied nations of the world. Bring back a united nation; make us one from many, Let ideas percolate and ideologies wither. Bring back decisions based on facts and science and not personal aggrandizement. If you do these things it won’t matter if you are a conservative-liberal or a liberal-conservative. We will be America again.

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[i] Howard Dean, VTDigger podcast: The Vermont Conversation with David Goodman, November 2020

[ii] Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of Teams, Jossey-Bass, NYC 2002

 

 

We Believe, But!

 

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! I said it. I’m as guilty as the next one. I watch what I want to believe and I listen to what I want to believe. Or, do I watch and listen to what I think I should believe, or should think? I suppose a Philosophy 101 professor could make a whole class out of that one question. It’s a bit like debating if the ends justify the means, and it-all-depends isn’t an acceptable answer. Whole civilizations deal with that one!

Since its inception, Fox News reflects a viewpoint more than a little right of center. They proclaim themselves fair and balanced, but we know their true colors. They were so successful at what they did that the left of center liberals had to have their own channel and MSNBC was hatched to be the competitor for American ideas. Both channels made CNN, the patriarch of cable news; seem like a middle of the road milquetoast.

Years beyond the memory of most of today’s population the US had three major TV channels. Some would argue five or six, but the extras were really minor league. NBC, ABC, and CBS ruled the airwaves for a half-hour each evening as the nation sat in front of the new TV and listened to a synopsis of the day’s important events. A fellow by the name of Walter Cronkite attracted the most viewers most evenings. He was the most trusted person in America by most measures. He earned his chops because he read the news well, keyed in on the important, and had no opinions. Perhaps his most outward show of emotion was when he announced the death of JFK; he took off his dark horned-rimmed glasses, and said nothing for a second or two, and then continued reporting the terrible story.

Cable News Network started it all on June 1, 1980. There are days when I find it hard to forgive Ted Turner for doing this to us, but if I want real breaking news I head to CNN. It’s a muscle reflex learned back then when it was at its best, a news channel. When we were in France we listened to CNN. When we were in Italy, we listened to CNN because they broadcast in English. When we were in the UK we listened to CNN because the Brits don’t really speak English, do they? How different that is from today’s news channels where you can’t get away from 24/7/365 news and commentary, mostly commentary in the US, most of it aimed at the preferences of the audience. And to boot, the news that we receive in the US is so benign compared to the way news is presented in other parts of the world.

I’ve been reading about a bit of the tiff going on between the news department and the commentary group at Fox News. Evidently, the news folks think the talking heads are too dedicated to Trump and not the news. How could they ever imagine Hannity and Tucker Carlson leaning toward the right? Horrors! It does seem, though, that when news folks start shilling for their preferred candidate at political rallies it gives away their bias.

Then there is Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC who starts his nightly show with what seems like a ten-minute diatribe about how dumb, stupid, unknowing and loathsome Trump is. He doesn’t even try to be fair and balanced and doesn’t care who knows it. He makes Rachel Maddow seem downright evenhanded, which she sort of is in an anti-Trump sort of way. To be fair, however, MSNBC was as pro-Obama during his two terms as Fox is pro-Trump in his one term.

The dust-up at Fox News has caused Trump to question their loyalty. Because he questions their loyalty, so do 90 million other people who follow his Twitter feed. He is so upset with the network that he is recommending that they watch a fairly new but highly right-wing network called ANN. People are moving their allegiance because they agree that Fox News isn’t pro-Trump enough. I’m sure that it won’t be long before MSNBC watchers find a more pro-Biden station and move their loyalty to another station.

Axios pointed out that the assault on ideology over truth is growing. Not only are Trump supporters leaving Fox News for redder pastures, but also reporters and columnists are leaving the New York Times because it isn’t woke enough.[i] While the conservative tends to be most comfortable with Facebook and the liberal more comfortable with Twitter, except for you know who, that too is changing as the right moves to Parler and Rumble.

And that brings us to the crux of the issue, doesn’t it? We shouldn’t expect news networks to be pro anybody, should we?  Don’t we want to know the truth? Don’t we want to know the unvarnished goings-on in the world? I think we should want neutrality in our news and keep opinions on the opinion page. News shouldn’t be entertainment. Because we live in a globally connected world, we might benefit if we knew what is going on in the rest of the world, where the Kardashian’s new bathing suits aren’t the most important items of the day.

We are still trying to settle the election of a couple of weeks ago. The Ivory Coast had an election recently. To date 85 people are dead in the uprisings over the reelection of their President. Do we want to be like that? Ethiopia is in the midst of a civil war; I didn’t hear about that on the evening news last night, but I did watch a long story about a kid who has written a rap song about the letter “A.” Malaysia, a country of 33 million or so souls just reported its 50,000^th case of Covid-19. It has had 326 deaths from the virus. The US population is 10.15 times larger than Malaysia. If the US Covid-19 death toll was equal to their virus death rate, we would have had only 3,308 deaths from the virus. The media, slanted to one ideology or another doesn’t furnish us with a decent level of real information that we need to be good citizens of the world but encourages our insularity, our political biases, and lack of perspective. One need only go to other industrialized nations to see the difference.

Our presidential election, one of the sacred institutions or our democracy, trampled upon this year with much of the blame laid at the feet of the biased media. The election is settled, unless you change the laws ex-post facto,[ii] as the Trump campaign is trying to do in a couple of states. OK, a candidate has certain legal options if he or she doesn’t think the results are accurate. But the idea that a legislature, after millions of people have voted, would negate the vote and appoint its own Presidential Electors, is kneeling on the neck of our republican experiment in self-government. The President and his media henchmen have convinced a large minority of Americans that the election was rigged, all evidence to the contrary. It’s OK not to want to lose, but at some point, pride has to give way to reality. 

I’m stuck by the words of candidates who lost their bid for President and one in particular who lost a second term:

Mitt Romney: “I have just called President Obama to congratulate him on his victory.”His supporters and his campaign also deserve congratulations. I wish all of them well, but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters. This is a time of great challenges for America and I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation.”

John McCain: “The American people have spoken and they have spoken clearly. A little while ago I had the honor of calling Sen. Barack Obama to congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love.”

Al Gore:  “Just moments ago I spoke with George W. Bush and congratulated him on becoming the 43rd president of the United States and I promised him that I wouldn’t call him back this time. I offered to meet with him as soon as possible so we can start to heal the divisions of the campaign and the contest through which we just passed.”

George H.W. Bush: “Thank you so much. Well, here's the way I see it. Here's the way we see it and the country should see it -- that the people have spoken and we respect the majesty of the democratic system. I just called Governor Clinton over in Little Rock and offered my congratulations. He did run a strong campaign. I wish him well in the White House. And I want the country to know that our entire Administration will work closely with his team to insure the smooth transition of power. There is important work to be done, and America must always come first. So we will get behind this new President and wish him well.

And to all who voted for us, voted for me, here, especially here, but all across the country, thank you for your support. And we have fought the good fight and we've kept the faith and I believe I have upheld the honor of the Presidency of the United States. Now I ask that we stand behind our new President and regardless of our differences, all Americans shared the same purpose: To make this, the world's greatest nation, more safe and more secure and to guarantee every American a shot at the American dream.”

Without biased media stoking the fires of suspicion and descent, that is how our democracy should work. The people speak, fellow-citizens count the votes, the loser concedes and pledges cooperation in the transition, because the country is more important than one person, more important than one party or ideology, or media ad revenue.

 

Democracy is not easy, it's hard and yet so very fragile. It doesn’t take much to break it. 

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[i] Axios, November 20, 2020,

Woke is a political term originating in the United States referring to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice.

[ii] An ex post facto law is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of actions that were committed, or relationships that existed, before the enactment of the law.

It's Over!

 

We did it!

Millions upon millions of people went to the polls on November 3, 2020, to elect the folks that will elect Joe Biden our new President on January 6, 2021. It was a nail biter. The nation is dumbstruck, befuddled, ecstatic, or sad. The people spoke! The states counted! Our democracy works!

I like the Electoral College. My beliefs about it are fervent. I may be a minority of one. This is, of course, the only case in which I think, “we have always done it this way” is a good thing.  I just like the idea that in the United States of America, the States elect the President. The notion that we are a republic resonates with me though I call us a democracy quite often; democratic-republic rears its head often, to cover all the bases.

The AP projected Joe Biden the President-Elect on Saturday morning.[i] Each side wonders what the other side could have been thinking; why did they vote for that man? Within minutes of the announcement, large crowds gathered to celebrate in Times Square, in downtown DC, and in other cities across the nation. Other groups took to social media to condemn the election results, accusing the other side of fraud and threaten armed insurrection. Mitch McConnell has already stated that he would not make Biden’s life easy in the next four years, and they are long-time friends.

The country is sorrowfully divided, and the election results proved it, red and blue, conservative and liberal, coastal and heartland, educated and not so much, blue-collar and white-collar, religious values or none; and fifty other comparisons. We have always been that way, maybe not so much as today, but after an election, we came together to help form a more perfect union.

 Living near the liberal capital of a very liberal state creates a world view for us that seems to differ from The Villages in Florida or the ranchlands of the mid-west, Northern Plains or the rust belt. Each section of the country has its own definition for its values, its aspirations, its demands of its leaders.

I’m one of the dumbstruck. I spend an inordinate amount of time reading newspapers, blogs, and magazines. I make a point of listening to both sides of reality on cable TV. I listen to other people’s views. I like to think I’m reasonably in the know. But, wow!

It never occurred to me that so many people would cast a vote for the sitting President.  How could they? His policies destroyed our role as the global leader, he started a tariff war with China that increased the price of nearly imported goods and lied to the people when he said China would pay the tariffs.  His administration tore babies from the arms of their mothers when they asked for political and economic asylum and then lost them. His daily tweets were daily lies, claiming that covid-19 would go away quickly, or that the reason we had 25% of the world’s cases was that we tested more people. He promised to reduce the debt but increased it to record highs. He promised to drain the DC swamp but filled it with incompetents and campaign workers who went to jail for corruption.  More serious, perhaps, was his constant denigration of our institutions. The litany goes on. The election was a personal repudiation of Trump.

The Republican Party, on the other hand, was able to grow its membership in the House of Representatives, and perhaps keep control of the Senate. It grew control of legislatures and governorships in a majority of the states. That will help them keep control of the Congress for the next ten years, as they gerrymander their districts based on the current census.  

The red-blue map tells a story that the left needs to hear, and understand.  An old adage says that you run to your party’s extremes in the primaries but run to the middle in the general election. Even in the middle of a hundred-year pandemic, half the nation’s voters were willing to stay with the incumbent whose administration fumbled the fight to eradicate the virus. Given a choice between healthcare and economic health they chose economics. The President won 64% of the white working-class men, a traditional Democratic stronghold.[ii] In California, the voters turned down or reversed significant laws passed by the very liberal legislature. Even on the left coast, moderation is a valued value.

Back in 2017, a survey indicated that a lot of people were not in favor of Obama Care, but they liked the Affordable Care Act. How you say things matters. Labels can stop a movement in its tracks; new-green-deal, defund police, Medicare for all, socialism, to name a few. The left-wing progressives who fought for Biden will want to extract their due, and their ideas may be worthy of enactment, but how they are communicated will determine if the people will agree with them.

The most important objective for the new administration will be to restore a country that now considers opposing views to be evil, where members of both sides of the aisle won’t talk to each other, where governing is considered a zero-sum game, and where ideology is more important than striving for a more perfect union. It will take compromise.

 I’m ready for someone to lead us, not bully us. I’m ready for someone at the helm with character rather than sociopathic tendencies; I’m ready for someone who cares about the country and its role in the world rather than himself. I’m tired and I want an end to the chaos.

I’m ready for limits on Presidential Tweets; one per month and make it worth reading.

 I wonder what it is like to go from “Hey Joe” to “Yes, Mr. President?”

 

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[i] The Associated Press is an independent nonprofit news organization that is the gold standard when it comes to projecting election winners and losers.

[ii] Caledonian Record – November 7, 2020

Making Sausage

By the day before Election Day, 2020, over 100 million Americans had voted. In some states, Texas, for example, more people voted early than the total votes in the last election. From the start, this would be an unusual election. This was the first time an impeached president has run for reelection. It is the first major election during a worsening pandemic. Even the campaigning was different.

They say, you know who they are don’t you, that you never want to see the inside of a sausage factory. This election has many of the same characteristics. The President, who had contracted the virus himself, continued denying its seriousness, even to the point of mocking those who followed the health guidelines. He held large rallies across the country. His supporters enthusiastically attended, standing elbow to elbow without masks, shouting their approval of his platform and his behavior. Stanford University estimated that the people who attended his rallies accounted for 30,000 cases of the virus and over 700 deaths because they caught the virus and unknowingly spread it to family, friends, and co-workers.

Former Vice President Biden spent most of his campaign time broadcasting from the basement of his home, holding Zoom meetings, and issuing podcast messages. In the last few weeks leading up to today, Election Day, he and Kamala Harris spent more time in the field drumming up votes. His rallies were small and included rallies where people, wearing masks, stayed in their cars and tooted their approval of his stump speech.

The Republican Party spent a lot of time and effort trying to make it difficult for people to vote or to submit their votes in a timely fashion. There is no other way to describe it than serious cases of voter suppression. It was unseemly at best.

The President is calling for victory to be announced tonight and to ignore all of the votes that have not been counted as of midnight. There are reports that he will declare victory from the White House very early in the evening.

Nobody has any idea as of this morning who will eventually win the election or when all the votes will be counted. It may take weeks to count them all. Stay calm.  Each state has its own rules about how many days it can take to count the votes. It is seldom that all votes are counted on election day.

The election is so contentious that stores in cities around the country are boarding up their window for an expected rash of riots, marches by armed vigilantes, and general unrest. America is supposed to be the beacon on the hill for those who yearn to live free. Let us hope that at the end of the day we will live up to our dream, that the voting process will be calm and that the vote counting will be efficient. Let us hope that the two candidates can accept the will of the people in a gracious manner.