We thought last January that the worst was behind us. We had a new president with an inspiring agenda. He called on an admirable cast of professionals to fill his cabinet posts. Covid vaccines were widely available. In short order, a Covid relief bill became law, though without the support of a single Republican senator. That was the first dark sign. Now, as the final days of the year play out, our democracy is clinging at a cliff’s edge. How the hell could this have happened? Let me count the ways.
“Stupichosis” never stopped growing.
That’s my word for the marriage of stupidity and psychosis. It’s the phenomenon you see when a long, costly election recount fails to placate angry voters with the truth. It’s on view when hundreds congregate for weeks in hopes of seeing dead people herald the return to glory of an ex-president. It’s in evidence when millions of credulous fools ingest medicine for farm animals to ward off a fatal disease. It’s manifest when the world is ravaged by superstorms, floods, rising sea levels, and wildfires as the adult population looks to the next generation for action.
Political rot is abundant at every level of government.
Trump warned us of a swamp in Washington and then proceeded to use the levers of power to ratchet up the stench in the Congress. He went on to spread it to the executive and judiciary branches through a multitude of irresponsible appointments. He left behind a rot so entrenched that it became self-propagating. It has settled into state legislatures and the offices of state officials, and it’s now taking hold in city and county commissions and on school boards.
What does this legacy of rot look like? For a start, it rejects any disquieting truth, like an uncomfortable medical fact or persistent evidence of systemic racism. It opposes any remedial government program that isn’t aimed at big business, like the elimination of student debt, the extension of the Child Tax Credit, or the expansion of Medicare benefits. Worst of all, it seeks to nullify any election that weakens a party’s hold on political power, the Constitution be damned.
The Supreme Court has lost its mission.
SCOTUS no longer upholds the Constitutional principles that are our heritage. Women, in its view, are not the equals of men. In dealing with the vicissitudes of life, a woman’s freedom to act, as SCOTUS sees it, is clearly more constrained. And now states are granted an escape from judicial review. They need only cede the role of law enforcement to its residents, who can punish “malefactors” by bringing civil suits against them. In effect, SCOTUS has voted to castrate the courts by giving a green light to vigilantism.
Even more damage lies ahead. Until the early years of the Roberts court, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 required states with a history of voting offenses to get a clearance from the Justice Department before passing new voting laws. This provision was struck down in 2006, with Roberts writing the majority opinion. Now many states are rewriting their voting laws. What chance will opponents of the new laws have when their cases reach the Roberts court?
Biden is the wimp many guessed he was.
Biden has long sought to project the image of a scrappy guy. He’s quite the contrary. He’s a let’s-have-a-beer-together-and-hug-it-out kind of guy, just as Obama was. But Biden takes it further. He believes he can compromise with anyone despite unmistakable signs that he can’t and evidence that he’s destroying the integrity of his legislative agenda. It never occurs to him to “go for the jugular” as many effective presidents have. In the case of Joe Manchin, Biden could have called on the DNC to produce a series of ads with the theme of “Wake Up, West Virginia!” with a retelling of how Manchin offers no relief from the dire conditions in the state. Biden should have called him into the Oval Office long ago and said, “Vote for the Build Back Better Act or kiss your re-election goodbye!” The consequences for his failure will be grim. House progressives don’t trust him now. Democrats of all ages can cite provisions they yearned for. The people with huge college debts must be inconsolable; the bill would have reduced them considerably. One of Biden’s campaign promises was to take down their debts. He can still do so by executive decree but stays mum.
Merrick Garland is even wimpier.
Nine months ago, Merrick Garland was confirmed to head the Justice Department. As you would expect, he continued the pursuit and arrest of the January 6th rioters. They were the small fry who were led by the nose to the Capitol grounds and exhorted to stop the peaceful transition of presidential power. But what about the people behind the scenes, the planners and the lackeys who handled the the logistics? Were senators and congresspeople involved? Trump’s friends and appointees? Trump’s lawyers and Trump himself? Obviously there was nothing in the appearance or mood of that crowd that suggested spontaneity.
Garland appears to be uninterested. He’s read Biden’s signals that a Justice Department investigation would imperil the hope for a Kumbaya future with Republicans. I might be sympathetic if the rioters had been a band of streakers carrying protest signs. But this was an insurrection and the cornerstone of a planned coup. Even today, the coup plotters are at liberty and plotting anew. There can be no excuse for Garland’s cowardice.
Thank goodness for the courage of House members who volunteered for the January 6th Select Committee. The committee has gone forward despite threats against them. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both Republicans, have most likely forfeited their political futures. Garland — he says nothing. I blame the news media for not pursuing him with the question, “Sir, do you have anything more than a ringside seat?”
We live in a Covid bunker.
Last summer, Biden pledged to ship 1.2 billion doses of Covid vaccine to other countries. To date, we’ve shipped only 332 million doses. We’re not only screwing hundreds of millions of people around the globe, we’re screwing ourselves. Disease doesn’t respect political boundaries, so the failure to help others comes back to bite us. And when new strains reach our shores, they mingle with the 70 million dummkopfs who won’t get vaccinated much less boosted. Sooner or later, mutated strains become more insidious, vaccines lose their efficacy, and we progressively surrender to the disease. Unless, of course, Big Pharma produces even bigger miracles.
It’s a depressing scenario, and it’s been playing out in an electorate that’s been depressed for nearly two years. The political ramifications can’t be good. The only question is, how bad? I believe Biden when he says he’ll ramp up the shipments of vaccine doses, but what about the multitude of unvaccinated Americans that keep the rest of us trapped? I see no alternative but to declare them social pariahs. The federal government can do this by issuing vaccination “passports” to the vaccinated. These can be checked at restaurants, theaters, concerts, sports events, and other entertainments. It’s fine if a venue doesn’t comply. Their patrons will get word that the unvaccinated congregate there, and they will shun it. Will Biden support this idea? See Biden is the wimp many guessed he was.
We’ve become a misnomer.
For the time being, “The United States of America” remains a genuine international entity. Its federal institutions continue to function, though they sputter badly. In all other respects, the ties that bind us are fraying. To say that the states are “united” is a wry joke. The states are deeply split on issues that go to the roots of core values, issues like voter rights, racial equality, sexual equality, gun ownership, the role of police forces, the permissible limits of wealth, the permissible limits of freedom, and the role of government in buttressing our pursuit of happiness. These issues are fundamental. A nation that lacks a consensus on all of them cannot stand and should not stand. It would simply tear at itself to no purpose.
Our task is not to “come together.” (God how I hate that phrase! How do you make life better by blending constructive policies with toxic ones?) Rather, we need to confront antisocial drivel and evoke a compelling vision to cheer for. The Build Back Better Act and the Voting Rights Act are sound springboards, but most of the voices that advocate them are thin and unconvincing. Surely in the ranks of the progressives there are leaders who can sing out a resonant, eloquent message.
The Scratching Post 