Author: BC

“Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism,”

Margaret Chase Smith

Lately, it’s a preoccupation of many to look for other areas of US history where our circumstances were as dire as they now seem to be without introducing an existential conflagration like, say, the Civil War. To my eyes McCarthyism fits that bill best, a relatively brief time frame when the US Senate’s worst was on full display. Imagine if most Democratic Senators were showing Trump the same servility as the GOP and you have exactly where things stood in 1950. Fear and loathing were the order of the day and it was left to one freshman Republican Senator from Maine, Margaret Chase Smith, a direct woman with clear ideas about what duty to country meant, to speak up. She did so brilliantly, providing hope to those fearful a tipping point may have been passed and America was prepared to consume itself. Perhaps it came naturally, a reaction to what she deemed madness, or maybe she saw history to be made and decided to make it. Does it really matter?

It’s always been the same sorry formula. Attack those with the most vulnerable constituencies, groups ill-equipped to fight back. Paint them by numbers as threats to God and country, all the while shouting how doing so is courageous and principled. Deem opponents to the bullying insidious collaborators and… voila. Very mindless and shameful stuff, otherwise how could Trump possibly succeed at it. That he learned at the foot of Roy Cohn, who sat at McCarthy’s right hand, and later, well after his boss succumbed to alcoholism, carved out a niche as the nation’s most vile citizen, is either ironic or fully logical… or both. Again, who cares? Point is we’ve seen it all before and sent it packing, er, sort of. Make no mistake, these episodes leave residue because they reflect where we are capable of going…. and we’re surely going there now.

Bill Cohen, another Mainer, served honorably wherever he found himself, whether it was as one of the first of the GOP House caucus to support Nixon’s impeachment, or in the Senate as a moderate voice countering Reagan’s Cold War schemes, and later helping HW Bush navigate the fall of the Eastern Bloc, and finally as Clinton’s 2nd term Secretary of Defense, where he struggled against Pentagon waste and outdated commitments.

Yet and still, perhaps Cohen, despite his splendid career, now rues one aspect of it, the rise of one of his protégés, a loyal staffer, to the Senate for a span much longer than the two terms she originally implied she would limit herself to. Susan Collins came to Washington branding herself fully in line with the sensibilities of both Chase Smith and Cohen. Like her predecessors, she would be a voice of reason and principle, nothing fancy, just hard work and courageous decency. Whether supporting the right to choose or backing spending priorities that balanced prudence with compassion, a position increasingly at odds with Republican inclinations, Collins was supposed to reflect independence, swim upstream when necessary. Now, however, like the party Trump abased and then fully consumed like a quarter pounder, Collins’ standing is in shambles, a cautionary tale about how making friends in the Cannon building cafeteria isn’t the same thing as having the guts to make enemies on the Senate floor, or the Twitterverse.

Trump is still in office, still out of jail, because the GOP has maintained its slim margin of control in the Senate. Only near constant Republican unanimity has permitted the ruinous conduct and agenda of the Trump Presidency. A couple of heroes could have stopped much of the travesty in its tracks. Nobody was better positioned politically to take a stand than Collins. Everything she had always claimed to be demanded she step forward. Sadly, nobody has disappointed more. At every critical juncture, from giving her blessing to a parade of US history’s worst Cabinet appointments to providing the deciding vote that passed a 1%-coddling, deficit ballooning $2 trillion tax cut at full employment. From approving the scandal-plagued and certain vote against Roe v Wade to shrugging off most all of Trump’s unhinged ugliness, Collins has been strictly rank and file. Nothing to see here as she proceeds to do what incumbents do best… raise cash for re-election.

Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, Sara Gideon, is running against Collins in 2020. She is young, attractive and, after being forced to deal with Trumpie Governor Paul LePage, whose nastiness and incompetence rivaled his hero, the President, seems well prepared for DC’s current climate of bad faith. No matter, the race will almost exclusively be a referendum on Collins and how Maine voters have digested her acquiescence to Trumpism. Certainly money will not be a problem for the challenger, as a torrent of outside contributions from national Democratic interests seeking to turn Maine blue come flowing Gideon’s way.

Since mid-2017, polls have punctuated how disenchanted Maine voters have become with Collins’ servility to Trump. She has lost 44 points from an approval rating that once made her the nation’s most popular incumbent. Indeed, as of last month, no Senator enjoyed less support back home than Collins. Near 24 years ago she promised Mainers she would never force them to give her the boot, assuring one and all two terms was more than enough time to make a mark and move on to other things. Now she seeks a fifth term and appears ready to do whatever is necessary to get it, including going negative against a very likable opponent.

Trump is making it clear the binary choice he wants to offer in 2020: keep it white vs. radical socialism. Of course his wretched core is all in with such bigoted mindlessness. Whether American democracy continues as a going concern depends on what roughly 8-10 percent of voters, now intent to clasp hands over ears and tune out the din they abhor, decide is the lesser of two evils this cycle. Collins fate will be instructive. After proving conclusively to Mainers, who pride themselves on inconvenient independence, that she never got Edmund Burke’s memo about evil’s requirement of silence by those who know better, and she was the wrong person to rely on for saving the republic, Collins should be an early casualty on the first Tuesday next November. If not, it may be a very long night…. and a far longer still walk in the wilderness. BC

Perhaps the least patriotic sensibility one can possess these days, a mindset that may end American pluralism, is the notion it’s just a game, a continuing day at the races, a constant parade of winners and losers, payouts and torn up tickets. This view understands the consequences of government as not much more than abstractions, our history as a mere continuum of time between post parades, “eras” and “revolutions” meant to label just how fleeting their significance was, chapters in high school history curriculums rising juniors and seniors can snooze past. After all, we only live once, and agonizing over the nightly news is time one never gets back, no? Relax!

It’s not that American governance as detached sport is in itself the central malady of our condition, in fact it’s actually accentuated our democratic process for decades. Acting as both announcer and referee. But that was when it was accompanied by good faith on both sides of the aisle, which now clearly no longer exists. Without the honor and guarantee that the foundational rules of the game will be followed, those intent on continuing to see sport in impending disaster become accomplices to our ruin.

One year ago, as a senior prank, four teenagers at Glenelg High School in Maryland’s diverse Howard County, decided to go and spray paint “Class of 2018” at the school’s front entrance way. Once they got there, however, seems each decided to spontaneously accentuate things with a variety of vile, racist offerings slurring everyone from Glenelg’s black principle to Jews to gays and so forth. KKK and swastikas were prominent, as were penises. The fact it was done the night before the school’s final day ceremony to recognize Glenelg’s best and brightest meant there was no time to cover the vandalism and students all got to see its full ugliness.

That millions equate a pro quarterback or woman’s soccer star impassively kneeling during the national anthem with what happened at Glenelg clarifies societal dysfunction that would seem impervious to rational discussion, which lumps it together with a host of other head scratchers MAGA has fully liberated. Yet and still, it’s hard to see how the knee jerk ease of so many to label those horrified by what occurred at Glenelg “snowflakes” bent on criminalizing teen shenanigans and prepared to “destroy” otherwise “good kids” isn’t a worrisome trend. Add to that the same bloc’s visceral urge to pivot and attack a captain and MVP of the World Champion US Woman’s Soccer Team as traitorous and undeserving of anything but vile scorn for kneeling and refusing to visit US history’s most divisive POTUS, and it’s near impossible not to appreciate a ruinous disconnect multitudes suffer. Very serious business.

When the vandals, who were almost immediately identified and confessed accordingly, faced sentencing near one year later, all wanted the court to understand what they did was not who they were. Not one was ready to admit spray painting nasty racist standards could possibly mean they harbored dark bigotry; it was all just the “biggest mistake I ever made.” One, represented by more ambitious counsel, argued the Fox/AM talking point that charging him with a hate crime violated his 1st Amendment right to free speech! Even though sentences of more than five years could have been handed down, the judge issued a potpourri of probation, community service and between 10-16 weekends in jail, which led to near breakdowns by mothers still processing how their babies could be treated like criminals for a “prank” that got out of hand. Can you say white privilege?

NBC news’ Chuck Todd could have come out of the movie classic Network. Todd is all about the horse race. The ruinous divisions being fanned by this MAGA White House, which wants to re-adjudicate basic premises of racial and sexual fairness long ago adopted by all but America’s darkest fringes, are merely “openings” available for Democrats to exploit in 2020. Trump’s outrageous slurs hurled at sitting Congresswomen are simply part of the “culture war” discussion “firebrand” conservatives want to have in 2020. Kamala Harris turning on Joe Biden, who, by the way, just served loyally for eight years at the side of America’s first black President, for his trademark rhetorical carelessness to make a broader point about the need for bipartisanship, is a left to the frontrunner’s jaw, and a debate coup she may ride to the top of the standings. By all means Democrats, argue purity while Rome burns, the panel needs to fill three hours before the next debate begins.

Trump’s recent unhinged racism against four young, thoughtful, and fully committed Congressional newcomers combines with the events at Glenelg to produce a depressing dichotomy. On the one hand, while Trump acts on the hour to display the most despicable biases, ugliness that would have him banned from most US Thanksgiving dinner tables, the wretched core, and GOP supporters, insist as long as he’s willing to do photo-ops with Diamond and Silk, and you can’t produce video of him using the N-word, he’s not a racist.

Meanwhile, in a Maryland courtroom, the parents of boys who created the worst racist graffiti imaginable want all to know they harbor nothing but tolerance, evidence to the contrary. What they admit to doing is not who they are, and we won’t consider the possibility. So there’s a full circle here, each arc playing against the other. The POTUS is just playing politics, and the boys were just killing time…. and the economy is doing fabulous.

It bears repeating, that Glenelg High School is in a “progressive” county, in a state where Hillary was projected the winner before dinner was finished. What goes on in flyover country? What sensibilities guide their handling of such instances? Perhaps a better topic for Chuck Todd led discussions to consider. Newsflash Chuck! The real story right now is far greater than the race for power; it’s what that power creates and the unprecedented predicament the last race produced. Trump and the MAGA-cowed GOP are breaking all the rules, and making clear hourly they don’t mind ending the game if that’s what keeping it white necessitates. That’s the hell of it. BC

“….Something touched me deep inside, the day the music died.”

Don McLean

To read Politico’s exhaustive recreation of how Trump weathered the outcry of his Access Hollywood misogyny is to fully realize how bleak America’s future may be, and how realistic the prospect of his re-election is. As the Trump candidacy hovered on the edge of dissolution, the victim of audio so bluntly degrading it spurred on arguments whether in fact Trump was confessing to criminal acts, his critics and defenders alike shared one fundamental flaw in their perception of the most important piece of the whole sorry affair…. how resilient the candidate’s base of support was, how utterly unconcerned they were of recorded evidence as unpresidential as anything ever publicly disclosed.

The Politico article may very well document the watershed event of when America reached its tipping point on a number of fronts, all coalescing to create an irreversible slide toward the shamelessness necessary to make democracy a thing of the past. As Trump’s team of misfits worked feverishly under the impression his “locker room” story of sexually assaulting a married woman would blow up his candidacy, only Trump was blissfully confident MAGAites would hardly blink. Of course we suffer the consequences of how accurate his assessment was, but the most ruinous aspect of the whole affair lies in how all of the “shocked and disgusted” GOP pols, from Paul Ryan to John Thune, Lindsey Graham to Susan Collins, so quickly came back into the fold once they realized the wretched core was going nowhere. Within 48 hours, following perhaps the ugliest public debate ever witnessed in America, calls for Trump to step aside ceased, outrage replaced by shrugs…. “what are you going to do?”

The non-reaction to, even enthusiasm for, the Access Hollywood audio by Trump rally crowds was the final act in several tales all playing out at once, First, since Trump had announced his candidacy with a bigoted diatribe against immigrants, the question was how powerful were the racist forces within the GOP base, and could unabashed embrace of bigotry and xenophobia actually eclipse all else in the eyes of a significant bloc of party faithful. Like pro-life zealotry, had Trump’s abandonment of all pretense and overt disdain of immigrants clarified sizable numbers of Republicans prepared to forgive and forget all else so long as “illegals” were sent packing?

Next, were the evangelicals, the pro-lifers prepared to look past behavior running mate Mike Pence’s wife found so ugly she initially refused to stand on the same stage with Trump. Did overturning Roe v Wade and “religious freedom” – read anti-gay and transgender nastiness with a clean conscience – provide an end to justify any means, any degree of hypocrisy?

Third, if Access Hollywood was a worst-case scenario, it also provided the ultimate test for how effectively Fox/AM could spin and reinvigorate the self-inflicted wounds its creation constantly foisted on his candidacy. Almost immediately the message from Hannity et al was singular and unrelenting: what about Hilary’s husband?! Fox prime time was far more concerned with Juanita Broderick than Nancy O’Dell. Don’t throw stones from glass houses. False equivalence to the rescue!

Finally, most importantly, there was never a more appropriate and critical time for GOP leaders to, er, lead. After all, if you can’t move the party away from this, when could you lead it. Any shred of principle left from the bad dream of Trump’s nomination dictated a clear, unified and sustained response was necessary, lest the party stand for nothing but the craven opportunism it’s critics had constantly accused it of during the previous eight years. If you can’t take a troglodyte who brags about grabbing pussies to task, what do you really have left to offer on the moral high ground front? Easy peasy!

History is always looking for pivotal moments, make or break situations. Politico accurately portrays the immediate aftermath of the Access Hollywood audio as just that in the minds of most everybody involved, except the two most important parties, Trump and his wretched core. Reince Priebus fought back an onslaught of GOP biggies demanding Trump be dropped from the ticket. Priebus, always light as a feather, had no stomach for such a move and saw no precedent or procedure for carrying it out. Trump, for his part, already regretting he even issued a quarter-hearted apology, and perhaps being told by Moscow it was not an option, tweeted he had zero intention of withdrawing from the race. He backed that declaration up by outrageously convening a hasty press conference of Bill Clinton accusers. When Hillary had the gall to call him unfit during that night’s debate, Trump hissed he would have her behind bars in no time. And just like that, the danger had passed. A fresh news cycle awaited.

In the days leading up to Decision 16’ there was nary a GOPer in DC who either gave Trump a chance at victory nor actually wanted him to win. With the exception of Freedom Caucus back benchers and assorted Senate extremists with a fondness for Fox/AM interviews, the Republican Party was focused on rebuilding its brand and maybe even attempting to lead the party away from la la land. However, the wretched core failed to get that memo, and Clinton payed with disgraced defeat for taking Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin voters for granted. All now suffer hourly.

The various rivers, flowing separately as Trump faced disqualification after the Access Hollywood audio emerged, have all met at one junction to form a mighty torrent. Yes, plenty in the GOP are now dedicated single-issue bigots, with more than 60% of the party faithful approving of border atrocities. Yes, evangelicals could not care less about Trump’s disgusting personal peccadilloes, as they will surely again show in fully discounting new documentation of the President’s friendship with Jeffery Epstein. Yes, Fox/AM is more than up to the task of shamelessly spinning every Trump lie and outrage for its regulars’ consumption, with overt racism now a specialty… ask Tucker Carlson or Laura Ingraham. And finally, no, the GOP never was up to the job of leadership, its cowardly stiffs all shuffling forth, tails between legs, seeking to at least remain off Trump’s twitter radar. Those most vocal about dumping him never recovered, and are either gone or fully marginalized…ask Paul Ryan.

Historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt observed that, while “the mob and elite can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarianism itself,” the rest require propaganda. Go to any Trump rally and it’s easy to feel that momentum. Ditto watching flunkies like Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows carry his dirtiest water in Congress. The rest of us? Give it time. The Politico piece makes clear plenty were able to get past Trump’s worst with little effort, and watching Chuck Todd lately one can fully appreciate how insidious Fox/AM propaganda can be, how it can leach into mainstream analysis and normalize our worst. Three years in and I suppose the future is still our call, but the clock is ticking, and gravely, soon the die may be cast. BC

It was work hell for me several years ago, the dreaded all day product training. Watching paint dry or listening to fire and brimstone from the pulpit was preferable in my eyes to the minute by minute torture of a manufacturer representative’s curriculum. The bright spot, and believe me the pickings were slim, was that lunch would be provided. Usually that meant nice deli sandwiches from a spot I was partial to, so there was at least that.

When the lunch hour mercifully arrived bags with an unfamiliar logo were brought in and placed on the table… this was not my beloved deli. One of my colleagues enthusiastically intoned “Chick-Fil-A… nice!” I reached in and grabbed a room temperature offering shrouded in foil. To say it was unimpressive is charity on the vine. A solitary fried chicken breast with a couple of pickles was not what I had been pinning my lunch respite hopes on. “Who the hell ordered this,” I demanded. “I did,” averred one of our sales managers, and close friend, …”love this place.” “What do you love about it,” I wondered, placing the wilted bun back on my parched poultry. “They stand for something,” he replied, in between devouring his McChicken look alike. Curious now, I asked what could be so compelling in that regard as to counter the very mediocre offering I was now consuming. “They don’t care if they’re politically correct, that’s all. I respect that,” he concluded before turning his full attention to his lunch.

Of course, I quickly learned what my Pentecostal friend so admired about Chick-Fil-A, and its subsequent notoriety plus the always long lines at their drive thru operations has filled in all the blanks from several years ago. Suffice it to say few companies more effectively merge the culture war into their branding than Chuck-Fil-A, who despite still providing precious little in the way of creativity in its menu, now sits near the top of America’s fast food market.

It’s doubtful many would look to the old Soviet system to explain Trump’s wretched core, but the resentment parallels of average Muscovites subjected to the daily indignities of Russian Communism and the attitudes Fox/AMers from Iowa to Youngstown share are difficult to dispute. Since it’s clear Trump is at the least disadvantaged by Putin and Russia, there is irony that the history of the Soviet system and its central control of goods and services, and the inequities inherent in how they were distributed, proves a useful illustration for understanding how so many in America became debilitated by their grievances toward a system they felt similarly estranged from.

To the degree that the inner sanctum of die hard Trump supporters are not bigots and racists liberated by confidence one of their own is in high office, explaining how so many suffered enough alienation to become nihilists bent on reversing most American progress requires more than Hillbilly Elegies, it demands recognition of this mindset.

The Soviet Union was all about access to goods and services. That crucial network was administered by the Communist Party, and average citizens were generally last in line. The nomenclatura class of government managers and specialists, party aparatchiks, and advantaged groups such as musicians, athletes and other loyal achievers all enjoyed special access to both basics and consumer goods Ivan on the street could not dream of. The difference between Communism and Capitalism was that, even a piss poor American shlub could enjoy lobster and champagne if he was willing to blow his paycheck on it; an equivalent Soviet comrade had no such option. Thus, full dislocation between millions and the government who claimed to be an extension of their well being.

In America, the symmetry between blue collar economic dysfunction and alienation from mainstream political views began in earnest when Fox/AM contrived a narrative to reflect what stagnant wages couldn’t afford and the common political characteristics of those who could, a zero-sum approach between god-fearing, hard working “conservatives” and godless, entitled “liberal” elites, who lived a life of more abundance simply due to a political system they created by carving out voting blocs of dependent minorities and illegals they permitted to stuff ballot boxes.

When the technology boom of the 90s delivered extended prosperity and created fresh upper class members, Madison Avenue launched branding campaigns designed to go after those now available yuppie dollars. What ensued was the establishment of new consumer markets from basics to luxuries. A&P and Food Lion were for the proletariat, Balducci’s and Whole Foods were where elites brought the finer cuts of meat and fresher produce. Joe Blow went to Sears, Harvard professors and government check collectors went to IKEA or Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Slowly but perceptibly the US consumer landscape began to reflect more than haves and have nots, it’s divisions began to reflect cultural distinctions driven by Fox/AM’s shit river and ad campaigns designed to reach select groups with messaging based on cultural stereotypes. What one could or couldn’t afford became beside the point. Where one shopped underscored tribal devotion. Brand loyalties started to mirror political and cultural partisanship. Chevy trucks and Jeep Wranglers versus imported energy-efficient compacts, BMWs and Audis, Budweiser versus Heineken… Walmart versus any less conglomerated specialty shop.

Forty years ago the Soviet Union was oiling the skids for its fall by catering to elites at the expense of the rest. Now we have a grievance class feeling similarly dissed, but less because of what they haven’t been able to obtain and far more due to false narratives devoted to convincing them why they haven’t been able to do so.

Nobody should ever be prepared to call Trump a master of anything; he is too chaotic and unfocused for a label that implies expertise. Yet and still, his campaign from the beginning has been built on dividing America and carving out his devoted slice of the pie. More than two decades of branding and the constant din of Fox prime time has prepared his base to embrace its dislocation. “Proud deplorable” is subtext for “I no longer care or strive to a better station. Why would I want to? Then I’d be like them!” From the beginning both Fox/AM and now Trump have assured that’s not only ok, it’s Christian patriotism. Who gives a crap about filet mignon, that’s for godless libs. Look what he’s serving in the White House! Give me my Chick-Fil-A any day! BC

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.

Charles de Gaulle

There once was a time when it was assumed different groups would celebrate the 4th of July in their own ways. Back before Jackie Robinson broke into the Major Leagues, the Homestead Grays would sell out their game, for their fans on America’s big day, and the Brooklyn Dodgers would pack Ebbits Field with their faithful. Ironically, 1947 was the first Independence Day celebration televised on the National Mall, with a crowd estimated at 300,000 in attendance. One can wager there was a homogeneous quality in the turnout as veteran’s groups, military bands and fireworks provided the gist of the day’s entertainment.

Of course, back in 1947, the way white, Christian America counted its blessings on the 4th differed greatly from how the rest of its citizens calculated what their piece of pie amounted to. In 1946, a mob of white men shot and killed two young black couples in Walton County Georgia. The murder shocked the nation, including President Harry Truman, who was particularly upset one of the victims was a returning WWII veteran. Although, like every other lynching before it, nobody was prosecuted, the crime stimulated the Truman Administration to propose and make a legislative priority Federal anti-lynching measures. And while southern Democrats predictably opposed the bills, a national consensus began to emerge in opposition to mob violence against African-Americans.

Yet and still, on July 4, 1947 two Americas celebrated the nation’s independence separately, different cookouts, different baseball games…. different drinking fountains and bathrooms. Most fundamentally, in 1947, a black family of various generations in Atlanta would down their hot dogs or 4th of July bbq chicken with the bitter knowledge nobody, from great-grandma to dad to a nephew returning from battle in Europe, had ever been allowed to cast a meaningful vote. Thirteen years before JFK’s election and entire family trees were disenfranchised from the signature activity the 4th of July celebrated. Think about that.

Much has changed in the 72 years since television first captured DC’s 4th of July celebration. Most all of what the Civil Rights movement accomplished has surely been reflected on Independence Days that now highlight a far more unified America, unified in the crowds on the Mall, unified in the stands at Dodger games, unified at drinking fountains… and voting booths. What has been gained in the span of an average person’s lifetime may not be enough, but it’s plenty, and most in this country accepted the changes were for the good, a tangible commentary on the ability of America to pursue its promise. And the 4th of July celebrations on the Mall have fully embodied these sentiments, keeping to a strictly non-partisan theme, delivering a message rigorously attuned to the notion our country’s freedoms belong to everybody, and celebrating our progress is nothing if not an excuse to unify us. This has been clear, unequivocal and without controversy…. until now.

That Trump equates the 4th almost exclusively with militarism is not surprising. That he wants one of his rallies to eclipse our annual celebration of national unity and make things all about him is par for his course, and the GOP falling silently in line with his plans is, sadly, nothing out of their new normal. However, why his wretched core of supporters so welcome such an ugly usurpation of a great tradition is what should make the rest of us, the majority of Americans, madder than hell; it’s all about bringing back the good old days before others were included into the narrative Trumpists claim as only theirs. A Trump rally whitens the Mall and assures one group will be represented, and that’s just fine with them. This will be a throwback 4th, just the way MAGAites want it. Nationalism….. not patriotism. It’s not about who you love, it’s about who you’re now liberated to despise.

One could offer Trump the benefit of the doubt, even as he rolls tanks into DC for his “yuge” event, and hope the words he offers are non-partisan and respectful of the occasion’s dignity. In fact, from his own parochial viewpoint, really all he ever takes in the world from, a speech filled with soaring verbiage in support of American unity now under so much stress is a political no-brainer. The impossibly low expectations most all of us now grade this President with would render any sort of good faith effort to keep things apolitical a Trump triumph.

Alas, I wouldn’t bet the holiday utility bill on that scenario. After three years we simply know this guy all too well. First, it’s now unlikely any speechwriter in this West Wing cares to indulge our nation’s better angels; next, one can be sure, once he gets going within the glow of nihilist energy so reliably created by MAGA throngs, Trump will exhibit little discipline for being leashed to a script he always struggles to read. So we can count on ugly, divisive gibberish to stain what heretofore has been a day to celebrate the progress of our national journey. Flyovers, tanks and Trump megalomania with your cheeseburger and cold Budweiser.

Studied from the removed objectivity history always imparts, this 4th of July fiasco may well be deemed a watershed event of the Trump era. Either way – as the apex of his tenure, when he went too far and galvanized the majority by staining the nation’s most important annual rite, or when he solidified his minority’s grasp on power and ushered in militarism to bury democracy while most shrugged it off as yet just another hideous indignity – what happens on Thursday will be welcomed by millions who, at the heart of it, are a cult of regression, zealous intolerants fixated on remaking things the way they used to be…. back when. “Promises kept” is simply subtext for a President who shares their dementia, and will ruin our nation to pursue it. Enjoy your drumstick! BC

From day one the Trump Administration’s approach to Arab-Israeli peace has been to make the Palestinians an offer they can’t refuse, a fait accompli they can either accept or add to their struggles. If MAGA has thrashed America’s brand as leader of NATO, it has obliterated whatever was left of the notion we offer even-handed diplomacy in the Middle East. Trump’s message to Palestinians since inauguration has been “get on board the Bibi train or get run over.” From the needlessly gratuitous relocation of our embassy to Jerusalem to cheerleading West Bank Settlement activity to overtly cruel budget cuts of U.N. Palestinian humanitarian outreach, nothing has proved beyond the pale when it comes to pandering to Fox/AM sensibilities on Israel, the one ally the wretched core doesn’t resent.

The Trump Presidency foists so many insults on America and the world it is a challenge to figure which offer more harm than others. Yet and still, the unprecedented, and shamefully, unchallenged nepotism of this Administration is breathtaking. From the night he was elected, Trump has accorded his daughter and son-in-law top-level access light years out of line with their experience and qualifications. In a White House of under performers on steroids and a full roster of players selected with only their servility in mind, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner stand out for the dearth of contributions they make versus the near constant problems they cause.

Kushner, in particular, embarrasses on a near weekly basis. Assigned a vast portfolio of projects he has made little progress on, Kushner has time and again drawn the worst kind of attention for ethical transgressions only the President and the GOP now beholden to him continue to ignore. This week he rolled out a strategy to capture Palestinian good will and bring them back to the bargaining table. Unimpressive would be a very kind assessment of its impact.

There has been nothing subtle about the Trump Administration’s disdain for a two-state solution of the Palestinian-Israeli dispute. While breathlessly confirming what everyone has accepted for years, that the Golan Heights now belongs to Israel, Trump’s Ambassador to Israel, his former bankruptcy attorney, David Friedman, came right out and declared the Administration is “open” to annexation of parts of the West Bank. In fact, Friedman has equated support of U.N. peace parameters and a two-state solution as treacherous to Israel. So it’s no wonder that Kushner’s “bold” new approach offers nothing in the way of political accommodation, instead enthusing about the creation of Palestinian investment projects.

Kushner unveiled his plan in Bahrain with as much hoopla as could be mustered given that not a single Palestinian or Israeli official was in attendance. None… zero. Yet and still, Kushner got his pom poms out for up to $50 billion in future investments in Palestinian territories, almost all of which is under Israeli authority, as some sort of salve for heretofore Trumpist hostility to occupied populations.

The Palestinian response has been immediate and unequivocal… “is he kidding?” After more than two years of acting like Netanyahu’s enforcer, the US now talks of buying Palestinian acquiescence with phantom investors ready to make sweetheart deals. Empty Trump promises no responsible Palestinian partisan would ever risk a fig on are about the same as Mr. Potter offering George Bailey a cushy salary in It’s A Wonderful Life, acceptance would be complicity and betrayal.

It bears repeating that Likud, from its inception as a political party, has adopted as a central tenet the West Bank – referred to as Judea and Samaria by the party faithful – is holy Jewish land, unavailable for negotiation. This has been the unspoken elephant in the room since Begin was Prime Minister. Gaza, the Sanai Peninsula, even the Golan Heights, all were fair game in a land for peace framework… not so Judea and Samaria. Aggressive West Bank settlement has been a hallmark of Likud regimes, slowed only by American opposition to activity every President since LBJ understood was inimical to the peace process. To condone settlement means admitting the US is no longer interested in being an honest broker for peace. That is where we now are and then some. Only an Administration as unserious and shameless as this one would sanction Kushner’s charade.

A perfect exclamation point to the surreality of the exercise was one Israeli official’s take on Palestinian refusal to afford it any legitimacy. Economy Minister Eli Cohen actually suggested that Bahrain may have closed the door on further diplomacy.”We saw that, even in an economic conference where the Palestinians were meant to come and get money, to come and get tools and inducements, to come and develop their economy, they did not come.” Come and get your payoff for surrender or we have nothing more to talk about! Nice.

Too many in Israel equate annexation with security; nothing could be further from the truth. Whatever fidelity Israelis still possess toward the moral imperative their nation was created to preserve will quickly dissipate in the mire of the national security state West Bank annexation will require. Once land is no longer available to offer, how will anything but endless bloody attrition be possible? Israeli greats like Abba Eban and Shimon Peres understood this. Netanyahu understands but doesn’t care; he is corrupt and morally vacant.

It’s not hyperbole to aver nobody in the White House is equipped with even a basic understanding of the conflict they seem to view as a PR campaign, applying lipstick to the pig that is overt pandering to Likud aspirations. Jared Kushner presenting power points to emirs and shieks looking for value investments is really the perfect image of the Trump Administration’s ruinous incompetence. Palestinians aren’t fools, but even if they were, they wouldn’t be part of this “outreach”. How far have we fallen? Kissinger to Kushner… that’s how far.

Democratic governance is fully reliant on process. Without established workflows for both reaching and implementing decisions the alternative is simply edicts by whim of individuals, and that’s neither effective or democratic. Modern American executive branch decision making processes have been consistent, time tested and passed down through the decades enough that full college curriculums are designed to explore their component parts and educate new generations of public servants on how best to serve them. Indeed, it is not hyperbole to contend global economic and geopolitical stability rests on the assurance US policy originates and is impelled by process. Three years into the Trump Presidency the cogs of America’s best decision making practices are under relentless attack, dismissed by nihilists as, worse than unnecessary, actually part of the problem, part of the ‘swamp”. The President avers he trusts his gut, as he employs his remote to access Fox’s prime time line up for insights he can use.

The only best practices this Administration appears interested in are what it claims Trump’s properties offer guests who stay for official government functions the President insists on hosting, for a modest fee…. say $546 per night at Mar A Lago. Our tax dollars at work. As for national security matters, well that seems to be a bit more of a sliding scale, and a function of the always vague “executive time.”

From the start of Trump’s term the question was always how much of him would we get. Would he bow to the awesome responsibilities of the office and humble himself enough to recognize the compelling utility of accepting guidance from those with credentials he and everyone of his inner circle did not possess? Surely he will comprehend his standing will depend on at least a modicum of competency and some respect for established processes and traditions. This desperate hope was all that permitted many sleep between election night and Inauguration.

My own feeling was the President’s inauguration speech would tell the tale. If it rose in any way to the occasion, even if stilted and insincere, it would signal Trump was prepared to at least try and reach higher than his station. It wasn’t and he didn’t… not even a bit. The visit to the CIA later in the week, with its then shocking ad-libbed riffing about looting Iraqi oil and Mike Pompeo’s servility, reinforced beyond any doubt campaign-stump Trump would bedevil us throughout his term in office and we were in for a slog. There would be no pleasant surprises, Michelle Obama’s words all the more prescient… the Presidency “reveals who you are.” Not 72 hours in it was already doing just that. Going on three years later nothing is being left to the imagination, and policy formulation has suffered most.

Of course one could argue that any decision making construct is doomed to failure if it views facts as malleable, or worse, the enemy. From the Bay of Pigs to Iraq, the principle lessons of every US folly have reinforced this point. It is now a fully established truth that from the beginning this destructive bent has been, forget a tendency, the guiding practice in this White House. The President is no fan of presentations period, let alone those that offer scenarios not consistent with the images he wants to entertain. Coddling delusions as standard operating procedure to garner Trump’s approval appears how West Wingers approach pursuing policy, when they aren’t at war with each other. Trump likes his staff in a state of nature, at each other’s throats and ready to apply knife to back in the boardroom.

In Team of Vipers, Clifford Sims, who spent about 500 days in the Trump West Wing, describes camps at war with each other, with influencing Trump’s varying whims the object of conquest. On trade, Chief Economic advisor Gary Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin repeatedly talked Trump off the tariff war ledge, even as protectionists Peter Navarro and Wilbur Ross sought to anger him into going to the mats against, not just China, but Western allies as well. Cohn and Navarro detested one another, exactly the way Trump prefers his staff’s relationships, with constructive debate and consensus nonexistent. Cohn lost that war, and now he is gone as “tariff man” boasts daily of winning against all those who played us for suckers – read everybody.

Original Chief-of-Staff Reince Priebus was almost immediately neutered and lost all ability to referee the chaos, so John Kelly was brought in to instill some military discipline…. another abject failure. Now? Who knows? What is certain is there is no team in this Presidency, merely supplicants fighting each other to gain the jefe’s ear until he grows bored and distracted. That’s not a process, that’s Lord Of The Flies meets The Apprentice.

Back in the Cold War late 80s, Kuwait suckered the Reagan Administration into protecting its tankers against attack by flirting with the Soviets. When Iran went after a US frigate escorting a Kuwaiti tanker and killed 10 crewmen, Reagan had to respond, and he did. Two staging areas used by Revolutionary guards were wiped out, and several other violent encounters left more Iranians dead. It seemed to do the job, as Iran became less aggressive. Reagan enjoyed praise for the measured action, which did not escalate as critics warned.

Now the Lindsey Grahams and Tom Cottons are looking for any mic available to hold out the Gipper as a model for action. The situations couldn’t be more different. Back then Iran was slogging through a disastrous war with Iraq, and reeling from inner turmoil. The last thing it needed was a battle of attrition with a wholly unencumbered US. Now, it is us who is leashed by constant war, which has benefitted Iran’s position in the region immeasurably. Sanctions have hurt their economy and they still suffer internal strife, but Trump has so damaged the US brand, standing up to us can only gain the Mullahs fans at home and abroad.

Speculation runs the gamut as to why Trump pulled back at the last minute from bombing Iran. Everything from credible reports the leadership never sanctioned Iran’s attack on the drone, to Tucker Carlson convincing the President the risks were too high has received attention. With Trump anything is possible. It’s clear those responsible for carrying out an attack were against it, as Pentagon leaders opposed rabid John Bolton’s frothing for conflict.

In the end, perhaps the most sobering observation was made by a former defense official, who called the final product “a good decision from a bad process.” This official, who requested anonymity, stated Pentagon officials involved in the meetings left alarmed by a chaotic setting “ where it’s not really clear how decisions are made.” He went on to observe that “I don’t know if anyone could go from the Pentagon to Congress to brief them on what the White House’s strategy is.” That should alarm most. Of course, Trump apologists will shrug and contend that’s just how he rolls. Rolls where?….. off a cliff? BC

Whatever images and wonderings of becoming a member of the highest court in the land Chief Justice John Roberts may have had on the way to meeting his destiny, it’s doubtful becoming flyover America’s most despised person occupied too much space. After all, we most always protect our personal dreams from the unpleasantries that are possible, even probable, if they are realized. Mickey Mantle surely never fantasized becoming a Yankee legend would include constant physical pain and functional alcoholism. Did Joltin Joe DiMaggio believe it possible to both become one of America’s greatest icons AND die lonely and unconnected with his adoring public? Probably not. Careful what you wish for, you might get it is very wise counsel indeed, but usually only gets considered in the rear view mirror, not before one gets to where they’re going.

When John Roberts was tapped by W Bush to sit on the high court, it was as uncontroversial a selection as has been made in the post-Earl Warren era. His confirmation hearings, from the start strictly a pro forma affair, were a love fest on both sides of the aisle. Initially he was meant to become a mere Associate Justice, replacing retiring Sandra Day O’Connor. But that changed with the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, opening up the top slot, which W didn’t hesitate to insert Roberts into. The Senate Judiciary Committee had no problem with that. Roberts’ intellect and talent were unquestioned, his demeanor impeccable, and there wasn’t a hint of scandal anywhere to be found. Conservative, yes, but not so rigid it eclipsed his thoughtfulness and adroit evasion of drama. If there were a prototype for an acceptable nominee from an unacceptably obtuse President, Roberts was surely it. The outcome was never in doubt, the future so bright it required shades.

Now Roberts straddles his court as not only its procedural leader, but also determining vote on a slew of issues coming its way that could decide America’s future as a going democratic concern. The Roberts court is poised to consider cases so explosive, its rulings will determine the fundamental direction of America… moving ahead or retreating to the past. Have we evolved, or simply taken two steps forward that now will be met with five steps back. There is no middle ground, America now rests on unstable lily pads in a pond of disdain; leaping forward or backward is all that is possible. Of course, nothing defines that reality more succinctly than the status of Roe v Wade.

There is little to the imagination about the objective behind recent ugly, regressive anti-abortion laws passed by Alabama, Georgia and Missouri. They want to force the Roberts Court to take up Roe v Wade by so brazenly breaking the law it becomes an urgent priority that can’t wait. Is there really a difference between the Hand Maiden’s Tale nonsense they enacted and, say, legislation to once again segregate lunch counters and water fountains? None at all. They are outright breaking the law of the land, which has been reaffirmed repeatedly since 1973. The only difference between what Alabama zealots pushed through and writing a law to reintroduce Jim Crow measures is the level of confidence the proponents have in the political viability of one versus the other…. but give that time. Were Trump to start babbling about how unfair it is whites have to wait for dinner seating uppity blacks are now allowed to occupy, that slop could start sticking to the GOP wall of shame as well. Never say never these days.

The current make up of the court gives Roberts the deciding vote on any close call. Roe v Wade is established law, reaffirmed time and again over a period of 45 years, through more than four terms of Republican Presidents. If stare decisis means anything at all as a regulating legal principle, it applies to Roe v Wade. Although Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh all gave lip service to precedent’s role in deciding cases, none inspire confidence when it comes to sailing against even modest headwinds to their pre-court political identities, let alone the violent blowback upholding Roe v Wade would produce. Clarence Thomas, of course, is utterly incapable of pleasant surprises.

That leaves Roberts between safe, legal abortion and rapist coparenting. The Chief Justice, in both word and action, appears cognizant of history’s judgements. Unlike either Gorsuch or Kavanaugh, he always presented as a heavyweight jurist, obligated to significantly more than stuffing square politics and conservative ideology into round holes of Supreme Court decision making. And make no mistake, overturning Roe v Wade, particularly against the backdrop of legislative idiocy by white, male, potbellied extremists, intent on codifying the Fox/AM misogyny their political fortunes depend on, will rank right up there with Dred Scott and the Korematsu decision that enabled Japanese internment. It will be rightly condemned as a preposterous usurpation of established legal precedent by political, or worse, religious expediency. No Chief Justice can want that stench on his legacy.

Yet and still, John Roberts is human, with a personal life and family. What awaits if he permits conscience and integrity to guide him is very harsh indeed. He will instantly become Judas to scores of zealots, who assumed he could be counted on to provide baby killing doctors and the harlots who seek their services the wrath they deserve. Should Roberts uphold Roe v Wade, Trump will have a new John McCain to bash. He will surely want to make clear to the wretched core his boys toed the line; it was W’s pick who committed the apostasy. One can practically envision the tweets now. Fox/AM will talk of nothing much else for weeks… months…. hell, forever. A bloc of millions of radicalized walking dead will pray for the utter damnation and physical destruction of John Roberts. A very nasty future to ponder.

Whether this Chief Justice is made of the stuff necessary to join Supreme Court greats before him by accepting the life changing consequences of doing the right thing, only he knows. But it’s entirely appropriate to appreciate what he faces, and certainly only proper to afford him the praise he will deserve if he steps up to the plate. Of course, if he sides with overturning Roe, few will be shocked and the Trump dark age will continue unabated. Either way, his predicament is clarification of Fox/AM’s odious impact on the viewer base it has radicalized for nothing more than advertising revenue. Whatever chance there was for political accommodation on abortion sailed out to sea years ago. All that’s left is established, repeatedly reaffirmed law and a frenzied bloc of radicals who will never take no for an answer. Sweet dreams John Roberts. BC

According to our President, Arkansas stands on the doorstep of a new political dynasty. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is leaving her post as Trump’s Press Secretary, a tenure which saw the DC institution of daily White House press briefings wither on the vine, replaced by Presidential tweet storms and Fox “Breaking News” flashes that Sanders would often embellish from a remote feed on the White House grounds, a far friendlier venue than the contentious briefings she gradually phased out of existence.

Apparently, though, the nation’s loss is Arkansas’s gain, as Trump’s tribute tweet announcing Sanders’ departure included his wish to see her ascend to the state’s governor’s mansion. Lucky for current Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson, he was re-elected last year, lest Trump thoughtlessly provide a staunch supporter with a primary opponent. Whatever. Like her father before her, it now appears Sanders has political ambitions of her own, and no doubt will pursue them as part of that new breed of Trumpie politicos… fully liberated from the tether of truth. Yet and still, for now she merely represents the most common theme that runs through this Presidency…. the mass exodus of its staff, often with no replacements forthcoming.

The talent pool this Administration has had at its disposal from which to hire White House and federal agency staff, to be kind, has never been target rich. Although Trump frequently boasted on the campaign trail he would lean on the best and the brightest – usually as a rejoinder to some ridiculous blunder he had recently made about a basic issue he refused to bone up on – upon election it became almost immediately clear he had no plan for creating a team.

Back just after Trump’s victory the thinking was GOP “moderates” in the Senate could be counted on to curtail any outrageous nominees, and, both Trump’s desire for help now that he was in the deep end, and the pull of duty to country, would ensure that some qualified and experienced Republican heavyweights would fill at least several critical slots. Indeed, after Michael Flynn self-destructed almost immediately, there appeared promise DC’s institutional preeminence would work to check the Donald’s worst instincts. But then, as the Pruitts and DeVos were confirmed, it became clear Collins, Murkowski and Portman et al had no appetite for principled leadership on the matter. Moreover, the revolving door for old GOP White House hands never became operational, and Trump short lists were revealed to be unprecedentedly sparse, with House backbenchers like Tom Price, Mick Mulvaney, and Mike Pompeo leading the way.

Going on three years and more than 400 defections later, this Administration isn’t scraping the bottom of the barrel…. it seems to possess no systematic process for hiring! Broken would be the word that comes to mind. Forget incompetence and graft from Cabinet Secretaries, it is becoming increasingly clear this White House is giving up on even staffing the government. From top to bottom our Executive Branch is in chaotic free fall. At this time last year more than one-third of senior cabinet positions were not yet filled. At that point Trump apologists noted many were intentionally left empty, and after that was taken into account, hiring really wasn’t too far behind where Obama was at the same stage of his Presidency. That argument was specious then, and certainly nobody is making it now.

More than 40 percent of high-level deputy secretary, assistant secretary and financial administration posts are vacant. Indeed, Brookings Institute data points to the Trump turnover rate now being three times as high as Obama’s and twice as high as the previous record holder, Ronald Reagan. Explanations or solutions are as scarce as incoming applicants, limited mostly to Trump blaming Democrats in the Senate for not approving his nominees, merely another of his 10K plus lies, but his go-to nonetheless.

To be fair, on a broader level, the government faced serious challenges before Trump came to the office he never wanted. Only 6 % of the federal work force is under 30 years old. Moreover, with the national debt approaching $20 trillion, and government spending a soft target for both sides of the aisle, federal pay is doing nothing but losing ground to the private sector. Add to that a burgeoning workforce sensibility that is anything but 9-5 and the pool of available young talent shrinks even further. However, leave it to Trump to douse a smoldering concern with plenty of gasoline, as record numbers of careerists, from the EPA to the State Department, have dramatically accelerated retirement timetables rather than experience the awful demoralization their life’s work is now at the mercy of those filled with ignorant disdain toward the mission statement of their agencies.

But if an office remains empty does anyone hear it fall…. er, or something like that. Lacking adequate staff is one of those problems it’s hard to clarify into a tangible concern, particularly when the President provides unceasing outrageousness to consider instead. However, common sense dictates a copious lack of qualified personnel can’t be a good thing, particularly if there seems no plan or even interest to remedy the situation, only diatribes from the President about who’s to blame. In fact, it’s now a reasonable question to ask at what point does an inability to find, retain and replace competent staff become a crisis. After all, regardless of how much Trump has abased and recklessly trivialized his office, it is a critical foundation of US governance; if it’s broken, so is the nation.

Of course, if your campaign platform was nothing more than nihilistic pledges to dismantle programs and hinder agencies, how many people do you really need? If the “promises” you are keeping consist of mostly getting rid of enforcement mechanisms created to protect everything from the air and water to worker safety, consumer protections to financial reform, less might very well be more, regardless if it’s intentional or simply another manifestation of breathtaking incompetence. Say what you want about the GOP, its do-nothing pols have convinced their base the best government is the worst government because, really, if it’s functioning properly then all those things we’ve convinced you to hate about it are still in tact….. no small feat!

An overflow field of Democrats are scrambling for relevant campaign themes capable of lighting a spark and galvanizing voters with something more than mere anti-Trump outrage. Perhaps a message that both re-educates Americans on government’s vital role in areas directly impacting everyday routines, not to mention the safeguarding of critical infrastructure, while also highlighting the inability of the incumbent to even hire necessary staff, will resonate with more than a few. After all, accepting the GOP premise that no government is the best government only further facilitates this White House’s zealous pursuit of the lowest common denominator…. the one area it seems to exhibit unquestioned proficiency. BC

There is a great scene in the AMC classic series Mad Men when Pete Campbell, a heretofore character one only loved to hate, begins his arc toward anti-hero redemption by refusing to go celebrate the wedding of his boss’s daughter in the immediate aftermath of JFK’s assassination. “Things seemed like they were changing,” rues Campbell to his wife Trudy, declaring his refusal to allow normalcy to beguile him from his grief for Kennedy. Campbell can’t believe anyone could carry on as if time has not stopped in the wake of the unthinkable. “They won’t cancel because they’re happy about it,” he charges, recounting inappropriate responses expressed at the office the day before as events unfolded. The scene clarifies the earliest signs of political chasm in 60s America, foretelling one of the most divisive decades in our history.

The roiling 60s reflected a generational split anchored in two presumptions that parents and grandparents expected their children to abide as they had before them. One, that blacks were inferior to whites, or at least undeserving of empathy equal to that shown other countrymen. Two, that war requires unflinching duty and unthinking obedience, regardless of who the enemy is and the level of direct threat they pose. It was the results of events, nationally televised in real time, that taught us the lessons of this era. Dogs ripping pants, hoses knocking people flat, dead kids coming out of jungles. The images reinforced how unreasonable the original premises were, and eventually drove home they shouldn’t be leaned on ever again.

For near half a century those epiphanies stood us in relatively good stead. At the very least, Jim Crow was condemned and foreign military adventures as necessary to obscure geopolitical strategies were no longer unquestioned. Moreover, Roe v Wade, the EEOC and a vibrant EPA signaled the federal government’s acceptance of its rightful role in ensuring states obey the emerging national consensus on basic issues like equal rights and environmental protection.

The promise of democracy is not that demagogues won’t emerge; it’s that an enlightened population will be informed enough to resist their message and send them packing. It got so bad for old George Wallace that, after being shot and paralyzed, and deserted politically, he actually repented for his bigotry, dying with a restored conscience. There is little doubt, given similar circumstances, our current President’s campaign never would have gained any traction, relegating him to single digits before his cheapness dictated an end to the exercise. Of course, one added variable made all the difference… a two-decade multi-billion dollar, 24/7 multimedia propaganda effort that created optimal conditions within the GOP for exactly his regressive message, delivered exactly with his unhinged cadence.

After eight years of apocalyptic fiction about America’s first black President, the GOP base was primed to embrace another time and place, where the requirements of social, environmental, economic and societal progress no longer existed. A time where white entitlement was considered nothing more than the status quo, and American exceptionalism was a given. That these expectations translated into mostly shrill identity screeds, and a contest to select who was most unbound by decency and decorum, meant Trump found himself in his wheelhouse, while pols like Bush and even Rubio, a Tea Party darling, were too encumbered by a sense of shame to compete effectively. It was no contest. Trump knew less than nothing, but spoke louder, nastier and more fact-free than anyone else. That was enough.

The Donald never imagined himself President, and the record is already clear his shocking election was something nobody on team Trump, least of all the candidate, was prepared for. Instead of growing pains, this Administration has undergone seismic convulsions, in line with Trump’s historic inadequacies. Yet and still, to the degree there exists a governing blueprint, it reflects the regressive messaging of the general campaign, a cavalry charge back in time. Trumpism stands for retrograde nihilism, an unabashed attack on previously settled axioms for government conduct and policy objectives. It fully pursues nothing less than the redefinition of America’s evolution since the 50s as harmful recklessness by dangerous progressives bent on seizing and holding power. In other words, the narrative Fox/AM has spewed forth since it’s founding. After all, our President is, from the tip of his weave to his bone spurs, a shit river consumer with no other significant knowledge base. His political identity was fully created by Roger Ailes. And so it’s cleeeaan coal and tariffs, immigrant bashing and voter fraud conspiracies.

Now we are left, like Pete Campbell, to sit and wonder aloud what the hell is happening. Weren’t we just celebrating a watershed of our country’s growth? Didn’t hundreds of thousands in foreign lands just clog the streets to see our dashing young leader, who sought only to unite? Didn’t we just have the smartest guy in the room as President, comfortable and secure in his own black skin? Deliberate and almost annoyingly thoughtful, who couldn’t be provoked into losing his cool even after the most disgusting attacks on him and his family? Weren’t we moving past worrying about settled issues like voting rights and LGBT equality, environmental protections and climate change science? These arguments were over, discussions now only centered on details for achieving ends mainstream sensibilities had agreed on. Things didn’t seem like they were changing, They had changed for the better! Done. Settled.

Edmond Burke said famously all that is necessary for evil to thrive is good men do nothing. In America, since January, 2017, there are plenty of those, even as the President and the party he now lords over confirm our worst fears about their disregard for the national interest. But beyond that, a minority wants to erase our nation’s maturation to impair our future. At every turn, there is a bulldozer moving to bury what we’ve learned, erase what we’ve bettered, destroy what has been fixed, often after decades of blood shed by many, hardships suffered as necessary to reform we now have to fret is being undone. Worse, we’re supposed to pretend it’s normal, the back and forth of political fortune…. get over it and attend the wedding. Way too many have simply shrugged and complied. I’m staying home! BC