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More people than usual were flying out of Portland Jetport on a weekday, and access to iPhone recharging stations was at a premium. Worse, the unit I was sitting next to was DOA, the blue power light extinguished. Of course, that didn’t stop me from cluelessly prodding around until a helpful fellow traveler pointed the problem out to me. When I asked her if I could appear any lamer, she assured me it was a common issue that most, including herself, responded to no differently than I had. I thanked her for the fib to make me feel better and started surveying the gate area for unaccompanied blue lights. A silver haired witness to my inadequacy generously offered me the seat next to him, which boasted a true blue energy source.

His name was Steve and he hailed from near Augusta, born and bred in the vacation state. Mainers are noted for their pleasant stoicism, and my new friend was no exception. I did most of the talking, but he was jovial and responded to my inquiries with what can best be termed enthusiastic brevity.

The grandfather of five, he was a cable company construction supervisor on his way to Syracuse for training. His employer had played a dirty trick on him and necessitated he first fly south to Philadelphia to then connect at 9:30 pm to eventually arrive in Syracuse near midnight. I cringed at the thought and offered my heartfelt sympathies.

Throughout our conversation I was struck by how, despite certainly not talking my ear off, Steve answered questions thoroughly, while making sure to never stray past the subject matter he was discussing, there were no tangents to his line of thought, no unnecessary anecdotes. He was pleased to answer any inquiry, and willing to rejoin with an invitation for me to address the topic as well, but we stayed on whatever point was at hand. That I found his method of discourse comfortable, even admirable, perhaps speaks to a certain self-loathing toward my own tendency to tell stories and wander fairly aimlessly during discourse. I don’t know. Point is, he was a very easy guy to be around… and to like.

I have no doubt, were I lucky enough to count Steve my neighbor, he would dutifully have my back, and would appreciate but certainly not feel entitled to me having his. Good communities start with the Steves of this world, and countries are merely the sum total of their communities. So, from what I know of Steve, he is an asset to America, necessary to our fundamental prosperity, a root of our foundation, Rockwellian salt of the earth.

This Holiday Season, our third under the Trump Administration, may in fact be the most appropriate opportunity of the year to consider Steve and I and how the awful divisiveness of MAGA encroaches on the community development most agree goes hand in hand with our well being as a nation.
I never asked Steve about his politics, and wouldn’t be surprised wherever he came down. Which is to say I’ve been repeatedly disappointed by otherwise wonderful people I’ve known for years who are now unapologetic members of the wretched core, just as I know plenty of unpleasant sorts I’d just as soon avoid who have not a shred of patience for Trump. However, that is not at all to equate the two groups, which way too many still seem prone to do, contributing to our ingestion of ruinous toxicity.

The space between a rock and a hard place America now occupies consists of two precepts all of us took for granted growing up. Until 2016 we never had any compelling reason to challenge either one of them because each serviced the other. The demeanor of our Presidents never strayed from parameters they entered office determined to respect and left unchallenged. As a result, we had the luxury of assuming, Democrat or Republican, they would function in the background of our life routines, and, more importantly, respect the system that enabled their ascendency or terminated their service. Moreover, they would faithfully champion one common theme, paramount to our existence as a country: national unity. Together, these bedrocks established acceptable norms for civility and behavior, protecting relationships from political passions. No more.

As America confronts its version of the classic symptom authoritarian populism presents, a steady erosion of democratic society, Trump’s wretched core are no longer the primary issue. They’ve become a constant variable. They have elected and emboldened a destructive nihilist, and will embrace his worst, which could certainly descend to historically malevolent depths, but there is no longer any mystery to them or their misguided inclinations.

The open unanswered question now is how the rest of America tolerates them amongst us because, sadly, that has become synonymous with whether MAGA prospers further or is contained and eventually dies out. Totalitarian movements can’t survive dormancy. They can’t live through the collective disdain required to drive them from power, regroup, and then again hit the ground running. Trump out of the White House will look and sound very different, and without the Presidency’s bully pulpit and resources, even with 24/7 Fox/AM participation, he will become page A4 rather than the headline. Relevancy will become much harder work, and we all know Trump is a very lazy man, his own worst enemy.

Our ability to accept Trumpism as anything other than an ugly aberration is everything, the metric of our future. The most significant measure is whether we continue to categorize politics, doggedly refusing to permit this Presidency’s cauldron of degradation to boil over and co-mingle with community relations. No matter how many times it’s been said, it bears repeating, this isn’t Romney, or W, or even Nixon, and it’s a GOP the country has never before experienced, an enterprise with nothing in the way of constructive governance on its day timer. The ever growing list of former Republican Party stalwarts now as opposed to MAGA as any “liberal” certifies this reality.

When the Senate majority leader breathlessly reassures a Sean Hannity of his predisposition to, not only acquit an impeached President, but fully map out the entire process of his trial with him, there exists a massive chasm between the historical norms that are supposed to inform his job performance and absurd new expectations he believes his primary constituency intends to hold him to.
It’s our everyday give and take with that bloc that will define us moving forward. They don’t exist in a vacuum. They aren’t cordoned off and neatly showed for their worst. Many are Steves, whose plethora of good qualities are right now consumed by the existential crisis they believe is saving their country. Of course, it would be a far more pleasant task to talk about grandkids and the New England Patriots. Yet and still, it’s the grandchildren who are at the heart of this matter and deserve more than pleasantries. Confronting ruin. BC

History rewards substance, not pomp. It’s always useful, when considering insults hurled at a particular public person, to remember Lincoln was burned in effigy on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. Profiles in courage are just that, popularity doesn’t enter into the picture. Had Lyndon Johnson not pushed through landmark civil rights and anti-poverty legislation, deeds that rendered him synonymous with treachery in his native south, his legacy would have been a big bunch of nothing. Instead of a legislative giant, LBJ would have become the guy who wasted Camelot’s promise and merely mired us in the pointless quagmire of Vietnam.

Wednesday’s orgy of oratory on the House floor was indeed for the ages, and will become more than just a footnote for historians to assess. Nothing could more effectively clarify the crossroads we have reached than the polarization on display throughout a debate with a foregone conclusion, a drama with an ending the audience knew was coming. But predictability can still shock the senses, and the GOP specializes in both lately.

The hyenas of an emerging American totalitarianism dutifully lined up in service to their Scar. Throughout the day they most resembled a collection of rappers, squaring off to prove who could use their allotted minute most creatively. Of course that is a profound diss to the Ice Cubes of this world, who have more imagination than the lot of the Republican House caucus combined. But on they carried forth, hour after hour, with nastiness to spare, directed over and over at the same usual suspects.

Nobody was reviled more this week than Adam Schiff of California, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Throughout the historic histrionics he was attacked with everything from calls for his indictment to scurrilous innuendos about his agenda. Trumpism only takes the low road, but Schiff’s attackers traveled by way of gutters all day long. Incredibly, much of the hideous invective was screeched while Schiff was present, taking his shift steering the debate. And his stoicism in response – a chuckle here, a clever rejoinder there – reinforced the understated professionalism he has embodied through the sorry saga of Trump’s overt corruption. Courageous and unflappable are the best adjectives available.

A common fantasy most indulge is the hypothetical of how we would act in a crisis, when the chips are down and peril comes calling. However, it’s doubtful being constantly signaled out by an unhinged POTUS with millions of acolytes ready and willing to absorb his hatred of the villainy he has assigned you finds its way into many such scenarios. Welcome to “Shifty Schiff’s” world.

That the main of House Republicans parrot Trump’s disgraceful personal libel against a colleague both disqualifies them as anything other than the clear and present dangers to governance they’ve become, and accentuates the debt of gratitude we owe Schiff…. come what may. The lines now drawn could not be clearer, nor the stakes higher. Flinching is not an option as one of America’s major political parties unites around sedition, in full service to a corrupt traitor. It’s a time where diligent fortitude equates with heroism, and that’s exactly what Schiff is delivering.

An ironic sidebar to Schiff’s stewardship of the impeachment investigation process is that, since his election to the House in 2001, he has been exactly the bipartisan-seeking, get-a-deal-done compromiser progressives would be looking to primary. On everything from authorizing the Iraq invasion (he admitted it was a bad mistake) to approving military budgets to supporting Saudi Arabia’s initial foray into Yemen, Schiff has been in line with across-the-aisle sensibilities. In fact, before Trump was elected, the issue Schiff may have been most ardent about was reducing the helicopter noise bedeviling many of his local constituents, a continent away from DC. Now he is MAGA enemy #1.

Indeed, it’s hard to find a better example of the times making a man than the case of Adam Schiff. And what he has lacked in flash, Schiff has made up for with relentless focus on gathering and presenting the facts, the oversight function. While his opposite number, Devin Nunes, has from day one competed to be Trump’s champion Capitol Hill bootlicker, sparing no effort to breathe life into outlandish and fully debunked conspiracy theories, Schiff has been about timelines produced from sworn testimony. While Nunes has his own cot over at Fox News, Schiff has dutifully made the media rounds, calmly tolerating insidious false equivalence while keeping America apprised of the facts, first in regard to the Mueller investigation and then the Ukrainian scandal. At no time has he entertained what wasn’t already there or made himself the story. In other words, he has been a solid professional exactly when that’s been needed most.

When old Sam Irvin was getting the goods on Richard Nixon he had to deal with a lot of different pressures and stresses. One thing he never had to be concerned about was the POTUS calling him “a deranged person… a very sick man, who lies” and should be indicted. Not a day now passes that Trump doesn’t incessantly insult Schiff and hiss to his wretched core their most visceral hatred toward him is appropriate. If it bothers Schiff he doesn’t let on about it, remaining his usual unflappable self, keeping his eye on the ball he is most responsible for pushing forward.

Whatever Trumpism still has in store for the US, whatever dangerous indignities it still may inflict, he has at least been stained by the impeachment his behavior fully warranted. That corruption was meticulously cataloged and presented for consideration largely due to the efforts of one man. Wednesday evening, as Schiff yielded himself the remaining six minutes of his time to make a final Democratic statement about why impeaching Donald Trump was the only option the rule of law and the Constitution allowed those obliged to satisfy their oath of office, he was interrupted by cowardly representatives of a mob no longer concerned with such requisites of democracy. At that moment it was easy to appreciate this is only the beginning of what will be the gravest crisis America has faced. Yet and still, it was also a fully appropriate time to feel grateful hope and good faith are still served by people like Adam Schiff. Nothing is more important right now. BC

Back in 2010, as the House and Senate were marking up what would become the final version of Obamacare, America got a clear view of its future. In both chambers the process defined anyone’s idea of hell, far worse than watching paint dry because paint doesn’t act like an overindulged six-year old from start to finish.

Over and over, hours into days, GOP lawmakers offered one poison pill amendment after another, each with no chance of being adopted by the majority. But it wasn’t enough to simply put the amendment up – coupled with a speech for Sean Hannity and the base back home – for rejection; Republicans would then demand a hideously tedious roll call vote. Nihilist kabuki became part and parcel of every step in the slog toward national healthcare; it was literally a battle of who could disagree more.

Central to the GOP narrative was Obamacare’s reliance on an individual mandate (IM) which would levy a tax, or fine depending on point of view, on individuals refusing to obtain health insurance. It hardly mattered the individual mandate was actually Nixonian in its origins, and found its first national sponsor in 1989 when the Heritage Foundation put it out as an alternative to the Clinton Administration’s doomed push for a single-payer system.

Nor did it matter the modest obligation was simpatico with conservative sensibilities toward ballooning costs associated with extended care for that percentage of “free riders” selfish enough to refuse purchasing coverage come what may. Roger Ailes and Mitch McConnell, both publicly committed to making Obama’s a one-term Presidency, had their main talking point and they would run with it. Fox/AM went to work, attacking the udders of our increasingly shrill argument culture with the aim of milking it for every last drop. The war on Obamacare would fully reflect just how unhinged messaging could become within the vortex of Glenn Beck and GOP show horses from gerrymandered districts, terrain capable of prompting only primary threats from the right.

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, despite his stature and seniority, made it clear from the start GOP stalwarts would follow rather than lead on the issue. Although he favored the individual mandate when it was an alternative to single-payer, Hatch did his best Patrick Henry, declaring “…the difference between regulating and requiring is liberty.” From O’Reilly to Rush, Levin to Malkin, the Fox/AM brigade became ceaseless in trying to one up each other as to the calamity the IM portended.

Steadily the IM went from the poster child of liberal dependence on unnecessary regulation to a certain harbinger of totalitarianism. A $695 annual penalty, levied on those with the means to purchase health insurance, but stubbornly ignorant enough to refuse to do so, became a GOP synonym for end times. Instead of free riding deadbeats prepared to cost the system thousands if misfortune came their way, those refusing to take advantage of insurance they previously could not access were proud patriots, modern day tea tax rebels. By November they would have their own “grass roots” movement that would make Democrats pay dearly for their unconscionable efforts to insure more Americans.

By the time Obama signed The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law in March of 2010, 39 blue dog House Democrats were already preparing talk tracks about why they joined every Republican and voted against Obamacare. The Tea Party wave that November spared few of them. And what of the GOP? After their first taste of just how easy it was to throw all semblance of truth and decorum to the curb, simply making stuff up as they went, Republican back benchers were euphoric. Unlike moderates who valued governance and felt the need for several showers, the nihilists knew a winner when they saw one. Why had they waited so long?!

Near ten years later the GOP strategy and behavior for executing it are one and the same, the product of an epiphany the battle against national health insurance provided. The crux of the matter, which they were just comprehending back in 2010, is straightforward as it is depraved: that the national interest pales in the shadow of power, and the sky’s the limit when visceral white grievance melds with a multi billion dollar, multi-platform messaging system. The only difference now is there exists not a one in the GOP caucus of either chamber who loses a moment’s sleep over such standard procedure requirements.

What was a Faustian bargain with grievous moral and ethical consequences for members to consider back in 2010, is now a central part of the Republican autonomic nervous system, as natural as breathing. Those lawmakers with moral reservations about the Pandora’s Box they helped to open back when they warned constituents about “death panels” are long gone, replaced by a political class liberation of its contents enabled and nourished. That spawn has been on full display recently in a House Longworth Building hearing room.

The Republican Party has devolved apace as one might have expected it to after its hysterics during the Obamacare debate. That a majority of Americans now have a favorable view of the program, and thousands owe their lives to its inception, hasn’t stopped the GOP from tossing all manner of pasta against the wall in an effort to kill it. Yet and still, once they succeeded in ending the IM along with the passage of a massive tax giveaway to big business and the upper brackets, the appetite for false and reckless rhetoric about Obamacare diminished. Now it’s ceaselessly employed to protect Donald Trump’s rabid political survival.

Back in 2010 Republicans discovered the political advantages of ignoring established signposts of shamelessness. Now, as a united authoritarian party with no daylight between their leadership and the rank and file, the GOP has upped the ante and are enthused to disregard established taboos about sedition while protecting Trump. GOP nihilists now peg impeachment as an existential threat to their wretched core supporters, who need precious little persuading, but will still get it 24/7 for good measure, just as they did a decade ago. Same sorry game, but much higher stakes. A contest we can’t afford to lose against opponents who cheat to win. BC

“You break it, you own it.”

Colin Powell

“Every data point was altered to present the best picture possible.”

Senior US Advisor in Afghanistan

They were spread throughout the plane, perhaps a dozen of them. Before the stewardess started with the safety directions she gave them a shout out and everybody clapped. When the Captain came on to advise about the trip’s time, he also recognized them, again a round of applause. They all seemed like babies, hardly prepared for what awaited them. Yet all seemed excited to go. Parris Island beckoned.

Since 2001, when America set its sites on the Taliban after 9/11, 775,000 troops have rotated through Afghanistan. Our involvement has stretched so long, the first sons are now deploying to where their fathers’ boots also hit the ground. Think about that. I remember, as a college student, being dumbfounded how America could have been bogged down in Vietnam for so long. Our stay in Afghanistan has been near twice as long.

Many argue that the folly of invading Iraq doomed quick and enduring success in Afghanistan. The recent trove of classified material gathered by the Washington Post doesn’t support their thesis. Instead, like the Soviets before us, America’s military appears to have entered a quagmire from day one, with time and American casualties it produced the only certain measurements of failure our political and military leaders would spare no effort to sanitize and misrepresent.

It ended up being a flight from hades, Earlier in the day an American Eagle plane, the exact same model we were now on, made an emergency landing at Reagan National due to black smoke in the cabin. Between that incident and miserable weather, an operation that tests passenger patience under optimal conditions never recovered. American Eagle flight 4580 from Portland, Maine was a mere 20 minutes out from DC when our captain came on from the flight deck and notified us we were in a circling pattern because of “weather delays.” He didn’t sound particularly hopeful.

Incredibly, when he came on several minutes later he broke the news that, due to fuel considerations, if we couldn’t land within 15 minutes we would be forced to divert to Norfolk! Suddenly, a late dinner became an overnight stay three hours from home!! Needless to say, the boys heading to boot camp were not going to make their connection, and how they digested the news was very interesting and encouraging to witness. There was humor and a certain degree of fatalism as they discussed their options. One youngster demonstrated outstanding leadership skills as he went through the situations and viable options as he saw it. One could imagine them as a unit, on patrol, mapping out how to react to an enemy encounter. What was great to see was how alert and focused all were, with no agitation whatsoever; they were addressing a curveball with humor and comradeship.

If Iraq was defined by hubris, the decision making behind the US invasion of Afghanistan was impulsive and visceral. The mandate was to get even, come what may. The fact most of the 9/11 cabal were Saudis was ignored. And while perhaps no regime in the world needed to change more than the Taliban, long-range planning, which should have benefitted greatly from the lessons Soviet mistakes provided, really never seemed to be a priority. As Douglas Lute, a three-star Army general and planning “czar” within both the Bush and Obama administrations admitted: “we didn’t know what we were doing.” Yet and still, it hardly mattered; as Toby Keith bellowed, it was time to put a boot in their ass, nuff said.

Eighteen years later we remain an isolated and clueless occupier, still trying to figure out how to declare victory and leave. For our trouble we’re more than $1 trillion poorer and have lost more than 2300 of our soldiers, not to mention more than 20,000 wounded. The primary goals that framed the mission remain elusive and largely unmet. While it’s true Afghanistan is no longer a terrorist training haven, nobody is confident it won’t again become one once the remaining 13,000 Americans still in country leave. It’s government remains corrupt and primed to be toppled by the Taliban soon after a US withdrawal. Opium continues to be grown and exported at levels few would argue reflect successful US efforts at intervention.

Now the stunning collection of classified material the Post had to fight tooth and nail to obtain paints a picture of Vietnam 2.0, where spin doctors up and down the chain of command worked tirelessly at painting rosy scenarios none actually believed. There is no other way to put it: successive US administrations lied continuously to cover up failed operations in Afghanistan, without pause or concern. Hundreds of candid interviews, carried out with the promise they were off-the-record, clarify 18-years of aimless policy that never really got past the original motivation… to punish the Taliban for providing a staging area for Bin Laden.

Mercifully, Baltimore’s BWI airport agreed to allow us to divert there. Inconvenient sure, but hardly the burden of heading to Norfolk. The descent was nothing short of harrowing, the commuter plane relentlessly tossed around by the elements. The recruits joked nervously that bad luck might spare them the unpleasant chore of explaining to their DIs why they were late to camp.

While we waited on the tarmac for a gate assignment, I was struck by how not one of these kids seemed at all preoccupied by the the immense life-change they were about to face. As they discussed pursuing plan B or C to make it down to South Carolina, there was order and calm, with ideas offered and assessed. The leader who emerged earlier acted as a clearinghouse for different approaches. I counseled that sitting around BWI waiting for hours to fly 30 miles made no sense at all. My suggestion was they let the American representative know the importance of getting out quickly and book something from BWI, on another carrier if necessary. After all, this was our national security we were talking about. American helped matters by announcing before we deplaned that nothing was getting into Reagan for the next couple hours and vouchers for ground transportation to DC would be issued.

After almost two decades in Afghanistan we appear no closer to the requisites for declaring mission accomplished. Worse, it’s clear, like Vietnam, those essentials were never possible. Create a strong central government determined to resist corruption? It was never going to happen, particularly with millions of unaudited American dollars flowing through the system. As one US official put it: “petty corruption is like skin cancer… corruption within the ministries, higher level, is like colon cancer….. kleptocracy, however, is like brain cancer; it’s fatal.”

And of course for the US to withdraw, Afghan forces have to be able to defeat the Taliban insurgents on their own. Year in and year out they have not improved. Incompetent, unmotivated and “rife with deserters” has been the common assessment since the start. Afghan security forces have suffered more than 60,000 fatalities, a shocking number that US officials deem “unsustainable.” We leave and the Taliban returns; that’s an article of faith. It is a testament to our failure that our hapless President isn’t necessarily wrong about “cutting a deal” with the Taliban, unthinkable in 2001. Other than permanent occupation, few other options exist.

As I left the gate, beelining for what would be a crowded Uber stand, the future Marines were circled around the airline representative, earnestly yet respectfully pressing their situation. Walking away, I was more heartened and hopeful about America’s future than when I began the day’s journey. These young men would give their best and complain little while doing it. They were splendid in every way, our greatest resource. Who could possibly look them in the eye and tell them they have signed on to, not just a failed mission, but a folly that was doomed from the beginning? Who could be so heartless to do that? Who could be so cruel not to? The hell of it! BC

“You’ve got to live for yourself, for yourself and nobody else!”

Blues Magoos

When I was a 9-year old enjoying a Rockwellian midwest upbringing in Evanston, Ill, one of my best friends was a neighbor named Alan Kornfeld. Together we shared a love of baseball, both playing and worshiping Ernie Banks and his Chicago Cubs. Also, Alan had a full drum set in his basement that may have been his older brother’s; near 50 years clouds my recollection on the matter. What I am clear about is how well Alan could play and how futile my half-hearted attempts at learning were.

Dog day afternoons of summer were often spent in the Kornfeld basement, me watching Alan play along very competently to “Wipe Out” or, better yet, a Beatles classic or some other 45 he poached from his brother’s off-limits collection. After several songs Alan would take a break and give me a chance with the sticks, which I never took advantage of, instead struggling to even master very basic snare/cymbal combinations. Alan wasn’t a patient teacher, and usually after a couple of failed forays at rhythm, he would be looking to get the sticks back, refreshed and ready to challenge himself. I never could get the hang of it, much to my disappointment because drumming seemed to me a very cool activity.

I remember asking my mom what she thought Santa would say to a drum set for XMas; her response was immediate and certain, leaving not a speck of daylight for hope. At least I held on to the Mel Stottlemeyer model mitt I received instead for decades…. what are you going to do? My parents were loving and generous, but not masochists!

Anyway, flash forward seven or eight years to my high school days in Maryland – the family having relocated from idyllic Evanston to the then DC suburban outpost of Potomac, where extreme culture shock and the teen angst it afforded made drug use a forgone conclusion. The silver lining was live music, which went hand in hand with pot smoking and inebriation, became a priority. In neighboring Bethesda, no band was more beloved than The Nighthawks, a lunch pail blues group that loved to play for hours without any fluff or gimmicks. Nothing but the blues!

During summertime, the Nighthawks always booked a number of dates at beach clubs up and down the Delmarva coastline. Throughout my college years summers were spent in Ocean City, MD, and the season was not complete without at least a couple of Nighthawks shows. While most of the limelight went to front man Mark Wenner and lead guitarist Jimmy Thackeray, I focused much of my attention on the drummer, Pete Ragusa, whose rock solid percussion work set just the right tempo, so necessary to allow for extended guitar riffs or charismatic harmonica solos. Perhaps it dates back to my Alan Kornfeld envy, or a close college buddy who could also pound the skins with effortless authority, but there is a wonderful feeling of satisfaction one gets viewing superb drummers as they nonchalantly anchor their band’s offerings. In the early 80s, in resort hot spots like the Electric Circus or the Bottle and Cork, Pete Ragusa fully embodied such blue collar professionalism.

Trump, his wretched core, and perhaps most significantly, Fox/AM relentlessly label critics as “elites” out of touch with the basic sensibilities of flyover American patriots. To deride the grievance narrative of Trumpism is to admit benefitting from the underhanded doings of “the swamp” “our President” is draining one kept promise at a time. Hollywood, the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Ivy League “safe zones”, sanctuary cities and the like, these are the outliers obstructing the MAGA agenda “real” rock-ribbed America supposedly embraces…. oh, and prays for.

This week, several academics laid out the case for impeaching Trump to the House Judiciary Committee. It was not a difficult task. Yet and still, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway, always game to besmirch opponents by targeting them as worthy recipients of one MAGA gripe or another, shamelessly gulped from the “elitist” well. Attacking Stanford Law Professor Pamela Karlan, who gave short shrift to comical GOP presumptions about Trump’s intentions, Conway went low and exuded phony baloney self-righteousness, her usual deflection MO:

“She’s the star witness, she didn’t educate us. She spent her life lecturing people, she hobnobs with the elite…… I took out six figures worth of student loans to put myself through law school and college with my single mother working her tail off to supplement that. I resent someone like that looking down on half of America. She sounds like Hillary Clinton with the ‘deplorables.'”

All of which circles back to Pete Ragusa and the question of what our citizenry looks and sounds like after three long years of a Fox/AM Presidency. I was psyched he accepted my friend request a couple years ago. As a fan I thought it cool FB rendered a true local blues legend like him so accessible, and welcomed his posts across my news feed. Like the straight shooter I always perceived him to be, Ragusa is direct with his thoughts, often focusing on a preoccupation many share. When not employing memes to convey his feelings, Ragusa gets right to the point without mincing words:

“F**k Trump…. F**k the Republican Party!”

“F**k Trump and f**k the spineless little minions … who further his bullshit ideas of governing a nation he spits on.”

Get the picture? Ragusa, the antithesis of MAGA’s straw man “elite,” calls things as he sees them. The visceral tone he employs matches his level of concern at a situation he recognizes as critical. He refuses to ignore it, and isn’t much concerned whether people hold his vigilance against him or not. In other words, none of this is normal and he’s not going to carry on like it is. Perhaps the one word that best encompasses his approach is patriotic.

The battle for America’s soul and well being as a democratic concern continues apace. Compelling articles of impeachment based on acts the President and his chief of staff admitted to, and for good measure were fully validated by sworn testimony of most of the principles involved, have only convinced his Hill lackeys they need to talk faster and lie with more certainty. Keep throwing pasta at the wall and go with what sticks longest.

But throughout America, on the coasts or where my father liked to call “the hustings,” lines have been drawn that now fully dictate, not just how to react to facts, but disastrously what the facts are and who can and can’t be trusted to present them. One side addles our future with a shared belief that their champion, despite preferring to simply call critics names and attack their motivations instead of offering evidence to refute their claims, is the victim of continuous persecution by dark ever-expanding forces. His gibberish, dutifully sanitized and repackaged by sycophants, is always enough to assuage any doubts they have.

Fox/AM has tirelessly spun a mythology of the wretched core as a dynamic group distinguished by shared common sensibilities and stoicism they alone have held onto as the rest of the country has abandoned what made it great. Blue collar, hard working, plain spoken patriots defending our future by appreciating our glorious past…. MAGA in a nutshell.

Trumpism relies on projection, whether it’s claiming the frailties it suffers are actually what define its opponents, or taking credit for the strengths and accomplishments it had not a thing to do with. The sophistry of Hannity or Rush doesn’t change reality, it only aims to distort it, constantly repeating the same fictions. This is never more true than their relentless efforts to draw a salt-of-the-earth caricature of the prototypical Trump supporter, while defaming opponents as out of touch with the nation’s rank and file.

All of this is now on display at perhaps the most critical crossroads in our history, when freinds and neighbors are faced with choosing sides, considering what they desire in a fellow traveler. Of course, it should be an easy decision. But allow me to help if you’re uncertain. You want direct and stoic and accountable, a portrait of citizens we can take heart in; the last place you want to look is at a Trump rally or deplorable FB thread. Give me a Pete Ragusa any day! BC

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”

Thomas Aquinas

In many ways, perhaps even in its most important aspects, America is a religion. And like any other theological discipline, for the exercise to be fulfilling and meet its lofty expectations, adherents must always mix a great deal of patience with an abiding faith that all is possible.

If US democracy rests upon and is perpetuated by religious components like, for example, being constantly informed by its bible – the Constitution – then it seems logical the practice of its tenets must be guided by the devout citizenship they require. To consistently offer less makes one more secular and not guided as much by the preoccupations more rigorous practitioners entertain and act upon. I suppose at some point enough of a dearth of care or concern amounts to blasphemous abandonment of the entire enterprise. Yet and still, through it all there must exist faith… good faith.

Faith can be lost in any number of ways and in all proportions. One can be a Biff Loman in Death of a Salesman and, after discovering the father you adore is capable of infidelity, lose all hope about what the future holds with one crushing disappointment. Germany required a disastrous war and a draconian peace to reach the abyss all the world would regret. Or perhaps it’s a thousand cuts that does the job instead of a single epiphany, a Watergate here, a Monica Lewinsky there. Maybe days and nights on end of Rush and Bill O’Reilly. Who knows?

Either way, without faith one becomes rudderless and begins to also lose hope. If hope is merely the promise of a better day, losing faith means a growing belief that day won’t come. Bad faith is when one couldn’t care less if it doesn’t. Millions of Americans now feel this way about their government and its institutions. Worse, they empower one of the principle custodians of our national life, the Republican Party, who now abjectly fails to lead them to a better place, instead consciously opting to wallow within their mire. This is an existential crisis to our church of democracy.

Another critical manner our political system resembles a religious narrative is the binary choice it offers between good and evil, heaven and hell. Winston Churchill addressed this lack of options succinctly when he averred democracy was the worst system he knew of, except all of the others. Whatever warts pluralist government suffers, the alternative is blight. Many a national story reflects the difficulty of getting back to the light once its flock has wandered too far over to the dark side. The purgatory of authoritarianism can be long indeed. Atonement for the sins a mob can bestow is not so simple, redemption can take generations.

In the mid-60s England elected socialist Harold Wilson as Prime Minister and many believed he would destroy the nation. The Crown on Netflix is about as good as historical drama gets, and season three devotes an entire episode to what is aptly titled “coup”. While some liberties with the actual record are taken, the episode couldn’t be more instructive to our current situation.

Wilson’s Labor Government faces economic crisis as trade imbalances and deficits force a devaluation of the pound. After being sacked by Wilson as Chief of Defence, Royal family member Lord Mountbatten is wooed by a cabal of bankers plotting to overthrow Wilson and asked to head an emergency cabinet. Mountbatten, ever the preparer, plunges into study of history’s long list of government overthrows, concluding the most critical element to success is public legitimacy, which only Queen Elizabeth can provide.

When the Queen is informed of the plot there is never a doubt as to her position; the scene in which she takes her uncle to task seems tailor made as a foil to our predicament right now. Mountbatten beseeches her to appreciate the incompetence and danger Wilson’s government poses. The Queen is having none of it and declares her obligation is firmly to the democratic process, as bad as Wilson may be, there is an electoral remedy around the corner. And so the coup is strangled in its crib.

No doubt many a present-day Trump normalist will take heart in the show’s conclusions, which reinforce the viewpoint that patience and faith in our system is all that is required. Better days will surely be delivered by the American electorate. Until then, keep the faith. The church of democracy will sustain itself. Sadly, it’s become easy to doubt such hope precisely because it fails to take into account how damaged near half our congregation has become, how close so many are to disqualifying themselves from US democracy’s essential prerequisites.

While it’s surely true Trump offers incompetent corruption like we’ve never seen it; the fouling of his followers’ beliefs is what really accents his menace. Trump is Fox/AM’s Howard Beal, its minister of hopeless anger, of dystopian cynicism. Harold Wilson believed in his form of government, and the process that would elevate or ruin him, so did the Royal Sovereign. What does Trump believe in? A question with less than inadequate answers, previously unthinkable for an American President. Trumpism’s false prophecy is the delusion that “nothing,” defined as undoing the tyranny of progress, beats whatever we’ve done before and will suffice for what we’ve yet to do.

That’s the heart of it. That’s what faithless looks like, what hopeless faithlessness embodies. When millions can no longer believe in a system’s ability to promise better days, and don’t care to even consider the premise as history, current event or future aspiration, they turn to idols instead. Despair is hope’s greatest challenger and mankind’s gravest threat. With it the dark side beckons; it’s beckoning now…. from an East Wing couch, in between Fox and Friends and rounds of golf. BC

”And when you lose control, you reap the harvest you have sown.”

Pink Floyd

In 2010 a bloc of US voters steeped in grievance and confident, after two years of constant exhortations by Fox/AM that their hatred of America’s first black President was based on his bigotry not theirs, ushered in a wave of new dead-ender lawmakers. The Tea Party claimed to be guided by deep rooted, common sense principles dating back to American Independence. In fact, they were the first incarnation of a new American nihilism, devoted almost exclusively to tribal animosity and viscerally opposed to bipartisanship. Forget Paine or Jefferson, this group took its cues from Limbaugh and Beck. The GOP class of 2010 was a doozy, and surely haunts us today.

Eighty-four freshman entered the House chamber in January of 2011, About one in three GOP House members was green as grass. Mick Mulvaney was one, Mike Pompeo another. But as notable as these reactionary rookies of 2011 were, more important were the Fox/AM veterans, heretofore insignificant back benchers, whose stature was elevated as they suddenly gained seniority. Overnight, Palinite show horses like Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, Tom Price and Kevin McCarthy were moved up the ladder as Republicans took back House control. Suddenly they were old hands, with dozens of political neophytes, many elevated by extremist campaign themes, looking to them for help learning the ropes, and fully willing to follow their lead regarding legislation. Moreover, their committee seats moved several positions closer to the center of the dais, ensuring more than just five-minute time blocks at the end of the line for inane ramblings; they would no longer be ignored. After all, aimless talk was their specialty.

In 2015 the Freedom Caucus was christened. Its creation reflected an ominous surge by those less interested in working at the hard job of governing than simply complaining in front of cameras and blocking legislation they weren’t certain would be embraced by the extremists at home. Jordan would state the group’s aim was to be “more cohesive, more agile and more active,” code words for the club’s corrosive hyper-partisanship.

The Heritage Foundation had by now lurched hard right and, along with the Republican Study Committee on the Hill, became a sweat shop for what passed as the intellectual underpinnings for a full range of far right positions on issues from minority “dependence” on welfare to the “hoax” of climate change to the wonders of supply side economics. What developed was a loop between Fox/AM, corporate lobbyists, right wing academics and the GOP to produce talk tracks all would repeat ceaselessly. Truth and inconvenient facts were. as a rule, avoided.

By 2015 the GOP leadership realized it should have been more careful what it wished for. While its full embrace of the Tea Party had regained it majority status, it was clear the bloc they now relied on to govern as a party had little interest in actually governing. The constituents Tea Party do-nothings answered to took their cues not from Speaker of the House John Boehner, or even the more obtusely partisan Mitch McConnell in the Senate; no, they had learned their civics at Mark Levin’s knee, and constructive compromise had become a synonym for RINO.

The primary difference between Boehner and the new Freedom Caucus would become the defining foundation of Donald Trump’s wretched core of support. Both Boehner and the nihilists were united in giving corporations, particularly those of the energy sector galvanized against global Climate Change initiatives, everything they wanted. Both were deficit hypocrites, who never met a farm or oil subsidy they didn’t love or a tax cut that wasn’t heaven blessed. But where Boehner used culture war grievance as a political tool to advance his primary agenda, the Fox/AMers owed it their existence. Boehner was fine with lip service to tropes, Jim Jordan and Tom Price walked the walk, regardless of consequence to the national interest or the groups they constantly marginalized; it was their ugly mission statement. After Boehner was forced out by those who viewed him as much an opponent as Obama himself, he provided a frank assessment of the Freedom Caucus:

“They can’t tell you what they’re for. They can tell you everything they’re against. They’re anarchists. They want total chaos. Tear it all down and start over. That’s where their mindset is.”

Paul Ryan, who would make the professional mistake of his life by deciding to replace Boehner, received the same treatment despite his close connection to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and his budget purity bona fides. When he was similarly driven from office, Ryan appeared shell-shocked; wasn’t I just yesterday the party’s future?! What the hell happened? What occurred was, again, nihilist jackals bayed against governance, equating any effort to solve problems or even express a party position on issues as heresy. In the end, both Boehner and Ryan were faced with either working with Democrats or allowing manufactured crises like the debt ceiling or extended government shutdowns to define their legacy.

As it rapidly became clear Trump’s candidacy was gaining traction, House nihilists jumped on board. While GOP Senators struggled with allegiances to colleagues and political sensibilities they fully understood Trump ran directly against, the Duncan Hunters (CA) and Chris Collins (NY), both coincidently -or maybe not – now facing criminal corruption charges, didn’t hesitate. By the time Sean Hannity was in the bag, most all of the Freedom Caucus was well on its way. Sure, some still had competitive general elections that required a bit more muted support of Trump, but when he actually won, all were ready to become MAGA apostles. The rest is ruinous history.

In retrospect it is tragically comical any hopes the GOP could be relied on to check Trump’s worst inclinations were ever entertained. Any meaningful audit taken of the 2016 House GOP never supported such optimism. While Trump opponents cheered 2018’s romp by Democrats as they took back House control, fact is it finished the job the Tea Party started back in 2010. The Republican Party has been completely purged. Forget moderates, there now is virtually no Republican member of Congress who doesn’t consider bipartisan a political slur.

The announced retirements of isolated outliers like Will Hurd and Peter King complete the extinction event. The GOP House Caucus is now wholly a Fox/AM creation, prepared to follow Trump down whatever drain he circles. Anybody who doubts that need only look at the President’s long list of retweets echoing the “sham” of impeachment and the “lies” of House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff – McCarthy, Scalise, Nunes, Jordon, Meadows, Collins, etc. ….there are no exceptions left.

The shameful unity on nationally televised display by House Intelligence Committee Republicans should come as no surprise to anyone paying close attention to the party’s devolution over the last decade. One of the more ironic political talking points of this generation is the GOP trope that America simply wants Congress to “just get back to the business of government carrying out the people’s business.” That’s an activity few if any who now constitute the House Republican caucus ever had any interest in trying. Defending a nihilist President against a continuous stream of facts that clarify his guilt has always been far more up their alley. Perhaps the clearest shade of ruin. BC

Perhaps no concept is more central to understanding the former Soviet system of totalitarianism than the apparatchik. The parallel deployment of party overseers to keep an eye on every facet of government activity defined what evolved in Russia beginning with the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917. Both the clear line in the sand between civil servant necessary to make the trains run on time and party politicos there to make certain nothing counterrevolutionary went unnoticed, and the unspoken understanding apparatchiks generally had the final word, was the steroid required to distinguish Soviet despotism from run-of-the-mill authoritarians.

Indeed, throughout the Cold War the good faith and bipartisan confidence succeeding Presidential administrations afforded to careerists who constituted American bureaucracy provided the unarguable contrast of democracy’s superiority to what diplomat and historian George Kennan labeled the Kremlin’s “jealous preoccupations.” In fact our ability to vanquish the exceptions to this rule, most notably McCarthyism, have only strengthened our appreciation for it. Many now understand old Joe McCarthy could learn a few things from Donald Trump about baselessly attacking career public servants. What’s playing out in the House’s impeachment inquiry is a struggle to turn back a principle tenant of our first Fox/AM Presidency: that government is inherently incompetent and corrupt, requiring a political class to “drain the swamp” and ensure MAGA priorities are carried out despite the fact many contradict the mission statements of the departments they now infect.

Taylor, Kent, Yovanovitch, Vindman, Morrison all have testified to how jarringly irregular the Trump scheme to extort Ukrainian cooperation against Joe Biden was. From the moment EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland clumsily inserted himself into the policy stream Kyivgate has fully embodied Trumpism’s seditious war against the professional class US governance has always nurtured and depended on. These impeachment hearings clarify what anyone paying attention ascertained near three years ago, a Trump Presidency can only be a clash between the nihilist rabidity that propelled his candidacy and the steady competence of careerists with a job to do.

Sondland was merely a Soviet-style apparatchik, a prototype of what a Fox/AM Presidency seeks to deploy throughout US society, not only at the federal but state and local levels as well. From his first incursions into US-Ukraine relations Sondland made sure everyone with skin in the game knew he was a Trumpie, with direct authorization from the man himself to bend whatever continuity existed to White House whims. However things had been done, whatever best practices and communication flows had been established, would not be recognized if they became obstacles to White House objectives. As Taylor made clear, once Sondland got involved there became two US policies which almost immediately forced a choice of allegiance on the professionals, as they were now forced to participate in what they knew wasn’t either normal or appropriate. Guiliani was watching.

GOP House Intelligence Committee members last week found themselves in the unenviable position of either attacking the credibility of exemplary public servants or tacitly accepting the obvious: an open and shut case of impeachable extortion against a foreign country for the purpose of corrupting the 2020 US Presidential election. This dilemma was heightened still further when, as she was testifying, the POTUS actually tweeted out an attack against the ambassador he fired without cause. What to do?

The pasta they decided stuck most to the wall was to argue it is a President’s prerogative to be preoccupied with disloyalty, domestic or foreign. Executive intrigue eclipsing pesky things like the national interest is not for career foreign service officers to consider. Stick to your pay grade. Indeed, Republican Counsel Stephen Castor spent much of his time fleshing out conspiracy narratives in an effort to somehow create empathy for Trump’s grievance and paranoia of Ukraine as one of his original haters. Witnessing both Taylor and Kent struggle to follow along felt surreal and clarified the chasm between institutional competence and Fox/AM chaos, rationality and the fantasy martyrdom Trump always seeks to embrace when attacking institutions tasked with checking his recklessness.

The race to the bottom by Fox personalities is always neck and neck; lately the leader is Greg Gutfeld. Caustically nasty and utterly inane, to feel anything more substantive than a pressing desire to get back however many minutes of life one just wasted watching the shrill imp’s tired routine, requires checking even trace thoughtfulness at the remote. Yet and still, Gutfeld’s toxicity toward Marie Yovanovitch this weekend was illuminating, and perfectly illustrated this President’s reign of ugly vindictiveness. “Boo hoo,” Gutfeld taunted referring to the former ambassador’s testimony. The entitled snowflake had it coming… good for Trump. It’s us against them, and we know which one she is. Good riddance. You’re fired!

Any hesitation believing Gutfeld’s venom didn’t reflect the President’s thinking to the last wretched syllable wouldn’t survive a glance at his Twitter feed, where he proudly retweeted Rush Limbaugh’s take on Trump versus careerists. Rushbo gushed he had never supported Trump more than during last week’s proceedings:

“You elected Donald Trump to drain the Swamp, well, dismissing people like Yovanovitch is what that looks like. Dismissing people like Kent..and Taylor, dismissing everybody involved from the Obama holdover days trying to undermine Trump, getting rid of those people, dismissing them, this is what it looks like. It was never going to be claen (sic) they were never going to sit by idly and just let Trump do this!”

The articles of impeachment against Trump practically write themselves, and like his idiotic real time attack against Yovanovitch exemplified, he is far too unhinged to sweat adding to the list as he goes. But underwriting everything the Democrats do must be a clear understanding what’s most endangered by this atrocious Presidency…. the competence and integrity of US government institutions reflected in the ability of qualified careerists to do their jobs, free of apparatchiks looking for disloyalty to MAGA’s nihilism.

It’s an established fact the White House has no talent pool or even a functioning process to replace the exodus of qualified professionals hightailing it for no other reason than who is now President. A burgeoning class of Trumpie tattletales looking over the shoulders or outright excluding career professionals from policy and its execution portends disaster for the nation’s future as, forget world leader or even adequate provider of basic services, but a going democratic concern as well. House Republicans, in their defense of the President’s wretched Ukrainian scheme, are making clear that’s not a concern to them…. maintaining power, even if it requires the Sovietization of American government is just another consequence of Decision 16’….. get over it. That’s how ruin proceeds and four more years is not sustainable. BC

Mark Twain once said a half-truth is the most cowardly of lies. Never was a group more determined to define themselves by that insight than the Republicans of the House Intelligence Committee yesterday. Were it only so that full throated, 100 percent deceit could somehow be a badge of courage, then they would have more than nullified their abject cowardice by hearing’s end. Throughout the day, within the full spectrum of rank GOP dishonesty was the kind of overt disgrace that always accompanies authoritarian impulse…..kabuki in service to absurdity.

To find more impressive and unimpeachable witnesses than William Taylor and George Kent one would have to take pen to paper with Twain’s talent for creating characters. There was Taylor, the distinguished war hero and consummate diplomat, and Kent, seemingly his younger protege with an encyclopedic grasp on protocol and procedure. Both are trained professionals at saying exactly what they mean to convey, and nobody was in a position to question their veracity.

Devin Nunes went a step further, however, and attacked their motivations. With facts replaced by Hannity fever dreams, Nunes insulted both witnesses, contending they “auditioned” in secret hearings and were part of a “media orchestrated smear campaign” along with other “partisan bureaucrats.” Whatever the truth may be, unless it somehow can be connected with the Steele dossier and Fusion GPS, Nunes isn’t interested. His special gift is clarifying exactly what a lawmaker in full service to or possibly just as compromised as Trump acts like. Look at Nunes’ manic eyes and there always seems to be fear, as if he’s certain they’re coming for him. His opening statement employed Trump’s dependable “hoax” standby, a term even his most servile spin meisters avoid.

Perhaps as recently as just 10 years ago Nunes would have been the committee’s nutty outlier whose five minutes would have come and gone with a bipartisan eye roll; now he’s the ranking member and set the ugly tone for his colleagues to emulate. It’s both ironic and significant Nunes nonsensically charged the committee with auditioning its witness list because that’s exactly what each and every Republican was doing with their time. Whether for Trump or the wretched core back home, it hardly matters; coming up with new shades of lipstick to apply to their pig was the paramount aim of each. And make no mistake, this swine needs whatever edge cosmetics can provide.

The case is open and shut, as both Taylor and Kent’s “hearsay” testimony laid out. The President dispatched Rudy Guiliani and Gordon Sundland to extort a newly elected leader to dig up dirt on a principle domestic political opponent, shocking foreign service professionals they enlisted, who made clear today they had never seen the like before and considered the scheme an outrageous act at odds with US national interests. Moreover, both witnesses testified Vice President Biden’s efforts to press Ukrainian officials to up their anti-corruption game was a legitimate part of established US policy designed to bolster the nation’s law and order institutions, apples and oranges compared to Trump’s quid pro quo duplicity.

Like the entire Mueller saga, GOP questioning starts with a buffet of options that each member selects from. A little “does or doesn’t the Ambassador work at the pleasure of the President?” here, and a little “but you have never even met with the President, right?” there. A bit of “it really all boils down to the call, this piece of paper” here, and a spoonful of “I move that we subpoena the whistleblower” there. Yet and still, nothing they choose contains any meat for their defense. Everything is a side order meant to fill the proceedings with empty carbs, which hopefully will make everyone forget the main course.

The stunning surreality of the Republican counsel using much of his 45-minute time allotment to parse ridiculous internet conspiracy brought to life by, first Sean Hannity, and then his biggest fan, our POTUS, for serious public servants without a notion of what he was talking about, perfectly illustrated the perilous cliff our governance teeters at. It was a tale of two counsels, one focused on facts and timelines, the other on staccato gibberish designed only to elicit a pregnant pause from the witnesses, which could later be sold by Fox/AM as a gotcha exchange, proof of Trump’s noble intentions. And what to make of rabid dog for hire Jim Jordon? It gets increasingly harder to witness his unhinged antics without immediately conjuring Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle… “you talking to me.?!”

To be as fair as one can be navigating a sea of bad faith, Joe Biden has a problem he can’t ignore. Kent in particular was frank and even a bit expansive on the corrupt history of Barisma and its ownership. While making clear Biden’s actions as VP were only informed by established US policy, Kent had no issue agreeing that Barisma was part and parcel of Ukraine’s panoply of bad actors. That Biden’s son was game to take a paycheck from them, and his dad had nothing more to say than “I hope you know what you’re doing” is a legit issue voters should consider. What it’s not is an excuse or justification for Trump’s two-bit extortion racket.

The Republicans today have the same problem they had back in the summer of 2016, their wretched core base wants nothing to do with anything thoughtful or intelligent, experienced or constructive. Before Election Day 2016 they figured a lopsided loss would wipe the slate clean and permit recalibration, perhaps lead their followers for a change. Trump’s impossible victory offered a deal with the devil they were all glad to make: power for raw undisciplined populism, complete with fully erratic and egocentric behavior. Most thought White House handlers could offset the bargain’s worst elements; yesterday’s hearing is yet another appalling confirmation of how wrong they were. Worst of all, though, is the reality, fully clarified every other five-minute interval, that the devil’s agreement has reconfigured its recipients, now they embrace its worst and dutifully attend to the results. Another shade of ruin. BC

The other day I picked up my wife and son from Reagan National and on the way home we decided to stop by The Italian Store, which offers perhaps the best Italian sub anywhere. My son Luke came to the counter with me and I ordered several menu items, which a nice young man began to make. Luke has autism and began to …Er, act autistic, bouncing around with little care as to conventional decorum. My teenaged sandwich maker took notice and asked politely if perhaps Luke had autism. I said yes and he offered a knowing smile. “My older brother has autism he confided, sometimes he acts kind of the same way.” Think about that. Some random kid making me sandwiches had been touched by the condition just as directly as I have. Of all the gin joints…..What are the odds? Sadly, way too good!

So many of the challenges America faces in the coming years are going to call for collective patience and empathy. Start with the disabled community. The autism epidemic ensures an unprecedented influx of adults who will require support and outside intervention their entire lives. When their parents and other family members pass on, so many will be alone and at the mercy of whatever safety nets we have created for them.

And speaking of parents, America is right now welcoming baby boomers into their golden years. With medicine and technology pushing forward life expectancies, the next few decades are going to challenge our children’s tender mercies and literally put our well being in their hands. Seniors without children are going to be alone as they give way to dependence on others. How will they be treated? Many in both of these vulnerable groups will be poor and unable to pay for the assurance of attention and care. Where will it come from? It’s going to require more than our best intentions; there is going to be a financial sacrifice to it, not to mention the collective patience to tolerate those with little left on offer but their faltering efforts to meet society’s expectations.

What about our veterans? After a generation of continuous war and occupation, we now have thousands returning home with an entire range of injuries, PTSD to brain damage. They served bravely and deserve the best care, and many will rely on it the rest of their lives. All agree it isn’t up for discussion, but as the years pass and resources tighten their level of care will surely come down to our collective compassion.

As the nation’s overcrowded prison system releases men sentenced to decades at the height of American justice’s “zero-tolerance” golden days, they, too, will be defenseless and most likely without funds just as their bodies and health begin to fail. Who will advocate for them? What slice of the pie will voters allocate them as they struggle after adulthoods regimented by institutional life? And on and on, the list is long and getting longer. Fact is, the tidal wave of adults at least partly dependent on the better nature of the rest of society will intertwine with every other facet of American life and governance; nobody will be able to ignore them.

The GOP since Reagan has held fast to the premise that our politics should be divorced from our better natures. Charity should be in the heart of every individual and not mandated by the state. Public policy should proceed on the maxim our better angels exist and can be counted on. Of course this presumption is at odds with the Hobbesian foundation of conservatism; that mankind is at our core fairly malevolent and, as a guiding rule, in need of structure to impel law and order. But no matter, consistency is the hobgoblin of simple minds and all that.

What counts is that for near 40 years Republicans, whether informed by the Reagan Revolution, or HW Bush’s “a thousand points of light,” or W Bush’s “compassionate conservatism,” held fast to the notion of compartmentalization of America’s goodness. One could be a John Kasich-like deficit hawk, prepared to make tough-love cuts to social programs, yet willing and able to step in with private largesse to fill the void. If one received a dollar for every time disgraced Fox prime timer Bill O’Reilly averred “we are the most generous people on Earth,” a substantial slush fund could be amassed.

Whatever confidence one could once muster that friends and neighbors who supported otherwise Scroogian political platforms went about life’s routines exhibiting essentially the opposite inclination toward those in need, surely has been decimated. Even the most ardent proponent of the necessity for segmentation of political and private sensibilities must surely be disheartened by what MAGA proponents are willing to, not simply look past, but enthusiastically cheer on. Forget the indifferent callousness of Trumpism’s policy agenda, the ability to abide their champion’s atrocious personal behavior should lead any discerning person to doubt a Republican’s commitment to the least of these on any level.

Education secretary Betsy DeVos smirking at lawmakers as she postured what a hard call cutting funding for Special Olympics was – something no Administration before this one even gave a moment’s consideration to – was a stunner, but quickly passed into the chaos of another news cycle. When Trump openly mocked a Washington Post reporter’s disability on the campaign trail it was rightfully seen as an unthinkable breach of established standards for decency, but it too faded as MAGA partisans shrilly declared our own eyes couldn’t be trusted. Ditto credible recollections of the President’s disdain for poor “shit hole” countries and the refugees they create.

This particular news round up features perhaps the ugliest evidence yet of Trump’s despicable nature. To settle a suit brought against the Trump Foundation a New York judge ordered the President to make good on $2 million worth of fraud his charity perpetrated on those naive enough to believe anything with the Trump name abided legitimacy. Back in January of 2016 Trump made a point of boycotting a GOP debate and holding a veterans fundraiser. Where did the donations go? According to the settlement, which Trump accepted, everywhere but to veterans. From using donations for political purposes to settling civil disputes to, incredibly, actually obtaining a portrait of himself to hang in the bowels of Mar-A-Lago…. no abuse seemed too outrageous.

The White House response? A typical Trump screed, completely ignoring the case itself and lying repeatedly about what the judgement entailed, and of course whining about the Clinton Foundation. By the usual sorry Trump numbers. Regardless, the gist of the suit’s resolution could not be clearer: as recently as 2016 the POTUS was actively scamming disabled veterans out of donations to their welfare. That is a fact.

MAGA sympathizers are flummoxed by what they now label as gratuitous “hate” they receive from “never Trumpers.” For the life of them they can’t understand why the traditional walls between politics and personal relationships are now suddenly being breached. Many a meme now circulates pleading for civility and perspective. Hey, it’s just politics…, quit being sore losers! It’s so unfair to make us suffer for our grievance and resentment. Trump has fully passed down his narcissistic victimhood to wretched core supporters. They deserve nothing but deaf ears.

Nobody sets out to think less of their friends and fellow citizens. What piece of mind can be achieved with the understanding many of your peers lack basic compassion? Yet and still, nasty self-absorption, antonymous to empathy and understanding, is a primary MAGA component. Go to most any Fox/AM thread and you’ll find boastful declarations about looking out for number one at the expense of the more vulnerable. Those in need are fraudsters, reliance a vice to be scorned. Who can take any satisfaction in that? But ignoring it can’t be an option or it becomes normal.

A vile bully, who instinctively mocks any weakness he detects in others, occupies the White House. The notion supporting such a disgrace shouldn’t taint one’s standing with peers seems as dense as Trump himself. As he daily spirals to deeper and deeper depths, the willingness of his supporters to shrug their shoulders, or worse, try to revise the record becomes ever less tolerable. The suggestion it’s just a difference of opinion politics typically creates, part and parcel of democratic life, is no longer simply oblivious, it’s willful ignorance on its best day.

The world we want to see is reflected in our politics; our governance can’t be some hobby or sidelight….. especially now. In the past there was more than enough moral ambiguity within the differences of our two major parties to permit one’s choice exemption from scrutiny as to good faith and best intentions. Now there isn’t. Trump and his customized GOP have obliterated any previous benefit of the doubt. What once could rightly be seen as self-righteous and judgmental intrusion, has become a modicum of civic responsibility, a shred of common decency. The President’s ceaseless preening about the economy aside, it’s the people who depend on us, stupid! BC