Losers, Winners, Political Parties, Us
THE LOSER
He was surrounded for years by a coterie of pretenders who believed in him and his claims, who lavished attention, praise and money on him…to no avail.
Or in more modern times, the 20th Century at the time of the Russian revolution, you might remember the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, youngest daughter of Nicholas 11 of the Romanov aristocracy. During the Russian revolution, the entire family was supposed to have been murdered by the victorious Lenin but Anastasia’s body was not found then and not until years later.
The White Russians who fought and lost escaped to countries throughout Europe but headquartered in Paris. They maintained that they belonged back on the throne and were heirs to the wealth that existed at that point. The key pretender was the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna who was the center of a circle of admirers and financial supporters, those who wanted their rightful place. If you saw the Academy Award winning film Anastasia with Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner and Helen Hayes you know the story.
Today, in the 21st Century we have our own pretender, soon to be former President Donald J. Trump who continues to protest the results of the Presidential election, has raised more than $200 million to date from his admirers and plans to hold an event in Washington on Inauguration Day to announce he will be a candidate in 2024. He expects to travel and rally in States across the country during the next four years keeping Republican Senators and Congresspeople ” in line” so that the nomination will be his.
Despite his apparently complete hold on present Republican office-holders who remain in fear of him, history shows and tells us that pretenders proved to be little else.
No one can doubt this pretender’s crippling psychologically-based ferocity or his understanding of his base. But history doesn’t lie.
THE WINNER
Joe Biden won the Presidential election by seven million votes in the largest turnout in American history. A glance at the down-ballot success of Republicans leaves no doubt that besides the convenience of mail-in ballots (no annoying need to go someplace to vote) this election was about Donald Trump -yes or no – and not about Mr. Biden’s abilities or experience. And that fact will not go away.
Joe Biden came of age as a Senator in a time which no longer exists. Then – the 40’s -70’s – our government was run by Republicans and Democrats of varying degrees of liberalism and conservatism…: there were Republican liberals and conservatives…and Democratic liberals and conservatives.
The focus was on legislation that would move the country forward. There were bills presented and wrangled over…compromises were made…trades offered…an endless give and take until legislation was created the received bipartisan support.
Biden was good at it…very good at it. He could work across the aisle no matter how deep into Republican conservatism he had to go.
When the Democratic Party lost the South because of Lyndon B. Johnson’s Civil Rights Act, Biden would work with known racists to get legislation past.
But as Reagan’s policies brought the Roosevelt New Deal to an end, the political game changed so that a Republican House leader Newt Gingrich, determined to establish an era of Republican power, no longer bothered to negotiate policy. When he couldn’t get what he wanted he shut down government was able to bring the government to a halt. He got what he wanted from a Democratic President, Bill Clinton. He did it once. The second time he tried it, he failed and it finished his congressional career.
By then another change in government had become apparent. Politics had attracted a group of people who saw it as their career…who would do anything to remain in elective office…even if it meant enacting little legislation so that their votes did not provide ammunition from potential opponents.
And as that happened many of the public began to lose confidence in politicians and so in government.
When Trump stood in front of America in the first Republican Presidential debate, he made that scorn of professional politicians clear.
He struck a deep chord and used it in his march to the Presidency.
If the Democrats win both of the Georgia Senate seats to be decided in early January, they will have a margin of one – VP Harris’ vote to break ties. Should that happen Biden would not have to live another four years with Mitch McConnell’s attitude that NO works best.
No matter the strength of his Cabinet or other experienced government employees, the key as always, will be in the Houses of Congress and whether Biden will have pull rabbits out of hats.
THE POLITICAL PARTIES
Look the same, have the same names and logos and the same Red and Blue colors.
And that’s about it.
Once the Democrats represented the working and middle classes. Once the Republicans were for a tightly budgeted government.
Now the Democrats seem more interested in the educated tech society and the Republicans spend when they are in power and complain about spending when the Democrats are in control.
The Republican Party has always represented the wealthy and powerful, corporations and industries over people despite their claim of interest in individual rights and freedoms.
Now none of that seems to matter. The game they all play is obstruction to such an extent that young progressives with seeming radical ideas seek a place at the Democratic table and anti-immigrant, white supremacists find room under the Republican banner.
Both forces scare the other…and the name-calling becomes all that we hear.
In New York the Democratic Party is all about pay to play; the Republican Party seems to be an empty echo of things past…captured by the power in New York …the real estate developers.
What we have are political parties pretending to be something they are not; political parties nothing more than labels and colors.
US
We have said repeatedly that America no longer teaches its young and hasn’t since the 1970s. We have pointed to history and the incontrovertible fact that each and every preeminent nation-state lost that status when it failed to teach its young. Historical fact is a powerful enemy against pretense and a great predictor of truth.
It is a pretense for us to see ourselves as we were in the 20th Century…the World’s producers of everything. We have forfeited that place to China.
But worse. Something else has happened to us as a nation. The 20th Century is notable for the endless numbers of Wars that existed. But in those 100 years, America was safe from invaders.
And then came 9/11 in 2001 and the stunning destruction and death of almost 3,000 people right before our eyes.
The pain happened in New York City…and in due time both it and the nation recovered – aware now that we were no longer immune from physical attack. And now there is Covid in a nation so severely divided politically, that wearing a mask to protect oneself and others from a virulently contagious airborne disease has become a national argument.
We were never told the truth about Covid as Trump told it to Bob Woodward. He didn’t tell it to us and neither did any of his scientific cohorts including Fauci and Birx.
They never put the kind of fear in our hearts that would have made work as a nation to defeat this invisible airborne enemy.
We are not afraid and so millions are ill with symptoms that last after the virus is gone and many die. And we lead the World in sickness and death.
We are desperately pretending to teach our children through remote distance learning a terrible failure which could cost us a generation of our young people.
Is this US? Have we weakened so much that we cannot come together to beat back this disease? Do we really think that this will end with vaccines?
We were once the World’s leader in everything. The most powerful nation in history. We believe we are exceptional. But have we become pretenders?
Nothing indicates that Covid-19 will remain in this state until a vaccine conveniently kills it. Nothing. But we act as if “help is on the way”…
We have to find a strength in us that overcomes the apparent weakness.
Yes we have turned the corner but it leads to a deep, dark endless maw swallowing us up.
We are the most generous nation in the history of the World.
We need to be that generous to each other…fast.
“We are desperately pretending to teach our children through remote distance learning a terrible failure which could cost us a generation of our young people.”
I haven’t seen or heard this discussed in the news media, Will there be many who won’t graduate high school until after nineteen years of age? Will enough be college-ready?
Also, if the Democrats don’t get fifty Senate seats, will their proposed legislation be blocked and prospective judges not be confirmed? Will the 2020s be the age of federal legislative and judicial obstruction?