Day 1127 Boo! 

Day 1127 Boo! 

Tuesday October 29, 2019

372 Days until the 2017 election and 457 days until the Inauguration

Before I get started let me give a shout out to the opening segment of Rachel’s show last night. It was the kind of segment that would drive a “conservative” Fox News person crazy. She stated facts. She backed up the facts with evidence. OMG! 

In that segment she told us that Trump has appointed to a prestigious national education board a fellow who has had two companies that are diploma mills and who also writes books about the Illuminati. He also has a fellow as his top advisor on China with no experience on China. This has no stopped this fellow from writing several books with China in the title. Books that talk about the global threat of China and how to fight back. It is his thinking that has formed the core of the China trade war. A trade war that has cost us more in subsidies to farmers than the money Obama used to bailout the economy from the last disastrous Republican economic screw up. 

And then she laid out the case, via headline after headline, against Donald Trump and the reason for impeachment.

A buddy of mine made the comment on facebook the other day that he is surprised that Democrats are labelled as “tax and spend,” while it is Republicans that always spend more and spend it in wasteful ways. It is common economic knowledge that spending on the military is one of the worst places to put money if you want to help an economy (a place Republicans love to sink tons and tons of cash) while social programs are one of the best places to help an economy (a place Democrats like to spend money.)

But, as Arlo Gutherie reminds us, “that’s not what I came here to talk about”*

*Thanksgiving is near and Arlo’s “Alice’s Restaurant” takes place on Thanksgiving and I have above quoted a line from that song.

What I came here to talk about was Donald Trump being booed at the World Series game the other night and the chanting of the fans in National Stadium yelling, “Lock Him Up!”

Joe Scarborough on his show Morning Joe gave his opinion that he thought it was not what we should be doing. Some folks criticized him. Therein lies the great debate.

On the one hand we want to talk about the dignity of the office of the president and on the other some want to let the current resident of The White House know what we think of him.

Many have been asking, “When did we become so polarized?”

While some politicians try to run on the idea of “reaching across the aisle,” many take a scorched Earth policy, a “my way or the highway” attitude. When did this all start? And, who is to blame?

As I thought about this, I thought about Newt Gingrich and his ascension to Speaker of the House. How he pushed a “take no prisoners” scorched earth policy. In or around that same time Grover Norquist was pushing his “no new taxes” sign up and in fact he seemed to wanted no taxes – period.  I have watched the rise of the Evangelical movement into a political force. It has a “only Christ” approach to things and this includes the anti-abortion (or should I called it “death to women”?) movement.

None of those things are about compromise, or trying to reach consensus and agreement. Either you support their point of view or you are considered an enemy. Plain and simple.

Underlying all this is a potent force of people trying to grab as much money and power as they can. They will us anyone and any cause to do so. I am not telling anything new here. I’m just stating what is already known.

But we can go back further, to Tip O’Neil, the Democratic Speaker of the House when Reagan was President. Reagan had some nutty economic ideas and O’Neal tried to work with him. Reagan broke the back of the striking Air Traffic Controllers strike and thus started the long decline of the labor movement in this country and the middle class along with it. Tip pointed out that even back instate politics in Massachusetts his Republican fellow politicians wouldn’t vote for anything he proposed. Not because it wasn’t a good idea, and not because they didn’t like him (they liked him), but because he was a Democrat. You can’t reach across the aisle with those sorts of folks and that kind of attitude. Remember, all the attempts Obama did? Health care, asking for a declaration on Syria? Didn’t matter. The answer was no.

The last time various factions tried to work together was during the time of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. Yes, they had their differences, but they talked to the other side. Nixon did a lot of good for this country, in the legislation he got passed. That is the last time I can recall a Republican president actually helping the middle class and America in general. 

But bear in mind, since WWII, no matter what – Republicans always outspend Democrats.

As to the booing, which is what I really wanted to talk about. Is it a good idea? Or should we be “better than that” as Elijah Cummings might say? 

I would say if this were normal times, and we can debate what that means, then no we shouldn’t boo, out of respect for the office. But these are not normal times. 

There has only been one time that I can recall that this president has had to confront the reality of the real world. That was when the U.N. laughed in his face.

Now, he has had a second time. When he got booed by thousands of regular folk at a baseball game. And then he got to hear the chant he began but given a sarcastic twist. How else is he going to hear reality? He has surrounded himself with sycophants and incompetents. They aren’t going to tell him.

Let him hear the people roar. (I’m sure he’ll try to excuse it as a stadium full of socialist Democrats.)

I want to see justice done. No deals. No pardons. No letting him off the hook. 

372 Days until the 2017 election and 457 days until the Inauguration

PS Sean Spicer – looking good!