Welcome, my friends,  to a new thread in our political conversation:

The hiatus in posting anything other than housekeeping details over the past year has been motivated by wanting to take ‘the backward step’, as the Zen schools would say, in order to gain a broader perspective of our central political dilemmas, both here in the US and in the wider theater of international events. As occurrences cascade and new developments amplify already critical crises, we are faced with imperatives for changes in thinking and behavior equal to the magnitude of the challenges. “Go big or go home” is heard frequently, and for increasing numbers of people, home no longer exists since the number of refugees increases considerably every day.

What is the new thing needed to transform our future by setting a fresh standard for how we act right now, today ?

The first thing is probably to say goodbye to Donald John Trump, the man, his message and his minions. They have proven themselves to be dangerous, well-beyond useless, and display a clear and present threat to American society and governance. That relic of the 18th century, the Electoral College, allowed a cheat and a liar, who lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes in 2016 and over 7 million votes in 2020 to claim twice to be the popularly elected presiding officer in what was once a proud republic. The oft-repeated Ben Franklin quote from the Constitutional Convention adjournment, that we “have a Republic, if we can keep it” has shown to be wanting; and we now have an oligarchy, bought with uncontrolled monies and hamstrung by Supreme Court rulings claiming that the Congress does not have the power to regulate the rules for national elections, (Citizens United; McCutcheon; Shelby v. Holder). The Congress of the United States has not responded to this claim by failing to legislate on voting rights and campaign finance reforms. Politics is a money game and government has been sold to the highest bidder. As for the former President, he promised in his Inaugural Address ‘carnage’, and then he delivered on that promise in the waning days of his administration with his attack on the Capitol; he, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy are unfit for office in Washington, DC.

We then have to deal with the bigger issue of Congress not being able to vote on a host of long-overdue measures because of the fact that key members and rules of the game have been captured by special interests and do not allow votes on topics of absolute necessity; matters from regulations to protect the public, funding needed to support the social contract, and revenues just to operate daily governmental functions do not get to a vote in the House or Senate. How can you the voters know if your representatives are doing their job if they are not forced in detail to go on the record ?

The international context in which these two primary factors play out in is one of outright war, as in the Ukraine and Yemen, and increasing conflict and turmoil in many other regions and arenas of dispute, such as ethnic strife and competition over resources. The United States no longer provides a model for successful governance and stable civic society.

As we used to say in the classroom, the teachers need to model appropriate behavior if there is to be an expectation that the students will measure up to the desired standards.

The film and photographs of insurrectionists, rioters, trespassers, vandals and taggers-on during the Electoral College vote counting at the Capitol are such pause for reflection that one would think that even a group as dense and out-of-touch as the Congress of the United States would not rush to judgement but consider, at the very least, how matters came to such a bitter confrontation. While the role of the Instigator-in-Chief should be fully registered, it should also be recorded that contrary to his proclaiming that he would lead them up to the Hill, yet another lie and empty promise, as has been his thousands of misrepresentations over the last 5 years, he went home to his nicely appointed, publically-financed residence and watched on television as his supporters proceeded to criminal trespass and mayhem at his behest. At the forefront of anybody’s reflections should be the context and irony of the entire disaster.

Two months after the winner of the November election by over seven million votes, five million alone in California, is by law the time to certify legally the winner by the tabulating of the votes of the Electors from the states. This arcane system persists, in spite of serious mess-ups in 2000 and 2016, because an inert body of elected officials, the US Congress, has refused to fix it. It presents a substantive challenge to majority rule, as does the very working concept of the Senate and the faulty redistricting of House seats, that accentuates division and thwarts actual representation. In short, the fact that this was the business of the Senate and House when the rioting took place is ironic in the extreme and not mere coincidence. Here we had an institution, the Congress, that enjoys an approval rating of between 15 to 18 % these days, pretending to effect the outcome of a situation weighted with intense emotion.

Unnecessarily, I would contend, except for the fact that the Congress is incapable of conducting the business of the American people as a matter of practice and intent, and because of the idea that two political parties can monopolize the discussion and by the use of extravagant amounts of legalized bribes, called political contributions and deemed legal as ‘free speech’, are able to insure nearly 90% of incumbency re-election. It is not difficult to see why many question the legitimacy of the US government and would be incited to action by an unstable genius. It is most fortunate that one of the rebels did not have a stash of C-40 in their ruck-sack and blow Columbia off of her newly refurbished perch on the Capitol Dome. Au contraire, I noticed many of the participants staying well within the guide ropes as they proceeded through Statutory Hall. Also worthy of note is the yokel carrying the battle flag of the Confederacy through the halls of Congress, a feat that Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia, a crack military outfit, couldn’t accomplish in four hard years of fighting.

The larger problems of American governance are not housed in the hearts and minds and emotions of the people but in the questionable institutions and procedures under which we are pretending to govern ourselves. If we are “to nobly save or meanly lose’ the battles over what constitutes a government of, by & for the people, we will need to make more honest efforts at real problem solving rather than posturing, dissembling, and then flipping out when things do not go our way.

By two criteria the current state of affairs rises to the level of emergency: one, over 140 members of Congress felt that they could not count the electoral votes legitimately won by the Democratic Party candidate, Joe Biden, although their oath of office requires that they do so no matter what they might believe about the actual mechanics of the vote on November 3rd, 2020, (and are in fact, responsible for seeing to it that the process is fair, safe, and lawful); and, two, they could not secure the precincts of government from a mob, which, in the final irony, was the ostensible purpose for which the Electoral College was created.

The People appear to be less a threat than the current rules or the government’s standing representatives.

“We have to pivot at the inflection point of intersectionality.”   Chairman John

 A few years ago I was trying to think of the most cliché statement one could make using the favorite buzzwords of the day. After further reflection it was more than a little startling to realize that those ten words adequately summarized the tactical changes that the historical moment required. President Abraham Lincoln stated it more elegantly when he said “we must think anew and act anew . . . we must disenthrall ourselves”.

“The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.” ~ Abraham Lincoln.

This was his state of mind as he was setting the course to remove slavery from the country’s legal structure ‘forevermore’. I’ve quoted Lincoln in that context many times, and have not been hesitant to add Bob Marley’s, “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery none but ourselves can free our minds”. The unique situation of having the worldwide SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the economic consequences of extreme stress to all countries and populations, and the political problems arising from vast wealth inequality and uncontrolled new technologies present a battery of difficulties that humankind doesn’t yet seem to have the skill set to deal with. Perhaps “We all need to grow up a bit,” is a better conclusion and that, with an added dose of humility, might set the table for the massive re-ordering of priorities and actions that climate change and worldwide war will require of all of the citizens of our planet. We need to make epic adjustments even as we discipline ourselves to save as much of the biosphere as we possibly can. There is no Planet B is more than a placard at many street demonstrations; it is the bald truth as to the fundamental injunction that should underline any order of the day.

Although my political career has been adequately composted by the results of nine elections, I will continue to testify and ‘preach to the choir’ from this pulpit. While working on my papers and writing some concluding remarks I will use this platform to, as Frederick Douglass urged us years ago, “Agitate, agitate, agitate”, (while he additionally reminded us that the oppressor never willingly abandons their oppression and must be forced to yield). I think of the famous trek of the Peoples Liberation Army from Jiangxi to Shaanxi Provinces in the middle of the 1930’s and the many rivers and mountains that needed to be crossed while taking fire from all sides and the steady growing of their numbers that year and over  the next dozen years as a good example of the resolve that the non-violent movement will need to succeed; and I can assure you that we will need no less from American patriots than the Chinese needed  from theirs in their drive “To Stand Up”.  

That heroic episode that came to be known as The Long March was essential to creating the Chinese Peoples Republic in October, 1949. We will in all probability need no less of an effort now if we wish to create a democratic republic here in the United States by 2032 and to succeed at even part of our hopes for stabilizing and sustaining the progress that humankind has already made in this world.

“We shall not be safe until the principle of equal rights is written into the framework of our government.”              Alice Paul     1923

In the 100 years since women got the right to vote in the 19th Amendment, and the 150 years since ‘the equal protection of the laws’ was guaranteed in the 14th Amendment, women have had their legal status in the United States challenged by the fact that the original Constitution did not take them into account. That omission in the basic plan of government bedevils women to this day and allows for legislative mischief, such as states creating impediments to their reproductive rights, and employer slights, such as unequal pay and the denial of specific benefits unique to their gender, such as leave and help for their children. The concept of One Nation requires that all be equal before the law. The failure of the national government to protect the interests of woman throughout the land is much like that of the lack of federal oversight in national elections; they are problems in need of legislative solutions.

I advocate executive action to issue the Preliminary Equal Rights Proclamation, after the manner of Lincoln’s 1863 Preliminary  Emancipation Proclamation, with the injunction for the 117th Congress to expedite as quickly as possible the ratification of ERA as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. Alice Paul’s advice is as right today as it was 100 years ago.