Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
FEBRUARY 17, 2020 – When I was in grade school, everyone knew Lincoln’s birthday and Washington’s. Those dates were as common knowledge as the fact that Fourth of July fell on . . . July 4. But with the Uniform Federal Holidays Act of 1971, many holidays, including Washington’s birthday, were moved to the closest …
FEBRUARY 16, 2020 – Political campaigns promote many ideas for perfecting the world. In our more lucid moments, we know perfection is elusive, but the appeal of universal justice, health care, and prosperity is intoxicating. Though we don’t have a snowball’s chance in Minnesota today of achieving universal perfection, I’ve had three experiences that suggest …
FEBRUARY 15, 2020 – In every era society faces two over-arching questions: 1. What’s happening? and 2. What should be done about it? In the current era, people have ready but competing answers to the second question. These prescriptions, however, turn on the answer to the first question, and again, everyone knows exactly what’s happening. …
FEBRUARY 14, 2020 – I’m not advocating drug use, but I do think it’s time for everyone to chill and take a mid-winter breather. Lately, I’ve observed growing stress, anger, and despair among people with whom I engage for more than a minute or two. If the slightest break occurs in conversation, BAM! politics slips …
FEBRUARY 13, 2020 – Tuesday evening, pundits proclaimed the significance of Sander’s “win” in New Hampshire. Millennials shouted while Wall Street shuttered. I was skeptical. He “won” with only 26% of the vote (vs. 60% in 2016). Even if Warren’s poor showing were assigned to Sanders, the total centrist vote Tuesday formed a substantial majority. …
FEBRUARY 20, 2020 – In March, 1968 America was schooled in the political power wielded by tiny New Hampshire. The anti-war candidate, Senator Eugene McCarthy (MN), shocked the nation by winning 42% of the vote in the New Hampshire Democratic primary—just seven percentage points behind LBJ, the incumbent president. McCarthy’s strong showing triggered the momentum that …
FEBRUARY 10, 2020 – In an opinion piece published in Saturday’s edition of The New York Times, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (I double-checked the spelling of her name), a Bernie supporter and an assistant professor of African-American studies at Princeton, suggests that Obama’s failure to bring about transformational change might have contributed to voter disaffection—giving Trump his …
FEBRUARY 9, 2020 – When I was in law school, I had a legal-writing professor whose class was a real downer. At the outset of every session, he’d walk to the chalkboard, pick up a stick of chalk and write across the board, “THERE IS NO JUSTICE IN THIS WORLD.” I thought this was a …
FEBRUARY 8, 2020 – I watched much of yesterday evening’s “debate” among Democratic contenders for the White House. I was impressed and depressed—impressed by the general level of basic judgment, experience, and intelligence far in excess of Trump’s; depressed by the probability that no amount of judgment, experience, and intelligence is likely to overcome the …
FEBRUARY 7, 2020 – Wednesday brought speeches by democracy’s heroes, Senators Jones and Romney, followed by the death knell of democracy—Trump’s acquittal. Thursday brought Trump’s unbridled hate and vindictiveness. For a man who can’t distinguish right from wrong, good from bad, God from the devil, Trump’s condemnation of House Democrats as “evil” was the penultimate …
FEBRUARY 6, 2020 – If you haven’t listened to Senator Romney’s speech on the floor of the Senate yesterday, you should. Yesterday evening in his normally comedic monologue, Stephen Colbert, host of the Late Show, gave an impassioned tribute to the lone Republican Senator to vote to convict President Trump. In voting against the Lock-step …
FEBRUARY 5, 2020 – (Cont.) Now back to Facebook. A short while ago, my wife posted a meme reminding viewers that if the Democrats hadn’t won the House in 2018, Trump’s misconduct with respect to Ukraine would never have seen the light of day. A cousin of hers—an ardent Trump supporter, as it turns out—went …
FEBRUARY 4, 2020 – I’m a “patterns” guy. You might call it “confirmation bias.” Nevertheless, after enough confirmation of a perceived pattern, I begin to form an opinion . . . er . . . bias. I note specifically the pattern of responses I observe among Trump supporters. The start of the pattern came over …
FEBRUARY 3, 2020 – I grew up in a household in which organized sports were frowned upon, and the more highly organized the sport, the greater the frown. Our dad was the frowner in chief. He loved books, art, classical music, and was reliably skeptical of whatever attracted the masses. Sports qualified as a “masses …
FEBRUARY 2, 2020 – Yesterday’s edition of The Washington Post published an opinion piece by James Comey, one of Trump’s many outspoken nemeses. Comey provided cool reassurance to those among us who can’t stand Trump. He cited major upsets in our history, from the assassination of JFK to the demise of the Democratic Party with …
FEBRUARY 1, 2020 – We who’ve disdained Trump forever are in the funk we’d predicted for ourselves at the onset of the impeachment process. These past couple of days, we’ve been hurling invective at the Republican Senators who surrendered their scruples in order to . . . save their jobs; avoid the withering wrath of …
JANUARY 31, 2020 – Yesterday evening I listened to the Q&A portion of the impeachment “trial” in the Senate. Then came Senator Lamar Alexander’s announcement. As I peer into our country’s political future, I see serious trouble. The sad thing is, we’ve become so lost, so divorced from facts, truth, and reason that none …
JANUARY 30, 2020 – Soon the U.S. Senate will vote to acquit Trump and legitimize the arguments of Trump’s legal team—that the personal political interest of the president is by definition in the interest of the nation; that abuse of power, no matter how egregious, how destructive, how contrary to our operating principles, is not …
JANUARY 28, 2020 – Contrary to common assumption, not all who disdain Trump want his removal by impeachment/conviction. Why not? Vice President Pence. ’Tis far better to defeat the regime by a landslide in November. But how? By a good piece of theater, as in . . . MEANS OF REMOVAL ACT I – “SLAPSTICK” …
JANUARY 26, 2020 – A prominent historian once said that no reliable history could be written less than a half-century after events under examination. Based on my own life experience, I find that perspective compelling. As we watch Trump’s impeachment trial unfold, we—right, left, center, off the charts—must wonder, Starting 50 years from now, how …
JANUARY 25, 2020 – Yesterday I heard Adam Schiff’s lucid, eloquent, factual, and stirring argument before the U.S. Senate. I then listened to reports of the minimal effect on Republican senators. Their deafness is linked directly to the decibel level of Trump’s base; their rally cries, amplified by Sean Hannity . . . for which …
JANUARY 24, 2020 – Today’s paper contains a number of one- or two-liners by people off the street regarding the impeachment proceedings. As I contemplate the mismatch between what people know and think, on the one hand, and on the other hand, what’s required to sustain a democracy in a country of our size and …
JANUARY 23, 2020 – Given Adam Schiff’s textbook, prosecutorial performance yesterday, the untenable aspects of the Republican defense of Trump are now in the plain light of day. Perhaps the most startling revelation of yesterday’s proceedings was how many Republican Senators were hearing and seeing evidence for the first time. And what greater hubris and …
JANUARY 22, 2020 – Even casual observers of the impeachment process know that the House “indicts” and the Senate conducts the “trial,” over which the Chief Justice presides. What’s becoming apparent too is the Framers’ flaw: the Constitution’s silence on discovery, trial procedures, admissibility of evidence, and resolution of legal issues pertinent to impeachment. Beyond …
JANUARY 18, 2020 – I worry that we’re living in a post-democracy; that we’ve gone from democracy to dumbocracy—and are now headed for doomocracy. As I observe the disorganized crime boss in the White House and the psychological extortion scheme by which the crime boss controls the Republican Party; as I see how Big Data, …